Building BFBS Radio at Bastion

Anyone based at Bastion will have noticed that a new landmark appeared on the skyline in September. BFBS built and shipped a radio studio in 2007, but had nowhere to put it. Two years on, BFBS finally got a site for its radio station this summer, and the first job was to get some comms up and running, which meant erecting a 4.5m VSAT dish, the biggest dish on camp.

BFBS engineers began the daunting task of reviving sensitive broadcast equipment that had been abandoned for so long in the heat and dust at the FRV. They were anxious to get some temporary power and find out if their studio-in-an-iso-container would actually work. Powering up for the first time was an anxious moment.

Miraculously, it turned out to be in pretty good working order considering, but there's still a lot of work to be done before the first BFBS Presenter opens the mic and says "Good Morning, Afghanistan!"

The studio site is in Bastion 2, next door to the Naafi, and there's a lot of frenetic activity going on digging trenches for cables for a permanent power supply, and repairing the office and accommodation units which didn't survive their time in the FRV so well - being pretty dented, and with their doors missing. They're having to be completely rewired, too, as the standards have changed in the two years since they arrived in theatre. DJs preparing to fly out this month are packing tents.

BFBS Radio hopes to be on air mid to late October, barring disasters, so watch this space.