[Admin PC]

And to clear up an area covered on the previous page - didn't STV, Grampian and UTV opt out of the national Channel 4 service to insert local schools programmes...in the same way that they inserted ad breaks?

[Steve in Pudsey]

I think so, and I think I read of a one-off case of STV/Grampian/possibly Border opting out for a Party Political Broadcast once.

[Clean Feed]

I think so, and I think I read of a one-off case of STV/Grampian/possibly Border opting out for a Party Political Broadcast once.

Seem to recall hearing that STV used to insert local Party Political Broadcasts at the point the national Channel 4 service closed down at night. Can't recall exactly how this was executed but almost sure I was told they waited until after the national announcer signed off.

[Deejay]

One thing to bear in mind though - the dreadful, rolling non synch cuts we all see on YouTube are mainly because video recorders in the 1980s were particularly poor at dealing with them, so most of the hash we associate with these transitions is because of that. TV sets of the time were far better at coping with a change of synch. If you were watching off air the most you might see is a very brief (and not even full frame) flash and perhaps a slight audio splat.

[robertclark125]

It's easy to forget, until spring 1989, there wasn't an interval before ITV Schools on 4. Instead, it was in vision teletext and ETP-1, then a minute of black before the opening junction of ITV Schools on 4. Once the Channel Four Daily began, they had to insert an interval. I suppose one reason for the interval was, when schools were on ITV, there had always been an interval, and so teachers, and "viewers" were just used to it.

[Neil Jones]

One thing to bear in mind though - the dreadful, rolling non synch cuts we all see on YouTube are mainly because video recorders in the 1980s were particularly poor at dealing with them, so most of the hash we associate with these transitions is because of that. TV sets of the time were far better at coping with a change of synch. If you were watching off air the most you might see is a very brief (and not even full frame) flash and perhaps a slight audio splat.

Not unique to home VCRs, professional ones couldn't cope either.
tvforum.uk 

Election 70: Special edited re-run - TV Forum
TV Forum Light Dark System Default Homepage TV Home The Newsroom Media & Tec…
  Source: www.tvforum.co.uk

And as you alluded to back in the day:
tvforum.uk 

ITV Schools on Channel 4 1987-1993 - Page 4 - TV Forum
TV Forum Light Dark System Default Homepage TV Home The Newsroom Media & Tec…
  Source: www.tvforum.co.uk

[Steve in Pudsey]

Yes I suspect the 09.25 interval was helpful to technically inept schoolteachers to know that they had the set tuned to the correct channel, and would be something calm while they tried to get the kids settled before the programme.

(The number of schools watching live rather than using a VCR was probably minimal by 1989 but the fact that they used the roto sequence indicates it was not zero)

[robertclark125]

Yes I suspect the 09.25 interval was helpful to technically inept schoolteachers to know that they had the set tuned to the correct channel, and would be something calm while they tried to get the kids settled before the programme.

(The number of schools watching live rather than using a VCR was probably minimal by 1989 but the fact that they used the roto sequence indicates it was not zero)

My primary school had a VCR, but most of the time, we watched the stuff live. Room 16, at Denend Primary. God, I still remember it yet, black curtains, red carpet tiles!

[James2001]

We were watching live when I started school in 1991, so there were doubtless plenty still doing so in 1989.

[Neil Jones]

I think I told the story before on previous forum incarnations but we did see some programmes live in my Year 4, which in my case was 1990/1. Probably in Year 3 and 2 as well. But also taped/pre-recorded.
Couldn't tell you what they were though. They were that exciting

And of course programmes continued to be recycled for viewing into secondary school years, remember some science programme that had been taped off Channel 4 Schools but had probably been made prior to 1993. And then when I went to college and a TV documentary was shown at some point in a class - again taped off the telly and it was pre 1986 as it had the then BBC Two ident at the start.