The Southampton University
Radio Glen EMI BTR-3 Stereo "Lost" Tapes Repository
Why is the "Lost" in inverted commas?
That's because, just like those "Lost" Beatles tapes
that the BBC keep accidentally finding and dredging out
every five years, and like the tape machine itself, they
never were lost!
Preface
As ever in organizations with a constant
turnover of membership, many things are lost in the
mists of ancient history, and ridiculous myths
develop. I've been as accurate as I can. Before my time of 1990 to
1993, Roger Price did much work on the Radio
Glen EMI tape machines involving, among
other things, gradually turning up the mains
voltage on a variac to see which bits smoked
first. I am told that they were
literally saved from the skip in 1989/90
when a station manager called Dicky
unilaterally decided to get rid of
them. We have at least Ian Turner,
Matt Jones, and possibly Duncan
Barnes-Ceeney to thank for that. I
inherited them in quite good order, with
some surprisingly awkward nit-picky jobs to
do. I say machines in the plural, for
there were two. We disposed of the
machine with the separate valve and tape
transport section in a desperate bid for
space in 1993, keeping the more easily used
and fully functional standalone
machine. I did, however, save all the
identical plug-in valve modules from the
other machine by transferring them into
spare slots in the standalone machine.
Was chucking that other machine out a
mistake? Probably, but with minidisc
becoming seriously affordable around that
time, that's a probably an endless
discussion for another page.
One ancient myth was that both machines came
from Abbey Road Studios. I understood
that they had come to Radio Glen from BBC
redundant stock, but where they lived before
the BBC was up for grabs. Recent
events suggest that indeed, provided that
the studios themselves have matched the
serial number from records, the standalone
machine was indeed originally at Abbey
Road. As it was claimed that The
Beatles once used all the machines in the
studios for fancy tape loops etc, the myth
that this machine once had Beatles tunes
running past the heads might seem to be
confirmed after all. I can confirm
that without exception, all the
tapes were checked for genuine lost gems
before recording on them.
So
in 1992, when all was working reasonably well on the EMI
BTR-3 Stereo tape machine, the question was, "Well, what
can we use this for?" As it turned out, the answer
was, "For recording crap radio shows and making jingles
on." 7.5 i.p.s. was used for recording shows where
you could get about 70 minutes on a full 10.5" N.A.B
spool. Basically, we just liked playing with such
a high quality machine and watching the spools go
round. The mighty 15 i.p.s. was used for maximum
jingle recording quality, and given that the various
bits had to be fed in from various sources that had
already suffered, and that it would have to go onto a
scabby Aristocart via the Fitch T101 recording cart
machine thereafter, this quality level was quite
handy. John's Jingly Bits is the remaining
example. In 1993 I scraped out with a Desmond and
the machine only seems to have been used a few times
after that, not least for the 1994 Beer Tasting BPHS
special. There was no particular supposition at
the time that the tapes wouldn't get re-used.
The Radio Glen "Lost" BTR-3 Stereo Tapes History
After That
Without relating the entire subsequent history of Radio
Glen from that point onwards, you can't take potentially
useful 10.5 inch reels with you when you cease
studenting, so there they rested in the record library
on the F-block basement stairs, waiting for someone to
tape over them with something less crap. The
studio moved to New Terraces around 1995 for exact
reasons lost in time, but the record library on the
stairs and the technical cupboard below the same stairs
remained in the station's use due to the fact that the
1602 kHz. distribution system was all wired in
there. Around 1999, Dave Holroyd and Matt Sacker
oversaw the move to a proper 1 Watt ERP AM RSL with
equipment provided by the Student Broadcast Network, and
the name changed to SURGE. The under-stairs
technical cupboard and record library became redundant
and needed clearing out. I was delivering the new
studio
switcher that I'd made for the New Terraces
studio, and at the same time I took the scabby old
Studio 1 desk, the remaining cart machines, some other
tat, and the tapes back with me up the M3 to Farnborough
in an open-top Mini Scamp comedy vehicle. There
they survived two house moves until 2014.
