Fascinating stuff - a return to how this forum used to be donkeys years ago...! Actually I had always assumed that Monday's Newcomers was precisely for distributing advertisements to the regional contractors, similar to the reason BACC playouts existed (are they still?! Or have all playout centres moved to an electronic form of ad delivery now?)
Fascinating stuff - a return to how this forum used to be donkeys years ago...! Actually I had always assumed that Monday's Newcomers was precisely for distributing advertisements to the regional contractors, similar to the reason BACC playouts existed (are they still?! Or have all playout centres moved to an electronic form of ad delivery now?)
No - "Newcomers" wasn't used for distribution. For a start, the commercials were laced together without the end freeze* and anyway they were nearly always film commercials which the agencies distributed to the companies on - erm - film!
* The 'freeze'. Commercials were made to very strict specifications. In the case (for example) of a 30 second commercial: the first second would have pictures but no audio and the audio would run for 28.5 seconds. After the 30th second there would be a freeze frame for ten seconds. This was because it was common practice to hold on to the "freeze" on the last commercial on a film reel when the station was trying to fill time in a junction. In an endbreak, you might find the VTs, film and slides all scheduled with a +1, +2 or even sometimes +3 in order to pad the junction out. (At the BBC we still have a +1 available on each trail, which is often used to adjust exact timings.)
What happened if there was nothing to distribute round the network? On Sub-TV, one person suggests that on a Friday, they saw a different slide. Instead of YTV's own slide, they saw the lightspots caption, but without the greyscale at the top and bottom. Was this networked from ATV Birmingham?
No, ATV wouldn't network a variant caption. It's more likely that YTV's telecine dept had more than one version of the Schools interval slide (very probably both labelled 'schools interval' in shaky pencil) and a different slide aired sometimes. Frankly, very few Transmission Controllers cared tuppence about slides, graphic or house styles. Things that nowadays would warrant focus groups, meetings, more meetings, and copious emails were in those days decided by a lad with a sheet of Letraset and a camera!
I just want to add that I also really enjoy reading your posts Tony.
Its great to have these insightful posts from someone who knows what they are talking about.
As a kid (in the 80's) I thought I was a weirdo being so interested in TV and trying to pick up the other regions from the Channel Islands (I think Yorkshire was the furthest we got, but I would have to check with my brother to confirm it), but now I know I am not alone.
Anyway gone off on a tangent there sorry.
Back to the subject kind of and forgive me again for taking it away from STV. I presume even Channel would have used a local caption as opposed to one from the dirty Westward/TSW and then TVS.
I just want to add that I also really enjoy reading your posts Tony.
Its great to have these insightful posts from someone who knows what they are talking about.
As a kid (in the 80's) I thought I was a weirdo being so interested in TV and trying to pick up the other regions from the Channel Islands (I think Yorkshire was the furthest we got, but I would have to check with my brother to confirm it), but now I know I am not alone.
Anyway gone off on a tangent there sorry.
Back to the subject kind of and forgive me again for taking it away from STV. I presume even Channel would have used a local caption as opposed to one from the dirty Westward/TSW and then TVS.
Did Channel actually show schools programmes. I seem to recall that until the early 1980s, they didn't get going in the mornings until 12:00 ?
I do remember their commercials being distributed to them on C4 Rowridge (and RBLs) during the mid 1980s. The C4 ETP-1 Test Card would fade to black at 09:30hrs on Fridays, and a block of ads would appear, I'm quite sure some had VT Clocks on them too. Took 10-15 minutes, and then after a few seconds of black, back to ETP-1 and music from Charlotte St once again. Only ever appeared on the 'TVS South' C4 transmitters. Can anyone confirm seeing the playout on the 'TVS East' network ? (Dover, Heathfield, Bluebell Hill)
Apologies for resurrecting an old thread but this caught my eye as I remember the 10.30 interval from Tyne Tees land (and the various interval slides and captions which appeared). We tended to get an announcement from the duty Tyne Tees announcer stating that 'programmes for schools will be back at 11.05 with My World', or similar, then a selection of music from Tyne Tees' own library.
These 10.30-11.00 haituses disappeared around 1981 (they were certainly gone by Autumn 1981 when schools programmes were almost scheduled with a maximum of a five-minute junction between them, as opposed to longer intervals of up to 10 minutes which were common before then). However, there were occasions when Tyne Tees (and other companies) opted-out of the networked schools junction to show their own slide (usually their copy of the current week's networked slide) and play their own music, rejoining network later in the junction, usually at the top of the countdown clock. Cock-ups (late opt-outs, etc) made it obvious there was a standard networked junction coming up the line from Central which they opted not to trasmit. Tyne Tees tended to do this at the same times each week (eg. 10.57-11.02 Mondays, 11.32-11.34 Fridays) with no apparent reason - they weren't opting out of the networked programming at all. They even did this during the long apology captions shown in Autumn 1984 during the Thames strike - opting out of the caption at the point when the 10.56 interval would have appeared, and rejoining the caption five minutes or so later.
Can Tony, or anyone else, suggest a reason why such opt-outs may have occurred?
The only reason I can think is that a message had to be broadcast to certain regions only, and Tyne Tees was not one of those regions. This could be a news report, or a transmitter off air announcement. Only once have I seen an announcenet, this case a slide faded in and out, during the ITV schools on 4 era.
In that case though, wouldn't that region have opted out for the announcement rather than Central originating it?
Would this perhaps have been before a programme which Tyne Tees were playing out to the network, requiring a bit of messing about with genlocks?
I see your point Steve, but no - none of the junctions concerned involved a programme originating at Tyne Tees - in fact, I don't think TTTV networked any programmes for schools.
Apologies for resurrecting an old thread but this caught my eye as I remember the 10.30 interval from Tyne Tees land (and the various interval slides and captions which appeared). We tended to get an announcement from the duty Tyne Tees announcer stating that 'programmes for schools will be back at 11.05 with My World', or similar, then a selection of music from Tyne Tees' own library.
These 10.30-11.00 haituses disappeared around 1981 (they were certainly gone by Autumn 1981 when schools programmes were almost scheduled with a maximum of a five-minute junction between them, as opposed to longer intervals of up to 10 minutes which were common before then). However, there were occasions when Tyne Tees (and other companies) opted-out of the networked schools junction to show their own slide (usually their copy of the current week's networked slide) and play their own music, rejoining network later in the junction, usually at the top of the countdown clock. Cock-ups (late opt-outs, etc) made it obvious there was a standard networked junction coming up the line from Central which they opted not to trasmit. Tyne Tees tended to do this at the same times each week (eg. 10.57-11.02 Mondays, 11.32-11.34 Fridays) with no apparent reason - they weren't opting out of the networked programming at all. They even did this during the long apology captions shown in Autumn 1984 during the Thames strike - opting out of the caption at the point when the 10.56 interval would have appeared, and rejoining the caption five minutes or so later.
Can Tony, or anyone else, suggest a reason why such opt-outs may have occurred?
It wasn't at all uncommon for companies to do their own schools intervals but usually when they were showing their own programmes. So it's quite possible that at these times TTT was actually opting out and showing their own timeshift of a network programme. if this had been recorded 'up the line' it would have come from ATV's dirty feed and so would have included the interval but possibly with the wrong slide. (Remember they changed every week) Hence the apparent cock-ups. TTT might not have been opting back to the network but cutting in to a tape that had the previous week's captions on it. Don;t know if this is the correct explanation but it's the most obvious.
to confirm it), but now I know I am not alone.