BBC West Midlands
Encyclopedia
BBC West Midlands is the BBC English Region
producing local television
, radio
, web
and teletext
content for West Midlands metropolitan county
, Warwickshire
, Worcestershire
, Herefordshire
, Shropshire
, Staffordshire
and parts of Northern Gloucestershire - although the county as part of the south west is much better covered by BBC Points West.
Although the region has been officially called BBC West Midlands since BBC East Midlands
became a separate region in 1991, it retains the BBC Midlands name and brand, with its history dating from 1927, for public use.
news programme, regional news bulletins, the weekly regional magazine programme Inside Out
and a twenty minute opt-out from the weekly Politics Show
. A weekly football magazine programme, Late Kick Off
, is co-produced with BBC East Midlands
.
, BBC Coventry and Warwickshire, BBC Hereford and Worcester
, BBC Radio Stoke
and BBC Radio Shropshire
.
Some of this programming is simulcast
with the radio stations in the BBC East Midlands
region, and overnight BBC Radio 5 Live
is simulcast.
, BBC Red Button and BBC Local News websites for each county.
high-powered radio transmitter at Daventry
became the first to replace the earlier lower-powered city-based radio stations, such as Birmingham's 5IT
, and make regional and national broadcasting a technical possibility.
The Daventry transmitter broadcast two channels and as further regional transmission stations followed (starting with London
's Brookmans Park
in 1929), this quickly established the pattern for pre-war broadcasting. 5XX from Daventry carried the BBC National Programme
from London, while 5GB broadcast the BBC Regional Programme
, where the regional controller was free to schedule programming from London, programming produced from the region's own Birmingham base or programming sourced from other regions as he saw fit.
The first director of the new Midlands regional service was Percy Edgar
, who had been the announcer and Head of Programming for 5IT on its opening night in 1922 and was to be the dominant figure in Midlands broadcasting from its birth until 1945. Edgar was a strong believer in the value of local production and fought to establish the Midlands Region as an independent source of programming, pioneering community-focussed initiatives such as the Midlands Parliament programme, where members of the public debated controversial issues on air with major public figures.
By 1935 the Midlands Region covered an area from The Potteries to Norfolk
and was producing 40% of its broadcast output itself - a greater proportion even than the national region BBC Scotland
. With 14 producers it was largest BBC department outside London.
, but in July 1945 the BBC Home Service
was launched on a similar regional basis to the pre-war Regional Programme. The Midlands Region continued under new director Dennis Morris in the independent and innovative vein established by Edgar - pioneering on-air listener feedback with Listeners Answer Back in 1946 and launching the longest-running and most popular programme in the history of radio - The Archers
- in 1948.
Despite these successes, two technological developments gradually started to make the old regional system untenable. The development of FM Radio made it possible to fit a far greater number of channels into the spectrum without conflict and interference, which opened the possibility of more towns and cities having their own radio stations. The Midlands Region opened the BBC's first local radio
station, BBC Radio Leicester
, in 1967, and with many more of these planned, the relevance of the regional radio channel broadcasting from the Welsh border to the North Sea was immediately cast into doubt.
Television was also presenting more of a threat than an opportunity. Although the Midlands had been the first area outside London to receive television coverage with the opening of the Sutton Coldfield transmitting station in 1949, the greater cost of television production compared to radio meant that it was always going to be a more centralised service.
A television studio was opened in Birmingham in 1950 and early successes included Come Dancing
in 1949 - the first regionally produced television programme to establish itself as a regular in the national network schedule - and Midlands Today
in 1964, the UK's first daily regional news magazine. Although it fared better than the struggling BBC North
or BBC West
(which was threatened for a while with being absorbed by the Midlands Region), it was clear that if the Midlands Region was too large to be truly local in the radio market, it was equally too small to be as self-sufficient across the full range of television programming as it had been in radio.
-based BBC East
, with both it and the smaller remaining BBC Midlands focussing entirely on regional television (primarily regional news) and local radio. Regional radio ceased entirely, and all television and radio production for national networks was transferred to the separate BBC Birmingham
network production centre.
The cost of television production technology decreased throughout the 1980s and 1990s and this had several effects on the BBC in the Midlands. Smaller, more local channels became viable. The BBC's Midlands coverage had long been accused of being excessively Birmingham-centric, and in 1991 television broadcasting from the Waltham transmitting station
and the BBC Radio Leicester
, BBC Radio Nottingham
and BBC Radio Derby
radio stations were given over to a new Nottingham
-based BBC East Midlands
.
