Local Broadcasting for the Liverpool/Merseyside Area

Hey folks,

I know regional TV seems to be on its last legs and no one with the authority to do anything about it is wiling to, but I've (and many others) in the Liverpool area have always been a bit bemused with how places as small as Milton Keynes & Carlisle can be regional TV centers, whilst Liverpool's treated as if it's just another smallish town in Greater Manchester.

Now, with DSO for this area almost complete, I'd like to explore the possibilities for local TV services for Liverpool in the future, both standalone 'Channel M' type stations and regional stations of national networks.

Now, I know that the main reason Liverpool got screwed over was because of the transmitter arrangements. It was Winter Hill's strength in North Wales that helped Teledu Cymru go under. If anything, it may have been better if Chester & Liverpool were added to that region, making it more viable, but the past is the past.

Firstly, I would like to investigate the scenario of building a new main transmitter. Maybe, say, use St John's Beacon. Now, I admit I don't know a lot about transmitter stations, but that the main factors regarding coverage are local terrain, the power of the transmitter and, I suppose, height of transmitter. The aim in this hypothetical situation is to provide a primary service to an area around Liverpool, in a counter-clockwise ring from North East Wales-Chester-Warrington-St Helens-Ormskirk-Southport. Firstly, would St John's Beacon be high enough, considering Liverpool sits on a ridge? Also, what power would be required? 100kw? I suppose you would have to turn down the power from Winter Hill (at least in Liverpool's direction) in order to encourage people to use the new transmitter (which would be a pain for some)

The other issue here is available frequencies. I'm assuming that this new transmitter would render Storeton irrelevant, so, would switiching Storeton (England) off and using its frequencies for the new transmitter be doable? (leaving the Storeton Wales transmissions as they are).

Okay, so assuming a new transmitter is not really practical, or it is but no one wants to go to the effort, what options does Liverpool have for both stand-a-lone local TV and local regional variations for the BBC and ITV (not that I can imagine that shower caring to do anything)? Storeton's received by a lot of people in South Liverpool, the Wirral, West Cheshire and North East Wales. For these areas, Storeton would be fine. But everywhere in the north of the area relies on Winter Hill, although it remains to be seen how available both Storeton and Moel-y-Parc will be after DSO in December. Now, could Winter Hill be adjusted to beam any local stations, or regional variants of national stations south westwards? If so, this and Storeton should cover the area I'm talking about, although Wigan would probably have to be included. How practical is this and does the post-DSO frequency situation allow it?

Sorry for the long post, but I had to cover all my thoughts.

It would never have been added to the North Wales region as there's nothing between Winter Hill and Liverpool to stop the signals getting past. Remember the transmitter network was built to cover the country and the regions were carved up from that. They didn't lay out the transmitters in order to create regions. Plus politically it would be an absolute no-no.

The height of the aerials! The transmitters are normally on the ground



Remember that the problem with frequencies isn't about it interfering with Winter Hill - they (the 3 or 6 MUXs) would need to be on different frequencies to WH. It's about interfering with other transmitters further away. Depending on the power levels used, it would need at least 3 spare frequencies not being used up to a few hundred miles away... and in Liverpool that would include those in Ireland

100kW is the sort of power that a main site like Crystal Palace analogue uses. There's no way that there would be even 3 frequencies available from somewhere in Liverpool for that sort of power. Nulling the signal of WH towards Liverpool wouldn't be relevant because of this and the fact that those between WH and Merseyside still want TV. So large parts of the area would have reception from both your new Liverpool transmitter and Winter Hill. I assume you've heard about the problems at the moment with viewers in the North West getting the wrong region? Well that idea would make it even worse!


If there's a frequency available then a stand alone transmitter broadcasting a local MUX to Liverpool, along the lines of Channel M would be the best way to do it. It wouldn't be very good on Winter Hill as the only way to get a spare frequency would be to be low powered so it would be on a high point near to the centre of the area they want to cover. The problem with that of course is that everyone's aerials are pointing towards WH!

However (again as I mentioned in the other thread about this) the big issue is not technical. Would there be be the money to run a TV station for Liverpool? It was tried before on cable of course and Channel M has hardly been a roaring success. The new region option isn't that feasible either even if the technical problems were insurmountable, as you said, ITV wouldn't be bothered about creating a smaller region, the BBC might and C4/Five wouldn't have any need for it