Pete Simpkin – Page 20 – What Was Pebble Mill?

Radio WM Self-Opt News Studio – Pete Simpkin

Rear of Pebble Mill, showing the 2nd floor bar balcony
Photo by Tim Savage

The recent entries about the old second floor Club at Pebble Mill reminded me that when Radio WM took over the bar area for it’s new Newsroom a self operate news studio was incorporated, a first for us. Advantage was taken of the, then, new technology which enabled news inserts to be played in by the newsreaders themselves from audio cartridges. These were prepared by the bulletins editor and handed with the scripts to whoever was presenting. The increased speed of production and the consequent later deadlines for inserts meant that inevitably there would be a disaster and it was my luck to be the duty reader to delight the listening thousands with it!

Having read the headlines I introduced the first recorded item and fired off the cart only to discover it had been mislabeled and so bore no relationship to the intro. script. After apologizing I went into the next introduction only to find the second cart too had been mislabeled. Having to do something I tried the third one which turned out to be the first story but set halfway through. At this stage I shut the microphone off and intercommed the editor to come in and collect this wrecked pile of scripts and carts and very kindy sort them out……or words to that effect.

He never returned. To keep the bulletin running I embarked on a reading of the other stories which were in the form of an endless teleprint of national stories subbed in London and sent out by teleprinter, ready to be read at sight. With an ever widening eye of disbelief I saw ahead a row of letters ZCZCZCZC approaching which in teleprint means ‘end of message’, unfortunately this was halfway through a story. Luckily I had read this one in an earlier bulletin so was able to conclude it from memory.

Having only done 5 minutes of a 12 minute bulletin I was left with no alternative but to hand over to the next programme of which the presenter was already in the studio and able to rescue yours truly. Still nothing like that could happen today in this wonder-tech age. Could it.

Pete Simpkin

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

Andy Walters: ‘We were still on carts in 2001. Cart recorders don’t have erase heads. Some readers had a habit of erasing them in a Weircliffe eraser used for tapes and then stacked the erased carts on top of the machine. This would give a lovely swooshing effect to subsequent recordings. Then there was the cardinal sin of erasing carts with the hand that your watch was on.’

8 Years since Radio WM left Pebble Mill

Pebble Mill just before WM signed off from the building. From Andy Walters

This is a Facebook conversation commemorating the departure of Radio WM from the Pebble Mill building, eight years ago.

Andy Walters: Happy 8th Anniversary of BBC WMs first broadcast from The Mailbox. Has it really been that long since we left Pebble Mill?

Brian Christopher Winter: I remember back in 2000 and 2001 about all the talk of the proposed move out of Pebble Mill. Time has flown by.

Andy Walters: I was told on my first day of work there in 2001 that they were looking at an imminent move which it turns out was over three years away. We were talking about Pebble Mill over the weekend. You couldn’t believe these days that WM had a smoking room opposite the studios at the mill! Other defunct things like a Gram Library with shelves piled high. Lines of tape machines and cart triple stacks and the lovely old BBC Designs Dept. Mk 3 desks.’

Nik Andrews: ‘I wonder if in years to come some young BBC engineer will be lamenting over the current systems used.’

Pete Simpkin: ‘Andy re the smoking at PM, just after the no smokng ban was introduced at the Mill I was the Afternoon Presenter on duty when I had to interview live a certain Peer of the Realm, as he sat down in the studio he took out a ciggy and was preparing to light it when I pointed out the new No smoking sign, he looked at me wih a ‘yes but that doesn’t mean ME does it’ and I was just about to send for managerial reinforcements when the on air disk ran out and I had to do the interview without the pre-chat. He was most unco-operative with his answers and at the end as I started to say ‘Thank you for coming in…’ he was already out of the door and runing down the corridor!’

Andy Walters: ‘I think something similar happened (and this was in the early 2000’s) with Julie Goodyear who couldn’t bear to be without a ciggy for more than a few minutes. Did nothing for Ed’s respiratory problems either.’

Telecine – Ray Lee (Part 4)

Jim Gregory & Dave Schoolden in TK in 1976

As with most of the equipment in the programme chain, TK needed regular alignment and adjustment to get the best pictures. There were daily alignment procedures, normally left until the machines had been on for at least half an hour, and long term alignment done periodically to make sure everything was working in the right range. The TK Machines used discrete electronic components, i.e. individual transistors, rather than integrated circuits.(As did pretty much all the electronics in the ’70’s). As a result temperature drift, and voltage variations, had quite a marked effect upon the performance, and so most circuit boards had quite a lot of adjustable trimmers, to enable the system to work properly at standard levels. There was a SMPTE test loop which we ran in the machine in order to correctly set the image size, linearity, and focus, and other slides for setting afterglow correctors, photocell gain, etc.

A daily line up would normally take only a few minutes, up to perhaps 15 if things were a long way out, whereas a full lineup would take more like a couple of hours.

