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The NEW Central West and BBC Midlands thread

Suzanne Virdee's sudden departure from BBC Midlands (September 2004)

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TV
tvmercia Founding member
dvboy posted:
Quote:
(Will that be the new colour for the captions, or are those standard EMT ?)

They are EMT's normal captions since they rebranded but MT will probably follow suit.

nope - MT are just slightly altering their current ones. the EMT style ones wouldnt make sense without the LDN style red titles - and midlands today are sticking with red-orange-yellow.

Westy2 posted:
How come the first minute of the 'Politics Show', from the ident to Jeremy getting into full swing, was in 14:9 ?

possibly due to that analogue/digital opting issue mentioned yesterday, which noggin provided an explanation to Confused

Westy2 posted:
Do/Are the Mailbox have/having 16:9 versions of the idents, or not ?
yes
JC
Jack Carkdale
Steve in Pudsey posted:
Functional Aesthetic posted:

By "that programme", I meant the Saturday 23rd October 2004 teatime programme. I was not suggesting that pre-1991 Midlands Today came from Nottingham.


That was where I was confused, what precisely the term "that programme" referred to, whether it was yesterdays edition or programmes pre 1991.


When I re-read my post, following your response to it, I realised that my wording was unclear. Embarassed
SE
Square Eyes Founding member
It was good of Anne & Dominic to open up the East Midlands Laundrette to viewers in the west of the region for the weekend.

They must already be under a lot of pressure just washing all the smalls for the Nottingham area. Bet the ironing board has been in constant use all weekend.
PE
Pete Founding member
I believe they actually cheated and sneaked another, less fancy, ironing board into the laundrette to do people who weren't from their particular part of the region.
NG
noggin Founding member
AIUI the transmitter routing was switched from Pebble Mill to the Mailbox pretty much straight after the final bulletin at 2225 on Friday. Friends in the patch said that there was some picture disturbance and a drop in quality for a short period. (Possibly some transmitters reverted to an off-air backup from a non-West Midlands transmitter - like Oxford?)

Whether Nottingham have control of the Birmingham Mailbox distribution, or the Mailbox are opting in to Nottingham I don't know. However I suspect the East Midlands sourced bulletins are coming via the Mailbox - are they appearing in 16:9 in the West on DTT? Understandable that they'd want to launch on a Monday not a Saturday - to allow a weekend for switching issues to be sorted etc. I guess it also allows staff to have a short break or to continue piloting at the Mailbox over the weekend - rather than also having to staff Pebble Mill bulletins.
TV
tvmercia Founding member
noggin posted:
AIUI the transmitter routing was switched from Pebble Mill to the Mailbox pretty much straight after the final bulletin at 2225 on Friday. Friends in the patch said that there was some picture disturbance and a drop in quality for a short period. (Possibly some transmitters reverted to an off-air backup from a non-West Midlands transmitter - like Oxford?)

Whether Nottingham have control of the Birmingham Mailbox distribution, or the Mailbox are opting in to Nottingham I don't know. However I suspect the East Midlands sourced bulletins are coming via the Mailbox - are they appearing in 16:9 in the West on DTT? Understandable that they'd want to launch on a Monday not a Saturday - to allow a weekend for switching issues to be sorted etc. I guess it also allows staff to have a short break or to continue piloting at the Mailbox over the weekend - rather than also having to staff Pebble Mill bulletins.

the bulletins on DTT have indeed been 16:9 - with a brief period of 14:9 at the start.

didn't watch whatever was on after friday's 10.25 bulletin - but would there have been disturbance on DTT? in the event of losing a signal would sutton coldfield revert to the DSAT feed?
IS
Inspector Sands
noggin posted:

Whether Nottingham have control of the Birmingham Mailbox distribution, or the Mailbox are opting in to Nottingham I don't know. However I suspect the East Midlands sourced bulletins are coming via the Mailbox - are they appearing in 16:9 in the West on DTT?


Surely even if they weren't coming via the Mailbox they'd be in 16:9 on DTT as the feed to DTT/Satelite would be the same as the one for the East Midlands?
JC
Jack Carkdale
The Monday 25th October Breakfast bulletins are East/West Mids shared bulletins from Nottingham, with "East"-free branding.

The presenter has been starting each bulletin with something like "Good morning to viewers across the whole of the Midlands."

The national-weather-presenter weather forecast in the xx:55 bulletins have been using a whole-Midlands map. Interestingly, the labelled place names on the map go as far south as Oxford, despite Oxford being in South Today (North) territory.

It must be the first time that a BBC weather map stretching from the Welsh border to the Wash has been seen on Midlands regional news since EMT launched in 1991!

The bulletins' (West) Midlands stories have been including a mention of the Mill-Mailbox move, and the ironing board presenter has been saying that that the first Mailbox bulletin will indeed be the 13:30 one.

EDIT (11:05am) : The Midlands Today website still looks as it has looked for weeks/months, no Mailbox overhaul yet. Even the Pebble Mill postal address is still shown at the very bottom of the front page. Rolling Eyes

http://www.bbc.co.uk/england/midlandstoday
Last edited by Jack Carkdale on 25 October 2004 11:03am
AB
ab
And just to add to the above post, this morning's bulletins were presented by (the IMO gorgeous) Priya Kaur Jones! Profile
JC
Jack Carkdale
ab posted:
And just to add to the above post, this morning's bulletins were presented by (the IMO gorgeous) Priya Kaur Jones! Profile


I we're gonna talk presenter-fancying, here's (some of!) mine:

ITV News Channel's Owen Thomas
http://www.tv-ark.org.uk/presenters/presenters_t.html

GMTV's Ben Shepherd
http://www.gm.tv/index.cfm?articleid=474

Midlands Today sports presenter Steve Clamp
http://www.bbc.co.uk/england/midlandstoday/profiles/steve_clamp.shtml
Last edited by Jack Carkdale on 25 October 2004 11:57am
SA
Salty Founding member
A clue to the new studio? Notice the red sofa!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/birmingham/bbc_at_the_mailbox/images/nick_suzanne_new_270.jpghttp://www.bbc.co.uk/birmingham/bbc_at_the_mailbox/images/suzanne_new_150.jpghttp://www.bbc.co.uk/birmingham/bbc_at_the_mailbox/images/nick_new_150.jpg
ST
South Today
Salty posted:


Maybe but in the Pebble Mill newsroom they did used to have a red sofa...

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