My Life and Times as a BBC Engineer 1942-1945 Part 2

This story was submitted to the People’s War site by Roger Marsh of the ‘Action Desk — Sheffield’ Team on behalf of Dennis Faulkner and has been added to the site with the author’s permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

CHAPTER 2. CARDIFF.
My mother was apprehensive for her only son being moved away from home at the age of seventeen and a half (only six months short of military age), and so it was, that on the day of my travel, my father was instructed to go with me to Cardiff, to see "that the boy is settled in". Before leaving home she gave me a note with the name and address of a cousin of hers in Cardiff and told me to contact her if I encountered problems there. My mother came from an extensive Welsh family and she had quite a few kin in South Wales, none of whom I knew.

I had a travel voucher from the BBC and thus my father and I travelled by GWR to Cardiff. On arrival we left the railway station and my father enquired if I knew where to go. My reply was that I did not, but I would find it! He then astonished me saying, "Right you go off then, and come back here at 4.Opm before my return train goes, to let me know how you get on. I am going to a pub!" In retrospect, my father was being canny in that he wanted ME to sort things out for myself. My years in the Boy Scouts helped me a great deal from now onwards. I was never 'homesick', although I did miss it and my friends. I was able to fend for myself!

Enquiries led me to take a tram from the station to near Cardiff City Hall, the BBC being in Park Place close by, which I found easily, whilst carrying my suitcase.

On arrival, and proudly showing my BBC Pass, I was taken to see Mr. Haddock, the EiC Studios. He told me to find some accommodation and report for duty on the day shift at 9.OOam the next day, the 16th of August! And that was that! Any accommodation? See the commissionaires, perhaps they can help. They could not! So, leaving my case behind, I trudged round the local streets knocking on doors; all to no avail. Nowhere could I find lodgings in the area near the studios. What seemed hours later and with nothing to eat, I remembered my mother's note. Enquiries put me on the same tramline back to and beyond the railway station, over the river Taff to a residential area and to my mother's cousin. In answer to my knock on the door, a lady appeared, and before I could open my mouth, said, "You must be our Ivy's boy?" Good God! We had never met before!

"Come in! Have you had anything to eat? No?" Before I could say `knife', I had one and a fork and a cooked meal!! She was so kind, but explained that she could not put me up, but she knew someone who could! She put on her hat and coat and was off, leaving me to fill up on this lovely food. Shortly, she returned, collected me and hiked me to the top of the road to a dairyman, Mr. Davies, whose wife let rooms. So I was installed on full board at £1.5.0d (£1.25p) per week! I had to share a room with another young chap (we had separate beds and cupboards). He turned out to be a lad from Gloucester, from just the next road from ours, and he worked for the BBC!! How is that for coincidence? He and I were on different shifts so our paths crossed and met only on odd occasions. His name was Urwick and I had never met him before. He too had been at Churchdown, and had left before I started, Work at Cardiff Studios was very different.

There were three engineering staff on duty each shift, and depending on the shift, different duties to perform. During broadcasting time, one of us sat in a small monitoring room and listened to the Home Service with a script for each broadcast in front of us. It was required to read the script in unison with the broadcast and if anything unscripted happened, you had to hit a red censor switch `a bit sharpish'. If you did, there would be panic stations. It never happened. This was to cut off anything unscripted being passed on to the transmitters controlled by Cardiff. We had a 'tie-line' to Bristol from whence we received our programmes, and we had to liaise with them for everything that was out of the ordinary, and then log it timed to the second, e.g. "1416hrs. 57secs. two unscripted clicks were heard." That particular duty was the most painfully boring!

On day shift, on first taking over from the night shift, the job of the junior TA (me), was to visit each studio in turn, including the sound effects studio in the attic, in order to test all the equipment, microphones, gramophone decks etc. This you did whilst your next grade up listened in the Control Room to detect anything unusual such as clicks or interruptions as you pulled on cables, spoke into microphones whilst moving them gently, and played a particular record on each gramophone deck. These were in a desk in pairs and could be faded in and out. They were very sophisticated, with a very accurate device that enabled any particular track on a record to be picked out. The pick-up arm moved along a geared track horizontally to the turntable, not in an arc as on domestic gramophones. All this had to be carefully checked. In those days the only records were 78rpm hard shellac and the 'pick-up' used steel needles.

The BBC Chief Engineer had laid down that one side of one particular record would be used for testing gramophones because it had a very wide range of frequencies and acoustics. That particular record was "The Teddy Bears Picnic" played by Henry Hall and his band, and the singer was Hal Rosen. We had piles of these blessed records, which were well and truly worn by the heavy pick-up and steel needle (which had to be discarded and replaced after each playing!).

One became very fed-up playing this and one day, just for devilment, I put the reverse side on, which was "Hush, Hush, Hush, here comes the Bogey Man!" My colleague in the Control Room must have been listening to my antics on a loud speaker and not headphones as was the usual practice, and due to this, the SME (Senior Maintenance Engineer) on duty must have heard, and using the intercom system over the studio loudspeaker, a voice boomed out "Faulkner, put the other side of that record on!"

