I probably should have uploaded this (and a load of other ancient Bush House audio treasure I forgot I had) when all the Bush nostalgia was in full flow a few weeks ago. But I didn’t.
This is Stanley Unwin, then a BBC maintenance engineer, recorded on 5th March 1959 in what became Studio S6 in Bush House. He is discussing the BBC Type B mixing desk, still in use when I joined the World Service in 1991. A bit like this….
I loved this. I worked at Bush as a TO from 61 to 67 and Unwin was still spoken of. I was told he got the gobbledy-gook idea for speaking from tape editing. We practised it ourselves, not so barmy as Stanley, just enough to make negatives etc.. He clearly had an excellent brain and obviously more than knew his onions too.
I worked on Type B, and in BH on type A. Type A had bridged H faders as opposed to the unbalanced Type B bridged T. You could pull out and swap type A faders if you had a mind to, on air. Growing bored the trick was not to pull out the one that was next needed or open even! Naturally the over ambitious SM sometimes failed.
I recognise young Giles Booth at the panel and he is much as I remember him. Far too clever to be an SM! (‘Artiste’.)
Reminds me of of my perception of those first lectures in my A course at WN. Actually did my first live opts in a B Type continuity in Wales