JA
Again, still the question of what was shown between 6:00 and 6:55 seeing as the transmitters were routed to Camden at 6.
NW
TV-am usually began at 6:55am on weekends between 1985 and August 1987. The problem is there isn’t much out there online as to what filled the gap between 6 and 6:55, if on air at all. Oracle on View did happen in 1987, as TV Ark has evidence of that on its site. There’s a clip here where Jobfinder remains on air until 6:14am, before handing over to TV-am:
IS
I would have thought that the fixed 6am start time for TVam only came about once the ITV companies started doing nighttime schedules.
What's the story with Jobfinder, from the videos above it looks like they routed a teletext decoder to air and then went home. Where were the pages from, some sort of Job Centre type system? Were they available on Oracle?
Does that mean that in the Central area ITV was 24 hours for a long time before proper 24 hour TV?
What's the story with Jobfinder, from the videos above it looks like they routed a teletext decoder to air and then went home. Where were the pages from, some sort of Job Centre type system? Were they available on Oracle?
Does that mean that in the Central area ITV was 24 hours for a long time before proper 24 hour TV?
NJ
Neil Jones
Founding member
I remember reading somewhere that the official start time for TV-am was actually 5:55am, with a start time of 6am, but that may have been back in the days when they had bodge it in to the system (and you had the blue screen at 9:15 and presumably another slide prior to going on air while the transmitters were reconnected), before it became all automated.
Central was definitely one of the earlier companies to go 24hrs, I think it was only Yorkshire that beat them. Everybody else followed not long afterwards (can't be sure who was last, most probably Channel)
Central was definitely one of the earlier companies to go 24hrs, I think it was only Yorkshire that beat them. Everybody else followed not long afterwards (can't be sure who was last, most probably Channel)
IS
Before 24 hour TV of course they needed that extra 5 minutes as transmitters needed to be on and viewers needed something to tune to before they started.
It doesn't look like the switching was always done at that time though, in the above examples they're not put to air until just before their first programme. I suppose it was up to TVam if they didn't want to use all of their airtime, it's just after 24 hour ITV started it just looked a bit odd if they didn't
I remember reading somewhere that the official start time for TV-am was actually 5:55am, with a start time of 6am, but that may have been back in the days when they had bodge it in to the system (and you had the blue screen at 9:15 and presumably another slide prior to going on air while the transmitters were reconnected), before it became all automated.
Before 24 hour TV of course they needed that extra 5 minutes as transmitters needed to be on and viewers needed something to tune to before they started.
It doesn't look like the switching was always done at that time though, in the above examples they're not put to air until just before their first programme. I suppose it was up to TVam if they didn't want to use all of their airtime, it's just after 24 hour ITV started it just looked a bit odd if they didn't
NW
My understanding is by about 1987, Jobfinder was being broadcast for an hour after Central closed, and then repeated the hour before TV-am started. Go figure.
There’s also this clip from Neil Miles’ YouTube channel of Tony Currie closing STV down one night, where he states the tesrcard starts at about 5:15am (at 28:20 into the clip).
There’s also this clip from Neil Miles’ YouTube channel of Tony Currie closing STV down one night, where he states the tesrcard starts at about 5:15am (at 28:20 into the clip).
IT
That sounds an awful lot like the theme to Highway in the background of the Woolworths CoverPlus paint advert. And of course we close down with the proto-This Morning theme
DE
...which is faded out with only about 20 seconds left.
When I first watched this video, I actually wondered - given that the time was very close to half past midnight - if this could have been a deliberate move, in order to avoid running into overtime pay territory (these still being the days, of course, when the unions could force TV stations off the air over such things).
Then I came across another pre-thistle STV Saturday night closedown in which "Channel Rundown" is faded out - but this time with rather more than 20 seconds left (indeed, just before the final key change), and also taking place *after* half past midnight:
https://www.tvark.org/?page=media&mediaid=126990
So was it just a normal thing for it not to be played in full before the thistle was introduced?
And of course we close down with the proto-This Morning theme
...which is faded out with only about 20 seconds left.
When I first watched this video, I actually wondered - given that the time was very close to half past midnight - if this could have been a deliberate move, in order to avoid running into overtime pay territory (these still being the days, of course, when the unions could force TV stations off the air over such things).
Then I came across another pre-thistle STV Saturday night closedown in which "Channel Rundown" is faded out - but this time with rather more than 20 seconds left (indeed, just before the final key change), and also taking place *after* half past midnight:
https://www.tvark.org/?page=media&mediaid=126990
So was it just a normal thing for it not to be played in full before the thistle was introduced?
TM
I keep thinking about the two voiceovers from BBC trails until the late 90's, the first one lasted until the Autumn of 1988, when another, with a very distinctive deep voice took over and his duties lasted well into the late 90's.
This coincided with the presentation refresh BBC One had at that time, with the switch to Quantel Paintbox and the relatively new BBC corporate logo first appearing on screen. I expect he was hired to modernize the channel in the wake of competition from Sky?
Anyone know their names?
This coincided with the presentation refresh BBC One had at that time, with the switch to Quantel Paintbox and the relatively new BBC corporate logo first appearing on screen. I expect he was hired to modernize the channel in the wake of competition from Sky?
Anyone know their names?