Category: Network

Colin Pierpoint blog, part 11 – Re-organisation

Copyright resides in the original holder, no reproduction without permission

Copyright resides in the original holder, no reproduction without permission

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This was a time of change in the regions. Who remembers “Broadcasting in the 70s”? and the setting up of the Audio Units. We had a meeting about the future, led by Controller Midlands. First time I had seen him. Another manager (again, I know who it was, but I will save any embarrassment) was talking to us all and saying “Someone like Eric Sabin,” and he looked at me, “will in future be able to apply for a wider range of jobs, so Eric Sabin from the Control Room” looked at me again “could apply for a Sound Supervisor job in Television.” I had to say something, so I said “I believe every word you say, except that my name is not Eric Sabin”. Well, there was an uproar of laughter. John Grantham said to me after the meeting “What I liked was the way you let him dig himself in first!” But in fact it wasn’t deliberate on my part, and not intended. The same manager did later offer me some good career advise including a suggestion that I apply for a Tape and Grams post at Gosta Green. I never did, but only because it was not the direction I wanted to go.

What I did apply for, by default, was a post in the new audio unit. All those unsettled by the reorganisation were automatically given a board and I was the only one of these to get appointed. I was actually on attachment at Wood Norton at the time, and came back to attend the board. It was my performance on this board, and my board for attachments to ETD that I found I could bring out a personality from my usually quiet self. I enjoyed being a candidate on appointment boards, and we had a good laugh at times. I was later to develop this extension of my personality in my lecturing job; it was very useful in my relationship with students. Anyway, on this board, I remember being asked if I had done any Radio Drama. I said “No, and I wouldn’t do it that way in any case”. I went on to talk about location drama which must have gone down well. They also asked if I had any questions. I said “Yes. Why was Regional Radio being closed down when local radio has not yet taken over in all areas?” There was a long pause. Then the chairman said “You are probably as confused as we are”!

So, I got the only vacant post in the new Audio Unit. What happened to all the other applicants? They were put in the Audio Unit of course! Only the BBC could do it this way!

I mention the residual regional radio, I was often allocated to do Regional Extra, the one remaining Radio 4, Midland Opt-out programme, in Studio 5 at Pebble Mill. There were two audio assistants allocated, and we shared Tape and Grams or Panel (operating the desk). This gave me more Studio Manager experience to add to that I had had in Cardiff.

At this time I had asked to do the Grade C Engineering Course at my request. I was surprised when this was granted, and while on the course at Wood Norton, I asked about changing my career from operational work to engineering. In fact, I liked both sides of technical work and I had already spent years designing and building my own electronic equipment as a hobby. By the time the changes took place in regional broadcasting, I was qualified to work in Communications Department, and could therefore work in the Communications Centre at Pebble Mill. Comms had taken over the Control Room work which I had been doing, with two major changes; no continuity now that Local Radio had taken over from regional broadcasting (almost!), and I would now also be doing Radio Links for television.

Colin Pierpoint

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Colin Pierpoint blog 10 – Pebble Mill

Pebble Mill building circa 1970, copyright resides with the original holder, no reproduction without permission

Pebble Mill building circa 1970, copyright resides with the original holder, no reproduction without permission

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was one of the first people to work in Pebble Mill Studios, because all the Midland sound editing facilities were in mono at the time, and some orchestral concerts were being recorded at OBs in stereo. In fact, the Producers like Richard Butt, had to travel to London to edit their programmes. I did try to tell the management that there were stereo editing channels at Wood Norton, a lot closer, but I don’t think they understood. (These days, Wood Norton would have jumped at the chance to charge for hiring out editing facilities, but this was before Total Costing, Producer Choice, and department Business Units. Not that I am saying these were necessarily a good thing). So, when the Pebble Mill building was nearing completion, we were allowed to use the cubicle of Studio 1 for tape editing.

To be fair, I must mention another of my disasters. I was using the new Studer tape machines in Studio 1, B62 I think. I had previously used the Studer C37 at Wood Norton on attachment as an Assistant Lecturer, but I was caught out by a feature of the new machine where the wind will inch back and too, but will lock on if you have pressed the stop button beforehand. Anyway, I mangled a tape of an orchestra. The producer, Ron Gardener kindly allowed me to keep the reel while I sorted it out. In fact I had everything except one chord of music, and I built that from copying other bits of the performance and editing them together. A few days later, I played this to Ron, who said that he would have accepted that, but he had since found that Alan Ward, the Studio Manager who recorded it, had a 7 and a half ips copy recorded at the time of the performance. So we used that just for one phrase, about a bar of music. Ron Gardener then very kindly said that I had done good work for him in the past and he was prepared to overlook it. Nice of him to say that, and the only tape I ever damaged, but I did let myself down.

Colin Pierpoint

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

Carolyn Davies: “Colin, was this why future trainee Audio Assistants had to editing in a missing phrase of music as part of their 1/4″ editing training at Wood Norton?? Great story…”

Andy Freeth: “lan Ward’s OB stores equipment list was always “one and a spare!” Hardly surprising that there was another recording ferreted away Colin!”

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Colin Pierpoint blog 9 – SB Switches

copyright resides with the original holder, no reproduction without permission

copyright resides with the original holder, no reproduction without permission

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SB Switches

At this time [late 1960s] there was a complicated way of getting the network to the transmitting stations on the Home Service (later Radio 4). It needs a bit of explanation, so here it is. Each region had its own Home Service, and I had worked in the Welsh Home Service continuity suite in Cardiff on many occasions. In fact I used to love that job.  Every region had the right to opt out of the London originated Home Service as part of their programme schedule. That was the easy part. The complications arose when other regions were to take a network from another region, and they were complicated for this reason: at the time the lines used to send programmes (called “Music Lines”) were of good quality, but when you added several of them together the high frequency loss became very noticeable. So, If a region was to contribute to the whole Home Service network, sending the signal to London and through the Home Service Continuity was not acceptable because, for example, an orchestral concert from Scotland would travel the length of the British Isles and back again to get to the Scottish transmitters. Even worse from Northern Ireland.

