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Old 24th Dec 2016, 10:04 pm   #1
thermionic
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Default 'Colour comes to Westward'

Whilst out Christmas shopping today, I found this in the back of a local publication in a vintage book shop. The date on the cover was ' Spring 1970'.


Just goes to show we're behind the times down here.....


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Old 24th Dec 2016, 10:32 pm   #2
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Default Re: 'Colour comes to Westward'

What's £250,000 worth today? Seems Westward was a cash strapped company. Also, some other regions were late changing to colour, so it would appear not all ITV companies transmitted colour in 1969.

DFWB.
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Old 24th Dec 2016, 10:52 pm   #3
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Default Re: 'Colour comes to Westward'

Around £3,715,000 according to this is money, it's probably the case that it would be a lot cheaper in real terms now than it was then!
Westward was one of the smaller companies and probably very cash strapped. It was the first independent licence holder for the period 29 April 1961 until 31 December 1981 and well regarded in the area.
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Old 24th Dec 2016, 11:03 pm   #4
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Default Re: 'Colour comes to Westward'

We didn't get our first colour set until 1973 a Philips G8 and living in Liskeard at the time our picture came from Caradon.

That same year one of Caradons stay wires was hit by a Hawker Hunter which then crashed.

ISTR that the service was terminated for a while though as far as I know there was no damage to the transmitters or aerials, someone else may know more of the history.

Cheers

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Old 24th Dec 2016, 11:50 pm   #5
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Default Re: 'Colour comes to Westward'

I suppose what they were able to buy, would at least have had the advantage of any developments that had taken place over the previous few years

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Old 25th Dec 2016, 9:10 am   #6
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Default Re: 'Colour comes to Westward'

That certainly was not the case from Caradon Hill.We got a new BRC 3000 set in Jan 1971 and BBC2 was the only transmitter on. BBC1 showed the BBC2 test card with a BBC1 caption overlaid from March, and Westward showed their own slide which I remember had a slight magenta cast on grey. Their sole camera was also used for the in vision presenter which included Gus Honeybun's Birthdays. Merry Christmas!
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Old 25th Dec 2016, 10:19 am   #7
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Default Re: 'Colour comes to Westward'

Several of the smaller ITV companies were struggling to 'colourise' in the early 1970s; November 1969 being the start date for the major companies and BBC1. Tyne-Tees tried very hard but weren't completely in colour until around 1972. Border, Grampian and Channel were also a little late to it. It should be remembered that in some cases the UHF 625 transmitter for the area wasn't on-air until 1971/2 and so there wouldn't have been much point in spending to output the studio in colour until it could be transmitted in colour. It must have been re-assuring for the Westward viewers to know that Gus Honeybun was converted to colour at an early stage!

The problem many of the smaller companies had was that they produced very little for the network which meant they couldn't justify colourising their studios if their local Tx wasn't on air. Sadly, the change to colour finished off network contributions from some smaller companies. There had been to odd, maybe once weekly shows from some of the smaller companies in the B/W days but, with the push for colour, they sort of lost their place and never regained it.

As a guide: a decent colour studio camera of the time, at the time cost £27K.

Last edited by Nicklyons2; 25th Dec 2016 at 10:20 am. Reason: grammar
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Old 25th Dec 2016, 11:35 am   #8
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Default Re: 'Colour comes to Westward'

I used to like seeing all the different ITV company logo's when they were networked. Can't ever remember Ulster or Channel TV being networked though.

What was the last region to go colour?
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Old 25th Dec 2016, 12:43 pm   #9
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Default Re: 'Colour comes to Westward'

I remember it well. We moved down here from Kent in 1970, we had just gone through the transition to 625 UHF there from Crystal Palace, we arrived here to 405 lines still, from Stockland hill

Westward was a lovely TV station though and reflected the lack of cash in its presentation, I remember one presenter telling us in detail about their baby that had just been born, to fill in a break in transmission but that's how it was, very endearing, I missed it sadly when it went 'professional'.

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Old 26th Dec 2016, 1:01 am   #10
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Default Re: 'Colour comes to Westward'

Quote:
Originally Posted by colly0410 View Post
What was the last region to go colour?
Channel TV as late as summer 1976. The ITV 1972 book reported that all ITV regions operated on 625-lines, "Except the local programmes from Channel TV".

Channel took the network feed from Westward's Stockland Hill transmitter. Quite a complex procedure seeing both transmitted on ch9.

Brilliant find Simon. Many thanks for sharing it.
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Old 26th Dec 2016, 9:55 am   #11
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Default Re: 'Colour comes to Westward'

Clearly only the large franchises had the 'licence to print money'.

In those days commercials were played out locally. Were these in colour before local programmes?
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Old 26th Dec 2016, 1:19 pm   #12
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Default Re: 'Colour comes to Westward'

The commercials were (and are) the main priority and, consequently were aired in colour ASAP. At the time commercials were almost always on 35mm film and a pair of telecine machines (T/K) could give an awful lot of value for money. They could air all the commercials, any series made on film (that's almost everything at the time from the US, + Avengers, Saint, Champions, The Baron etc) all in colour. To mount even the smallest local magazine prog you'd need 3 colour cameras and they'd be tied up all day for rehearsals etc, just to get a half-hour show. As evidence of this Tyne-Tees, for example, had to air some colour film progs on a B/W T/K occasionally if they'd a machine down for maintenance or a colour filmed news story to send down the network.
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Old 28th Dec 2016, 3:10 pm   #13
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Default Re: 'Colour comes to Westward'

Westward were mainly an RCA station, If I remember correctly during a visit they had two RCA quad VTR's (possibly converted to colour operation but I'm not sure) and an RCA TCR100 video cart machine for playing out commercials and trailers etc. As Nicklyons2 correctly points out most comms were played out from a 35mm telecine machine, where I worked we had a number of these and the machine that played out the 35mm comms (day in, day out) was actually a Rank Cintel Mk1 telecine that had been converted to colour operation. Very solid, very very reliable.

Although the ITV stations were quick to convert comms playout to colour, when I asked if the advertisers were charged a premium I was told that was not the case, the introduction of colour was used to 'enhance' the attraction of ITV rather than a straightforward business proposition. That's what I was told anyway.

Comms were spliced together into a continuous reel, each reel containing about 20 mins worth of comms with attendant countdown leaders and black in-between etc. So a day's worth was about 10 reels - each reel was lettered alphabetically to identify it, and, each reel was previewed completely before transmission - not a popular job.

Claim to fame - I have had my hand up Gus Honeybun, let's leave it there. (Not my hand obviously!)
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