I remember the MTV channels had a "backup tape" of music videos that was used for absolutely years. It must have been compiled in late 2000 judging by the tracks that were on it (Stan by Eminem and Overload by the Sugababes spring to mind), and it was certainly still appearing occasionally well into the 00s.
I don't remember Mark and Lard doing it, though they had more than their fair share of breakdowns, I think the end of their penultimate show was ended early by the line going down.
Mark and Lard's final show famously broke Radio 1, they overran by about ten minutes and it ended with Lard saying "Stop!", which after a pause would usually be followed of course by "...carry on". But obviously this time it didn't, and the emergency tape kicked in.
I remember when Danny Baker was on Virgin they had to put the emergency tape on which was two Barenaked Ladies singles on a continual loop, and as the breakdown lasted about twenty minutes they were both played about four times each (I think on MW, I think FM had gone completely off air). Then when they came back on Dan kept it going because he liked the song. Then started to play the other one before saying "Only joking!".
Sometimes when radio stations rebrand or there is a major change of the presenting line up the emergency tape is the last thing on anybody's mind, until it ends up being used and then out goes a collection of old jingles/presenters voices/songs they haven't played in a month of Sundays.
Pretty sure this has happened on occasion since consolidations and take overs and the trend of networking everything from one location and only being truly local for about three hours a day (or more should it snow).
Happens with obit packages on TV too, they sit around for years and hopefully someone's remembered to revoice the ones where the reporter has moved on.
That was definitely a Moyles feature, not sure if it ever did kick in though.
Last time I heard a clip of them doing this, it wasn’t 100% silence, the microphones were still up and you could hear ambient noise. Surely that wouldn’t have let the emergency tape/DAT kick in?
That was definitely a Moyles feature, not sure if it ever did kick in though.
Last time I heard a clip of them doing this, it wasn’t 100% silence, the microphones were still up and you could hear ambient noise. Surely that wouldn’t have let the emergency tape/DAT kick in?
I think most ‘silence’ detectors don’t actually require 100% silence to kick in. IRN always used to send ILR stations a reminder to disable silence detectors before the Remembrance silence, even though it was always ambient silence sent down the line.
Or just crank the gain up on the fader which the ISDN line on the desk back in the studio.
Increased volume of the wind, muttering downstream in the press box, and the predictable lone shouting of some disrespectful idiot in the away end got you through it.
Just remember to take the levels back down again 5 seconds before the minute was up, otherwise with the blast of the refs whistle and the roar of the crowd would send the sound monitor level needles horizontal.
I’ve been wondering which ITV region had the biggest geographical footprint? Coverage from some transmitters could be received much further afield than their intended catchment area.
Anglia could be received quite clearly in central London, and when it was broadcast from Belmont I expect the signals covered much of East and North Yorkshire. I even picked up what seemed to be a fuzzy Belmont signal in North Northumberland. That’s quite a big patch of the UK.
HTV covered quite a large area (all of Wales and the former county of Avon, much of Gloucestershire, Wiltshire, Devon - and signals went further of course).
In the VHF days I believe those signals generally travelled further than their UHF counterparts?
What examples do people have of picking up distant transmitters/TV regions?
It's certainly true that VHF and UHF had different characteristics. Compare Holme Moss serving the whole of the North of England with VHF compared with the requirement for Emley Moor and Winter Hill on UHF.
That was definitely a Moyles feature, not sure if it ever did kick in though.
Last time I heard a clip of them doing this, it wasn’t 100% silence, the microphones were still up and you could hear ambient noise. Surely that wouldn’t have let the emergency tape/DAT kick in?
I think most ‘silence’ detectors don’t actually require 100% silence to kick in. IRN always used to send ILR stations a reminder to disable silence detectors before the Remembrance silence, even though it was always ambient silence sent down the line.
I seem to remember (I think) Radio 3 having to turn of the emergency tape for a "performance" (if you can call it that) of 4:33, which would also have been ambient silence.
BM
BM11
I was on TV briefly as a kid - they filmed an alternate version of the school assembly (more comedy) to the version performed for parents where the audience reactions were filmed and combined the two.