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.
