A question about Granada before 1968

1990/1 ish I think ?

I think ABC did concern itself with London as that was the home of their major production studios.

There was also a regional magazine type strand that used the TM set at one point.

Granada’s news presentation moved to the Albert Dock studios in April 1986 and remained there until 1998 when they returned to Manchester full time. They kept it as a newsroom until 2006.

Prior to that Granada did have a studio located at Exchange Flags in Liverpool, which also had a programme go by the same name.

I believe the move to the Albert Dock was in response to those claims that Granada was too Manchester centric, it may have also been part of its licence renewal for 1982. Why it took until 1986 to complete the move is beyond me.

Whilst This Morning was also broadcast from the Albert Dock, they weren’t in the same building as Granada News.

I'm not sure it was as early as that. The Albert Dock facility was the UK's first component video installation, it was quite a landmark installation, and I attended a talk by Granada's then chief engineer about it. That was 1990/1, certainly no earlier.

Unless there was inital presence with the TM studio from 87ish? , which as you point out was in the opposite corner of Albert Dock

Regeneration of the derelict dock didn’t begin until 1983, so I doubt there was anything in their franchise renewal about moving there. The first buildings to reopen were in 1986, so Granada was one of the first.

The Tate Gallery is part of the same development....

Studio 5 at TLS was engineered in component form for the launch of BSB, was that a around 1990? The control rooms were in a Portacabin on the podium roof. I wonder what vision mixer Granada used, can you remember just out of interest? TLS used a GVG200CV.

I can't remember, it might have been a GVG200CV. They were monsters with their screened cascade ribbon cables that ran between the YUV frames. I installed one at Champion TV in Hammersmith for BSB Sports, drove home from the final install day there and heard on the car radio about the Sky/BSB merger <facepalm emoji>

Yes, the 1987 IBA Yearbook has a large feature about Granada's move to Liverpool, which as you say was in 1986.

Phil Redmond's comments in 1991 mirrored those of Merseyvision in the previous franchise round in 1980, who also competed against Granada claiming Liverpool had a poor service, although I think it's Under the Hammer that said Merseyvision's application slagged off the current ITV system so much "the IBA wondered why they even wanted to be part of it".

The Granada News move to Liverpool was, indeed, in April 1986. The exceptions being late, weekend and bank holiday bulletins which continued to be read by the on duty continuity announcer in Manchester. It was based in the old Dock Traffic Office,

This Morning started on October 1988 in a unit of the Colonades, at the opposite end of the dock. I'm assuming the programme was routed via the news building back to master control at Quay Street but I've never read anything about the networking arrangements of This Morning (anyone know much about this?).

The This Morning studio started to be used by Granada Tonight during the former's summer break in the early 90s for things such as Granada Tonight Weekend. This would be more of a magazine style programme, a bit like This Morning itself. They'd throw over to the newsroom for quick bulletins a couple of times during the programme.

In October 1993, the main evening Granada Tonight programme moved back to Manchester. Never heard an official reason for this, but it seems the move coincided with making the programme more magazine style, like Granada Tonight Weekend. They clearly thought to format was a success but using the This Morning studio was impractical outside of the summer recess, as was the news buidling, presumably due to space constraints. Like in Weekend, they would throw to the newsroom in Liverpool for a quick news bulletin during the programme. The Liverpool newsroom was compensated somewhat by taking over the late, weekend and bank holiday news bulletins which had, up to that point, been read by the continuity announcer in Manchester.

In September 1996, This Morning moved to the LWT studios. For a while after, perhaps to somewhat temper any potential controversy, they continued to throw over to the Albert Dock for the weather for a few years. Can't recall exactly when this stopped. Might have been when the news moved out of Liverpool.

In January 1998, Granada News & Granada Tonight had a revamp. Not much difference but the throw to Liverpool during the main Tonight programme seemed to end at this point, with the main anchors doing the whole shebang.

In October 1998, there was another revamp of the news and Tonight. The news operation was transferred wholesale back to Manchester. In the same month, Shop! channel was launched in the Liverpool building. Seems all this coincided with Granada's playout facilities transferring to Leeds; quite probably all on the same day.

Shop! closed down in April 2002, leaving the Albert Dock studio with only the residual role as a news gathering facility with down-the-line camera for inserts into Granada Tonight.

Granada closed the Albert Dock studios in July 2006, with news gathering for the area transferred to an office in the Royal Liver Building. This remains the situation to this day.

Pre-Albert Dock, Granada did have a studio at Exchange Flags, as mentioned up thread. A bit before my time but I read that it was operational by June 1980 and initially was mainly used for inserts into Granada Reports (a bit like the Leeds studio in the 60s). Th afternoon programme Exchange Flags came a bit later (1983?).

In the pre-1968 era, I'm not sure Granada had any presence of note in Liverpool. Know little about the 1968-80 era also. Presumably, little to nothing.

May also be that now the franchise renewal was done and Phil Redmond's company had lost, they felt safe to cut back as they didn't have to look good with Liverpool coverage to the ITC any more.