Scottish/Grampian TV Continuity

Guys

I've been watching Scottish TV Continuity this weekend (you can tell I am on holiday with nothing better to do!) - isn't it dreadful?

If you thought ITV1 was bad this is just dire - boring scripts and each link sounding exactly the same - who is the woman on tonight who sounds like she clicks her mouth before she speaks?

Even the promotions, which mainly use the national scripts, are voiced poorly with no enthusiasm by the CA's - one woman in particular sounds like she is reading at a funeral.

Who are the announcers? Surely SMG can do better than that!

I tell you what though - Jim Symon is/was astonishing as an SMG voiceover. I cannot express in words how much I loved hearing his continuity. In my opinion, he is what it should be like - informal, improvised, friendly and lively, occasionally OTT but highly entertaining. Have a watch of some of the TV Room clips to hear him.

You've just said what I was thinking, the only thing I hate on the continuity announcing team is that that lady, I believe it's Kate or something, her voice is dreadful; she sounds depressed....

She *is* depressed.

Glasgow is awfy dreech compared to Edinburgh.

Mind you, they did come up with a cracker last night.

"In an hour's time Terry Christian talks about sex and girls in It's My Life"

Sounded like Father Jack was doing an announcement. My how some of the viewers must have been very disappointed.

Anyway, back on topic - yep, the continuity is pathetic. They seem to have resigned themselves to the inevitable - ie that they are going to lose their jobs to national continuity at some point, and are doing a half-assed job. Keep a special eye out for the now/next/laters, which consist of the announcers simply reading out the programme titles, without giving any information, before finishing far too early and leaving us with the generic titles. If they even bother.

UTV may be technically incompetent and shambolic, but at least they've got a life about them; ITV PLC may be annoyingly young, but they sound as if they give a toss about the programmes (sometimes) - SMG are just bland and stuck about 10 years out of date.

SMG currently work with a team of seven announcers, including four freelancers. I think it was Brian and Annie on air yesterday; tonight it is Maggie.
SMG need to allow their freelancers to voice some promos. Currently only the three staff members voice the promos. Therefore, the situation frequently arises where you can have four promos in a break, three of which are voiced by the same person.
They should never have got rid of the “famous five” at Grampian. Those were the days my friends, I thought they’d never end.


Or listen to him on the early shift, every other weekend on Grampian and Scottish.

I hate the male freelancer who is on at weekends who sometimes adds "ENJOY" at the end of his link it's so cheesy and old hat. It's NOT Jim.

Annie Scott is just dreadful.In my opinion she is the worst on the team.She just can't be bothered it's all to much of an effort .I thought her scripts last week after the London bombings were extremely poor especially into the Tonight programme.

Ah, the "ENJOY" thing... when I first heard it I thought that we had an announcer with a degree of personality trying something different. When I heard it two links in a row, it began to sound like he'd mis-timed his link and put the added word in to fill a gap. Either way, it ain't good.

The continuity team at Cowcaddens might think they'll be goners soon, but the one sure fire way to ensure that is to be so dull and generic that you attract criticism. Eventually SMG will begin to wonder "Hang on, why are we paying wooden announcers to read network scripts badly and sound bored between programmes over ancient idents when we could just pay ITV PLC to do it instead?" The only reason I don't think it happens right now is that I remain convinced SMG are determined to force ITV into buying them out, and ITV see them as an obstacle to having a single brand. If they were to simply rebrand to ITV1 Scotland on their own, it would take a substantial reason for buying Scotland over away. (May be completely inaccurate, I hasten to add, but it's always the feeling I've had).

But the promo department was done away with, and the next step would appear to be outsourcing continuity, or even the whole of presentation. While I would hate to see it happen, if I were in charge of SMG, a PLC after all, it would almost certainly be in the interests of the company to do it. It would save money and result in better presentation.

It's time for the announcers at SMG to step up to the plate and show their worth. Show why Scotland would miss them if they were ditched. Show why they must stay. While it may not have helped the cause of Grampian's IVC, they were at least missed. Who could say the same of the current lot if they were dumped tomorrow?

I can't understand why ITV are not interested in buying SMG out i thought they wanted a single ITV.I have to admit wanting to hold on to the Scottish TV brand in the past.However it is just so bland and boring i couldn't care if they get rid of it now.It's easy for us all to slag off the announcers on here but it's down to Head Of Broadcast or Presentation if such a role exists at SMG.

When Bobby Hain took over there i thought that he would have a clear out but the management obviously don't care about the on air look and sound of their stations.

It's NOT Jim, but it IS Colin.I thought you KNEW that Lewis.


Actually, it was "ENJOY" at junction one, and "ENJOY NOW " at junction two.Now, WHY do I know this?

You are he, aren't you?

No, honestly.
If you are interested, Donna from River City is on Scottish at present..