Re-regionalization

Well the Oxfordshire news 'appears' to come from Oxford for viewers of the South Today Oxford sub-opt. Although the studio is currently a CSO set in Southampton, the backdrop is of an Oxford street scene...

The reporters for the sub-opt are, in the main, based in Oxford, and the reports cut in Oxford, so I expect viewers are reasonably happy - given the option of an opt-out from London, Cambridge or Birmingham would possibly be worse...

As for Berkshire viewers - they have always had South Today as their local news programme - and it covers the patch pretty well... Having a wider newsgathering area than Meridian Newbury kind of helps on slow news days!

Is anyone remotely interested in hearing my plans for re-regionalisation?

Go on then, treat us!

You'll have a job making them more comprehensive than my analysis earlier on, but have a go anyway. You might not want to unashamedly restrict yourself to your local area like I did, but then I know nothing about transmitters.

I'm reading this thread like, "hmm, that's sounds like a good idea...".
Reads criticism in next post.
"Of course it's not a good idea, silly idea, utterly foolish..."

OK, here goes with Part 1!!

LONDON, SOUTH EAST AND EAST ANGLIA.

LDN continued in existing form, but with catchment area extended to include Essex. A Crystal Palace relay transmitter would be constructed near Witham to provide this service.

LDN would also be carried on a smaller transmitter north of the city, at Welham Green, serving ‘commuter belt‘ southern Hertfordshire and Watford.

South East Today would continue unmodified, but Bluebell Hill would increase in power to provide viewers along the Essex side of the Thames Estuary with a choice between LDN and/or South East Today.

Tacolneston, Sudbury and their associated relays would continue to broadcast Look East.

Cambridge would be part of the Look East region with its own dedicated transmitter, a relay of Sudbury.

To improve the signal in the north of the region, a Tacolneston relay would be constructed at Fakenham, and another relay of comparable strength to Fakenham at Downham Market would be constructed for West Norfolk.

MIDLANDS AND THE HOME COUNTIES.

A new transmitter for southern Lincolnshire, East Midlands Today’s area increased, new regional programming for the Home Counties and a dedicated news service comparable to LDN for Birmingham/Wolverhampton and Coventry.

There appears to be no dominant transmitter for the Fenland area of northern Cambridgeshire and south Lincolnshire. Many of the homes in this area of England seem to point either to Waltham (East Midlands Today), Belmont (Look North with Hull sub-opt) or Sandy Heath (Look East). To gain a more unified identity a new transmitter would be constructed in the region close to Weston Hills (transmitter name simply Weston), near Spalding.

This transmitter would be of 300k strength, and transmit East Midlands Today/Central News East. Peterborough would join the region with its own city transmitter, as would Skegness and Ingoldmells, with a Weston relay at Burgh-le-Marsh. Newark-upon-Trent would join the region from the current Look North area. Overall, the region would comprise of its existing centre of Nottingham, Leicester, Lincoln (ITV programme would change from Calendar to Central News East), Peterborough, Rutland, the Fens, Stamford, Melton Mowbray, Spalding, Wisbech, Sleaford, Horncastle, Boston, Skegness, Kettering and Corby. The coverage area I have suggested would seem large, but economically and politically sensible.

To resolve the large north-south area covered by the current Midlands Today, re-regionalisation would provide Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Coventry and immediate nearby towns with their own dedicated news programme. The area would serve Wolverhampton, Birmingham, Kidderminster, Worcester, Redditch, Dudley, Sutton Coldfield, Cannock, Lichfield, Tamworth, Hinckley, Nuneaton, Rugby, Coventry, Warwick, Leamington Spa and Stratford-Upon-Avon from the Sutton Coldfield transmitter, reduced from its current power to 300k, with support relays wherever poor reception from Sutton Coldfield currently exists. The ITV programme broadcast would be Central News West.

Towns and cities currently receiving Midlands Today through the Ridge Hill transmitter would transfer to the area of Britain served by Points West. Default ITV programme would be HTV West.