So, what used to happen was that there was an SB switch. Remember that SB stands for Simultaneous Broadcast. After the previous programme had ended there was a switching pause of 5 seconds. In that time, the previous distribution network was broken down and another network set up with lines which radiated out from the region of origin. So, in the example I gave of a Scottish concert, the Outside Broadcast would go into the Scottish Home Service continuity in Glasgow, and then straight to the Scottish transmitters. Another  feed of SHS would go to Northern Ireland on the same line that they received the previous programme; but the North of England would switch over to a line from Glasgow. In the Midlands, we switched the Midland transmitter network (the Midland Home Service) to a line from Manchester. In this way London became a region on the end of the chain. So each region’s transmitters got the shortest line possible from the origination region, and therefore the best quality available. I hope that I have explained that consistent with my experience as a Lecturer!

Of course, the opportunity for cock-ups was endless! There was no talkback with a cue, as would be done in television, the whole thing relied on accurate timing, and it only needed a few seconds overrun to make some regions switch on time, and others switch a few seconds later. So what? I hear you ask. Well, if you don’t break down the first network, before setting up the second one, you get a loop, and the chance of a howl round. In fact, because Birmingham normally fed Bristol with the Home Service for the West of England, there was one type of SB switch which almost guaranteed a howl round! I used to love it. I remember on one occasion Northern Ireland had told us they would overrun, so we all agreed to delay the SB switch. After several minutes I rang Belfast to ask when they were going to finish and they said “We have already finished!” About a minute ago apparently. So I switched back to London who had already started the next programme. Because we were switching after the continuity, if we missed a switch, there was only silence going out to the transmitters until we put it right.

There was also one daily switch at half past three (1530) in the afternoon. Unfortunately this was also the time of our shift change in the Control Room. It was at the start of a programme called “Home this Afternoon” which I think came from a different region each day. One day we missed the  switch in Birmingham, so at the end of the programme the announcer apologised and said “We hope you don’t miss it tomorrow because we have on the programme a special guest….). The next day we missed the switch again! On another occasion at the shift change, someone was taking over from George on the day shift. The operator coming on shift said “Are there any switches?” and George suddenly spun round and switched the Midlands and West of England to the North!

Colin Pierpoint

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Colin Pierpoint blog 7 – The Control Room

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BTR2 machine

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Below is part 7 of Colin Pierpoint’s blog about his career at the BBC. This part concerns the Control Room at BBC Birmingham in Broad Street in the early/mid 1960s).

“In the Control Room I really enjoyed being part of the network. It was called the SB System (for Simultaneous Broadcast). Distribution lines to the transmitting stations and Contribution lines from other regions passed through Birmingham Control Room. When I first arrived this was for Home Service, the Light Programme, and the Third Programme. Adjoining the Control Room at Broad Street was the Continuity Suite for the Midland Home Service.  Because the Third Programme only began broadcasting in the evening, the lines were used for telephone calls during the day. Some time later, the Music Programme began in daytime on this network, and that changed its name when all Radio networks were revised into Radios 1, 2, 3 and 4.

Television sound also came through the Control Room, the vision being switched in the Switching Centre one floor below. (Only the BBC could do it this way). But in addition to the distribution of the networks, the Control Room switched contributions from the Regions and London. In fact all sound for Radio and Television went this way, with each individual booking for every contribution given on the daily booking sheet called the “SB Chart”. Sound for Radio and Television outside broadcasts from the Midlands were routed into here on lines from the Post Office. Saturday was particularly busy because there was Sport in the Midlands on the Midland Home Service (later Radio 4 Midlands) and contributions from many football grounds were switched from one region to another. This was all done on plugs and cords; there was no switching system for OB contributions. (There was a small relay switching panel for the SB lines). When the programme Nationwide started on television it required quite a complicated lot of plugging in the control room.

We found that if we plugged two amplifiers to a spare Post Office circuit, we could hear the feed to the betting shop just up Broad Street. Ron Cartwright used to regularly dash out of the Control Room to put a bet on! He also did a trade in selling strawberries from Evesham (where he lived). One morning when I was again late for the 6-30 am shift, I apologised to Ron in the street, saying there was just time for me to get upstairs in time for the Midlands weather forecast (the first opt out at 6-57). He said never mind that, take these upstairs while you are going, and gave me four trays of punnets of strawberries from his car boot!”

Colin Pierpoint

 

Electrical warning sign

Photo by Martin Fenton, no reproduction without permission

Photo by Martin Fenton, no reproduction without permission

Martin Fenton took this photo in the radio studios area of Pebble Mill in autumn 2003.

Electrical safety was obviously taken very seriously, if only ‘authorised staff’ could put a plug in a socket!

The BBC logo, with the rounded corners seems to date it between 1971-88.

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

Kathryn Shuttleworth: ‘I certainly know where this sign is. I have it along with other bits from Studio 3. I was one of the last to leave Pebble Mill and on a final walk round noticed most of the studio signs and door plates had gone. I guess quite a few people took a bit of Pebble Mill with them before the bulldozers turned up.’

Pete Simpkin: ‘In most BBC studios there were visits from musical groups of some sort and another and this notice was to be seen all over the place. I remember doing a late Christmas eve show at WM and was horrified to see my wife in the Ops room pulling out a mains plug (which could have been powering anything!) to plug in a hotplate containing eggs and bacon which she had brought in for the crew!!’