The Rescue of the Radio Glen
/ Abbey Road EMI BTR-3 Stereo Tape Recording Machine
An inaccuracy has cropped-up in
online material regarding the later days of the EMI BTR/3 stereo
tape machine that once lived in the Radio Glen F-block and later
in the New Terraces studios. So, before we go further back
into ancient history, let me tell you that story and maybe back
it up with some material.
Around 2010 the 1287 kHz. A.M. transmitter in the bottom floor
of New Terraces at Glen Eyre Halls in Southampton, used by SURGE
via an ISDN link failed for one reason or another and was closed
down. That's another story, but this immediately had me
rather worried. It seemed unlikely that the transmitter
equipment had been removed, and it would be a shame if it was
lost in a subsequent clear-out. This was proper
professional equipment obtained by David Holroyd in a deal made
with the Student Broadcast Network SBN around 1999/2000, and
involved much effort on his part. Over the years, I
contacted various members of the SURGE committee by email to
inform them that the transmitter equipment was still there and
that it should not be lost. On these occasions I also
generally reminded them that there was a rather interesting old
studio-quality tape recording machine there, that being the
BTR/3. The answer in general was apathy, along with some
line similar to, "As far as I know, there is no equipment
left in the old studio in Glen Eyre, at least that what I have
been told by the University Residences team, and talking to
long serving staff members of the Union, they would have been
surprised had equipment been left there when the move was made
into the current studio." (Toby Leveson, 15th January
2017)
Well, If you believe what hall management and long standing
members of the union tell you, you will often lose
equipment. This is something which I've certainly found to
be true in the past. I was quite eager for the
investigation to be done in a fully co-operative manner, so I
refrained from going up there myself and 'blagging my way in' to
what was now being used as a bedding store. Still, the
occasional email every year or so to the changing SURGE staff
members didn't seem to be getting anywhere. Well, it's the
21st century, we have social media, SURGE have a Facebook page,
so on the 15th January 2017 I thought I'd try a more public
approach. As well as the above quote, this resulted in
some positive sounding responses and on 10th February 2017, Toby
Leveson, Georgia Rytina, Patrik Toobe, and I go up to Glen
Eyre. We get the key from reception and walk across the
road and car park toward the studio, passing the old AM antenna
pole and tuning box which I point out to them. I also point out
that the antenna tuning unit inside the tuning box is worth
rescuing.
"Oh, is that the aerial?" They say, "I thought it was for the
CCTV"
We enter the New Terraces studio.
There we find that due to not having the right keys, we can't
access the technical cupboard to get to the transmitter
equipment. However we can get into the old record library
where there is some junk among the stored bedding and the old
studio desk furniture. I clamber over the various bits of
wood, and in the corner there sits a big, grey, heavy-looking
cabinet on wheels.
"Look, Toby!" I say, "That in the corner, over
there, is the BTR/3 tape machine that I was telling you
about. We used to record shows on it. It is
rumoured to be from Abbey Road studios originally. Who
knows, such an urban myth might even be true! I believe
that it came to the station before my time via BBC redundant
stock. If you have somewhere to put it, you may want to
make sure that it doesn't get lost. They are not exactly
valuable but they are very beautiful machines and someone
might really want it. If you can't store it in the
station it I'll buy it, if you can deliver it to me in the
union van."
Toby looks rather unimpressed at the prospect of getting the
union van out and moving what he perceives to be half a ton of
scrap metal, but there's no persuading some people. On
that day I take a picture. It's not very good because the
lights weren't working properly, but here it is, just as I found
it.
The SURGE committee agree with the hall management and the
security people to get a locksmith out at some stage soon, to
get into the technical cupboard. Days and weeks
pass. I send some messages via various means and get no
response. I still get no response in May. It's now
time to go up there myself to see if there has been any progress
and, if necessary, to indicate to the reception staff that if
they haven't already got access to a cupboard containing an
electrical supply right next to a basement room of a three floor
residential block packed literally floor to ceiling with spare
duvets and pillows, then they should have. On 16th May
2017 I turn up at Glen Eyre reception and ask the nice lady on
the desk if I can get into the old studios and technical
cupboard.
