Central News South Closure

In Gloucester and Cheltenham, those using Telewest cable already get ITV West as the allocated ITV regional channel on 103.
Also in Gloucester and Cheltenham those on Telewest cable and Sky already get BBC West as their allocated BBC region on 101.

Ridge Hill is broadcasting ITV West on 25kw to about 90 degrees south east to cover the area from Tewkesbury to Cam, I would assess.. (As opposed to the 100kw for the pre-existing omnidirectional Central service.) My picture from ITV West from Ridge Hill is actually sharper than that I received for Central. From what I remember, there has always been a back-up "off air" feed from Mendip.

Two questions:
1. Why can't the BBC complete the job by following ITV's lead and relay Points West on analogue from Ridge Hill? They set the pace by giving us Points West on 101 on cable and Sky. Now, they've been outdone here by ITV. The Beeb has repeatedly said they want to give us West regional news, but I guess there aren't enough channels left now.... Looks like we might have to wait for digital switchover for all platforms to consistently give us West television........
2. I don't understand why the three Ridge Hill relays (St Briavels, Andoversford, Upper Soudley) in Gloucestershire can't be switched to get ITV West. Surely it's just a matter of an engineer spending an hour at each site retuning the relay's reception of ITV from channel 25 to 30?? All could be done in a half day......

very nice compilation of clips to mark the end of central south - such a shame to see it go

I will miss Central South very much.. I think the news will end up like the BBC and won't cover as much as it used to.

To all the people wanting to see the 6-minute compilation including the Central South Theme Megamix & Emma Jesson's 80's jacket on her final weather forecast, click the ever-trusty cake below:
P.S. It maybe a big download.

It's not as simple as that with many transposers. The filtering and oscillator circuitry might well be custom built for the channels they are transposing, and additionally if there's a harmonic relationship between the new input channel, and existing output it might not be possible. That could mean juggling the transmit channels for the other three services too.

I recall when in the 1980s the Kettlewell relay on the Lancs/Yorks border was retuned from Winter Hill to Emley Moor its output channels also needed a re-shuffle.

As Nick said earlier, this whole project is being done on the cheap.

I imagine the BBC's case for not doing similar has primarily the cost issue attached. Also the Beeb probably take the view that so close to DSO it's all rather futile, and just adds to 'viewer confusion'.

By the way, Meridian Tonight from Hannington made no mention of the impending changes last night. Only a comment to 'Join us again as usual on Monday'. I suppose saying anything else would have been equivalent to:-

" On Monday your nice compact news region will have the Cotswolds and Chilterns added, and you local news service will be diluted once again with places you've never heard of ".

It is my understanding (correct me if I'm wrong) that MeridianWest currently story-shares much of northern Hampshire with MeridianSouth, but realistically virtually no-one in northern ampshire would be seeing MeridianWest???

In other words, MeridianWest "pretends" to cover northern Hampshire, so as to make its existence slightly more justifiable (otherwise it's basically "Berkshire Today").

Presumably, this will finally end on Monday??? (i.e. Thames Valley Tonight won't pretend to cover northern Hampshire)

Where did you get that idea from ? Hampshire's border extends up to the outskirts of Newbury itself.

The transmitter at Hannington is slap bang in the middle of N Hants, and for much of the area is the only signal available.

I live in Northern Hampshire, Meridian West most certainly does cover this area, and also mid Hants (last night's show featured an OB from Winchester). My compliant about them is they extend their area far too far east. They often cover stories in Windsor, Slough, and Heathrow. 99% of viewers in these areas use Crystal Palace, in fact I was in Windsor last night and didn't spot a single Hannington aerial there.

I really need to look at (A) a current UK counties map, and (B) a map of TV transmitters!

I had (wrongly) assumed that the "Hannington Transmitter" was in Berkshire. And I automatically think of Hampshire as being entirely due-south of Berkshire. Shows how much I know...

Thanks for that. I'm not a technical "bod". I thought that retuning one channel that a relay transmitter received, would be like the retuning of my domestic television......especially as all three relays' output for all 4 channels are in the B or C/D bands, with Ridge Hill's (now 6) channels' broadcast frequencies being in the A band.

Have a butcher's here:-

http://tx.mb21.co.uk/gallery/hannington/hannington-map.asp

The middle b/w map shows the county border (though the Berks/Oxon border moved further south after that was published. The bottom map (showing BBC Radio Berks coverage) shows Hannington in the wrong place ! It's south of Kingsclere, not east)

Actually today Berkshire doesn't exist as a county, it's been replaced by 5 or 6 unitary authorities, but that's another story !

Berwick's relay will also need new transposers, as part of its switch from Border to Tyne Tees. I believe the engineers are in the process of locating some so that the work there can be done before Christmas. Sticking on an extra channel (Ridge Hill) or switching a parent feed (Berwick) is the easy bit - all the associated kit has to be altered as well, bearing in mind that the equipment already in place will have been there since the transmitter came on air and as such will be obsolete.

First class, RDJ - many thanks. It seemed strange to see so many of the bloopers in their original form, without the laughter as aired on Alright on the Night.

Staying on the theme of reallocating parts of regions, I believe Border ran a piece on Lookaround this week about the impending changeover to Tyne Tees at Berwick. Unfortunately, I missed the item!

Did any TV Forum'ers manage to see or tape the piece (it was on Tuesday night's programme) - if so, I'd like to see a copy of it. MTIA.