Networked ITV - 1990s and before...

I guess there would also have been a charge for using the additional circuits. ITV's priority was, and is, transmitting adverts, so facilitating that would probably be seen as of high importance and making that happen would be seen as a priority.

Yes, I seem to recall a 5.5 MHz GPO circuit was charged by the amount of trunk telephone calls it was displacing, per min. (The intercity circuits could carry 1 TV vision signal, or several hundred telephone calls). In the event of failure, the integrity of the telephone service took priority over TV.

Some background here:-

http://www.subbrit.org.uk/rsg/features/backbone/index.shtml

Was Tyne tees The tube replacement "The Roxy" Networked by all the stations?

Initially yes.

Consistently yes, all regions showed every episode but by the end Thames and TVS had dumped it to a late night slot. It was actually commissioned as part of a specific desire by ITV to get a pop show and a couple of companies pitched for it, and Tyne Tees actually had to build the set before they were commissioned so it'd be ready, I think they were asked to have it ready to start in about six weeks.

"The Roxy" wasn't really a replacement for "The Tube", the two programmes were very different. As mentioned the programme was shown from start to finish by each ITV station, although it was only networked as such for about the first six weeks. After this many stations broke off and started showing it in various slots in prime-time, including, fatally, several who put it up against EastEnders.

The programme opened to acclaim in the early days, with praise for the good number of live performances and camerawork which put TOTP to shame, but the programme ran out of steam towards the end of 1987 as the lack of a true network slot, a reluctance by pop acts to make the trip to Newcastle to perform for a couple of minutes and finally an industrial dispute which stopped live performances altogether for a few weeks saw it lose the initial high ratings (at one point it was looking as if the programme might kill TOTP off).

It didn't help that TTTV had lost a number of key members of staff in 1987 after the demise of The Tube, and the replacements weren't able to save the programme.

It was a victim of circumstance really -- if the show had started around 1985 it might have been a very different story. The programme would have had the backing of being produced back-to-back with The Tube (as TTTV had hoped), along with TX45 (a regional version of The Tube which had ridiculously high ratings for a late-night regional programme in 1985-6), and I have no doubt would have been a much tougher opponent for TOTP to beat.

As it was, it went down in history as just another failed curio. Shame really.

In early 1998, when TVS and Thames moved the programme into a graveyard slot, I recall one of the directors of TTTV savaged the two stations in the local press, accusing them of ganging up on a smaller station and refusing to give them the opportunity to improve the programme's fortunes (in several regions the ratings remained good, and were improving in Feb/March of 1988 across the board when TVS and Thames made their decisions).

TTTV claimed that Thames had their own programme lined up to replace The Roxy, and that this was the reason for the "stab in the back". In the end, this programme never materialised, so it's open to debate whether this was a genuine complaint or sour grapes by the company.

Regarding your point about regions scheduling The Roxy against EastEnders, wasn't 7.30pm on Thursdays the original network slot for The Roxy? So, by breaking away, regions were actually preventing it clashing with EastEnders?

I may be remembering incorrectly, but I think it was always shown Thursdays at 7.30 on Tyne Tees.

No, it was on Tuesdays, which was a way to get one jump ahead of Top of the Pops, because it meant they could count down the charts two days earlier. It didn't actually have a regular slot, because some regions showed it at 6.30, some at seven and some at 7.30. In The Roxy Book, which used to be in every charity shop in Britain, they say that the first show was a bit fraught because there was an air strike that day so everyone turned up hours late, and they were still rewinding it on to the tape at half six, because Thames had it scheduled for then, and they ended up showing it thirty seconds late. Of course it also had a networked repeat on Saturday mornings, which was quite clever, they re-recorded some of the links for it.

It had a couple of revamps while it was running, in January 1988 it got completely revamped, changing its name to Roxy - The Network Chart Show, using a more basic LE set instead of the faux-dancehall and alternating the presenters, whereas before Kid Jensen and Kevin Sharkey did it every week, now the likes of Pat Sharp turned up (that bit was copied by TOTP in the autumn of 1987 when for a few months Mike Smith and Gary Davies did virtually every show). I remember Granada originally showed it at 7.30 but from the beginning of 1988 moved it to seven, and that was when I started watching it every week - mostly because we'd just moved house and I now had a telly in my bedroom, so I could watch loads more stuff than I used to. By that point I would have said in terms of quality it was virtually indistiguihsable to Top of the Pops. I was amazed when they announced it was the last show, especially because it was on my birthday.

It's probably right to say it might have worked better had they still been doing The Tube because they would have been able to lure more bands up, although in those days bands did have to do the rounds a bit when regional ITV and local radio were still big things.

My recollection was 7pm on Tuesday.

What were the ratings like compared to TOTP, as in my opinion, it was just as good as TOTP.

I remember 3 revamps, the last one using a Stock Aitken Waterman instrumental as the theme tune, which turned up as a B side vocal on a Bananarama 12inch single, I seem to recall.

Is it me or was the very first set of titles not long enough for the theme tune, as I seem to remember David Jensen talking over the first bit of the theme then mixing to the titles or on other occasions, running the titles & theme music, then freezing the logo, letting the theme music run coupled with Jensen talking?

Stv and Grampian placed it 7.30,while Utv/border 7pm on Tuesdays.

TT got.screwed aswell with chain letters which got 7.30 Thursday slot

I must have been recalling Thursdays incorrectly, but for some reason the 7.30pm slot stuck in my head for Tyne Tees. Where was Emmerdale scheduled if Roxy was shown at 7pm in 1987 (in 1988 Emmerdale moved to 6.30pm, leaving 7pm free for the Roxy).

There were quite a few quiz shows trialed at 7.30pm on Thursdays, quite a few that had previously been stripped in daytime (as well as Chain Letters there was an adult version of Connections).