TV Home Forum

Split Personality

A question about ITV pre 1968 (March 2019)

This site closed in March 2021 and is now a read-only archive
MA
Markymark
623058 posted:
JKDerry posted:
In terms of local news for London, it did become a sort of joke when the rest of the country got their regional news, and London/SE got "Get Smart".

Happened on ITV too, when Rediffusion would "rest" their local news over the summer, Three After Six would be replaced with cartoons or Bonanza.


Many local areas did that, Grampian only had three, 6pm bulletins a week until 1978.. It wasn't until the late 70s most stop the summer gap. Grampian kept the name summer north tonight until 1990...

Why was the BBC so bad for Kent Viewers?


It was ( and still is) a long way from Lime Grove and Elstree
SP
Steve in Pudsey
But closer than say Scarborough is to Leeds.
SP
Steve in Pudsey
JKDerry posted:
It was weird during the early days of BBC Breakfast Time in 1983, when the rest of the country opted out for local news at 6.45am, London/SE had Frank Bough sitting on the couch telling us of London news stories and Francis Wilson would give a brief update in the weather in the capital before the rest of the network rejoined.


Was that really any worse than what most regions were putting out in the same slot? A presenter with a locked off camera doing effectively a radio news bulletin with a few slides.
TJ
TedJrr
Neil Jones posted:
I think prior to 1968 it would have been somebody closes at the end of the day Friday and somebody else comes on the air first thing Saturday morning for two days and then it changes back again behind the scenes..


So, in London and the North there would have been a PO swich at some time (probably around 0700? ) where AR at Television House was swapped-out for ATV from Foley Street; in the North it would have been more complex as Granada's Winter Hill and Emley Moor feeds were swapped for ABC's feed from Didsbury. (Does anyone know if ABC North, like Granada had split feeding to the two tx?). In the Midlands, there would have been no switch as both ATV and ABC broadcast from Alpha Studios.
TJ
TedJrr
Closedown posted:
Steve in Pudsey posted:
Would the usual convention of the TV day beginning at 0600 not have applied?
?

A scenario where Thames overran 1715/1900 Friday, perhaps because of a live event, would be an interesting 'what if?' but never heard of it happening.


I doubt that it did, but if it had (and the content were important) then presumably the switch would have occurred right on 1715/1900. To keep the content on air THS would have needed to have fed their content to LWT, who cut the same thing to their outgoing tx feed....
TJ
TedJrr
Markymark posted:
ed out from a joint facility in Birmingham (Alpha Studios ?)
Yes.

Markymark posted:
so the same situation as post 93 in London, (so LNN wasn't a new idea !), but in the north Granada Quay St and ABC Didsbury, and in London ATV Fowey St, and Rediffusion Wembley
Was it Wembley or Television House?
TJ
TedJrr
Neil Jones posted:
In an alternative universe I wonder what could have happened if the ABC and Rediffusion merger to create Thames hadn't happened? I presume there were other bidders for London weekday, though I think we came to the conclusion before of whoever won what franchise and assuming the legislation played out the same as it did, the end result of a single ITV was always going to be the same just possibly with a different merging operation.


Weren't the ITA expected to award ABC the London weekend franchise? They were so impressed with LWT's pitch that the assumptions all changed.

The ITA/IBA had a bit of a history in being impressed with bids loaded with big names. Ultimately, things went wrong:

Very Happy The original ATV had to merge with Lew Grade's ITC, which itself had unsuccessfully bid.
Razz LWT had to be rescued by of all people Rupert Murdock.
Shocked TV-AM we all know about....
MA
Markymark
Steve in Pudsey posted:
But closer than say Scarborough is to Leeds.


In the time it took to whizz up the A64 from Leeds to Scarbourgh on the A64, you’d barely have reached Dartford on the North or South Circular from Elstree or the Bush
MA
Markymark
TedJrr posted:
Neil Jones posted:
I think prior to 1968 it would have been somebody closes at the end of the day Friday and somebody else comes on the air first thing Saturday morning for two days and then it changes back again behind the scenes..


So, in London and the North there would have been a PO swich at some time (probably around 0700? ) where AR at Television House was swapped-out for ATV from Foley Street; in the North it would have been more complex as Granada's Winter Hill and Emley Moor feeds were swapped for ABC's feed from Didsbury. (Does anyone know if ABC North, like Granada had split feeding to the two tx?). In the Midlands, there would have been no switch as both ATV and ABC broadcast from Alpha Studios.


I wonder if back then the ITA control rooms (situated at Winter Hill, Emley, Lichfield, and Croydon) actually
had relevant feeds from the companies' studios, and they (the ITA) did the switching (which they did anyway back then, to switch from the Test Card to the 'Start Ups' every morning (and afternoons too !)

I wonder if the PO circuit switching came in from 1969 (S-Night ?), with 625/colour operations ?
BA
bilky asko
Markymark posted:
Steve in Pudsey posted:
But closer than say Scarborough is to Leeds.


In the time it took to whizz up the A64 from Leeds to Scarbourgh on the A64, you’d barely have reached Dartford on the North or South Circular from Elstree or the Bush


Presumably that's very dependent on traffic in both cases - Leeds to Scarborough is about an hour and a half, but in current traffic (for example) would be more like an hour and three quarters.
SP
Steve in Pudsey
Markymark posted:
Steve in Pudsey posted:
But closer than say Scarborough is to Leeds.


In the time it took to whizz up the A64 from Leeds to Scarbourgh on the A64, you’d barely have reached Dartford on the North or South Circular from Elstree or the Bush

Although by train fairly comparable
MA
Markymark
Steve in Pudsey posted:
Markymark posted:
Steve in Pudsey posted:
But closer than say Scarborough is to Leeds.


In the time it took to whizz up the A64 from Leeds to Scarbourgh on the A64, you’d barely have reached Dartford on the North or South Circular from Elstree or the Bush

Although by train fairly comparable


Do/did TV News crews travel by train ?

Newer posts