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 at least one instance, equipment that had first seen service with the BBC in 1938 was still in use forty years later!
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.
But simplicity in both its operation and what it could and would broadcast was the key.
Although in the early days of the WTBS there were facilities to play music from records, by the late 1960s the ethos of the service was to broadcast short annoucements and bulletins, either live or from tape, at specific times.
No deep, round-table discussions, for example on the moral position of nuclear conflict and its survival, were envisaged!
Thus the equipment provision reflected that.
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 the Channel Islands commercial broadcaster, Channel Television, was invited to visit the Jersey bunker during a weekend exercise.
The images shown of the WTBS studio there indicate it was equipped with BBC in-house designed technology dating from before World War 2!
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!
The reporter for Channel Television was Robert Hall, who later worked for the BBC. He revisited the bunker in 2018 and in his report it was clear the studio had been refitted to the final reiteration (above) of a WTBS studio.
"Be Prepared"
Scout was the codename given to the BBC studio in Area 16 of the huge Central Government HQ bunker at Spring Quarry, Corsham in Wiltshire.
There were known to be 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 similar, 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