I guess maybe it kept it consistent and prevented any mistakes at such an important (as far as the regulators were concerned) moment?
See under Colin Weston for example
Oh yes, "the good old IBA"!
Of course, at some companies, the announcers did more than just announce. As well as self-opping and switching slides etc, some did other duties within presentation. Jane Jermyn told me she was asked to type up routine sheets/pres schedules during quiet mornings!
I guess maybe it kept it consistent and prevented any mistakes at such an important (as far as the regulators were concerned) moment?
Some of the musical pieces only had a very short time for the announcement, so it may have been considered easier to pre-record than do it live and risk crashing the next bit of music. One fewer thing for the TC to think about too.
Of course, at some companies, the announcers did more than just announce. As well as self-opping and switching slides etc, some did other duties within presentation.
How many regions did have the announcer self op? I've seen a blooper from Tyne Tees of Neville Wanless turning the lights off by accident, and I think it was usual to have a mic control, but other than that I thought most ITV announcers just announced.
I guess maybe it kept it consistent and prevented any mistakes at such an important (as far as the regulators were concerned) moment?
See under Colin Weston for example
Oh yes, "the good old IBA"!
Indeed, plus his first day at Granada, when (according to the great man himself) he forgot the actual names of the transmitters and just fluffed his way through the announcement... only to be told that the script was in front of him on a piece of laminate
Of course, at some companies, the announcers did more than just announce. As well as self-opping and switching slides etc, some did other duties within presentation.
How many regions did have the announcer self op? I've seen a blooper from Tyne Tees of Neville Wanless turning the lights off by accident, and I think it was usual to have a mic control, but other than that I thought most ITV announcers just announced.
If that's the one I'm thinking of, it was Bill Steel, and it wasn't a mistake so much as frustration at the YTV automation system continually failing to run on cue and leaving him on-air looking like an idiot for 10 seconds with no indication of when it would finally switch. But yes, the TTT announcers had a lot of autonomy in quite a few areas relative to their colleagues at some other companies (they had a say in what was promoted, when and for how long their pieces to camera were, they wrote their own scripts, and even had control of the switching of slides, and screen-wipes between promos and announcements etc. when on-air).
I'm not aware of any other station where this was common practice.
The clip I'm thinking of was definitely Neville getting "lost in the desk" rather than a deliberate backing out of something that had gone pear shaped.
The clip I'm thinking of was definitely Neville getting "lost in the desk" rather than a deliberate backing out of something that had gone pear shaped.
I've seen Jane do that too. The mic and light buttons were right beside each other so sometimes the wrong button could be pressed. The announcer was responsible for turning the mic and light on and off each junction, which wasn't self-opping as such.
Slightly off topic, but the BBC North west newsreaders self opted when doing the breakfast and morning bulletins until at least the mid 1990s. The buttons were different shapes, so that way they knew which one was which. I'm guessing that would have been the same at Tyne Tees.
In fact, the 'magic box' in the Tyne Tees continuity booth looked like this.
The buttons on the right were for the mic and studio light - I think the left hand buttons were for switching slides, etc. You can see how easy it was to make mistakes - there's not even any clear labels, let alone differences in shape.
This is the aforementioned clip involving Bill Steel turning out the lights. Watch it carefully after the lights go out, and I'm sure I saw a flicker of a channel 4 logo.
This is the aforementioned clip involving Bill Steel turning out the lights. Watch it carefully after the lights go out, and I'm sure I saw a flicker of a channel 4 logo.
Think that might just be the remains of whatever was recorded over, as this clip is clearly taken from the beginning of a VHS recording where the first few inches of the tape are recorded ahead of the recorder's erase head.
Yeah, it's a previous recording remnant of something from Channel 4, seen this many times on my own video recordings. I'm sure there's a technical name for the effect.
