Wimbledon 2017

In a similar vein, the BBC station for Wiltshire was originally called Wiltshire Sound because GWR owned the copyright to the words Radio and Wiltshire appearing together (see here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/wiltshire/hi/tv_and_radio/newsid_8153000/8153549.stm ). It later did become Radio Wiltshire (and Radio Swindon), before eventually ending up as BBC Wiltshire.

BBC Somerset was also originally Somerset Sound, never sure why in this case, maybe because it was (and still is) a part-time opt-out of Radio Bristol rather than a station in its own right. Somerset Sound does sound more poetic than Radio Somerset, though!

In the 1990s there was also BBC Dorset FM and BBC Thames Valley FM.



It did in fact used to be BBC Radio WM (which doesn't trip off the tongue all that well), and before that it was BBC Radio Birmingham.

Yeah, from memory it's around the Friday of the first week that the schedules start to get shunted around to keep Murray on BBC One. The call on what to do can depend on the situation, though - I remember once it was the way a set point not long before 6pm went that decided whether or not the news was moved (I think because one way meant the match could be wrapped up a lot quicker than the other).

Up until recently, that Friday would clash with Glastonbury and there were a couple of years where there'd be press releases about the festival being live on BBC One for the first time with The One Show only for it to be moved to BBC Two. On one of those occasions there was a power cut at the Glastonbury OB shortly before they were due to go on air and it wasn't known until very late whether they'd be able to make it to air (both the One Show and BBC Three's coverage). All that going on while at the same time trying to negotiate a Wimbledon channel switchover.

It's always the most "fun" time of year to be in BBC playout, I recall..!

The reason they don't call it the X O'Clock News anymore is because it doesn't have the phrase "BBC News" in it.

Anyway, the best Wimbledon overrun in recent years was on the Saturday a few years back when there were no Brits playing at all but they carried on for another ninety minutes or so because they had nothing better scheduled.

With Pitch Battle getting less than 2m viewers I can see a repeat of that happening this year.

Well the first week depends on which half of the draw Murray is in, and who defending champion is as they always play Centre Court on the first day. As Murray is defending champ this year he plays Mon/Wed/Fri this week. The men are always scheduled to play Mon/Wed/Fri/Sun the second week.

I say this every year but I just don't get why they won't adjust the news schedule to accomodate at least the known 1pm Centre Court starts for Wimbledon as they would for the football and have done for the Olympics in the past, especially in the second week when it's the quarter and semi-finals beginning for an hour or so on BBC2 before the inevitable switch to BBC1. Could be an argument to for them simply to schedule the news from 7-8pm on the Monday, Wednesday and Friday of week 2 to begin with, although of course no guarantee matches won't either be wrapped up by 6pm or go beyond 7pm.

Going back to the early 90s Wimbledon coverage on BBC 1 started after Neighbours at 1.50pm. This was when play started at 2pm on the show courts. I think following all the rain delays in the mid 90s they moved it to a 1pm start. In the last few years they have moved play to start at 11.30am on the outside court, which almost in line with the other Grand Slams 11am start.

They could do with doing that tomorrow, as Watson v Azarenka starts on Centre Court at 13:00 while they'll probably still be showing Bedene v Muller.

Murray v Fognini is the third match on Centre court tomorrow so i thoroughly expect the news at 6 to move to BBC2.

Something they did last year a few times was to keep the Six on BBC One but to shorten them both so they could rush back on air on BBC One at 6:40. With it being a Friday I could see that option, if the match is still in fairly early stages at 6pm.

I think they've done that when the match has started at or just before 18:00, but not sure they would do it if it has been underway for a while on BBC One.

The usual issues with the sound levels from the commentary boxes again this year. Right now the play is drowning out Ron McIntosh and John Lloyd on the red button coverage of Bedene v Muller. Matches on centre court the last few days when there have been three commentators, one has been much louder than the other two.

I was working at Glastonbury that year.
It was an electrical storm in the area, and all the generators on site were turned off, including those feeding the TV Compound.

I think the storm passed and the power restored about 15 minutes before we were due on air.
Just enough time for all the kit to be rebooted!