A more radical move in this direction took place in 2006 when the West Midlands Region piloted the BBC's Local TV initiative, with television news programmes produced for six local areas, all much smaller than the traditional television regions and in the case of Birmingham
and the Black Country
even smaller than those covered by local radio stations. This programming was broadcast on digital television
and over the internet
only. The experiment came to an end as planned in September 2006, and the future of the initiative is currently undecided.
The first studios used by BBC Midlands were offices and a small studio in Broad Street, Birmingham
; however these became too small for the expanding region. Regional News remained at Broad Street until 1971, the small studio being ideal for news bulletins, while other productions took place in a former cinema in Gosta Green
and a regency mansion in Carpenter Road, Edgbaston
.
In 1971, all of these operations were condensed into a new integrated studio complex, Pebble Mill Studios
. Pebble Mill became iconic because it featured in some of the most popular programming of the 1970s. Pebble Mill had two studios, studio A for major productions and studio B, for Midlands Today and other local programming. When the complex was built it was intended that there should be a studio C for drama production; however this never happened, and instead the foyer of the building was used as an extra studio, complete with the gallery and facilities built in for studio C. A conservatory studio was also built that held Good Morning with Anne and Nick
for many years. The new studios encompassed network and regional productions and radio, and was the Headquarters for BBC English Regions
.
Unfortunately, by the 1990s, change meant Pebble Mill's future was uncertain. Advances in technology made outside broadcasts cheaper and much more common, while also increasing the scope for independent and outsourced television production. In combination these meant that much television programming could increasingly be produced without the need for the sort of large integrated studio complexes represented by Pebble Mill
. In addition, the building was getting costly to heat and maintain. In 2000, studio A was closed following the need to make savings at the corporation, and plans were made to dispose of Pebble Mill.
In 2004, productions split two ways. BBC West Midlands, Midlands Today, BBC WM
, BBC English Regions
and the network production base BBC Birmingham
moved to The Mailbox
in Birmingham
city centre, with many of the productions moving to the BBC Drama Village
. The Mailbox contains the studios, newsroom and radio facilities, all of which have windows allowing the public to view how their television and radio is made.
BBC English Regions
BBC English Regions is the division of the BBC responsible for local television, radio, web and teletext services in England. It is one of the BBC's four 'Nations' - the others being BBC Scotland, BBC Wales and BBC Northern Ireland....
producing local television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
, radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
, web
World Wide Web
The World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet...
and teletext
Teletext
Teletext is a television information retrieval service developed in the United Kingdom in the early 1970s. It offers a range of text-based information, typically including national, international and sporting news, weather and TV schedules...
content for West Midlands metropolitan county
West Midlands (county)
The West Midlands is a metropolitan county in western central England with a 2009 estimated population of 2,638,700. It came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972, formed from parts of Staffordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire. The...
, Warwickshire
Warwickshire
Warwickshire is a landlocked non-metropolitan county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, although the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare...
, Worcestershire
Worcestershire
Worcestershire is a non-metropolitan county, established in antiquity, located in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes it is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three counties that comprise the "Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire" NUTS 2 region...
, Herefordshire
Herefordshire
Herefordshire is a historic and ceremonial county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes it is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three counties that comprise the "Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire" NUTS 2 region. It also forms a unitary district known as the...
, Shropshire
Shropshire
Shropshire is a county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. It borders Wales to the west...
, Staffordshire
Staffordshire
Staffordshire is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. Part of the National Forest lies within its borders...
and parts of Northern Gloucestershire - although the county as part of the south west is much better covered by BBC Points West.
Although the region has been officially called BBC West Midlands since BBC East Midlands
BBC East Midlands
BBC East Midlands is the BBC English Region covering Derbyshire, Leicestershire, south Nottinghamshire, South Kesteven and Rutland.-Television:...
became a separate region in 1991, it retains the BBC Midlands name and brand, with its history dating from 1927, for public use.
Television
The BBC West Midlands region, branded as BBC Midlands to continue the name, carries a number of regional programmes today. The regular schedule consists of the flagship Midlands TodayMidlands Today
Midlands Today is the BBC's regional television news programme for the West Midlands region, which covers the north of Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, Worcestershire and the West Midlands county...
news programme, regional news bulletins, the weekly regional magazine programme Inside Out
Inside Out (BBC TV series)
Inside Out is the brand name for a number of regional television programmes in England broadcast on BBC One. Each series, made by a BBC region, focuses on stories from the local area...
and a twenty minute opt-out from the weekly Politics Show
The Politics Show
The Politics Show is an hour long BBC One television political programme broadcast in the United Kingdom on Sundays. The programme usually starts at midday, but is often earlier or later when sporting events clash in the schedules. It was launched in 2003 and was originally presented by Jeremy...
