New Meridian, BBC South & South East Thread

SET concentrates more on Southern and Southeastern trains and at a more regular pace than South Today or Look East.

London is of course the obvious exception to the rule as public transport is a political football with TfL being part of the GLA with cross demographic use of buses, which outside the capital isn't so much the case.

Stacey Poole back alongside Fred after a year long maternity leave.

Nice to see her back on.

Both South Today and SET covered the Shoreham Air Crash with their own reporters.

SET had a live from Chrissie Reidy from the A27 with an interview with a Adur District Council Cllr and a pre-rec package from Amanda Akass.

South Today had Edward Sault with vox pops from the airshow and a pre-rec PTC from a hill above the A27.

From a purely editorial POV, it appears SET now claim Adur as their own in addition to South Today. Makes sense considering how many residents use Whitehawk Hill instead of Rowridge or Findon (the latter is a Rowridge relay).

On the basis that it's a big event that people travel some distance to attend that doesn't seem unreasonable for the neighbouring region to cover it - especially if there's a chance that people from their patch are amongst the casualties.

SET have started to cover the Adur district (it's to the west of Brighton with local radio coming from Whitehawk Hill) as part of a normal running order with Worthing on the weather map and not just for disasters.

Virgin Media also have SET on cable as far west as Littlehampton as they take BBC One from Whitehawk.

Latest TV also cover Adur as part of their editorial area.

Out of interest, did SET cover the recent murder of the motorist on the A24 at Findon ?

Both SET and South Today's main editions were from Shoreham on the nearby footbridge over the River Adur near the disaster site.

During ST, while Sally Taylor does her live with a vicar, Rob Smith and his crew were doing theirs at the other end.

South Today being broadcast from an alternative set that looks identical to Oxfords old set.

I noticed last week Meridian now has a mini ITV news set, how long has that been so ? I never watch anymore since the Gemma days...Fred will never leave it seems !

Since 3rd August

Surely we don't want him to leave?! There doesn't seem to be a nature successor to replace Fred though - Andy Pate is simply awful. Who else could take over at Meridian? It wouldn't mind seeing Mike Pearse have a go at presenting the odd bulletin. Can anyone ever recall him presenting a bulletin?