In 2013 Dave Oliver. contacted me to say that someone in
his department had an old tape machine that they wanted
to get rid of.
Henry: "Is it Free and can it do 15 i.p.s?"
Dave: "Yes, and yes I think so"
Henry: "Well I'll have it then."
Fixing a clunky British Ferrograph Super 7 with all the
new rubber repair parts that it required was something
of a trial, but in 2014 it was all ready to go, and
dubbing to digits commenced. Some personal and
Facebook amusement was had listening to the tapes.
2010 or thereabouts was when the
SURGE 1287kHz 1W transmitter, operated now
from studios in the main student's union but
still situated at Glen Eyre Halls failed,
and rather disgracefully fell into
disuse. I became increasingly
concerned that the old TX equipment and
the BTR-3 were now in danger of being thrown in a skip
once more. Seven years of gentle badgering of
subsequent SURGE committees by myself commenced, by
email and later via so-called social media.
Here's a link to the eventual happy ending to that
story:
In early 2017 the above "rediscovery"
<cough!> of the BTR/3 Stereo tape machine by Toby
Leveson and his SURGE radio chums, and the subsequent
article from Abbey Road Studios prompted me to publish
the above account to address the technical
inaccuracy. This was also an opportunity to
present the old tapes nicely, just so that we were quite
sure where the BTR/3 had been in 1992/3/4 and so that we
can all listen and enjoy what the old girl had been
recording during that time. That's what this
particular page is for. It's also to make quite
sure that there was one person who drove
that visit to the old studios and who always knew exactly
where the machine was from the very start, and made no
secret of it; Quite the opposite in fact, and got
some fair old SURGE facebook and whinge-ey email flak
for the pleasure of mentioning it every six months or
so, in the face of being repeatedly ignored and
dismissed. That'll be me then.
So Take Me To The Digital Recordings of
the Tapes Already.
So there's 1,2,3... gosh, nineteen
spools in all, and now I finally have,
ermmmm, nineteen mp3 files. I
recently had to dub a couple of the remaining
tapes. What does that make in old money?
Well, a few amusing moments, many old friends
remembered, a fine tape machine and a colossal amount of
bollocks that's for sure. All are in full
surround-mono except for John's Jingles. Yes, we
only used one track. Mono station = mono
recordings, and I never got round to connecting the AM
off-air monitoring to the other input. More
accurately, I never got round to getting the differing
levels correct. The left and right erase and
record heads were always active on both channels, so
there was no way to rewind and record another mono
track.
Non-Standard Disclaimer
The following recordings are of very low entertainment
value and should not be played by anyone, Ever!
Unless you were around at the time, or want to learn how
not to do a radio show, in which case the entertainment
value can occasionally be much higher. I have heard worse on ILR and BBC
local. There
are occasional instances of fruity language and topics
of an adult nature. Bloody Students!
The titles are based on what was hastily scrawled on the
spools, so if it's grossly incorrect don't blame
me. Blame me at Three O'Clock in the morning in
1993.
Henry was banging it, no doubt there,
and Steve the President was naked in prints. And not George
Michael or anything. Dave Oliver is another winner on the
Radio Glen Bar call-in on 226. Rohan Kallicharian (Kally)
appears with a good drop-in for Dominoes. 233633, that's
0703 if you're outside Southampton and want a pizza. Simon
Parker's dead dog from leukemia is imaginary. Jenny is sober
but has disgusting things on her T-shirt. I completely
ruined that call despite generous hints. Listen to
other people and don't be an idiot! :) Or possibly don't be
that pissed. Thanks Nicky!
Any
corrections, omissions, or
additional information are
welcomed and can be sent to the
email below.
Any lawsuits relating to the contents of the
tapes can be sent to:
British Airways Customer Services,
12 Ingrams Drive,
Redditch.
General email address: 
Recent
Edit History
31-DEC-2025: tidies, direct refs, self canonicalised