The NEW Central West and BBC Midlands thread

Update : No one covered Sior Coleman, as 5 Live was left on until 7am, when Andrew Peach took over.(Is that the latest time 5Live has appeared on a BBC Local Radio Station for sustaining reasons?)

It looks like, according to the schedules online, there's a swop round on the weekend evenings. Both Keith Middleton shows on Saturday & Sundays appear to be being taken, the Sunday show only the last 2 hours though.(Note to whoever at BBC Birmingham does the online listings, Sunday evening 2200 to 0000 is not '3 hours of music & entertainment'! Obviously someone's been doing copy & paste!)

The Saturday evening 'black' programming has moved to Friday's at 2100, but only Loyd Williams(No, I've never heard of him either!) survives, no Bishop Joe Aldred anymore.

Network Gold moves from Friday to Sunday afternoons(Saturday show stays, depending on the sport!)

The Sunday 'Other Side Of' moves to Saturday evenings.

(I suspect the legend that is Bev Bevan will move from 1400 to 1300 on Sundays, but he's not on next week because of Sport!)

We'll see for sure at some point.

Next Thursday is the last 'BBC WM Introducing'('What exactly?') until after the election.

Looks like all the former weekend specialist programming has moved to the old weekday 'Late Show' slots, the likes of Nikki Tapper, Joe Aldred & Bev Bevan, so no more Bobby Underwood on WM after tonight.

Last night's MT revealed that Kay Alexander is stuck in North America so she did a live from an North American studio with Nick & Suzanne(How would she managed to sort that out?)

Tonight's MT featured Flupton plugging his election debate programme he was recording for transmission tomorrow.(9am folks on WM!), while it was nice to see BBC Comedy & Warwickshire's Annie Othen during a report on a recorded audio play co - produced by C & W & ?(Forgot!)

Well that's a good start to WM transmissions of Keith Middleton's Late Show.

High pitched whine since 9pm on 95.6Fm & Dab.

(All other stations taking the show appear to be ok.)

Engineers are on the case.

Show is still coming from Shropshire. (Have WM ever taken a show from Shropshire before? Perhaps the engineers aren't used to doing so, normally only broadcasting from WM to Shropshire!)

Update : WM broadcasting 5Live currently.

Update 935pm : WM & C & W now on air.

Just watching back 'The Politics Show' off the SKY Plus & noticed slight losses of sound on the Hereford OB.

They got fixed, but if they had totally lost the OB, seeing there appeared to be no Birmingham back up presenter, would they still have defaulted to London or gone to apology caption(if there is such a beast locally as I've never seen a local BBC apology caption, only Network ones!)?

There would normally be a copy of the reports played by the OB (if they were playing them at all) available to Birmingham, which they could play instead after an apology caption (which will be available too, even if it's just a generic "we have a fault" screen), using the report time to get either the OB back as normal, or rig an alternative route, even if it's just a mobile phone to allow the presenter to voice over an intro/apology.

It's very rare to completely lose a live OB, and there will always be back up plans in place in case the worst does happen.

Election 2010: The Midlands Today Debate
BBC 1 (West Midlands) - 22:50

Caroline Spellman MP (Meriden)
John Hemming MP (Birmingham Yardley)
Liam Byrne (Birmingham Hodge Hill)

Presented by Nick Owen, BBC One West Midlands only.

Is Suzanne Virdee not very tall, or Patrick Burns rather tall?

(Check out tonight's MT for a look!)

Bloody noisy though outside the Uni though!

WM & CWR joining together between 8 & 12 tonight for a election discussion programme hosted by Richard Wilford, presumbly including a simulcast of the Leaders Debate.

He's tall, I think.

Couple of odd questions now.

Is Kay back in the UK yet?

Who's covering Chinnie this Sunday, as I assume he's off due to the death of his father Buck?
UPDATE : He was on!

Danny Kelly covering the Jo Malin slot on Monday(Presume Mollie Green will cover WM Bank Holiday Breakfast like she did at Easter!)

Happened to catch the last few minutes of Jo Malin today.

Apparantly on Tuesday & Wednesday, she's going out with a soapbox, asking for people's political opinions(I think?), so Mollie's is covering Tuesday & Wednesday.

Let's hope the Digital Spy lot previously mentioned haven't clocked that bright idea. (They seem to have moved from slagging off WM to slagging off Heart instead, it appears!)

Anyone spot Nick on the News Channel sport bulletins in his capacity as chairman of Luton Town FC, due to the 'actions' of so called 'supporters' of said football team?

(Did this come off 'Look East' or was there a separate NC interview with Nick?)

Just to clarify Jo Malin's current tour of the West Midlands, it is to go round with a megaphone & a soapbox & ask us, the great unwashed, what we would do if we were Prime Minister & stand on said soapbox with megaphone & belt it out over the street!

Today she was round Erdington & Kings Heath & probably Longbridge/Northfield.

Tomorrow, she's round the Black Country, kicking off in Walsall(by the market, I believe?) during Flupton. (As long as she's nowhere near the bus station at 730am, I couldn't care less!)

Meanwhile one of Mollie's topics was discussing lingerie & the only naughty thought I had was 'Does she take parachute size?' (Well, from the odd occasion I've seen her on the box, she's a big girl!)

BBC WM's election coverage kicks off at 950pm tonight.

Until then Mollie's in the chair. The first time she's ever done an evening show apparantly.

(Already had a text mention!)

Does anyone know when WM finished their overnight coverage & joined 5 Live, or did they go right through?

(Bloke on Digital Spy reckons they finished 12 midnight, but I was still listening at 1220 before I switched off, plus I had a quick flick through the other West Midlands BBC stations I can get, apart from C & W, & Shropshire mentioned they were on till 5am(their normal start time!).

One thing I noticed, where WM were filling time between declarations with Doolan's live discussions from the Mailbox Public Space(What time did those finish, I wonder?) with various people, including MEP Michael Cashman of mid 80's Eastenders fame, music was being played on Shropshire, Stoke & Hereford & Worcester!

How come they didn't do a regional show from Birmingham, with contributors from each station, instead, or was it easier/cheaper technically to stay local?