"Yes," she says, "But it was all removed by the SURGE people
on 24th February."
I ask if I can go in and look to make sure anyway, and indeed
the cupboard is empty and the BTR/3 has gone. Well, that's
a bit of a surprise as I'd heard nothing, but at least all the
gear is safe now. Job done, if a little bit
peculiar. So some emails, calls, and text messages ensue
from me to various people asking the SURGE committee what they
want to do with the TX equipment. I'll buy it if they
don't want it. Two days later on 18th May 2017 Cameron
Meldrum VP DCI, one of the sabbatical officers at the union with
the responsibility of overseeing SURGE, emails me with pictures
and an invitation to come and look at it, which I take as an
offer of sale. I reply on 19th May 2017 and we arrange to
meet at 11:00 Tuesday 23rd May 2017.
Meanwhile I just happened to be doing a bit of web-searching,
wondering what may have become of the BTR-3 and came across this
link on the Abbey Road studios website:
A Welcome Return For Lost Tape Machine
“When we first found the BTR-3 we had no idea
what we had stumbled across, only after an online search did
we realise it was a piece of recording history from Abbey Road
Studios! It's amazing to think that it had been sitting
there undisturbed for such a long time. It's been great fun
uncovering the mystery of it,” Toby Leveson, Surge Radio
station manager.
Toby has obviously been misquoted by some unscrupulous
journalist for dramatic effect here. Blowing back the
cobwebs in a long abandoned studio, uncovering the 'mystery' and
finding something interesting is obviously much more exciting to
the reader than a story about being told exactly where and what
something was, by someone who knew that it was there all
along. Magical discoveries are more interesting than my
endless grinding away at many people, actively trying to avoid
it being put in a skip by accident over the years. So I
let this pass. It's just a bit of publicity
nonsense. On the following Tuesday I meet Cameron and
Toby, and we exchange some decent amount of used tenners for the
old transmitter equipment and get a receipt from the accounts
people in the union office. I note that they had removed
the transmitter gear from the technical cupboard but couldn't be
arsed to also get the antenna tuning unit out of the cabinet at
the base of the antenna. Oh well. We pass
pleasantries.
I say, "Nice to see that the BTR/3 has found a good home."
Toby, who has been a bit quiet so far:
"Yes, it is, isn't it."
Henry: "It's definitely the best place for it to
be."
Well we're all jolly nice chaps aren't we? I shake on the
deal with Cameron and I drive home with an Optimod-AM 9100A, a
9100B, and a non-functional Radica AM50, safe from the skip at
last. That's almost the end, and it would have been, but
there is an unfortunate post-script. The inaccurate
information in the Abbey Road link shown above and in various
other places has found its way into Wikipedia thus:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surge_Radio
It states:
"In February 2017, a rare BTR-3 tape recorder, previously
used at Abbey Road Studios in the 1960s, was found by members of
the Surge committee in their old Glen Eyre Halls studio."
We now know that is not quite true. I suggest a revision to
improve the accuracy of the statement which could read something
like this:
"In February 2017, ex Radio Glen technical manager Henry
Walmsley persuaded members of the Surge committee to rescue a
rare BTR-3 tape recorder from their old Glen Eyre Halls
studio. This was previously used at Abbey Road Studios in
the 1960s."
I can accept inaccurate information on general websites and in
news releases all over the web. It's on Twitter, Pinterest,
Google+, LinkedIn, Facebook and probably more. But we have
to keep the Wiki clean, right kids? I suggest that this
revision is made by current SURGE members responsible for the wiki
entry, rather than myself.
Previous Emails and Discussion
I could bore you with a full email and Facebook snippet trail but
I don't really think that it adds a great deal to the story, other
than fully supporting the order and nature of the events as
presented here. Formatting all the text into a readable
chronological order would be a body of work. However, I will
do that, in the unlikely event that it becomes necessary for any
reason.
Meanwhile, don't forget the other pages relating to my experience
with the Radio Glen BTR/3 and the lost tapes repository
page. I hope that SURGE and Abbey Road enjoy listening to
our old tapes as much as we did making them.
Navigate
Up
Main email address:
Recent Edit History
31-DEC-2025: tidies, direct refs, self canonicalised