MK
You didn't imagine it, I know the board you mean which appeared on the news stories, and there was definitely a hearts-style logo on that board for Westcountry, but not one for Central or Carlton London.
It has been reported that originally only Central was going to be re-branded, Westcountry was going to survive and simply change to using the standard hearts idents. It has also been claimed that hearts idents for Westcountry were actually made and ready to run, with the decision to rebrand as Carlton made very late in the day.
There could well be some legs to this, especially since Westcountry was still introducing new idents up until April/May 1999, long after Central had been de-caked (the very final set introduced by Westcountry were even made in widescreen whilst all other idents in use on ITV at the time were still 4:3, giving Westcountry the dubious honour of being the first ITV station to have Widescreen idents).
Good to know I didn't imagine the Westcountry one. So what did Carlton and Central have to represent them? The star idents? I take it STV and UTV also had their own non-heart representation on the wall?
I've heard the rumour about Westcountry not going to be rebranded. Not sure how much I believe that as it doesn't make sense to me to just rename Central. I think people get confused with the quasi-Carlton logos being introduced in 1998 on Central but not on Westcountry. I think this is because they were actually made back in 1996 along with the Carlton ones and I think Carlton hadn't yet aquired Westcountry when they commissioned the new look. But if Carlton and Central had a different design on that board, then it might point to your theory.
Mr Kite posted:
The thing is, I could've swore I saw a Westcountry one, complete with a white 'W' in the blue square where the company logo is for most of the other companies. Did anyone ever have a good look at this, maybe in person? As the network centre represented all the ITV companies, they all must've been there but I'm curious about what the plaque showed for, say, Grampian, and if I saw the Westcountry one as I imagined.
You didn't imagine it, I know the board you mean which appeared on the news stories, and there was definitely a hearts-style logo on that board for Westcountry, but not one for Central or Carlton London.
It has been reported that originally only Central was going to be re-branded, Westcountry was going to survive and simply change to using the standard hearts idents. It has also been claimed that hearts idents for Westcountry were actually made and ready to run, with the decision to rebrand as Carlton made very late in the day.
There could well be some legs to this, especially since Westcountry was still introducing new idents up until April/May 1999, long after Central had been de-caked (the very final set introduced by Westcountry were even made in widescreen whilst all other idents in use on ITV at the time were still 4:3, giving Westcountry the dubious honour of being the first ITV station to have Widescreen idents).
Good to know I didn't imagine the Westcountry one. So what did Carlton and Central have to represent them? The star idents? I take it STV and UTV also had their own non-heart representation on the wall?
I've heard the rumour about Westcountry not going to be rebranded. Not sure how much I believe that as it doesn't make sense to me to just rename Central. I think people get confused with the quasi-Carlton logos being introduced in 1998 on Central but not on Westcountry. I think this is because they were actually made back in 1996 along with the Carlton ones and I think Carlton hadn't yet aquired Westcountry when they commissioned the new look. But if Carlton and Central had a different design on that board, then it might point to your theory.