When the studios were in use for broadcasts there was considerable activity in `plugging up' the various series of equipment required for the broadcast, ensuring that everything was ready and that the broadcast went ahead without problems. Other people called 'Programme Engineers' were responsible for using the equipment in the studio control box, as they watched through a window and monitored the results on loud speakers. The producer and his staff also sat in there. We were not connected with those people and remained `out of sight' in the main Control Room making sure the end result went on its way via land lines to Bristol and eventually to Broadcasting House in London, from whence it was then routed to the transmitters throughout the country.

Night shifts here were similar until after broadcasting had closed down for the night. Scheduled routine maintenance was then carried out. Once this was finished we were allowed to relax. I would often curl up in the cover of a grand piano in studio 1 and have a nap! One of my colleagues would insist on practising his tenor saxophone, a noise up with which I could not put! So I took myself off elsewhere during these painful renderings! He also practiced his clarinet. This was slightly more tolerable. Ever since I have had an aversion to the saxophone!

During the early part of WWII the ringing of church bells was reserved to warn of an enemy invasion, and thus they were all silenced. However, when the threat of invasion had receded, the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, decided it would be good for morale if all the church bells in the kingdom were rung. This was during my time in Cardiff, and in order to `gain more experience' I was detailed to go with the `Outside Broadcast Team' to St Mary's Church and help to set up equipment so that the ringing of the bells could be broadcast. That was very interesting too.

My period at Cardiff was quite short. However I did manage to `get out and about' and particularly liked Roath Park. All tram rides cost 1d. (Less than a half of 1p.) and this was put in a slot on entry. The system was called PAYE! (Which equated to Pay As You Enter).

On the 27th September, four of us received a memo from the EiC Cardiff posting us to The BBC Training School at Maida Vale in Delaware Road London, W9. This was to be with effect from the 4th October 1943 for a period of four weeks to attend a so-called A1 Training Course. So I packed my bag, and said goodbye to the Davies's who had been very kind.

CHAPTER 3. MAIDA VALE, LONDON
Another TA 2. who travelled with me from Cardiff was called Dave (DWD) Ovenden. His BBC career also started in a Group H Transmitter, in his hometown of Margate. We were to team up and remain close for the duration of my time in the BBC. We also kept in touch during our later military service and for some years after that.

We were all billeted out at various locations in London. Dave and I were in the BBC hostel in Grosvenor Square! It is now The London Marriot Hotel, on a corner next to the US Embassy. We were there on a Dinner, Bed and Breakfast basis and received an extra £2.2.0d. (£2.10p) per week towards our keep. My bunk was in the cellar along with various other assorted males who worked for the Corporation in one way or another. Apart from sleeping and eating, we spent very little time there. Free time was used exploring London! In the dining room, each place was allocated, therefore each morning, I had the same companion. Mine was Dorothy Summers, the actress, who played the charlady Mrs. Mopp, ("Can I do you now sir?") in ITMA ("It's That Man Again"), The Tommy Handley Show! She was a charming person.

Maida Vale studios started life as an ice rink, so one can imagine what a large building it was. The training school's lecture rooms were housed in various parts, principally three floors up: There was an amalgam of all sorts of staff from many different disciplines. Some lectures were collective, and others split into the various jobs we were ultimately to do, e.g. Studios, Transmitters, Control Rooms, Overseas Broadcasts, Outside Broadcasts and so on. We were on the Transmitters course.

There was a canteen there, which quite deservedly acquired the reputation of all BBC canteens, "rubbish"! Problem was that the canteens had to be able to serve both hot and cold food at all times of the day and night. It must have been a daunting task for any canteen manager, especially in wartime with severe rationing.

On one occasion I was detailed to spend a Friday evening and night shift in the Control Room at the top of Broadcasting House in Langham Place, "to broaden my experience", again! This was very interesting indeed, and to be at the actual pinnacle of the control of all BBC domestic broadcasting was exciting for me. The night went quickly. The following day I grabbed a few hours sleep.

I rose about mid-day and took myself to `Studio One', an Oxford Street Cinema showing "Fantasia", a classical music cartoon film by Walt Disney. It was a long film. In the event I saw very little, due to having fallen asleep!

Across the road, at 200 Oxford Street was a large departmental store that had been requisitioned by the BBC for use as a foreign broadcast studio complex, controlled from Bush House. I went over there for a meal. The canteen was subterranean, in the sub basement. The standard of food was the usual for BBC canteens, if not marginally worse! The BBC transmitted many foreign language boadcasts on both medium wave and short wave from high power transmitting stations situated all over the country. There could be as many as twenty or thirty transmissions taking place simultaneously, and most of the foreign nationals broadcast from here. This was the active part of the BBC's Motto, "Nation Shall Speak Peace Unto Nation". However, there was a great deal of wartime propaganda too, and many broadcasts contained coded messages for the resistance movements in occupied countries.

Our training went well. Dave and I passed the weekly and final exams without too much stress. Although, having said that, any pass mark of less than 75% meant instant dismissal from the BBC! We completed our A1 course at Maida Vale at the end of October and received our marching orders once more. This time we were to report to the EiC at Droitwich on the 1st November, to take the B1 training course. We were able to have a short weekend at home. I left Gloucester by Midland Red bus for Droitwich on the Sunday afternoon.

Chapter 1 can be viewed at www.bbc.co.uk/dna/ww2/A7157081

Chapters 4 and 5 can be viewed at www.bbc.co.uk/dna/ww2/A7157621

Pr-BR

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