Some parts of the full lineup required boards to be put on extenders, which meant switching off, extending the card, switching on, waiting for things to settle, then finally making the adjustment. Then the machine would be switched off again the card returned to its slot and the machine re-powered. One then hoped that when the elecronics had stabilised, that the adjustment that had been made had stayed “in range”, otherwise the procedure would be repeated until it did.

The flying spot telecine tube ran at a voltage of 30kV and as such produced some “soft” X-rays so there were warning notices all over the area round the tube, warning of X rays and High voltages.

As an engineer one needed to be aware of the dangers posed by the machinary, and there were a lot of safety intelocks designed to prevent accidents of electrocution, or being caught by moving parts, but often needing to be overidden when making adjustments or repairs.

In those days the engineering department was a totally male preserve, it took a further decade before any female engineers appeared at Pebble Mill.

Ray Lee

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

Pete Simpkin: ‘Good to see Jim Gregory in the TK picture. We were at Evesham together in the 1960s.’

Keith Brook: ‘That picture could have been taken at any time because whenever I went into Telecine, Jim was sitting just like that!!’

Mark Ray: ‘I knew Dave from Midlands Today traffic in PSCB during the 1980’s. Dave sadly passed away some years ago.’

Peter Greenhalgh: ‘Interesting note about the x-rays, I seem to remember the cabinet doors were lead-lined to keep the x-rays in?’

2nd Floor Bar – Keith Brook (Scouse)

Photo by Tim Savage. Included l to r: Ivor Williams, Nigel Evans, Mike Bloore, John Burkill

2nd Floor Bar

The second floor bar, or VT-C to some, was instrumental in the early success of Pebble Mill.

It was a place were everyone involved in a production could meet before, during or after a programme and chew the cud over what went horribly wrong or what went wonderfully right about a show.

This freedom of opinion was crucially important in making producers choose to bring their babies to PM. They loved it and were suddenly free of the ‘unionised’ structure of Telly Centre (which was caused by dreadful bad management) and could relax, as equals, in the talented and artistic world of ‘The Mill’.

Directors were astonished to find they could have conversations over talkback with cameramen and VT instead of relying on nods and buzzers.

It was London’s jealousy, caused by producers ‘wanting’ to work at The Mill, that was its eventual downfall. That moment was continually pushed back by Phil Sidey who would regale us, often at big meetings in the boardroom, with stories of his battles with management, much to the horror of management I’m delighted to say!!

The nearest I got to the feeling of Pebble Mill’s last days was when I worked on the final edition of the ‘Big Breakfast’. So many people came out from the party and stood on the grass just looking at the house. Many in tears, many just stunned, but all in complete bewilderment as to why it should happen and how awful the replacement was.

So, the managers move BBC Birmingham to the Mailbox and contract to pay £2.4m a year for 25 years, instead of £800, just because of jealousy.

If they’d all gone to ‘The Club’ things could have been so different.

Keith Brook (aka. Scouse)

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

Cathy Houghton: ‘The bar on the 2nd floor was the best and yes the BBC lost a treasure when they made the decision to close the Mill .. ‘

Lynn Cullimore: ‘a lot of creative ideas came to pass in that bar!!!’

Pete Simpkin: ‘The original second floor bar was often thought of as an extension of the Radio Birminham newsroom on the floor below. There was great excitement when the journos heard the Newsroom was moving to that exact spot in the expansion of the Local Radio facilities but this turned to bitter disappointment when on arrival in their new newsroom the beverage dispensing facilities had been moved outside the main building to separate premises!’

Andy Marriott: ‘Are there any photos of the interior of the bar? I came along to the mill far too late to have witnessed it. I loved the fact there was such an informal place to relax in after (and in some cases, before!) work.

Working at MediaCity just doesn’t compare, having to remortgage your house for a tiny bottle of fizzy gnat’s pi** while sitting in the same uncomfortable plastic seats you eat your overpriced lunch at just isn’t the same. It seems every time the BBC moves to a new building, a little bit of its soul dies with it.’

Stuart Gandy: ‘My first memory of the old bar was actually on rum punch day. Having spent 3 months on my A course at Wood Norton in the autumn of 1979, I spent just a couple of days at pebble Mill before the Christmas break, but before I officially started there in the January. One of these was rum punch day. Of course I didn’t know what that meant when my new colleagues said it was rum punch, but none the less I went to the bar to find out, and there began my knowledge of this old Pebble Mill tradition. The bar was rammed full including the outside balcony, with the punch being served at the far end so it was quite a challenge to actually get to it. Happy memories of the old place.’

BBC Radio Birmingham leaflet

Thanks to Radio Birmingham Producer and Presenter, Pete Simpkin for making this leaflet available.

The leaflet probably dates from the early 1970s, and details the community involvement of the radio station, and the programmes which came out of it. Note that Nick Owen is listed as sports presenter!

As Pete Simpkin says, ‘Can’t believe we did so much with so little funds! A terrific pioneering team with whom to work.’