Ramair 1350AM Blog

Big move day

Rich Halfpenny — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 15:43:55 +0000

On sunday we moved the bulk of the critical equipment over to Kirkstone and took our first look round our new home for the next 12 months. Considering the building only has a year of life left it was interesting to see just how much work had been done to bring it upto spec for use as offices. The newly built reception between G and F blocks is very nice and we’ve got a cracking view out of the studio and racks room windows

The poo brown carpets are unfortunately still a “feature” of the rooms. Here are some pics and a couple of videos of us getting the second of the two racks (the taller one) up 5 flights of stairs

Deadline to move out approaching

admin — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 20:30:37 +0000

We have to be fully moved out of the communal building by the end of Sunday (21st June) but the packing up of equipment is progressing well. Both studios have been carefully dismantled and attention is now turning on the office and racks room. I have to admit that it did feel bad pulling out all the hard work put in over the years since the last refit of 1995/1996 Here are some more pics!

Kirkstone G Block.. our new home for 2009-2010

Rich Halfpenny — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 13:41:43 +0000

Here are a few photos of Kirkstone G block which will be our new (temporary) home from September 2009 – June 2010!

The room at the top right of the first photo (side facing the camera) will be the broadcast studio and the one left of it engineering/racks. The office is on the other side of the block, to the rear of the broadcast studio. Second photo shows the temporary students union reception being constructed.

And so it begins..

Rich Halfpenny — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 11:48:55 +0000

Last night Dom (chief engineer) and I started the gradual process of packing up the contents of the current station in preparation for the big move to Kirkstone G block. The company contracted in by the union to facilitate the relocation of union office equipment etc have provided a quantity of plastic packing cases which we’ll be filling over the next few weeks. Any items we decide we don’t need in the temporary studio will be placed into storage for 18 months which is certainly going to help considering how tight for space we’ll be in Kirkstone!

The plan is to pack up studio A, followed by studio B and lastly the office and racks room. Leaving racks for last will ensure the station stays on-air via 1350AM and webstream for as long as possible before the move. Here are a few final photos showing studios A + B fully functional before we attack them with a screwdriver The later shots show how far we’ve got with pulling apart studio A.

Starting to take apart studio A reminded me of the re-wire and rack move myself and previous chief engineer Rich Holleworth performed in the summer of 2003. You find all manner of crap that has fallen behind the wood panels over the years including broken CD’s, pens, scraps of paper and plenty of dust/dirt

Anyway.. 2 hours later and we had pulled out most of the cabling from studio to racks except the 16 pair audio multicores and wiring looms which need careful handling as we intend to re-use those in the temporary studio. Nearly all the current equipment such as the Soundcraft SAC-100 broadcast desk, mics, on-air lights, speakers, etc will be re-used in Kirkstone but we have budgeted for considerable equipment replacement in the new-build due to most of it being past the end of its useful live. There’s no point installing gear that’s coming up to being 15-20 years old in a brand new state of the art studio complex and then expect it to last another 15-20 years! Come September 2010 we’ll have a lot of old (and rather knackered) gear to get rid of so watch this space.

Welcome to our blog!

Rich Halfpenny — Wed, 27 May 2009 10:30:04 +0000

Hello and welcome to Ramair’s blog! We’ve got a lot going on from June 2009 until September 2010 as the communal (students union) building, our home for the last 28 years, is undergoing a complete refurbishment. We thought this is probably the best way to keep everyone up to date!

The station is moving over the summer of 2009 into temporary studios on the top floor of the remaining block of Kirkstone halls. We’ll have a full broadcast studio, engineering room and office but it is certainly going to be cramped! By September 2010 the brand new studios should be ready to move back into in the communal building so there is plenty to keep the engineering team busy over the next 15 months!