BBC North West
 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification.(June 2022) |
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 BBC North West's area within the UK | |
| TV transmitters | Winter Hilland all relays. |
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| Radio stations |
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| Headquarters | MediaCity,Salford Quays,Greater Manchester |
| Area | |
| Nation | BBC English Regions |
| Regions | North West,Isle of Manand parts ofYorkshireandEast Midlands |
Key people |
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Launch date |
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| BBC |
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BBC North Westis theBBC English RegionservingCheshire,Greater Manchester,Lancashire,Merseyside,as well as parts ofNorth Yorkshire(westernCraven),Derbyshire(westernHigh Peak),Staffordshire(Biddulph),Cumbria(Barrow-in-FurnessandSouth Lakeland) and theIsle of Man.
The region also covered the rest of Cumbria during the late 1980s, complete with an opt-out television news service for the area, before it was transferred to the BBC North East region owing to high viewer demand. Today, the region is part of the largerBBC North divisionbased atMediaCityUKinSalford Quays.
Services
[edit]Television
[edit]BBC North West produces regional TV news, used to produce current affairs and still has sports output including the flagship nightly news programmeNorth West Tonight,alongside daytimeNorth West Todaybulletins and opt-out updates on weekdays duringBBC Breakfast.
Non-news output used to consist of the current affairs programmeInside Out North Westbut the programme and current affairs output was abandoned. It still makes a political opt-out. The rugby league highlights programmeThe Super League Show,produced by PDI Media at theBBC Yorkshirestudio in Leeds, is also simulcast to north west viewers.
Radio
[edit]The region is the controlling centre forBBC Radio Lancashire,BBC Radio ManchesterandBBC Radio Merseyside.
Radio Manchester, Radio Merseyside and Radio Lancashire broadcast between 5am and 1am on weekdays and between 6am and 12am on Radio Lancashire (until 1am on Radio Merseyside). The three stations only simulcast forBBC Newsbulletins each evening, with Radio Manchester and Radio Lancashire also simulcasting the weekday late show andIndus,an Asian community programme on Sunday evenings.
Online and Interactive
[edit]BBC North West also produces regional news & local radio pages forBBC Red Buttonand BBC Local News websites for each county and the Isle of Man.
History
[edit] |
Radio
[edit]Regional broadcasting in the North West began on 15 November 1922 when the BBC opened its Manchester radio station2ZY,followed two years later by the opening of a Liverpool-based relay station, 2LY.
At this point, the Manchester operation covered the entire North of England and northern parts of the Midlands, with relay stations in Leeds (2LS), Hull (6KH), Nottingham (5NG) and Stoke-on-Trent (6ST) carrying 2ZY output. Early broadcasts were made from studios at theMetropolitan-Vickerselectricity works in Old Trafford.
When theBBC National Programmecommenced from London, output from Manchester was moved to theBBC Regional Programme,and in 1929, operations started from Broadcasting House, a leased studio complex above a bank in Piccadilly Gardens. From March 1936, the Manchester-based Northern radio service began serving Northern Ireland after the opening of a new transmitter atLisnagarvey(albeit with an additional local opt-out). A year later, the opening of the Stagshaw transmitter also allowed listeners in the North East and Cumbria to receive an opt-out from the main service.
When regional radio services resumed after the Second World War, Manchester-based output was broadcast on a Northern version of theHome Service,which would continue to serve Northern Ireland until January 1963.BBC Local Radiowas introduced to the North West on 22 November 1967 with the launch ofRadio Merseysidein Liverpool, followed on 10 September 1970 byRadio Manchesterand on 26 January 1971 byRadio Blackburn(later relaunched as BBC Radio Lancashire).
The expansion of local radio services led to a gradual reduction of regional radio programmes (covering both the North West and Yorkshire areas from the Holme Moss transmitter) on what had now becomeBBC Radio 4.The last regional programme to be aired on Radio 4 North was an early-evening news opt-out on Friday 12 September 1980. Regional output for the North West would later resurface on the BBC's local radio stations in the evening and late night time slots.
The BBC has never produced radio services for theIsle of Manalthough national BBC radio is available. Local radio services on the island are provided by Manx stations such asManx RadioandEnergy FM.
Television
[edit]When the BBC launched daily regional television news in September 1957, the whole of northern England was initially covered as one region from Manchester. Short bulletins calledNews from the Northbegan broadcasting on 30 September to what are now the North West,Yorkshire & North Midlands,East Yorkshire & LincolnshireandNorth East & Cumbriaareas.
