The Original Studios

Over the life of the WTBS the studio layout and equipment installed in the regional bunkers varied considerably, as refits, space or bunker moves dictated a new installation. In one instance, equipment that had first seen service with the BBC in 1938 was still in use in the 1970s!

Simple but Effective

The equipment in the regional bunkers was not deemed as cast off, or of a lesser quality, than the equipment the BBC used in its permanent studios at Broadcasting House or Television Centre.

Simplicity in both its operation and what it could broadcast was the key.

No deep, round-table discussions on nuclear conflict and its survival were planned.

The Final Version

The studios in the Cultybraggan and Ballymena bunkers were examples of the last version of the WTBS studio. 

As built the studio equipment consisted of:
• an Audix Broadcast MTX 500 mixer modified with a mono output
• a Uher 4000 Report Monitor portable reel-to-reel tape recorder
• a Technics cassette recorder
• an AKG D202 microphone on an angle poise arm
• Sennheiser HD414 headphones
• An LS 1/8 powered speaker mounted on the wall with a swivel mount bracket
• A red “mic live” light from Canford Audio

Still Going Strong

In 1979 Channel Television, the Channel Islands commercial broadcaster, was invited to visit the Jersey bunker during an exercise.

The images shown of the WTBS studio there indicate it was equipped with BBC in-house designed technology dating from before World War Two!

The operator in the cubicle (control room) is seen using an OBA/8 microphone amplifier and a passive, i.e. it had no electronic amplification, MX/18 mixer. This was first used by the BBC in 1938!

Scout

Scout was the codename given to the BBC studio in Area 16 of the huge Central Government bunker at Corsham in Wiltshire.

There were known tobe lines linking it to the HQ of the WTBS at  Wood Norton, however by the mid-1960s this bunker was considered unfit for purpose meaning the studio equipment was eventually stripped out.

Based on research of other, similar period WTBS studios, it probably used the same or simialr equipment to the Jersey studio.

"...no DF projects were listed and the engineers would still not be able to talk in detail about their work in this area I suspect, having signed the Official Secrets Act...even if most of the information is now in the public domain. 

C C - BBC staff engineer