Question for Ridge Hill viewers

Okay, it's been a wee while since CNsouth dispanded, and I was just wondering what Herefordshire and northern Gloucestershire viewers think about their respective new ITV regional news programmes?

I've always lived in CNwest land (I'm in northeast Warwickshire). During CNwest's initial "Welcome to our new viewers in Herefordshire" week, Herefordshire was guaranteed a mention every day of that week - but in a distinctly un-newsy way . It was a sort of a "crash tour" of the county, that seemed to be more about Herefordshire (i.e. for the benefit of viewers in the existing CNwest patch) rather than for the county's own viewers.

Did ITV West do anything similar for North Gloucestershire?

Since that initial week, CNwest returned to it's usual Birmingham-centric ways. Apart from occasional mentions of Hereford United in the sports round-up, Herefordshire seems to be the one CNwest county that struggles most to get mentioned. Although it did fare well in the past couple of days, as it was one of the areas most effected by the snow - cue snowy shots of Hereford Cathedral etc etc.

Has ITV West managed to mention North Gloucestershire sufficiently over these past few months?

How good/bad do Ridge Hill viewers think the new services are, both A: on their own merits , as well as B: in comparison to CNsouth??? (In terms of both journalistic and/or presenter quality, and in terms of mentioning your area sufficiently)???

Is there anything specific that is sorely missed about CNsouth? (e.g. Wesley? )

Yes.
Don't get me wrong Central Tonight seems a good programme but it just dosen't have that buzz that Central News at Six did.

Why they insist that both newsreaders have to read every single news story is beyond me where that was only done for a few stories on Central South with other stories either only with Wesley or Hannah.

Even the set looks ghastly and faded compared with the Central South set which was only about 11 months old and it showed.

And Bob and Joanne just seems very wooden as if they don't want to be there whereas the banter between Wesley, Hannah and whoevers on Sports made it feel very welcoming.

I think Birmingham ought to take some tips from its deceased counterpart in Abingdon and that may make it watchable. Also a few stories that aren't just about Birmingham wouldn't go a-miss either.

I'm prettty happy with the amount of coverage north Gloucestershire gets on ITV West. At last we are in a natural region that I (a born and bred Gloucestrian) feel part of. I know some will feel that there's less coverage of this area than on Central South, but I would much rather hear other stories about Bristol than Oxford or Aylesbury. There's also the great advantage of getting rugby reports of our fellow West sides Bristol and Bath.

So does ITV Central now cover North Gloucestershire stories as well, or is it just leaving the job to ITV West? I'd hazard a guess that most homes in the area still watch Central considering it's all you can get on Freeview, and I doubt that many will have been bothered to retune analogue.

When I was home at my parents' at Christmas, they knew nothing about the change. All I saw in the way of publicity was a small advert in the Gloucestershire Echo.

Central (west) are most definately not mentioning Gloucestershire stories, nor is any of the county represented on the weather map. For at least the first fortnight after the changes, the 6pm CNwest would end with a "The West Tonight" trailer at 6:29pm, featuring Steve Scott and Lisa Aziz (sp?) giving out a phone number and web address for North Gloucestershire viewers to get re-tuning advice and assistance.

The need for North Gloucestershire viewers to retune was also similarly trailed during CNsouth's final fortnight.

Also, the fact CNwest only welcomed their "new viewers in Herefordshire" (no mention of Gloucestershire) was a clue. During the final 5-minutes of that first 6pm edition of the enlarged CNwest, the two presenters specifically introduced the above-mentioned ITV West trailer, as though it were a news item, clearly explaining that this programme (i.e. CNwest) is not the correct news for North Gloucestershire.