26th Anniversary of the biggest shake up in ITV

Not sure how possible this would have been technically at the time. I might be wrong, but wasn’t Oliver’s Mount (and possibly Sheffield too) a relay of Emley Moor until DSO?

Don't forget Meridian also bagged HTV as well but had to let it go to allow Granada to buy into that group. They couldn't have the three as it was too much of a monopoly and thus Carlton took HTV.

Looking back through my archive of BBC and IBA transmitter data, Oliver's Mount was always a relay of Belmont for BBC 1 and 2, but for ITV/4 it started life as an Emley relay however at some point between 1991 and 1994 was transferred to Belmont. I suspect when YTV started doing split news and ads on Belmont ? It opened in May 1975, perhaps the IBA wern't sure at that point whether Belmont would end up back under Anglia, so to future proof it they tied it to Emley. I assume the BBC chose Belmont because reception was marginally better from there.

Sheffield was an Emley relay for BBC, YTV, and 4 until YTV launched the Sheffield news opt, when it became line fed.
It seems to have remained an analogue relay of Emley for BBC and C4 right up until DSO.

Pre and post DSO, both Oliver's Mount and Sheffield were line fed for their DTT transmissions for all muxes.

I believe the switch of Belmont in 1974 coincided with the new Humberside County Council. It was decided to cover Humberside within the YTV area, rather than split it across two local stations, moving Lincolnshire in the process. Imposing covering another local authority onto Anglia was thought unwieldy.

I thought it was to redress the balance of Bilsdale, that was to have been allocated to YTV, but ended up with Tyne Tees, having a coverage area that extended right down into South Yorkshire. I've never heard the story about Humberside. Where did you read it ?

A theory based on the Network South proposal

Following the YTV/Tyne Tees merger/takeover (delete as appropriate). Could such a combined network have been able to straighten out the transmitter situation eg. Oliver's Mount being used as a "South Teeside/Uppermost North Yorkshire service" with news from either York or Middleborough?

Today, thanks to the miracle of fibre optics etc, it would be easy (technically) for Oliver's Mount to transmit whatever region it likes. However, back in the 70s/80s/90s it would only have been economic to feed it off air from something else, and I don't think reception of Bilsdale at the site was that good ?

So possibly a pre-recorded segment into Calendar/Northern Life?

I got thinking and recalling. As a result that firmly came to mind. Hence I posted it. It's highly plausible if it wasn't the case though. In the days before split region operations. Having Anglia covering from Southend through Ipswich, Norwich, Cambridge, Lincoln and Hull adequately in a single Local News operation would have been difficult especially considering the needs following the nature of the post huge 1974 Local Government reorganisation.

To call it a mess would be an understatement.

In some ways Oliver’s Mount being fed YTV from Emley seemed like an anomaly, as nearby places like Whitby and Filey received Tyne Tees from Bilsdale. However, people in Scarborough probably felt better served by local news about York and Leeds than about Hull, Grimsby and Lincoln - which was carried on Belmont from the early 80s. I’m not sure how well Scarborough was served by Look North Hull or Calendar East after the switch, the town being politically in North Yorkshire and not East Yorkshire/North Humberside.

Don't forget that in the VHF/405 line days Scarborough (not Oliver's Mount, that was built for UHF) was an Emley relay, and of course up until July 1968 carried Granada