This is Exeter -- An award-winning local radio station has celebrated a landmark birthday by burying an audio time capsule. The team at BBC Radio Devon recorded a multitude of sounds of people and places in order to illustrate county life. The 24 soundbites representing every hour of a normal Devon day – from an Exeter bakery at 1am to a sleeper train leaving the county at midnight – were copied onto a digital storage drive and then placed in the ground. Other soundbites captured in and around the city included from the Royal Mail Sorting Office, Crealy Adventure Park, and the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital. 'Good Morning Devon' presenter Matt Woodley said: "We wanted to capture the spirit of Devon across a typical day in 2013. I don't think anyone has ever buried an audio time capsule before. "I vividly recall going to the Exeter Mail Centre at 2am when the rest of the industrial estate was asleep. But there was no room in the car park and a team of 300 or 400 people were sorting 42,000 letters an hour and half a million letters a night – that makes-up Devon's post." Other recordings across the county included at a fish market, at a primary school, on-board a ferry and of nightlife in a town. "It's those everyday Devon sounds of daily life which we take for granted in our busy lives and I was keen to record these for people to listen to in 50 years time," added Matt. There was some debate over where the capsule should be buried for future generations after radio listeners called into the station to make suggestions. Once it was deemed prudent to plant the object in the centre of the country, the radio team found themselves in the middle of a debate over the exact location of the midpoint. "Working that out was tough," said Matt, "but again, with help from my listeners, we calculated that Blackpool Cross near Bow, mid Devon would be the ideal place." As part of the January 17 show, a copy of the recordings was presented to Tim Wormleighton, manager of the Devon Heritage Centre in Exeter where they will be kept with the rest of the county's archives. During the show presenters discussed the Express and Echo's front page from 17 January 1983 reporting on the birth of the radio station. Good Morning Devon is broadcast from 6.30-9am weekdays by Matt Woodley and at weekends by Michael Chequer.
Reported by This is 10 hours ago.
This is Exeter -- An award-winning local radio station has celebrated a landmark birthday by burying an audio time capsule. The team at BBC Radio Devon recorded a multitude of sounds of people and places in order to illustrate county life. The 24 soundbites representing every hour of a normal Devon day – from an Exeter bakery at 1am to a sleeper train leaving the county at midnight – were copied onto a digital storage drive and then placed in the ground. Other soundbites captured in and around the city included from the Royal Mail Sorting Office, Crealy Adventure Park, and the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital. 'Good Morning Devon' presenter Matt Woodley said: "We wanted to capture the spirit of Devon across a typical day in 2013. I don't think anyone has ever buried an audio time capsule before. "I vividly recall going to the Exeter Mail Centre at 2am when the rest of the industrial estate was asleep. But there was no room in the car park and a team of 300 or 400 people were sorting 42,000 letters an hour and half a million letters a night – that makes-up Devon's post." Other recordings across the county included at a fish market, at a primary school, on-board a ferry and of nightlife in a town. "It's those everyday Devon sounds of daily life which we take for granted in our busy lives and I was keen to record these for people to listen to in 50 years time," added Matt. There was some debate over where the capsule should be buried for future generations after radio listeners called into the station to make suggestions. Once it was deemed prudent to plant the object in the centre of the country, the radio team found themselves in the middle of a debate over the exact location of the midpoint. "Working that out was tough," said Matt, "but again, with help from my listeners, we calculated that Blackpool Cross near Bow, mid Devon would be the ideal place." As part of the January 17 show, a copy of the recordings was presented to Tim Wormleighton, manager of the Devon Heritage Centre in Exeter where they will be kept with the rest of the county's archives. During the show presenters discussed the Express and Echo's front page from 17 January 1983 reporting on the birth of the radio station. Good Morning Devon is broadcast from 6.30-9am weekdays by Matt Woodley and at weekends by Michael Chequer.
Reported by This is 10 hours ago.