Studio Tour 1976 - 2000
First Studio
The first studio's at Heatherwood were located in the old admin building. Bill started broadcasting the record request service from a room in this building. These programs can be traced back to the late 1960's. We believe the service started in 1969.
Bill Berry & Derek Robinson Front The Presenting Team, In The Original Reception Click to Enlarge :-
When the service was officially launched in 1976 it moved to the ground floor of the Maternity unit, next to the hospital switchboard.
The total area for this studio was 12ft by 12ft. This was divided into two rooms, a small reception area and the other which was used for broadcasting, this included one Dexion rack full of singles 78’s and LP’s.
It was only later, in the eighties when another room was added, which increased the overall room size to 12ft by 20ft.This allowed the addition of a second studio and a dedicated area for the library. In the early days 78’s and a few singles and albums were used to produce the request shows.
In the mid 90’s after some long time talks with the hospital trust, a room vacant adjacent to the radio studio’s was allocated to the station. This allowed the complex to offer for the first time proper reception facilities and an area was also set aside for presenters to make refreshments.
Time to Leave
During it's 24 years in the ground floor of maternity, the radio studio's changed shape a number of times as more rooms were added when the old switchboard vacated the adjacent rooms.
After some rumours overheard during the last few years of the 1990's it was apparent the hospital were intending to change the ground floor of the maternity unit to accommodate the minor injuries unit and also the South East Berks Doctors on call.
Sure enough the rumours were true and as we moved from the 1990's into 2000 we were looking at moving the studio's and all the inter connecting services to the far end of the hospital site.
And in the End
Saturday 22nd July 2000
Radio Heatherwood bid farewell to it’s old premises today 7pm when after 24 years it broadcast it’s final shows, presenters, Peter Davidson-Smith, Roger Hawkes, Matthew Robinson, Dave Smith, Alan Holder, Sarah Bishton, Jenni Ferguson, Bruce Crosland, and not forgetting behind the scenes work by Ada Hawkes, all ensured the occasion was one to remember.
The final record played " Time to say Goodbye " Sarah Brightman & Andrea Bocelli.
Radio Heatherwood vacated it’s old premises on Saturday 5th August 2000 The last of the equipment and records & CD’s were moved to the summer-house( New Studio ).
1976 Studio Floor Plan
The original layout for the studio's were as the enclosed drawing.
The thick wall was a plasterboard wall which divided the studio from the hospital switchboard. In the early days a knock on the wall meant, coffee was ready.
The early setup had a very high ceiling everything was painted white, which soon became a smokers yellow. A cable tray ran at head height around the library area and above the console seating position.
The room suffered from noise from the cooling fans of the 100 volt distribution amps and also if you had the small windows open which were just below the cable tray, anyone being noisy outside could be picked up by the on-air mike.
Equipment
The first equipment for this studio comprised two Garrard 401 turntables, Alice mixer(stereo) 8 channel, two sony microphones plus a cheap amplifier and a set of speakers. Later a Revox reel to reel was added along with a Technics cassette deck. Headphones were sennheiser. The console with all the equipment was covered in a red vinyl type fabric.
The garrard turntables were good work horses but if you put a record on at the wrong speed and then started it on air you then had the problem of changing the speed which was a two handed operation, with one control turn the power off and then change the speed with the other, then you could turn the power control back on.
The above studio layout created was the first of many.
This layout remained until 1982 when the first of the additional rooms was added.
Details can be found in the scrapbook for 1982.