. A weekly football magazine programme, Late Kick Off
Late Kick Off
Late Kick Off was a BBC One regional television football programme which was launched on 18 January 2010 and ran up to and including the 2010-2011 football season...
, is co-produced with BBC East Midlands
BBC East Midlands
BBC East Midlands is the BBC English Region covering Derbyshire, Leicestershire, south Nottinghamshire, South Kesteven and Rutland.-Television:...
.
Radio
The region is the controlling centre for BBC WMBBC WM
BBC WM is the BBC Local Radio service for the West Midlands, South Staffordshire, north Worcestershire and north Warwickshire, operated by BBC Birmingham. Launched on 9 November 1970 as BBC Radio Birmingham, it broadcasts from central Birmingham on 95.6 FM, DAB and on the internet...
, BBC Coventry and Warwickshire, BBC Hereford and Worcester
BBC Hereford and Worcester
BBC Hereford and Worcester is the BBC Local Radio service for the English counties of Herefordshire and Worcestershire. It broadcasts from its studios in both Worcester and Hereford on 104 , 104.4 104.6 and 94.7 FM; as well as 738 and 1584 MW on AM...
, BBC Radio Stoke
BBC Radio Stoke
BBC Radio Stoke is a BBC Local Radio station in England, for the area of North and Mid Staffordshire, north east Shropshire and South Cheshire. The station began broadcasting programmes on 14 March 1968 as BBC Radio Stoke-on-Trent....
and BBC Radio Shropshire
BBC Radio Shropshire
BBC Radio Shropshire is the BBC Local Radio service for the English county of Shropshire. Launched on 23 April 1985 it broadcasts from its studios in Shrewsbury on 96 , 90 , 95 , 104.1 FM and DAB...
.
Some of this programming is simulcast
Simulcast
Simulcast, shorthand for "simultaneous broadcast", refers to programs or events broadcast across more than one medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at the same time. For example, Absolute Radio is simulcast on both AM and on satellite radio, and the BBC's Prom concerts are often...
with the radio stations in the BBC East Midlands
BBC East Midlands
BBC East Midlands is the BBC English Region covering Derbyshire, Leicestershire, south Nottinghamshire, South Kesteven and Rutland.-Television:...
region, and overnight BBC Radio 5 Live
BBC Radio 5 Live
BBC Radio 5 Live is the BBC's national radio service that specialises in live BBC News, phone-ins, and sports commentaries...
is simulcast.
Online and Interactive
BBC West Midlands also produces regional news and local radio pages for CeefaxCeefax
Ceefax is the BBC's teletext information service transmitted via the analogue signal, started in 1974 and will run until April 2012 for Pages from Ceefax, while the actual interactive service will run until 24 October 2012, in-line with the digital switchover.-History:During the late 60s, engineer...
, BBC Red Button and BBC Local News websites for each county.
Early years
BBC Midlands is the oldest of the BBC Regions, having been formed in 1927 when the new Borough HillBorough Hill
Borough Hill is a hill to the east of the town of Daventry in the English county of Northamptonshire. It is over above sea level and dominates the surrounding area.-Archaeology:...
high-powered radio transmitter at Daventry
Daventry
Daventry is a market town in Northamptonshire, England, with a population of 22,367 .-Geography:The town is also the administrative centre of the larger Daventry district, which has a population of 71,838. The town is 77 miles north-northwest of London, 13.9 miles west of Northampton and 10.2...
became the first to replace the earlier lower-powered city-based radio stations, such as Birmingham's 5IT
5IT
5IT was a BBC radio station which broadcast from Birmingham, England, between 1922 and 1927. It was the BBC's second station, going live at 17.20 on 15 November 1922, the day after 2LO started daily BBC broadcasting from London and one hour forty minutes before 2ZY launched BBC broadcasting in...
, and make regional and national broadcasting a technical possibility.
