Emley Moor Archives - ITV 1963 | Transdiffusion presentation

ABC Television

Midlands and North (Saturdays and Sundays)

ABC is the company which, under agreement with the Independent Television Authority, provides the television programmes in the North and Midlands on Saturdays and Sundays.

1 Hanover Square, London W.1.
HYDe Park 7222
City Centre House, 30 Union Street, Birmingham 2
MIDLANDS 6083
Television House, 12 Mount Street, Manchester 2
DEANSGATE 4597


Area         ITA      Channel   Vision    Sound    Opening Date  Population ITA Homes
          Transmitter          Frequency Frequency                  000's     000's
                                 Mc/s      Mc/s

Midlands  Lichfield       8     189.75    186.25   17th Feb 1956     8,850    1,765

North     Winter Hill     9     194.75    181.25    3rd May 1956  }
          Emley Moor     10     199.7372  196.2605  3rd Nov 1956  } 12,452    3,282

Directors

Sir Philip Warter (Chairman); E G M Fletcher LL.D, MP (Deputy Chairman); Howard Thomas (Managing Director); C J Latta; R Clark, LL.B; D J Goodlatte; G A Cooper.

Officers

C J Orr, FCA (Secretary); B R Greenhead (Technical Controller); R H Norris (Advertisement Controller); B Tesler (Programme Controller); D Southwood (Northern Executive and Chief of Outside Broadcasts); E G Harris (Midlands Executive); L Shirley (Features Supervisor); R Taylor (Light Entertainment Supervisor); Penry Jones (Religious Adviser).

Staff

Total members of staff 957 (excluding Alpha Television).

Visits to Studios

A limited number of tickets are available for audiences at certain shows. Applications, enclosing stamped addressed envelopes, should be made to the Ticket Controller at the address of the studio from which the programme originates. The minimum age is sixteen.

Enquiries

Enquiries about artistes and programmes should be addressed to Viewers’ Correspondence, ABC Television, Broom Road, Teddington, Middlesex.

Submission of Scripts

Present requirements are for 60-minute plays, 30-minute children’s serials and 60- or 45-minute series scripts. But programmes change, and authors should contact story editors for the appropriate category to learn of future trends before submitting outlines or scripts.

Programme Journal

TV Times publishes separate editions for the North and Midlands areas giving details of the available programmes.

Studios

DIDSBURY STUDIO CENTRE, Manchester (Didsbury 8181). Winter Hill and Emley Moor transmitters receive their weekend programmes via the ABC master control rooms at Didsbury. Here too is based the Outside Broadcast fleet. The main studio has a stage area of 5,000 sq. ft. and has seating for an audience of 600. The second studio has an area of approximately 1,000 sq. ft., and there is a presentation studio attached to the dual master control rooms, plus an announcer’s booth for sound only.

BIRMINGHAM. Alpha Television Studios, Aston, Birmingham (Aston Cross 3091), are jointly owned by ABC and Associated TeleVision Limited. There are three studios of 3,000, 1,200 and 380 sq. ft., and master control and technical areas which were housed in a new building during 1962.

TEDDINGTON STUDIO CENTRE, Broom Road, Teddington (Teddington Lock 3252). This modern studio centre has been established close to London, where the main body of artistes is available. It specialises in the recording of drama, light entertainment and feature programmes. Studio 1 has an area of 7,500 sq. ft.; Studio 2, 4,750 sq. ft.; and Studio 3, 2,500 sq. ft. The technical equipment covers an area of 8,000 sq. ft. and is fully multi-standard with immediate switching between 405, 525 and 625 line standards. The new central block, opened in 1962, has in addition 13,000 sq. ft. of rehearsal rooms, an acoustically treated recording studio of 1,700 sq. ft., and scenery assembly and handling facilities.

Outside Broadcast Units

ABC have three Outside Broadcast units based at Didsbury, all with 4½” cameras and a smaller vidicon unit. In addition, the mobile videotape recorder can be equipped with one or two cameras, there being a total of twelve available between the units, There are seven microwave link units with portable power generators, and a hydraulic platform tower truck.

Videotape Recording

There are two machines based at Didsbury, together with the mobile unit. At Teddington there are four standards-switchable transistorised recorders together with standards converter equipment. At Alpha Studios, Birmingham, there are two machines.

