BBC News (UK) presentation - Reith launch onwards

Well, now, the Oxford transmitter has changed regions for both the BBC and ITV more times than any other.

Started off in the 60s, serving just the city on VHF with BBC 1 Midlands, then in the UHF colour era BBC London and SE, but ATV/Central for ITV. Then from 1988 Central South. The BBC split their London and SE region up in 2000, and a sub opt from BBC South was formed. Meanwhile with ITV's mergers etc, it's ended up in the Meridian Thames Valley sub region.

Take your pick as to where it really belongs

http://tx.mb21.co.uk/mapsys/map.php?mapid=92

Historically it used to be part of the BBC South East region. This was split up in 2001 into 3 (London, South East and Oxford) and Oxford made a 'sub-region' of Southampton presumably as it wasn't seen to be big enough to be a full region.

It's one of those odd parts of the country that doesn't really associate itself naturally with any other. Its had identity issues in ITV too...

Originally it was part of the ITV Midlands region, Central created a news bulletin just for the South of its patch, so Oxford was in that. Then it became shared with Meridian to become ITV Thames Valley and now it too is in the Meridian region.

So at one point viewers in Oxford got the same news as those in Derby on ITV and Dover on the BBC.

There was talk about the BBC merging their Oxford TV region with their other sub-region based in Cambridge. This would have been a very odd patch. And of course when it was suggested last time the press used the Oxford/Cambridge Oxbridge thing to bash the BBC.

The problem with that idea these days is that it could cost more, I don't think either the Oxford or Cambridge operations are full time, so any cost saving would be spent on covering weekends and evenings... or giving Oxford news from Norwich some of the time!

Oxford in either the West or the Midlands would be quite strange, since it "culturally" doesn't belong to these areas either

Here's your answer

There's some merit in the argument that Oxford has a major car factory (still) and the motor industry has presence all the way up the M40 corridor to Birmingham and Coventry. Also Swindon (an Oxford/Mendip overlap area) also has a car factory (though not for much longer)

Mentally for me, the Midlands start after you pass Oxford on the M40/A34

Are they experimenting with the opening lines during non simulcast hours? Weekdays at the moment seem to be:

9am: "This is BBC News with the latest headlines" (unless it's Victoria in which case it could be anything)
Midday: "This is BBC News the headlines"
2pm/3pm: "This is BBC News I'm XX the headlines at X" (which was always standard before Covid)
4pm/5pm: "This is BBC News I'm XX the latest headlines"

With the weekend non simulcast hours generally being "This is BBC News the headlines at XX".

I get when they are simulcasting they can't say the time, but surely a simple "This is BBC News - I'm xx - the headlines (at xx if not simulcasting)".

Some presenters like to adapt what's there though. I remember when Huw did a few press conference shifts he went "Today at Four". Clive does the world opening "This is BBC News - I'm Clive Myrie - our top stories for you now".

We are of course being fussy however I saw a tweet about somebody complaining that Evan opens PM with "Hello there" and that it was "patronising" or something.

News Channel simulcasting with World at 2pm, unusual for a weekday?

Would there be huge outrage from BBC World viewers if they did occasionally hear newsreaders saying times?
Is it such a big thing for them to be concerned about viewers hearing?
Surely even casual viewers understand that they have tuned into BBC and expect that the majority of bulletins will come from London, England...?

When CNN International simulcasts CNN US, they don't seem to care if CNN International viewers hear times.

Presumably technical issues with C as the 14:00 World hour is almost certainly the same team as 13:00 which went out as normal.

When was the last time World saw Jane?

I think it was the 26th June (for a unplanned simulcast due to the Glasgow stabbings).

I seem to remember years ago Martine Dennis used to say good morning when presenting the simulcast early shift on World.