The Daventry transmitter broadcast two channels and as further regional transmission stations followed (starting with London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
's Brookmans Park
Brookmans Park Transmitter
The Brookmans Park transmitting station is a facility for medium wave broadcasting north of London . The station was built by the BBC as the first of a network of regional dual transmitter stations, replacing the city based ones used previously, and this was to cover the Home Counties, London and...
in 1929), this quickly established the pattern for pre-war broadcasting. 5XX from Daventry carried the BBC National Programme
BBC National Programme
The BBC National Programme was a BBC radio station from the 1920s until the outbreak of World War II.-Foundation:When the BBC first began transmissions on 14 November 1922, the technology for both national coverage and joint programming between transmitters did not exist – transmitter powers were...
from London, while 5GB broadcast the BBC Regional Programme
BBC Regional Programme
The BBC Regional Programme was a UK radio network which operated from the end of the 1920s until the outbreak of World War II in 1939.-Foundation:...
, where the regional controller was free to schedule programming from London, programming produced from the region's own Birmingham base or programming sourced from other regions as he saw fit.
The first director of the new Midlands regional service was Percy Edgar
Percy Edgar
Frederick Percy Edgar OBE was an English broadcaster.Edgar was the dominant figure in English regional broadcasting from its birth until World War II. In 1922 he was the founding General Manager and opening announcer for the first BBC station outside London - Birmingham's 5IT...
, who had been the announcer and Head of Programming for 5IT on its opening night in 1922 and was to be the dominant figure in Midlands broadcasting from its birth until 1945. Edgar was a strong believer in the value of local production and fought to establish the Midlands Region as an independent source of programming, pioneering community-focussed initiatives such as the Midlands Parliament programme, where members of the public debated controversial issues on air with major public figures.
By 1935 the Midlands Region covered an area from The Potteries to Norfolk
Norfolk
Norfolk is a low-lying county in the East of England. It has borders with Lincolnshire to the west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea coast and to the north-west the county is bordered by The Wash. The county...
and was producing 40% of its broadcast output itself - a greater proportion even than the national region BBC Scotland
BBC Scotland
BBC Scotland is a constituent part of the British Broadcasting Corporation, the publicly-funded broadcaster of the United Kingdom. It is, in effect, the national broadcaster for Scotland, having a considerable amount of autonomy from the BBC's London headquarters, and is run by the BBC Trust, who...
. With 14 producers it was largest BBC department outside London.
The television era
Regional radio was suspended during World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, but in July 1945 the BBC Home Service
BBC Home Service
The BBC Home Service was a British national radio station which broadcast from 1939 until 1967.-Development:Between the 1920s and the outbreak of The Second World War, the BBC had developed two nationwide radio services, the BBC National Programme and the BBC Regional Programme...
was launched on a similar regional basis to the pre-war Regional Programme. The Midlands Region continued under new director Dennis Morris in the independent and innovative vein established by Edgar - pioneering on-air listener feedback with Listeners Answer Back in 1946 and launching the longest-running and most popular programme in the history of radio - The Archers
The Archers
The Archers is a long-running British soap opera broadcast on the BBC's main spoken-word channel, Radio 4. It was originally billed as "an everyday story of country folk", but is now described on its Radio 4 web site as "contemporary drama in a rural setting"...
- in 1948.
Despite these successes, two technological developments gradually started to make the old regional system untenable. The development of FM Radio made it possible to fit a far greater number of channels into the spectrum without conflict and interference, which opened the possibility of more towns and cities having their own radio stations. The Midlands Region opened the BBC's first local radio
BBC Local Radio
BBC Local Radio is the BBC's regional radio service for England and the Channel Islands, consisting of 40 stations. They cover a variety of areas with some serving a city and surrounding areas, for example BBC Radio Manchester; a county, for example BBC Radio Norfolk; an administrative region for...
station, BBC Radio Leicester
BBC Radio Leicester
BBC Radio Leicester is the BBC Local Radio service for the English counties of Leicestershire and Rutland. The station broadcasts from studios in Leicester on 104.9 FM, on DAB, and via the BBC iPlayer.-History:...
, in 1967, and with many more of these planned, the relevance of the regional radio channel broadcasting from the Welsh border to the North Sea was immediately cast into doubt.
Television was also presenting more of a threat than an opportunity. Although the Midlands had been the first area outside London to receive television coverage with the opening of the Sutton Coldfield transmitting station in 1949, the greater cost of television production compared to radio meant that it was always going to be a more centralised service.
