[Stooky Bill]

It's not exactly a mystery why 1st Jan was chosen, it's the first day of the year, legally its just neater and easier. Lots of stuff ends at midnight on NYE, that night there was a lot of change happing to broadcasting Channel 4's independence, Oracle/Teletext, the Marcopolo satellite closed. It would have been odd to have some of the changes not happen then

It actually worked out quite well for the new regional companies - they got their big bang launch at midnight and then 6 hours of nighttime and then a bank holiday weekend to find their feet and show themselves off before launching their new evening regional news programmes on the Monday which was the first proper weekday of the year.

Though it didn't work out that well for Carlton of course, they came on air for 6 hours, then off again then on for another 8 and weren't seen again till Monday. It was a even softer launch than the others, but without the weekend to introduce themselves to the viewers

[JMT1985]

It's not exactly a mystery why 1st Jan was chosen, it's the first day of the year, legally its just neater and easier. Lots of stuff ends at midnight on NYE, that night there was a lot of change happing to broadcasting Channel 4's independence, Oracle/Teletext, the Marcopolo satellite closed. It would have been odd to have some of the changes not happen then

It actually worked out quite well for the new regional companies - they got their big bang launch at midnight and then 6 hours of nighttime and then a bank holiday weekend to find their feet and show themselves off before launching their new evening regional news programmes on the Monday which was the first proper weekday of the year.

Though it didn't work out that well for Carlton of course, they came on air for 6 hours, then off again then on for another 8 and weren't seen again till Monday. It was a even softer launch than the others, but without the weekend to introduce themselves to the viewers

"A Carlton New Year" was the programme provided by Carlton to celebrate the new year. I remember the ITN News bulletin leading into the chimes of Big Ben at midnight. There was a problem with the connection from ITN to Carlton if I remember right, and we missed out on a smooth transition at the stroke of midnight, where Big Ben chimes got out of sync for a second. 

And then we had a greeting from the new Carlton presentation, which was a shock, compared to what we had been used to from Thames Television, followed by Chris Tarrant live at Trafalgar Square for a few moments, before what I read was a recorded show, taped earlier sometime to see in the night.

[Steve in Pudsey]

I think the glitch at midnight was the handover from Thames to LWT

youtu.be 

[James2001]

No different to the glitch that happened either side of TV-am.

[Steve in Pudsey]

literally the same glitch, and the Friday 5.15 one.

[James2001]

Of course, there's no glitch on the TVS-Meridian switch, as they still came from the same studios.

[Stooky Bill]

Yes, there was a lot of switching going on at midnight. The circuits feeding the transmitter changing from originating from the South Bank rather than Thames. The missing bongs will either be because the two stations were taking the shot of Big Ben from different sources or some sort of difference in delay in their playout. Carlton were (I think) live in Trafalgar Square so could well have been providing the clock face from that OB)

There was also a bit of a glitch a few minutes later when Teletext went to air, presumably their data bridges being put into line at the transmitters.

Normal caveat about VHS recordings making the switching look a lot worse than it was at the time. The regular switch between Thames and LWT, and the one between them and TVam were quick and barely noticeable



There was a similar situation in the south west as Westcountry had a totally new transmitter distribution put into line at midnight so it wasn't just a change of origination point (I read somewhere that it was accidently put to air earlier that evening briefly)

We were watching Channel 4 that night and there were switching glitches on there too, again they went from gojng via the ITV companies to a new distribution network. Then, like ITV, Teletext caused a little disturbance when that went to air

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And then we had a greeting from the new Carlton presentation, which was a shock, compared to what we had been used to from Thames Television, followed by Chris Tarrant live at Trafalgar Square for a few moments, before what I read was a recorded show, taped earlier sometime to see in the night.

Some of it was pre recorded, some was live. The studio bits presumably days before. The bits like the items in Trafalgar Square and the hospital were probably live

The item in the LNN newsroom was recorded, if you look at the TVs behind Roy Castle you can see Thames branding on air

[James2001]

There was a video of the Big Breakfast show that went out over midnight, Chris and Gaby mention the fact Channel 4 are now selling their own advertising, cue a spoof break full of cheap 70s cinema adverts.

Was also the end of ETP-1 and 4-Tel on View on Channel 4, with just a caption with the time of the first programme of the day shown during downtime, 4-Tel did return a few months later, was never the same as it was pre-1992 though.

[Roger Darthwell]

I never understood why ETP-1 was ditched though

[Steve in Pudsey]

That's a good point - presumably the ITN programme got to the network via Central or another of the big regions rather than Thames on that occasion?