BBC Nations and regions

Re: Milton Keynes. My understanding was that it was purely a relocation of the BBC East (West) region from Cambridge to MK - and potentially, like Hull, it would have allowed a full service to launch replacing the sub-opts. ISTR that this was triggered by the BBC's English regional policy of the time to be based in the town centre, and accessible to people (see BBC Birmingham's move to The Mailbox). The lack of such affordable premises in Cambridge city centre triggered a potential move to another town/city in the patch.

AIUI there was some work done on an 'Oxbridge' opt, but there was no real editorial coherence in the region, so it didn't make much sense. Though that doesn't mean it would't have happened...

Not sure how far plans actually progressed before the idea was shelved, and the BBC East (West) moved to a non-city centre location on the outskirts of Cambridge, with massively upgraded facilities.

Ah, I see. MK does seem a slightly odd choice for a BBC East (West)-only service (i.e. no merger with Oxford) to be based, as it's pretty much right on the very edge of the region, rather than comfortably inside of it!

Indeed, MK itself (the specific town and/or the wider borough) is, after all, *just about* treated as an editorial overlap zone by BBC Oxford News (and/or South Today).

That said, pretty much all of the main towns/cities of the sub-region (e.g. Peterborough, Northampton, Cambridge, Luton, Stevenage) are in relatively "towards one edge" parts of the patch! Bedford is really about as "central" a main town as the sub-region has!



By the way, is there always a fully-separate Cambridge 6:30pm programme nowadays? Or is it a mixture of fully-separate on some days, and just a short sub-opt in the middle of an otherwise pan-regional Norwich programme on other days?

If the latter, is there any particular regular pattern as to how often it is or isn't fully-separate? Or does it just vary sporadically depending on the day's news?

The default position for Look East is the first story comes from Norwich then the two split for what used to be branded as the Close Up service but this was dropped at some point. They then return at around 1845 I believe and the rest of the programme is combined. They have been known to run sport within the Close Up service - presumably with a longer opt as a result. On some occasions though they link to sport from Norwich but then Cambridge plays out a separate sports package.

I've not seen a pattern to when they run full separate programmes. When they do they often still include some news or packages from the other side - perhaps a sign that the region couldn't sustain two entirely separate programmes.

here's a video i posted a few years ago, although as tony says, opt outs came later...



i know bbc east came under bbc midlands administratively for years (and possibly served by bbc midlands home service radio?)... but did they come under midlands for tv news output?

Initially I think they did, kind of, because the Midlands programme was called Six Ten and the East programme was called Six Ten East Anglia. As you say they were managed together and they also shared a Radio Times until 1969.

Even internal publications were made by 'BBC in the Midlands' up until 1992 and this was 'BBC Midlands and East'.

Even on their Christmas cards, photos of Pebble Mill galore! and the Pebble Mill Plughole logo...

Holme Moss covered the two in B&W days, I understand?

AIUI, The Moss initially carried the Manchester opts for the whole of the north.

When Winter Hill opened the BBC added a 405 line service which carried the North West opt and Holme Moss took the new Leeds programme.

However, Winter Hill wasn't introduced in order to provide a Manchester opt out. Band I, Channel 2 (which Holme Moss used) was particularly prone to severe interference from foreign stations during the summer months when high pressure would cause European signals to propogate further than normal. Because Holme Mosee was situated in the centre of the region, places like Liverpool were on the edge of the fringe zone and therefore very prone to interference. Winter Hill used Band III, Channel 12 which never suffered from such interference and of course also put a very much stronger signal into Liverpool. Similarly, Belmont in Lincolnshire was opened on Band III Channel 13 providing stronger BBC 1 signals to the eastern fringe of Holme Moss. It was a mere bonus that this new arrangement allowed for more regional opt outs from Look North.

Although Belmont Ch 13 took its feed by off air reception of Holme Moss Ch 2, and its output often radiated the co-channel interference mentioned above !

A friend of mine wrote to the Beeb about it, to which their answer was, 'tough'.

Much the same answer I received from the Beeb, when I'd complain about Hannington UHF rebroadcasting co-channel interference from its off air feed of Rowridge.

When did BBC2 opt outs start? I read a story that not long after the introduction of colour, a cricket match was being covered by BBC Bristol for the network (using their colour scanner which was also used for Studio A) and not long after the match began, the colour circuit between BBC Bristol and TV Centre failed.

BT couldn't provide a replacement colour circuit so after a while the OB was restored in black and white. Somebody came up with the plan of getting Bristol Comms to feed the colour OB directly to Wenvoe so that at least Wales and the West of England could see it in colour.

Whilst not really an opt out in terms of content, would that have been one of the first BBC opts?

Does it survive in the archive & if so is it colour or B & W?

(Would it have been possible to record the colour output anyway?)