Pebble Mill was designed to be an addition to London's Wood Lane Television Centre (TVC or TC).

The studio also found itself with a Grass valley Group 1600 series vision mixer and a Rank Strand Galaxy lighting console.

Sony Broadcast BVP-370 and 70Isp's were chosen following a side-by-side shoot-out from all the big-name manufacturers and against the advice of the London head of engineering.

This £2.2 million upgrade took nine weeks and Studio A re-opened by the end of February 1998 as a fully digital widescreen facility – one of the first in the BBC.

When the circular multi-story car park, with its entrance from Bristol Road, got axed due to costs the BBC had decided not to add the extra studio space as well.

The new studio was built into the real life 'foyer' which had to have its suspended ceiling removed and a scaffold lighting rig installed.

During the 1970s until the general refit in 1983 TAR was part of the technical rooms suite on the first floor adjoining Studio A.

There were offices and work rooms for set and prop design located to the rear of the extension near to the construction workshop.

[4] During the 1970s 'Comms Centre' was located in the 'Foyer' at Pebble Mill, but by the 1990s, Comms moved around the corner in the studio and was situated in the link area between Radio and TV.

CM1 would service big sports commitments and other large events around the Midland region such as the snooker at Sheffield, Grand Prix from Silverstone Race Track, Songs of Praise and many others and it was an integral part of the BBC's nationwide TV OB fleet.

Pebble Mill had a BBC Type-B vehicle which mainly tackled live religious programmes such as Radio 3's Choral Evensong, or Sunday Worship.

A typical B-type, it featured a CALREC S-Series 40-channel sound desk with LS 5/8 speakers and nearfield monitoring.

However, as well as radio this studio was equipped with a basic lighting grid and was used in its early years for the occasional television programme.

This lasted for three series, but it is understood that the long acoustic reverberation characteristics of the studio were not ideal for TV sound.

The Mailbox (Pebble Mill's replacement) has a smaller radio drama studio, but incorporating a larger dead-room with an anechoic ‘snail’ for long, outdoor approaches.

The studio was refurbished at least twice and was home to The Richard Bacon Show, live Saturday and Sunday nights on Radio 5.

Radio 2's specialist popular music such shows as The Best of Jazz, Paul Jones, and Stuart Maconie's Critical List were recorded or transmitted from there as well.

Studio 6 was not equipped until about 1995 but was where Radio 2 Through the Night originated, presented by Janice Long, Alex Lester and Mo Dutta.

Over Pebble Mill's 35 years of operation the studios produced some of the BBC's most iconic programmes and was second to Television Centre for total output.

Radio programming included over the years Woman’s Hour, The Ed Stewart Show on Sunday afternoons.

Also in the 1990s a news department programme, The Midlands at Westminster, a local politics strand, broadcast at Sunday lunch time on BBC 2.

Light entertainment included Telly Addicts, Top Gear Motorsport, Noel's Addicts, The Great Egg Race with Professor Heinz Wolff, a series of 2point4 Children, An Actors Life, The Golden Oldie Picture Show, May to December, Don't Wait Up, Going for a Song (the 1990s version) and Call My Bluff (1997–2005 revival).

Morgan's Boy, Rose for Winter, Jane Eyre, Fosdyke Saga, Airbase, Tycoon, Bird of Prey, and A Very Peculiar Practice (first series).

Episodes of Z-Cars, The Moonstone, The Roses of Eyam, Prometheus, Sophia and Constance,Second City Firsts, The Battle of Waterloo starring Warren Clarke, Poldark, Martin Chuzzelwit, and Angels, Shakespeare plays, Dalziel and Pascoe, and Vanity Fair (1987).

Children's content includes Rentaghost, one series of Hartbeat with Tony Hart, its replacement SMart, The Adventure Game, and some of Bodger & Badger (episodes of which were also recorded inside TC7 in BBC Television Centre).

Empire Road (1978–79), written by Michael Abbensetts was a drama series about the African Caribbean and Asian communities which was shown on BBC 2.

BBC Birmingham utilised the main foyer of Pebble Mill for television entertainment and magazine programmes, mostly for BBC1.

Saturday Night at the Mill, was the result and Kenny Ball and his Jazzmen were the regular house band; they performed the show's signature tune.

In 1981 an early evening version of a hit BBC1 show from the sixties called Six Five Special resurfaced during the Mill's summer break, presented by Donny MacLeod and Marian Foster.

Due to problems with the lease and to changes in the way television was produced, as well as the fact that some sections of the building were suffering from concrete cancer, the BBC made the decision to relocate to new facilities.