Networked ITV - 1990s and before...

Border didn't split its transmitters until 1999, ending these sorts of anomalies and meaning English viewers no longer had to endure Scotsport. I do recall quite a hoo hah in the mid nineties when Border elected to show Glasgow Rangers over Man U, which has a large following in Cumbria. There were even letters stating that Border should be split up and the Caldbeck transmitter move over to Granada.

Blame ita/iba for that. Of course there was also protest about transmitters changing over in 1982.

I have to ask but why was home and away deleted for over a year before switching to ch 5?

I think the contract with Home and Away stated if it changed broadcasters, it couldn't be shown for 12 months on the new channel. I know ratings were falling on ITV, but this massive break meant people forgot about the soap and ratings have struggled since.

I like "deleted". As Glenn says, there was a clause in the contract which said no other channel could show it for twelve months after ITV dropped it, basically so it would minimise the value for the next broadcaster. Hence also why for the last few months ITV made it far less prominent in the schedules, dropping the Friday episodes and in many regions dropping the lunchtime showing (I remember it being sold as being in all regions but Central for one kept it on) to drive the audience down, much like how the Beeb swapped around Doctors and Neighbours for its last few months on BBC1 so Doctors got the better slot.

To fill the gap C5 ran Back To The Bay, the magazine show, while they waited to show it. It's actually testament to the loyalty of that show's fanbase how many people stuck with it when it finally arrived on C5. A year before ITV dropped it, they dropped the lunchtime showing for a week for a snooker tournament and I remember William Phillips in Broadcast commending it on "a display of true viewer loyalty" because the teatime ratings skyrocketed to a figure that was very near the usual combined ratings for both showings meaning that people actively searched it out rather than only watching it at lunchtime because it was there. Minus the people who watched both showings, natch.

I wonder if that is why STV moved it back to 17.10 during Autumn 1998, instead of it being at 18pm.

Presumably that was because the news moving to 6.30 meant everyone had the regional hour at 5.30 and so everyone would have to do Home and Away at five. By the time it was networked at five I think the only regions still showing it at six were Central and HTV.

I do remember there moved emmerdale back to 19pm, but also kept Scotland today at 18.30pm with a whole line of shows taking the 6pm slot: including Price is right, we can work it out, Friday scotspot, Take your pick, Passport Quiz, What Will They Think of Next, wish you were here, Dharma and Greg, and others

For about six months before the news changes.

Ahem. "Keltic Prelude March" (composer: L. DeFrancesco) was the actual title. It was a piece of American library music, released on a 78rpm disc. I still have it.

Now one reputed website called it Keltic Kavalcade and I have quoted this before. Now it wouldn't surprise me if Border had the 78 in their vaults when Eastern Way was closed.

AIRC Home and Away was shown on Central at 6.00 in 1989 and 5.10 on Border, living in both regions at the time. I do recall a very interesting incident in the Common Room at University when someone demanded the Six O Clock News on and was told Home and Away was more popular and this character referred to Home and Away as braindead rubbish and pulled the plug out and smashed it. Sad thing was, much as I agreed with him, it meant no television for the rest of the night.

The transmitters you refer to are in the South Lakes. These were originally allocated to Granada, but were changed over to Border from the start of the 1982 franchise period at the request of Border themselves as they felt that the addition of the South Lakes to their broadcasting area would make the station more financially viable. At that time Border tended to close down early, seldom staying on air past 11pm, so viewers who were used to watching Granada and their later closedowns would have been in for a shock. These complaints would no doubt have been vindicated towards the end of 1982, when an ICTT strike put Border off the air for three weeks and leaving the area with no ITV service during that time, unless you were lucky enough to live in a part of the Border region where signals from a neighouring ITV company could be received.

Having lived in the Border region off and on since 1974, I do remember this and some viewers in what was Westmorland being quite narked at having what they considered a poorer contractor. To Border, though, they had received a nice, affluent part of the Granada region. I'm surprised they didn't go one step further and ask for Barrow and Furness as this had been part of Cumbria since 1974.
Still I did notice the inclusion of Westmorland seemed to add a bit more to Border's kitty and their programmes didn't seem as parochial and amateurish and they started to branch out.