The towns of Telford, Shrewsbury, Bridgnorth and Ludlow would receive the Birmingham programme, albeit with a partially sub-opted service via The Wrekin transmitter, and small studio located at BBC Radio Shropshire. Default ITV programme would be Central News West.

The Home Counties of England would form a new region, roughly based around the western area of the Look East region. The BBC news programme would be called Home Counties Today/Tonight, and be based in Milton Keynes.

Coverage area would be southern Northamptonshire including Northampton itself, Daventry, Banbury, central and northern Hertfordshire, most of Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire. The main transmitter for this new service would be located at Cranfield.

Existing relays for Look East in this region such as Dallington Park would remain in place, but transmit Home Counties Tonight/Today. The Hemel Hempstead transmitter would commence broadcast of this new service, instead of LDN.

A considerably reduced power Sandy Heath transmitter would act as a relay for Cranfield, and serve the Huntingdon, St Neots, Biggleswade and Letchworth area alone.

Rest of Britain to come as soon as I've done research!

Just a few points, Katherine:



1. No LDN in Essex please! SE Today would need to be modified to include Essex in its catchment area. How about Witham relaying Bluebell Hill rather than crappy Crystal Palace?



2. Good idea, Katherine! No more Sandy Heath!



3. No need. North Norfolk will be covered by Look East (Hull) along with East Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and North Nottinghamshire.



4. There really is no need for this transmitter. It would unecessarily duplicate Waltham. Plus, Lincolnshire should be removed from the East Midlands political region IMO (More on this in the Political Regions thread in The Lounge). Anyway Lincolnshire is going to be part of the new Hull-based TV region (BBC Look East (Hull)).



5. Hmm, what about the northern area of the Midlands Today region around Stoke on Trent?



6. Good idea, I've said this countless times before!



7. Yes, that would make sense but what about CN West? Would it have any opt-outs? You could have an opt-out of North West Today/Tonight and Granada Reports based in Shrewsbury, if The Wrekin transmitter transmitted Granada/BBC North West.



8. Hmm, no, Katherine, how about this instead:

The Sandy Heath transmitter is dismantled and replaced by the Yardley Chase transmitter near Northampton (East Midlands Today/Central East) and the Madingley transmitter near Cambridge (relaying Look East (Norwich)/ITV Anglia from Sudbury). Yardley Chase would have an ERP of 250kW.

Even the people living in Northern Hampshire (myself included) resent the BBC's local news output coming from Southampton. The coverage of Berkshire and North Hampshire (ie most of the Hannington service area) is poor at the best of times especially when compared with the excellent service offered by Meridian.

Yes! Home Counties Today had this in my singature until the forum went weird.

I'd love for that to happen, and totally agree that the Hemel transmitter would be much better off with it than LDN, as it never gets hardly any coverage on LDN, and would be far better getting news from other areas of Herts/Beds.

David H: Your idea of EMT and/or Look East from Norwich covering this area wouldn't work as the coverage area would be far too large, and we'd end up with no coverage.

Ah yes, I remember that! Remember the BBC1 screensaver you had with Home Counties for the news programme? Hehe

Yep!

One day Home Counties Today will arrive...I hope!!

Stop trying to assosiate Coventry with Birmingham! We hate it! Come here, and you'll find people and events in Warks, Leics and Northants affect us more.

I don't like much of your plans, katherine, and I gave mine once before on here.

I do also suggest that Lincolnshire is removed from the Central region, and also Peterborough, Oxfordshire, Swindon, and Gloucestershire- and Wrexham and Crewe, of course.

It would be hard to avoid the huge overlap down the centre of the Midlands (between the official West/East Midlands border) no matter what, so it's a waste of time preaching.


Central News.
With Lisa Foden and Richard Brown.
All this week on Carlton Central.

Look East (Norwich) would only cover the Cambridge area. How about an East Midlands Today opt-out for Northamptonshire, Bedfordshire and the Milton Keynes area (the area covered by the Yardley Chase transmitter)? This would probably come from the BBC Radio Northampton studio.