{"id":6824,"date":"2017-05-05T13:55:36","date_gmt":"2017-05-05T13:55:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tech-ops.co.uk\/next\/?page_id=6824"},"modified":"2017-05-05T13:55:36","modified_gmt":"2017-05-05T13:55:36","slug":"radio-mics-and-what-to-do-with-them","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/tech-ops.co.uk\/next\/radio-mics-and-what-to-do-with-them\/","title":{"rendered":"Radio Mics and What to do with them"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nick Ware<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Ah, Millicent Martin! <\/p>\n

One of my very first memories shortly after joining the Beeb, was working on TWTWTW, and being sent to MM’s dressing room to put a radio mic on her. You may remember those huge (by modern standards) hip flask-like things with big triangular ex-WD batteries. Well, suffice to say, MM was dressed in a skimpy Bunnygirl outfit, and when she saw me standing there, at a complete loss how to fit the damn thing, she said: "Well, if it was about nine inches long and an inch and a half round, I could tell you where to put it!" I, an innocent and naive Vicar’s son, blushed like crazy! How I actually did do it seems to have been mysteriously erased from my memory!<\/p>\n

Needless to say, the crew 2 sound bast*rds were all up in the sound gallery listening and laughing themselves silly, and gave me hell when I went back upstairs. <\/p>\n

Talk about being dropped in the deep end!<\/p>\n

Pat Heigham<\/strong><\/h3>\n

So, it was switched on, then!<\/p>\n

I also had an awful occasion on the \u201cCountry and Western Show\u201d, a summer replacement for the B & W Minstrels.<\/p>\n

There was Shani Wallis – fitted up with the terrible hip flask R\/M that Nick remembers – she had to dance and sing live: The R\/M transmitters were so crap that they were switched off until needed.<\/p>\n

Just before the entrance of Ms Wallis, I remembered that the TX was not on, so rushed to her and explained – she just hauled her skirt up for me to effect the switch.<\/p>\n

What a professional.<\/p>\n

Dave Mundy<\/strong><\/h3>\n

A very similar comment was made by Ethel Merman on a Royal Variety Show, she said \u201cI can take the length but not the width!\u201d’. I think it was taped either to the small of her back or to her thigh – needless to say I allowed wardrobe to sort it out! I taped one to Lena Zavaroni’s thigh and one to Sue Lawley’s back with narrow floor marking tape, she was only wearing panti-hose! Down boy! Sound perks don’t come any better! PS. Don’t mention the Esther Rancid episode in TVT that some poor guy had to suffer!<\/p>\n

The kalium batteries were not terribly reliable in the hip flasks and one dreaded any show using the TM3s, thank heavens for Microns! <\/p>\n

John Howell<\/strong><\/h3>\n

If short circuited they would get very hot and ooze beads of mercury ! Most unhealthy !<\/p>\n

Tony Crake<\/strong><\/h3>\n

I seem to remember you needed a sixpence to stick in line with the kalium batteries (for a good contact)… I always forgot to take them out!<\/p>\n

Roger Long<\/strong><\/h3>\n

I was fixing a radio to the inner thigh of a very glamorous Motown star round the secluded back of Bristol Cathedral for a 600mm shot.<\/p>\n

I was knelt between her knees with her very skimpy dress held high.  A bowler hatted gent walked by and barely glanced at us.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

 <\/h1>\n

\"ianfootersmall\"<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nick Ware Ah, Millicent Martin!  One of my very first memories shortly after joining the Beeb, was working on TWTWTW, and being sent to MM’s dressing room to put a radio mic on her. You may remember those huge (by … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6824","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"coauthors":[],"author_meta":{"author_link":"http:\/\/tech-ops.co.uk\/next\/author\/alec\/","display_name":"Alec Bray"},"relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 9 years ago","modified":"Updated 9 years ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on May 5, 2017","modified":"Updated on May 5, 2017"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on May 5, 2017 1:55 pm","modified":"Updated on May 5, 2017 1:55 pm"},"featured_img_caption":"","featured_img":false,"series_order":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/tech-ops.co.uk\/next\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6824","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/tech-ops.co.uk\/next\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/tech-ops.co.uk\/next\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tech-ops.co.uk\/next\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tech-ops.co.uk\/next\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6824"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/tech-ops.co.uk\/next\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6824\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6825,"href":"http:\/\/tech-ops.co.uk\/next\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6824\/revisions\/6825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/tech-ops.co.uk\/next\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tech-ops.co.uk\/next\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tech-ops.co.uk\/next\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}