JK
The so called Famous Five launched the first incarnation of GMB with their 'Mission to Explain' and when that failed to attract viewers and advertisers, apart from Walls sausages and Ponds face cream, the move downmarket with bingo numbers, horoscopes etc. eventually proved to be a ratings winner.
It was Greg Dyke who came to TV-am in the spring of 1983 who turned the fortunes of the station around and started the progress to a more populist magazine show, all of which kicked off with a relaunch of the schedule in May 1983.
Maybe the audience had matured enough to get fed up of banality and dumbed down premium rate competitions? The 1980s style of commercial breakfast television had no longer moved with the times.
The so called Famous Five launched the first incarnation of GMB with their 'Mission to Explain' and when that failed to attract viewers and advertisers, apart from Walls sausages and Ponds face cream, the move downmarket with bingo numbers, horoscopes etc. eventually proved to be a ratings winner.
It was Greg Dyke who came to TV-am in the spring of 1983 who turned the fortunes of the station around and started the progress to a more populist magazine show, all of which kicked off with a relaunch of the schedule in May 1983.
NJ
Neil Jones
Founding member
Desperate times call for desperate measures. And since they'd have to buy the papers anyway to do the "on today's front pages" segments, it wouldn't have cost them any more money to read out Bingo numbers.
Anyway Roland Rat is often tooted as the saviour of TV-am, though this is probably debatable considering I dare say he only propped up the children's output viewing figures and did nothing to help them out when they got shouted at by the IBA for their coverage of the Brighton bombings in 1984. Anyway Roland decided to sod off to the BBC the following year and its probably safe to say the strike period had the effect of helping TV-am out more generally...
Anyway Roland Rat is often tooted as the saviour of TV-am, though this is probably debatable considering I dare say he only propped up the children's output viewing figures and did nothing to help them out when they got shouted at by the IBA for their coverage of the Brighton bombings in 1984. Anyway Roland decided to sod off to the BBC the following year and its probably safe to say the strike period had the effect of helping TV-am out more generally...
NJ
Neil Jones
Founding member
Was documented that newsagents eventually stopped delivering to them as they didn't pay the bill, mind you having a bloke from the electricity board turn up with a warrant to cut off the supply in the middle of whatever it was they were doing at the time probably spoke volumes about how money they didn't have...
These days of course free publicity for your masthead on the gogglebox, yeah wave it around all you want.
These days of course free publicity for your masthead on the gogglebox, yeah wave it around all you want.
DW
I'm just enjoying how nicely the graphics line up when BBC Breakfast shows his name.
HC
Anyway Roland Rat is often tooted as the saviour of TV-am, though this is probably debatable considering I dare say he only propped up the children's output viewing figures and did nothing to help them out when they got shouted at by the IBA for their coverage of the Brighton bombings in 1984.
If Roland Rat was part of the Grand Hotel Brighton Bomb coverage, it's fair to say the IBA would immediately have revoked the licence from TV-am.
Roland Rat was actually on the way to TV-am under the old regime.
It was just that under Greg Dyke, he saw the value of advertisers going for the underserved young children audience, and saw an opportunity to promote from a weekend to a school holiday weekday slot - and give it a lot more promotion during the old Good Morning Britain than Peter Jay would have ever given the puppet.
Anyway Roland Rat is often tooted as the saviour of TV-am, though this is probably debatable considering I dare say he only propped up the children's output viewing figures and did nothing to help them out when they got shouted at by the IBA for their coverage of the Brighton bombings in 1984.
If Roland Rat was part of the Grand Hotel Brighton Bomb coverage, it's fair to say the IBA would immediately have revoked the licence from TV-am.
Roland Rat was actually on the way to TV-am under the old regime.
It was just that under Greg Dyke, he saw the value of advertisers going for the underserved young children audience, and saw an opportunity to promote from a weekend to a school holiday weekday slot - and give it a lot more promotion during the old Good Morning Britain than Peter Jay would have ever given the puppet.
NJ
I jest of course.
Neil Jones
Founding member
Puppet? You mean he wasn't a real rat? That's my illusions destroyed.
I jest of course.