Two years later, the opt-outs were refocused to cover the North West, including the Yorkshire & Lincolnshire areas, as the North East and Cumbria were now receiving their own news bulletins. By 1962, the bulletins had been expanded into a 20-minute magazine programme and renamedNorth at Six,and later,Look North.[citation needed].
The current North West region was introduced on 25 March 1968 when a separate Leeds-based edition ofLook Northfor Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and the North Midlands was launched.
Between 5 April 1976 and 12 September 1980, BBC North West made use of regional presentation and continuity announcers during weekday evening programmes on BBC1.
Also in 1980, the Manchester edition ofLook Northwas renamedLook North Westin an attempt to avoid confusion for neighbouring viewers in Yorkshire. Regional television news remained at Piccadilly Gardens until finally moving into New Broadcasting House in Oxford Road on 18 May 1981.
On 3 September 1984, the programme changed to its current title ofNorth West Tonight.Between 1986 and 1989, the region also covered parts of Cumbria that were previously served by the Newcastle edition ofLook Northand provided a news opt-out for the area served by the Caldbeck transmitter at lunchtime. However, viewers' complaints led to Cumbrian news coverage being switched back toLook Northfrom Newcastle.
After 30 years of operation from New Broadcasting House, BBC North West television began broadcasting from MediaCityUK at Salford Quays on the morning of Monday 28 November 2011.
Studios
[edit]
From 1929 until 1981, many of the BBC's Manchester operations were based at Broadcasting House in the Piccadilly Gardens area of Manchester City Centre. The building had been leased to the Corporation from a bank on the ground floor and became the central control room for regional and network radio production from the city.
In 1954, a former Methodist church on Dickenson Road inRusholmebecame the BBC's first Manchester television studio,Dickenson Road Studios.It was brought fromMancunian Films,who had converted the church building in 1947.[1]
The Dickenson Road facilities became the main home of the city's network production base, providing facilities for television drama. It was here that the early editions of the long-running programmeTop Of The Popswere produced.[2][3]The BBC's northern outside broadcast units were located at another former church nearby, on the corner of Birch Lane and Plymouth Grove inLongsight.[4]
Meanwhile, regional television news and presentation began in September 1957, firstly from the crypt at Dickenson Road, before moving two years later to Broadcasting House inPiccadilly Gardens.
By 1967, planning had begun on creating a new broadcasting centre which would house radio and television on both network & regional levels as well as rehearsal space (studio 7) for the BBC's Northern Symphony Orchestra (later to become theBBC Philharmonic).
New Broadcasting Houseon Oxford Road began operations in July 1975 when network television production was transferred from the Dickenson Road studio into the much larger Studio A. Studio B, which would be used for regional TV news (Look North West,North West Tonight) was opened in May 1981, allowing the BBC to vacate its studios at Piccadilly after 52 years.
Regular production in Studio A continued until 2000, when it was mothballed. Meanwhile, the BBC launched a joint facilities venture withITV Granada,called3SixtyMedia,which saw both broadcasters pool their studio resources at both Oxford Road andGranada's Quay Street complex.As a result, Studio A was re-opened in 2005 as a four-waller, primarily for drama productions includingLife on Mars.
BBC North West moved into new studios atMediaCityUKinSalford Quaysduring Autumn 2011. The new development houses all departments previously based at New Broadcasting House alongsideBBC Children's,BBC Sport,BBC Radio 5 Live,BBC Breakfast,BBC Learningand BBC Future Media departments and services, creating the biggest broadcast operation outside London. As part of the move, New Broadcasting House was sold off to Reality Estates Ltd for £10 million in April 2011.
In addition to their headquarters, BBC North West haslocal radiostations and news bureaux located inLiverpoolandBlackburnand a district office inChester.
See also
[edit]
References
[edit]- ^Richards, Jeffrey (15 September 1997).Films and British National Identity: From Dickens to Dad's Army.Manchester University Press. p. 267.ISBN978-0-7190-4743-5.Retrieved28 May2022– via Google Books.
- ^Humphries, Patrick (28 November 2013).Top of the Pops 50th Anniversary.McNidder and Grace Limited. p. 23.ISBN978-0-85716-063-8.Retrieved28 May2022– via Google Books.
- ^Bignell, J.; Lacey, S. (12 May 2014).British Television Drama: Past, Present and Future.Springer. p. 108.ISBN978-1-137-32758-1.Retrieved28 May2022– via Google Books.
- ^"The end of the Oxford Road Show (video)".g7uk.24 September 2012. Archived fromthe originalon 26 February 2021.Retrieved28 May2022.
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