Penistone FM Local Radio

Main Studio Build
Soon after gaining approval for a transmitting licence in January 2009, the next step was to build up a studio from nothing. This was to be on the third floor of a tall but narrow building on Penistone High Street, above SK's Café. The property is owned by the local Conservative Party and the rooms had previously been let as a small apartment. Everything needed for the work was to be carried up steep and narrow staircases from the windy passage next to the Café. There was plenty to do; rooms had to be constructed, everything painted, aerials mounted, equipment installed, computers set up and all wired up ready for the big day. Not easy. The construction of Penistone FM's studio had started.

Now let's look at the build in progress. Using information embedded in the pictures, the first two here are dated 2nd January 2009. That's just a day after the traditional New Year's hangover. Dedication indeed. The third and fourth pictures were in March and the walls were finished. The studio now had a double-glazed window looking out on to the back of the Post Office and an internal double-glazed observation window.

The four pictures below are from April 2009. The first two are from Saturday 11th April. The Soundcraft Series10 mixer desk was in place but the computer hadn't been set up yet. The last two pictures are from Tuesday 21st April and show Martin Sugden, Richard Tolson and Station Manager Darren Holmes. Now the Denon CD decks were in place, with computers working. Not long to go now.

By early May 2009, Studio One was up and running. At midnight, Saturday 9th May 2009, test transmissions commenced with a programme of continuous music interspersed with launch announcements. Nearly a month later on Saturday 6th June 2009, the station started broadcasting in earnest. That was the Big Launch.

The Big Launch
The Launch was 9:57am on Saturday 6th June and it went well, with a buzz of excitement in the studio. 'The final Countdown' segued into a spoken countdown and Darren's introduction, describing the four years of work leading up to this moment. He started the ball rolling with Take That's - 'The Greatest Day'. They thanked various supporters in the next announcement. I phoned in to wish them well and was thanked for my help. I appreciated that. I think that I was the first to call in, as in the RSL of 2005. The first day went smoothly with a light touch throughout and no obvious glitches. Someone said that there was panic in the studio at times. Take a look at what happened at launch on PFM's Youtube: www.youtube.com/user/penistone957fm.

The picture on the right shows a close-up (not 'clickable') from the fourth picture above. It shows a little bit of PFM history, a tentative list of presenters for the big day, as planned in April. It's a slightly fuzzy picture but reads as follows:

1^st Programmes on PFM ?
1. Darren
2. Colin
3. Martin
4. Andrew
5. ?

After all this time and trouble it was quite an achievement. It was a job well done and a historic moment for our town. Even in the first week there were some interesting moments. Andrew Millner interviewed his mates from the Round Table and the specially-imported secretary of Penistone & District Community Partnership didn't quite explain what they were there for or how the money was raised or spent. Of course, that became clear with the passage of time. On another evening, Cllr John Wade shared his very interesting reminiscences. Late night slots were dedicated to particular music genres, such as country music, show songs and folk music.

Studio Two
By 2010 another studio was installed. Well, it was more like a box room really but it allowed for much more flexibility and allowed other tasks to be going on while live programmes were going out. Such things as putting CDs on the system or editing interviews. The main studio was now to be called Studio One.

Penistone FM held its first (and only - so far) Open Day to allow the hoi-poloi to see what went on inside the PFM walls. I was privileged to partake in their tea and biscuits and absorb new knowledge of this PFM phenomenon. It gave us some idea about what goes into running a radio station.

The first two pictures below show Andrew Millner. He explained in detail and with great enthusiasm how the station and its equipment worked. Their radio engineer (just visible, left of first picture) helped to explain some other technical details. The middle two pictures are both from Studio Two. You can see the anti-reflective foam blocks which line the walls. These days Studios don't use egg-boxes any more to scatter the sound reflections, although they do work.

The third picture shows the 'Myriad' programme management software used to organise the play order and more. The studio computers are linked up and their monitors can show the same information. They also have 'Audition' installed to edit sound files. The final picture is of Colin Geldard in Studio One, during his Open Day show.

Studio Three
The big development of 2012 was the construction of a third studio. This one has a large tabled area in the middle with microphones all around. As with Studio One, it is based on a Soundcraft Series-10 mixing desk and its use will be familiar to the presenters. It has been used for training purposes and has notably allowed small bands to perform live on-air. These two pictures of Studio 3 were taken January 2012 on the occasion of a Listeners' Panel meeting. PFM are always open to new members on the panel.

You can see that a presenter (or a presenters and trainee) can sit by the sound mixer and computer system, in the 'U' of the desk, while guests can sit or stand around the outer edges. Just visible in the RHS picture is the stack of equipment needed to get the signal up to the remote transmitter. It has a small UPS at one side and a CD player to continue transmissions during the power cuts which have blighted PFM's recent past. When power goes off, the studio goes off - but the nusic carries on.

Thank You
Many thanks to Darren Holmes of Penistone FM for the studio-build pictures and for his enthusiasm.