A television studio was opened in Birmingham in 1950 and early successes included Come Dancing
Come Dancing
Come Dancing was a BBC TV ballroom dancing competition show that ran on and off from 1949 to 1998, becoming one of television's longest-running shows....
in 1949 - the first regionally produced television programme to establish itself as a regular in the national network schedule - and Midlands Today
Midlands Today
Midlands Today is the BBC's regional television news programme for the West Midlands region, which covers the north of Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, Worcestershire and the West Midlands county...
in 1964, the UK's first daily regional news magazine. Although it fared better than the struggling BBC North
BBC North
BBC North is a brand used by the BBC to mean any of the following.*The large BBC North region, centred on Manchester, that was active from the late 1920s until 1968....
or BBC West
BBC West
BBC West is the BBC English Region serving Bristol, Bath and North East Somerset, North Somerset, South Gloucestershire, Somerset, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire.-Television:...
(which was threatened for a while with being absorbed by the Midlands Region), it was clear that if the Midlands Region was too large to be truly local in the radio market, it was equally too small to be as self-sufficient across the full range of television programming as it had been in radio.
Division of the Region
The result was the radical shakeup that took place following the publication of the Broadcasting in the Seventies report in 1969. The eastern part of the region was reborn as the NorwichNorwich
Norwich is a city in England. It is the regional administrative centre and county town of Norfolk. During the 11th century, Norwich was the largest city in England after London, and one of the most important places in the kingdom...
-based BBC East
BBC East
BBC East is the BBC English Region serving Norfolk, Suffolk, north Essex, Cambridgeshire, northern and central Hertfordshire, most of Northamptonshire, Bedfordshire, and parts of Buckinghamshire.-Television:...
, with both it and the smaller remaining BBC Midlands focussing entirely on regional television (primarily regional news) and local radio. Regional radio ceased entirely, and all television and radio production for national networks was transferred to the separate BBC Birmingham
BBC Birmingham
BBC Birmingham is one of the oldest regional arms of the BBC, located in Birmingham, West Midlands. It was the first region outside of London to start broadcasting both the corporation's radio and television transmissions, the latter from the Sutton Coldfield television transmitter...
network production centre.
The cost of television production technology decreased throughout the 1980s and 1990s and this had several effects on the BBC in the Midlands. Smaller, more local channels became viable. The BBC's Midlands coverage had long been accused of being excessively Birmingham-centric, and in 1991 television broadcasting from the Waltham transmitting station
Waltham transmitting station
The Waltham transmitting station is a broadcasting and telecommunications facilityat Waltham-on-the-Wolds, 5 miles north-east of Melton Mowbray. It sits inside the Waltham civil parish near Stonesby, in the district of Melton, Leicestershire, UK. It has a guyed steel tubular mast...
and the BBC Radio Leicester
BBC Radio Leicester
BBC Radio Leicester is the BBC Local Radio service for the English counties of Leicestershire and Rutland. The station broadcasts from studios in Leicester on 104.9 FM, on DAB, and via the BBC iPlayer.-History:...
, BBC Radio Nottingham
BBC Radio Nottingham
BBC Radio Nottingham is a BBC Local Radio station serving the English county of Nottinghamshire. It broadcasts on FM, AM, and digital DAB radio from studios located on London Road in Nottingham city centre.-Transmission frequences:...
and BBC Radio Derby
BBC Radio Derby
BBC Radio Derby is the BBC Local Radio station for the English county of Derbyshire, covering all but the northern tip of the county, and also serves eastern Staffordshire, mainly Uttoxeter and Burton upon Trent. The station broadcasts from its studios in Derby on 104.5, 95.3 and 96.0 FM and 1116...
radio stations were given over to a new Nottingham
Nottingham
Nottingham is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England. It is located in the ceremonial county of Nottinghamshire and represents one of eight members of the English Core Cities Group...
-based BBC East Midlands
BBC East Midlands
BBC East Midlands is the BBC English Region covering Derbyshire, Leicestershire, south Nottinghamshire, South Kesteven and Rutland.-Television:...
.
A more radical move in this direction took place in 2006 when the West Midlands Region piloted the BBC's Local TV initiative, with television news programmes produced for six local areas, all much smaller than the traditional television regions and in the case of Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
and the Black Country
Black Country
The Black Country is a loosely defined area of the English West Midlands conurbation, to the north and west of Birmingham, and to the south and east of Wolverhampton. During the industrial revolution in the 19th century this area had become one of the most intensely industrialised in the nation...
even smaller than those covered by local radio stations. This programming was broadcast on digital television
Digital television
Digital television is the transmission of audio and video by digital signals, in contrast to the analog signals used by analog TV...
and over the internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
only. The experiment came to an end as planned in September 2006, and the future of the initiative is currently undecided.
