RO
That great storm of 1987 also knocked out a transmitter in the BBC South region, meaning viewers there were shown the London and South East regional news that lunchtime. Did that also affect TVS, meaning they couldn't give a South lunchtime bulletin from Southampton, instead having to have a pan region bulletin from Maidstone?
WM
The issue was that Rowridge was off air, which in turn meant Hannington couldn’t RBR it. TVS was pan-regional that evening, by which time Rowridge and Hannington were back online. BBC South didn’t opt, so took the southeast sustaining feed, but Bruce Parker filed a report which went out across the whole patch.
SC
Yes, I believe that feed continued to exist after the switch to TVS/Rowridge in 1986, but was it permanently available at the flick of a switch? There were occasions when TVS and Meridian pre-empted network offerings (notably on TVS’s final night in 1992 and Meridian’s first weekend), but AFAIK Channel showed a local filler rather than switching to TSW/Westcountry - though perhaps this was because some of the missing shows were rescheduled rather than cancelled altogether. I’m sure we’ve discussed this before, but I can’t remember if Channel showed the Thames tribute show on NYE 1992 along with most regions, whereas TVS screened their own farewell. If they did take the Thames offering, this suggests a possible switch to TSW/Stockland Hill.
Channel did have a second feed via Stockland Hill
Yes, I believe that feed continued to exist after the switch to TVS/Rowridge in 1986, but was it permanently available at the flick of a switch? There were occasions when TVS and Meridian pre-empted network offerings (notably on TVS’s final night in 1992 and Meridian’s first weekend), but AFAIK Channel showed a local filler rather than switching to TSW/Westcountry - though perhaps this was because some of the missing shows were rescheduled rather than cancelled altogether. I’m sure we’ve discussed this before, but I can’t remember if Channel showed the Thames tribute show on NYE 1992 along with most regions, whereas TVS screened their own farewell. If they did take the Thames offering, this suggests a possible switch to TSW/Stockland Hill.
MA
That's exactly what happened, Rowridge was off the air until about 8pm that evening, so all four channels were off. Midhurst was off for two or three days. Hannington survived any power problems, so it was RBSing BBC1/2 Crystal Palace, that's how I got to see the Witchel and Kettley broom cupboard act. There was no Tvam/TVS or C4 from Hannington until Rowridge returned at 8pm
Edit: The Bruce Parker report in NSE was a remote source into Elstree, and NSE was seen on Hannington only. They said it was due to a power cut at the Southampton studio. It wasn't (obviously !), the power cut was at Rowridge. TVS's Coast to Coast from Southampton, was only actually carried in the South East, they were probably hoping Rowridge would come back during the show, but it didn't
Channel would have switched to the Stockland Hill feed, the receive system on Alderney had been retained post 1986, because BBC 1 and 2 remained tied to the SW region
The issue was that Rowridge was off air, which in turn meant Hannington couldn’t RBR it. TVS was pan-regional that evening, by which time Rowridge and Hannington were back online. BBC South didn’t opt, so took the southeast sustaining feed, but Bruce Parker filed a report which went out across the whole patch.
That's exactly what happened, Rowridge was off the air until about 8pm that evening, so all four channels were off. Midhurst was off for two or three days. Hannington survived any power problems, so it was RBSing BBC1/2 Crystal Palace, that's how I got to see the Witchel and Kettley broom cupboard act. There was no Tvam/TVS or C4 from Hannington until Rowridge returned at 8pm
Edit: The Bruce Parker report in NSE was a remote source into Elstree, and NSE was seen on Hannington only. They said it was due to a power cut at the Southampton studio. It wasn't (obviously !), the power cut was at Rowridge. TVS's Coast to Coast from Southampton, was only actually carried in the South East, they were probably hoping Rowridge would come back during the show, but it didn't
Channel would have switched to the Stockland Hill feed, the receive system on Alderney had been retained post 1986, because BBC 1 and 2 remained tied to the SW region
Last edited by Markymark on 8 May 2020 9:00am - 2 times in total
WM
The piece of this jigsaw I’ve never been able to work out is why, during the hastily-extended Open Air from Manchester (used to sustain the network while chaos continued to ensue down south), there were several points at which the programme went to a holding slide for ‘technical reasons’. Nothing obvious seemed to happen during the 10-15 seconds this was radiated, but clearly something was going on. Perhaps reconfiguring network distribution? Anyone in the know, and why it needed to happen more than once?
RO
Did the presenter actually announce, during the programme, that they were going off air for that brief period, or was the presenter talking, and the programme interrupted without announcement?
The piece of this jigsaw I’ve never been able to work out is why, during the hastily-extended Open Air from Manchester (used to sustain the network while chaos continued to ensue down south), there were several points at which the programme went to a holding slide for ‘technical reasons’. Nothing obvious seemed to happen during the 10-15 seconds this was radiated, but clearly something was going on. Perhaps reconfiguring network distribution? Anyone in the know, and why it needed to happen more than once?
Did the presenter actually announce, during the programme, that they were going off air for that brief period, or was the presenter talking, and the programme interrupted without announcement?
SP
I think last time we discussed this there were a couple of theories. One was that various facilities were being switched from generator power back to mains and needed to be powered down for this to happen.
The second was that once Open Air was on air they used of those breaks to switch Manchester into the distribution directly, via Birmingham or via London Switching Centre at Broadcasting House instead of via the Presentation area at TV Centre, then to switch TV Centre back into circuit at the end of the programme.
The piece of this jigsaw I’ve never been able to work out is why, during the hastily-extended Open Air from Manchester (used to sustain the network while chaos continued to ensue down south), there were several points at which the programme went to a holding slide for ‘technical reasons’. Nothing obvious seemed to happen during the 10-15 seconds this was radiated, but clearly something was going on. Perhaps reconfiguring network distribution? Anyone in the know, and why it needed to happen more than once?
I think last time we discussed this there were a couple of theories. One was that various facilities were being switched from generator power back to mains and needed to be powered down for this to happen.
The second was that once Open Air was on air they used of those breaks to switch Manchester into the distribution directly, via Birmingham or via London Switching Centre at Broadcasting House instead of via the Presentation area at TV Centre, then to switch TV Centre back into circuit at the end of the programme.