Colour Television

One of the flying spot telecine channels at Teddington is equipped for the generation of colour signals, and programmes from Teddington have been experimentally radiated by the Croydon transmitter. In addition, numerous public demonstrations have been given over the GPO network, notably those using the continental SECAM system.

Technical Developments

A considerable amount of apparatus was specially developed for the Teddington Studio Centre in order to achieve full multi-standard operation. All this newly developed equipment is transistorised, and, in particular, vision switching matrices and pulse and vision distribution amplifiers have been used in considerable numbers.

Programmes

ABC productions include: News and News Magazines: ABC At Large. Talks, Discussions and Documentaries: The Other Man’s Farm, The Bookman. The Arts: Tempo. Science and Natural History: You’d Never Believe It! Religion: The Sunday Break, Living Your Life, Journey of a Lifetime, Sunday Morning Service, Epilogues. Adult Education: Headway. Sport: extensive outside broadcast coverage of all sporting events, including such minority sports as tenpin bowling, motor cycle scrambles, indoor soccer and amateur boxing. Children’s Programmes: Once Upon A Time. Drama Programmes: Armchair Theatre, The Avengers, Dimension of Fear (four-part thriller serial), Secret Beneath the Sea (six-part children’s serial), Ocean Liner series (untitled). Variety, Light Entertainment and Music: Thank Your Lucky Stars, Sing Along, The Best of Friends, Comedy Bandbox, Candid Camera, The Dave King Show, Life and Al Read. Entertainment Films: several film series produced in collaboration with ABC include The Human Jungle, Sir Francis Drake. Dramatised Documentaries: The Sword in the Web.

Granada TV Network

The North (Mondays to Fridays)

Granada TV Network Limited is the company which, under agreement with the Independent Television Authority, provides the television programmes in the North of England from Monday to Friday.

Granada TV Centre, Quay Street, Manchester 3.
DEANSGATE 7211
36 Golden Square, London W.1.
REGent 8080


    ITA    Channel   Vision     Sound    Opening Date   Population ITA Homes
Transmitter        Frequency  Frequency                    000's      000's
                      Mc/s       Mc/s
Winter Hill     9    194.75     191.25     3rd May 1956   }
                                                          } 12,452     3,282
Emley Moor     10    199.7372   196.2605   3rd Nov 1956   }

Directors

Sidney L Bernstein*; Cecil G Bernstein*; Denis Forman*; Maurice King; Victor Peers*; John Todd; Joseph Warton*; Richard Willder.
* Executive Directors

Officers

Alex Anson (Sales and Advertising); Sir Gerald Barry (Schools and Education); Patrick Crookshank (Overseas Sales); RH Hammans (Director of Engineering); William Nugent (Chief Engineer).

Programme Committee

The Executive Directors and Harry Elton, Tim Hewat, Philip Mackie. Secretary: Kenneth Brierley.

Art and Science

Granada has endowed a Television Research Fellowship at Leeds University, a chair of Drama at Manchester University, a Chair of Communication at Keele University, and an Annual Arts Fellowship at the University of York. The Company has also made grants to repertory theatres in the North.

The Granada Guildhall Lectures

Each year Granada, with the British Association for the Advancement of Science, arranges a series of three lectures on the subject of Communication in the Modern World, with international speakers lecturing in London’s Guildhall. Television versions of the lectures are transmitted.

Research

Granada has commissioned special audience research surveys – Granada Viewership Surveys (three editions) and What Children Watch.

Overseas

Granada has interests in television stations in Canada and Nigeria.

Programme Journal

TV Times publishes a special edition for the North of England giving details of the available programmes.

Studios

THE TV CENTRE, MANCHESTER 3. Deansgate 7211. Granada’s five-acre site is an important feature on Manchester’s city development, on the City Centre ring road, near the new Courts of Justice and Government offices. In 1956, when Phase I of the TV Centre was completed, it was the first building in Britain originally designed for television. Today Phase V of the TV Centre development plan has been finished. There are six studios, floor-space totalling 23,860 sq. ft. Granada also has an audience studio at Chelsea, London.

