[steve]

I’m not sure if they were the first to do it, but the TLRC network were doing this back in 2002. The system wasn’t that robust back then, and sometimes if a station’s server was running slow, the local name drop would fire slightly late meaning you’d hear the presenter talking over themselves which slightly spoilt the illusion.

TLRC’s mid-00s networking was ahead of its time but, as you say, less than reliable with the kit all the stations had…

Many a time I’d get into the studios at 4.45am and find the network feed going out over the local automation.

Or the evening presenter would forget to put up the network fader before leaving so there’d be silence at 7pm.

And not to mention when the entire network seemingly crashed about 2.45pm on Christmas Day leading to many dinners being interrupted so we could dial into the studios remotely and ensure QEII went out at 3pm.