Studios
The first studios used by BBC Midlands were offices and a small studio in Broad Street, Birmingham
Broad Street, Birmingham
Broad Street is a major thoroughfare and popular nightspot in Birmingham City Centre, United Kingdom. Traditionally, Broad Street was considered to be outside Birmingham City Centre, but as the city centre expanded with the removal of the Inner Ring Road, Broad Street has been incorporated into...
; however these became too small for the expanding region. Regional News remained at Broad Street until 1971, the small studio being ideal for news bulletins, while other productions took place in a former cinema in Gosta Green
Gosta Green
Gosta Green is an area in the city of Birmingham, England. It lies at the edge of the city centre, about three-quarters of a mile to the north-east of Birmingham New Street station via Corporation St or the High St....
and a regency mansion in Carpenter Road, Edgbaston
Edgbaston
Edgbaston is an area in the city of Birmingham in England. It is also a formal district, managed by its own district committee. The constituency includes the smaller Edgbaston ward and the wards of Bartley Green, Harborne and Quinton....
.
In 1971, all of these operations were condensed into a new integrated studio complex, Pebble Mill Studios
Pebble Mill Studios
The BBC 's Pebble Mill Studios were located in Edgbaston, a suburb of Birmingham, England. The views from the roof overlooked Cannon Hill Park, a nature centre, as well as Birmingham's city centre...
. Pebble Mill became iconic because it featured in some of the most popular programming of the 1970s. Pebble Mill had two studios, studio A for major productions and studio B, for Midlands Today and other local programming. When the complex was built it was intended that there should be a studio C for drama production; however this never happened, and instead the foyer of the building was used as an extra studio, complete with the gallery and facilities built in for studio C. A conservatory studio was also built that held Good Morning with Anne and Nick
Good Morning with Anne and Nick
Good Morning with Anne and Nick was a BBC1 daytime television show presented by Anne Diamond and Nick Owen, from October 1992 to May 1996. The pair had previously presented TV-am on ITV, but now directly competed with ITV's This Morning....
for many years. The new studios encompassed network and regional productions and radio, and was the Headquarters for BBC English Regions
BBC English Regions
BBC English Regions is the division of the BBC responsible for local television, radio, web and teletext services in England. It is one of the BBC's four 'Nations' - the others being BBC Scotland, BBC Wales and BBC Northern Ireland....
.
Unfortunately, by the 1990s, change meant Pebble Mill's future was uncertain. Advances in technology made outside broadcasts cheaper and much more common, while also increasing the scope for independent and outsourced television production. In combination these meant that much television programming could increasingly be produced without the need for the sort of large integrated studio complexes represented by Pebble Mill
Pebble Mill Studios
The BBC 's Pebble Mill Studios were located in Edgbaston, a suburb of Birmingham, England. The views from the roof overlooked Cannon Hill Park, a nature centre, as well as Birmingham's city centre...
. In addition, the building was getting costly to heat and maintain. In 2000, studio A was closed following the need to make savings at the corporation, and plans were made to dispose of Pebble Mill.
In 2004, productions split two ways. BBC West Midlands, Midlands Today, BBC WM
BBC WM
BBC WM is the BBC Local Radio service for the West Midlands, South Staffordshire, north Worcestershire and north Warwickshire, operated by BBC Birmingham. Launched on 9 November 1970 as BBC Radio Birmingham, it broadcasts from central Birmingham on 95.6 FM, DAB and on the internet...
, BBC English Regions
BBC English Regions
BBC English Regions is the division of the BBC responsible for local television, radio, web and teletext services in England. It is one of the BBC's four 'Nations' - the others being BBC Scotland, BBC Wales and BBC Northern Ireland....
and the network production base BBC Birmingham
BBC Birmingham
BBC Birmingham is one of the oldest regional arms of the BBC, located in Birmingham, West Midlands. It was the first region outside of London to start broadcasting both the corporation's radio and television transmissions, the latter from the Sutton Coldfield television transmitter...
moved to The Mailbox
The Mailbox
The Mailbox is an upmarket development of offices, designer shops, restaurants, bars and luxury city-centre apartments in the City Centre and on the boundary of the City Centre Core in Birmingham, West Midlands, England. It includes a mini supermarket and three art galleries: the Artlounge, Castle...
in Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
city centre, with many of the productions moving to the BBC Drama Village
BBC Drama Village
The BBC Drama Village is a television production facility run by the BBC. It is operated by their BBC Birmingham branch and based largely at the Selly Oak campus of the University of Birmingham in Birmingham, England....
. The Mailbox contains the studios, newsroom and radio facilities, all of which have windows allowing the public to view how their television and radio is made.