Radio To Go case history: BBC Radio 2
BBC Radio 2, Pebble Mill, Birmingham 1994-1999
“Robin was brought into The Music Department at BBC Network Production Centre, Birmingham with a specific task in mind but soon became a most valued member of the team. At the time we had just won a contract to supply Radio Two with many hundreds of hours of extra music programmes and programming. Working to a close deadline two new studios were built from scratch. Robin took us from completely manual programme production to computer scheduling and playout; a first for the Network.
It was a close call and we went on air with fingers and eyes crossed. What I remember most was Robin’s unquenchable enthusiasm for the project and his pursuit of each and every detail. Despite the inevitable delays and frustrations of such a large undertaking I can’t recall Robin complaining; indeed the only ‘luxury’ he wanted was an office with a window in it. He never got it and now they’ve pulled the place down.
Robin went on to produce show after show for Radio 2 and was always looking for ways of putting more good music on the radio. It is a rare talent to not only understand the complexities of computer scheduling but also have an encyclopaedic knowledge of music and musicians."
Geoffrey Hewitt, (Retired) Editor Music BBC NPC Birmingham
March 18th 2010
“Having discovered it was Robin’s skilled Selecter scheduling for Radio 2 that was competing for my overnight audience at Classic FM, I was delighted to hire his brains when planning and launching Lyric FM for RTE.”
Chris Vezey, VIP Broadcasting
Background
BBC Birmingham hosted the Radio 2 Overnight shows from its Pebble Mill studios from 1994 to 2001. I was hired initially to implement playout and scheduling software, and source a library. This turned into a five year production assignment.
Objective
The shows were to be run with live-assist automation, using scheduling and playback software from two self-contained studios, with a dedicated CD library, to keep costs to an absolute minimum.
Approach
After one or two false starts, RCS Selector (version 12) and Master Control were specified, at my prompting. RCS New York wrote some custom software for the BBC, which enabled the CD library to be loaded to hard disk from Sony CD jukeboxes. Playback material was uploaded nightly to the Master Control servers; this was because of the then very high cost of computer memory limited capacity. A few years later, memory was cheap enough to allow the entire library to be uploaded to hard disk.
Scheduling from Selector proved highly successful, working off an eventual core of 4000 songs, with a further 6000 specialised songs for occasional play. Schedules were dovetailed with network output from London to avoid clashes.
This approach was probably the most demanding in terms of breath of repertoire with RCS Selector, and also in network capacity on Master Control (working in DOS) up to that point.
Result
Ratings for the Overnight shows quadrupled. Staffing for the Overnight shows – effectively a quarter of BBC Radio 2’s overnight output – was very lean, allowing the shows to be produced and serviced by one producer and 1.5 assistants. This was the very first all-digital studio playout system to.be implemented at the BBC.