[Stockland Hillman]

Random thought but, thinking back to the days of the Peter ‘Clunk’ Levy self-op in Leeds, with new playout systems would it not be easier today to do. Build the bulletin in Mosart (I know the regions don’t have Mosart, but for example!), simply press F12 to transition through the bulletin, etc. Probably a host of reasons why not, but I’ve wondered for a while!

It's fairly common practise in Europe to have off-peak local bullitens self-op or editorial-op, where a non technical producer steps through the automation while the presenter reads.

With Ross Overdrive in BBC regions its possible to run that way, perhaps with simplified opt endings of a weather map hold to the rejoin point to cover timing slips.

Most presenter and producer journalists would have come from local radio self driven news bulletins with a hard end time, so have those skills in timing.

It's outside sources, lives, studio guests and new material to insert in running order that a director is very much needed for -