See also Do What You’re Told
Pat Heigham
Further to the conversations about the position of Grams being re-assessed for an upgrade – when I was shadowed by the guy from Personnel (?) see http://tech-ops.co.uk/next/we-are-the-management/, I’ve had a hunt around the brilliant Dr. Who Production Guide, wonderfully assembled by David Brunt – what a splendid work!
I know that the shadow guy was in a TC studio, so from the Production Guide, the episodes I worked on that were scheduled in TC3 were: UU “The Mind Robber”, and dates 19/07/68, 14,21,28/06/68, so it could have been one of those. This fits with my departure in Oct 1968 (Boarding my personal Tardis!)
I was granted a board for SS, but although they said that I could not be faulted on Technical ability, it was felt that I was too young to handle subordinate staff. In that, they were quite right.
Barry Bonner
The Gram Ops job became permanent post in 1973 at the grade of C-. In March 1980 (ish) it was myself and Jim Cadman who went to ACAS along with Tony Hearn and Doug Smith from the ABS and achieved the upgrading of Gram Ops. OP3 (C-) to OP4 (C). At ACAS the BBC unfortunately sent the Assistant Chief Engineer Radio Broadcasting to challenge us but he’d obviously not been briefed on what we actually did. At one point he said that in TV the production provided all the discs, an edited and leadered tape, and a marked up script! Head of TV Sound quite sternly corrected him much to the disdain of the other management people there! The reaction of the ACAS Professor made us very confident of success!
I got a Sound Supervisors job in June 1980, I think they (Des Browning) didn’t want me to benefit from the upgrading. I actually lost money in the deal!
Pat Heigham
Since it was all of 50+ years ago, my memory is somewhat hazy, however I do have a note in my BBC CV that I was:
23/02/1964 S.A.II Grams (Acting C-) then
01/05/1964 Substantive C- (still Grams)
so I think that I was pushing for grade C for Grams around 1966-67.
I hadn’t realised that it took so long for that result, since I left in October 1968!
Dave Plowman
Odd the way the memory plays one up. I’d have sworn grams was OP4 before I left to join Thames in 1976.
It was a bit simpler at Thames.
Supervisors were all A grade
Grams and Crew Chief B grade
No 2 on the sound crew Senior Substantive.
All others on the sound crew time related increments to Substantive.
The B grade was expected to be competent to do the job of the A grade on other than the most complex shows. And many of the crew members were competent too – well above their grade.
As well as the usual dubbing suites, we had a very nice 24 track recording Studio, Neve and Studer, which produced the three “Rainbow” songs each week, in one day. All written, played and sung by the three musicians, so covering virtually all the skills needed in a multi-track sound studio. An excellent way to polish those skills without being under extreme pressure.
Barry Bonner
I was getting my grades/dates mixed up, local memory failure! ‘Twas many moons ago.
In 1973 Gram Ops jobs became permanent posts at a raised grade of OP4 and was offered to those who were already doing grams most of their time. In 1978/9 the BBC wanted to create a Corporation-wide "Sound Package" to level all the sound post grades. We objected on the grounds that TV Gram Ops did a far more complex job than those in Radio and, in April 1979, took it to ACAS. This upset Tony Hearn (I was subjected to some abuse on the front page of ABStract by him) as he favoured bringing up grades for the majority to match us, thus effectively down-grading us. Various other sound departments joined the war bringing a total of 124 cases to ACAS of which only seven succeeded, one of which was the Gram Ops. We were regraded to OP6 back-dated to the commencement of the claim Jan 1st. 1979. To avoid me benefitting from this I was given a Sound Supervisors job in July 1980! That’s what Des Browning said to me anyway!
Hopefully this is correct as I’ve found most of the paperwork from that time.
Sound Supervisors were already MP3/MP4 by that time. See below (redacted (ed)):
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Dave Mundy
Ah, yes, I remember it well, the formation of a gram-op post. I was in the middle of a complex drama when I was informed that our beloved sound managers (all four of them!) hadn’t picked me to have a post. I later had an interview with Sound Manager ‘B’ (the invisible one – once reportedly seen on Reading station according to a fake WIS item!) who told me that I ‘didn’t go to the bar enough’ and ‘how about a transfer to Cardiff as a vision operator!’. I was gutted, of course, but ten years later I was happily ensconced on OBs, so perhaps the ‘Gang of Four’ did me a favour after all.
John Howell
Ah, yes, Sound Manager ‘B’, In that era I once went on holiday via Paddington Station and encountered said manager in the tea rooms at nine something in the morning. He was still there when I returned a fortnight later at four something in the afternoon.
