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It is an interesting story about regional news for London and the South East - at the BBC, the region was treated poorly, as they felt any big news story in London would feature on the national news, so why bother with a proper regional news service, it would simply be duplication.
However when regional news was extended in length by the early 60s, it became obvious there would be a big hole in their weeknight schedule in the region so TOWN AND AROUND was created as a sort of light magazine type show for the region.
ITV were really bad in the early years, with regional news totally ignored by Rediffusion until their relaunch in 1964 when they created THREE AFTER SIX which was in a way a similar format to TOWN AND AROUND, more lighter magazine style show.
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There's also that bizarre period where LWT didn't have a news operation so when the handover time changed and they had to do the early evening news on Friday it was cheaper and easier to pay for Thames News to produce it for them.
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(19-08-2023, 11:10 AM)Steve in Pudsey Wrote: There's also that bizarre period where LWT didn't have a news operation so when the handover time changed and they had to do the early evening news on Friday it was cheaper and easier to pay for Thames News to produce it for them.
You are right. Up until Jan 1st 1982, LWT had started their Friday at 7pm, however the new franchise period from Jan 1st 1982 saw their start time on Fridays moved to 5.15pm, something they had wanted for years, as they accused Thames of airing crap programming at 6.30pm on Fridays to give LWT a poor lead in.
However this mean LWT was responsible for the Friday evening regional news, which they didn't want to do so they contracted it out to Thames for £500,000 a year to provide 16 minutes of regional news on Friday evenings on LWT under the title "THAMES WEEKEND NEWS" - which mainly had a short one minute update at 5.15pm and the main 15 minute bulletin during LWT's Six O'Clock Show.
IBA wanted LWT to do more, and so under duress LWT agreed to air two short "LONDON NEWS HEADLINES" on Saturdays and Sundays, but not anywhere near peak time, usually mid afternoon and very late night - this bulletin was simply the LWT continuity team reading out the latest news from London provided by news wires and LBC Radio - there was no film reports, no autocue, just a bare basic radio news bulletin read on TV.
That all changed in 1988 when after so much pressure from the IBA, finally LWT launched a proper regional news service.
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(19-08-2023, 01:09 PM)JMT1985 Wrote: You are right. Up until Jan 1st 1982, LWT had started their Friday at 7pm, however the new franchise period from Jan 1st 1982 saw their start time on Fridays moved to 5.15pm, something they had wanted for years, as they accused Thames of airing crap programming at 6.30pm on Fridays to give LWT a poor lead in.
However this mean LWT was responsible for the Friday evening regional news, which they didn't want to do so they contracted it out to Thames for £500,000 a year to provide 16 minutes of regional news on Friday evenings on LWT under the title "THAMES WEEKEND NEWS" - which mainly had a short one minute update at 5.15pm and the main 15 minute bulletin during LWT's Six O'Clock Show.
IBA wanted LWT to do more, and so under duress LWT agreed to air two short "LONDON NEWS HEADLINES" on Saturdays and Sundays, but not anywhere near peak time, usually mid afternoon and very late night - this bulletin was simply the LWT continuity team reading out the latest news from London provided by news wires and LBC Radio - there was no film reports, no autocue, just a bare basic radio news bulletin read on TV.
That all changed in 1988 when after so much pressure from the IBA, finally LWT launched a proper regional news service.
en.wikipedia.org
In a way I can understand how London was seen as simply "the capital" instead of being a mass of towns and people. If London was just that a'la Canberra then a "magazine-style" would be suitable but its the "human factor" that prevents that (NB Canberra does have suburbs)
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