Tony Wadsworth – What Was Pebble Mill?

Wake Up With Waddo Mug

Photo from Tony Wadsworth, no reproduction without permission.

This ‘Wake Up With Waddo’ mug promoted the BBC WM Breakfast Show, presented by Tony Wadsworth, circa 1994.

Bryan Harris

Bryan Harris, Programme Organiser of Radio Birmingham, in the 1970s, died on Tuesday, 15th September 2015. He was 82. He had an operation a few days before, but sadly died of complications.

Annie Gumbley-Williams adds the following information: ‘I worked with Bryan in Radio Birmingham in the 1970s when he was Assistant Manager of Radio Birmingham. He then went on to be Manager of Radio Derby.
He was a lovely man that was there to help many to get on within the BBC, and they owe their careers to him.’

The following comment was posted on the Pebble Mill Facebook page:

Pete Simpkin: ‘Sorry to hear of the death of Bryan Harris well known at Pebble Mill from the beginning and the Programme Organiser from the opening of Radio Birmingham. He appointed me as a Station Assistant and encouraged me in some of my later outrageous programme ideas when I became a producer. The stories about Bryan are many and legendary. He certainly was a local radio pioneer and great character.’

Viv Ellis: ‘Yes, I remember Brian, nice man, very sympathetic and helpful when needed.’

Sue Sweet: ‘A real gentleman’

Max Mulgrew: ‘Remember him so well. My first BBC boss, when he was manager at Radio Derby. He was a real gent, as Sue says.’

Tony Wadsworth: ‘I was a successor of his at BBC WM. When he was manager at Derby, a meeting of Programme Organisers was held there and he cooked us all an excellent lunch. A lovely man.’

Gordon Astley: ‘..nice man. Worked with him Broad Street and Gosta Green’

Radio WM Area 5 Sign

Photo from Tony Wadsworth, no reproduction without permission.

Area 5, was one of the studios used by Radio WM. The sign dates from after the 1999 studio refit.

Thanks to Tony Wadsworth for sharing this photo, and to Gareth Jones for adding the date.

The following comment was added on the Pebble Mill Facebook page:

Pete Simpkin: ‘Certainly were not there in my day although the ban was in force without the signs….l left in 1988. Wish they had been there as it would have avoided an altercation l had with the late Lord Lichfield who l had to stop from lighting up just before we began a live interview. I had to explain that if he did begin smoking l would have to delay the interview and play music whilst l asked higher authority to come to the studio to help me enforce the no smoking ban which was already in operation. The interview turned out to be of less duration than planned with short, terse answers and his Lordship getting up and noisily leaving the studio whilst l was attempting to go through the usual courtesy of thanking him for coming in to talk about his book of lovely photographs!’

Radio WM – Sunday Night Party

left to right: Clive Payne (presenter), Ian Wood (main presenter and producer), front Nermin Aaron (presenter), right Paul Flower (presenter)

I presented for Radio WM of a weekend between 1989 and 2000. I also did some bits for television too but predominantly, my time was spent in radio.

I co-presented a Sunday night locally networked programme called the Sunday Night Party and it’s main presenter, Ian Wood, would occasionally allow me to go off and interview people, some of them famous, for the programme.
For those people who remember the configuration of Radio WM’s studios, they were basically five cubicles or ‘Areas’ as they were locally known. Areas One and Two were self-op studios, Area Three, although designed as a studio but without self-op desk was used as the telephone answering area. Area Four was the same as one and two and Area Five was set up with a round discussion table and a number of mic sources, which were controlled as ‘slaves’ from Area four.

The Sunday Night Party was transmitted live from Area Five because of the number of contributors participating in each programme and driven by me, also presenting from Area Four. It was taken by WM, Hereford and Worcester, Shropshire and Stoke and in the earlier years Coventry and Warwickshire had us too, all under the local branding of ‘Midlands BBC’. WM’s jingles were re-sung to reflect this.

On one occasion I became aware of a new band gigging in Birmingham and the SNP was a good platform to promote local talent. I invited the band, whose name I can’t remember now, into the studios to record a couple of songs for the SNP early one evening. I duly ordered up some extension leads and extra mics from Paul Hunt our engineer in charge and some acoustic screens too, to ‘encase’ the drummer in so the sound didn’t spill.
We cleared the furniture in Area five and prepared for a sound check. I’m not saying they were loud but I’ve never seen PPM meters on a Mark 3 desk wrap themselves around the stop quite so quick! Oddly enough the floor seemed to vibrate too.

The evening continued and we were about ready to record the two songs after I’d interviewed the band.
Radio WM provided locally networked programmes during the week too and ready to go out live in Area two was Tony Wadsworth and Julie Mayer.
The band started to play and rocked the first floor. I heard that Tony and Julie had to apologise to their listeners as the sound of the band could be heard in their studio and therefore by their listeners.
Radio WM’s studios were above the Daytime Live offices downstairs. Unbeknown to me, there were a couple of people working late in there that evening and they could feel the ceiling vibrate from the sound of the drums from the band immediately above their heads. Rumour had it that a diffuser shade came loose off a light fitting in their office as a result of the vibration.
I never got to apologise for disturbing their evening so if they know who they are then perhaps this can go some way to being a belated apology.

As this was a one off band session, I did ask WM management if I could hire Studio 2 in Network Radio as this would have been easier but WM were unwilling to spend that kind of money in those days. I therefore had to resort to the cheap option.

So that was the one and only time I made the earth vibrate for various people in Pebble Mill.

Clive Payne

The following comments were left on the Pebble Mill Facebook page:

Andy Walters: ‘Area 1 was Asian Network, Area 2 was the self op one that looked into Area 3, Phone in room. Area 4 was the other self op cubicle that could also drive the mics in Area 5 which was just a talks studio. Apparently Area 1 was the Editor’s office in the days of BBC Mk2 desks and the third studio was sat next to the record library.

I remember the night of the earthquake well which disrupted WM’s programmes as well as Edwina Currie on Radio 5 Live.’

Tony Wadsworth: ‘If I recall the studio configurations correctly, area one wasn’t a self-op studio. I presented the breakfast show from there 94/95 and Chris Christopher Baxter drove me from area two. And the late show came from area four….I think!’

Ian Wood: ‘So that was what went on when I was elsewhere! Sorry about that, Daytime Live office. And hats off to Clive for the blog and the photo.’

Tony Wadsworth presents the Breakfast Show

Tony Wadswoth presenting the WM breakfast show following Tony Butler’s departure in 1994. Featured in this cartoon by Steve Chadburn are producer Gemma Walker, tech op Christopher Baxter, B.A. Lesley Hale and Julie Mayer.