Networked ITV - 1990s and before...

It seems it was the Kendal and the relay transmitters in the South Lakes were originally allocated to Granada.

Where is the transmitter for barrow?

Barrow and the surrounding areas receive their transmissions from relays at Millom and Walney Island, which are relays of Winter Hill. For all Millom was formerly in Cumberland, it has never been officially part of the Border region and is classed as Granada, although viewers could receive Border as well. Border, like BBC North East, ends a little south of Seascale.

I do have Another Enquire, does anyone know why CITV come about in 1983? and why Watch it started in late 1980?

I can only think it was ITV trying to take on the very successful children's programmes on BBC 1. Children's ITV was light years of BBC 1 pres wise- the BBC still used an out of vision announcer who had no connection to the output and the BBC 1 globe, while Children's ITV had an in vis announcer, idents and graphics to say what it was and a largely networked output. It really did catch the BBC out and two years later they decided to copy what ITV was doing.

I have family in Millom and from what I've seen Border reception doesn't make it anywhere near that south with the local terrain. I would say its not far south of Sellafield that reception ends.

I'm guessing technical considerations played issue to Border having the Millom/Barrow area, as I think the Millom Park transmitter would have issues receiving signals from Whitehaven, whereas Lancaster can be received easily (in fact a lot of the area pick up directly from Lancaster rather than the relay). The Morecambe Bay transmitter which towers above Askam would have been able to receive and relay Border, but it would have covered too far south making it unsuitable (for reference on FM it transmits The Bay all the way down the Lancashire coast).

Interestingly though I'm not sure the area was officially considered Granada. When ITV1 launched on Sky the area was assigned Border for a few years until it was changed I presume due to local complaints.

You could pick up Border reasonably well in Millom in the eighties , but this part of Cumbria is remote, having driven from Whitehaven to Barrow today, Millom is the only significant settlement south of Seascale, so it was logical Millom would go in with Granada as Barrow is closer than Whitehaven.
The same could be said of the BBC regions, which south of Seascale were served by BBC North West. However, since this is a very sparsely populated area where little happens, it is a dead zone.

You could pick up Border reasonably well in Millom in the eighties , but this part of Cumbria is remote, having driven from Whitehaven to Barrow today, Millom is the only significant settlement south of Seascale, so it was logical Millom would go in with Granada as Barrow is closer than Whitehaven.
The same could be said of the BBC regions, which south of Seascale were served by BBC North West. However, since this is a very sparsely populated area where little happens, it is a dead zone.

One reason why Watch It began was because the IBA were making noises that the kids shows on ITV weren't always that consistent - and indeed although there were many networked shows, the regions could often fill the time between them as they saw fit. If there weren't any networked shows, which was often the case on Thursdays for example, the regions would occasionally show a family film (I've got an ATV TV Times from 1980 when they've got a film on 4.20-5.45, while other regions showed Little House on The Prairie or Grizzly Adams). The launch of Watch It was presumably to draw attention to the kids shows and make them more consistent across the network.

And because it was all done regionally, I presume the idea of it becoming Children's ITV was because they wanted to make the whole thing one consistent strand across the network, as well as emphasising the schedule change which came about with the kids' shows now starting at 4pm rather than 4.15.

Yes, I recall Thursday 7th July 1977 (because it was 7/7/77 and I had a digital watch ) that Thames during that summer were showing The Time Tunnel at the 16:20ish slot on Thursdays. ATV would often show a Gerry Anderson made show in that slot around that era.

Border would sometimes stick on Lassie for an hour and that would be it in summer as Junior Television tended to be followed by Out of Town, not something many children would want to watch. Other regions sometime put on a boring family film to fill the slot from 4.00 to 5.45.
However, networked shows like the Tomorrow People, Sooty, Magpie and How were of a very high standard, it was just a case of how to fill the gaps when the networked shows were off air.

Thanks for your reply Steve, Do you know if there is any reports into this by the IBA? or something online which can provide ref? Im believe what your saying but Im hoping to get a bit more reading, by pure chance I found out about IBA report "Reactions to Sesame Street in Britain 1971" which still looking for. online newsapaper are not give anything much up.

with other ITV companies its a hit and mist what you got!
Thursday 7th July 1977
STV: doing there best! The Lost Islands 16.15. Woody woodpeacker 16.45. Professor Kitzel 17.15-17.20
UTV: not caring: Solo one and Little house on the.....
Border: The Lost Islands 16.15 Tazan 16.45 -17.45
Grampian: Space 1999 16.15. Woobinda 17.15

Monday was networked 16.15-17.15 including Clapperbroad and Shawdows:
Tuesday was networked 16.15-17.15 including Runaround:
Wednesday was network 16.15-17.15
Friday was network 16.15-17.15. with UTV showing The Flintstones at 17.15.

But if we say fast forward to 1st week in October 1978 and again 3rd week in April 1980. its the same again with Thursday being the non network day where most of the companies did what there like, SO Why was Thursday given free-range? It seems Tuesday was also the same until 1977. ( it does seem little house was a popular choice for that thursdays slot.

I dunno why Thursdays were such a free-for-all, I know HTV Wales used to do their knock-off Welsh language Blue Peter equivalent on a Thursday, so maybe the regional companies had demanded a day to do their own thing, or maybe BBC1 was just incredibly strong in a Thursday. A look through the IBA Yearbooks suggests there was a conference in 1981 that led to "a fundamental reappraisal of ITV's whole approach", whatever that means.