Outside Broadcasts

Granada has 16 outside broadcast vehicles, including mobile Ampex videotape recording units.

Videotape Recording

Granada has ten Ampex videotape machines at the TV Centre, in its mobile videotape recording vehicle and at its London studios. The TV Centre has a 16-mm. Dubbing Suite for putting sound on film.

Technical Developments

Granada was the first to use a standards conversion unit to “translate” videotape recordings from European to United States line standards. In 1958 the Granada unit converted Eurovision pictures of the Coronation of Pope John to the American System, so that videotape recordings could be flown to New York for immediate transmission. Granada uses mobile videotape equipment for covering news events and recording inserts for programmes. All television facilities at the Manchester TV Centre have been planned, designed and commissioned solely by Granada Planning Engineers. The recently-completed Studio 12 is one of the most up-to-date television studios in the country. The vision mixer system, designed for the most complex operations, is controlled by one third of the buttons and switches normally needed. Half the vision is transistorised and incorporates equipment designed by Granada Design and Development. Granada studios have developed a unique system of lighting grids.

Programmes

Granada programmes include: News and News Magazines: Northern Newscast, Scene at 6.30, a daily news magazine. Talks, Discussions, Current Affairs: What the Papers Say, I Believe…, Appointment With…, election and political party conference coverage, World in Action – special reports from Granada units overseas. Past programmes have covered South Africa, India, Cuba, France and Britain. Natural History: Breakthrough, Animal Parade, Another World, A to Zoo. Schools (for sixth-formers): Discovery, Inquiry, Design, The Art of Music, Art in the Making, Patterns of Power, Word and Image. Plays and Drama Series: regular contributions to the Play of the Week and Television Playhouse series, including works of Jean Anouilh, Elizabeth Baker, Alexander Baron, Harold Brighouse, Friedrich Duerrenmatt, Clive Exton, Lillian Hellman, Stanley Houghton, Donald Howarth, Carson McCullers, Arthur Miller, Allan Monkhouse, Peter Nichols, JB Priestley, William Saroyan, Bernard Shaw, Thornton Wilder; Younger Generation series, 11 plays by new writers, performed by a repertory group of actors; the Saki series, dramatised short stories by HH Munro; de Maupassant dramatised short story series; The Victorians, plays by Victorian writers; The Verdict is Yours; Coronation Street. Light Entertainment: West End, Chelsea at Nine, Bootsie and Snudge. Music: Rosalyn Tureck playing the Bach preludes and fugues; recitals by Oistrakh, Rostropovich, the Borodin String Quartet; concerts by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra; Orpheus in the Underworld, by Sadler’s Wells Opera Company; Cinderella by the Royal Ballet Company; Josh White Sings.

The North

WINTER HILL
Population within measured contours: Primary 6.43 mn, Secondary 0.53 mn, Fringe 0.63 mn. Total 7.59 mn.
Channel: Band III Channel 9 (vertically polarised)
Vision Carrier Frequency: Actual 194.75 Mc/s
Sound Carrier Frequency: Actual 191.25 Mc/s
Effective Radiated Power: Vision 100 kw. Sound 25 kw.
Power of Transmitters: Vision (peak white) 10 kW. Sound (carrier) 2½ kW
Heights above sea level: Site 1450 ft. Mean aerial 1,850 ft.
Location: 2° 30′ 55″ W, 53° 37′ 35″ N.

EMLEY MOOR
Population within measured contours: Primary 3.36 mn, Secondary 0.995 mn, Fringe 0.555 mn. Total 4.91 mn.
Channel: Band III Channel 10 (vertically polarised)
Vision Carrier Frequency: Nominal 199.75 Mc/s. Actual 199.7372 Mc/s
Sound Carrier Frequency: Nominal 196.25 Mc/s. Actual 196.2605 Mc/s
Effective Radiated Power: Vision 200 kw maximum. Sound 50 kw maximum.
Power of Transmitters: Vision (peak white) 10 kW. Sound (carrier) 2½ kW
Heights above sea level: Site 850 ft. Mean aerial 1,250 ft.
Location: 1° 39′ 45″ W, 53° 36′ 45″ N.

Winter Hill (Channel 9) and Emley Moor (Channel 10)

Companies: Granada TV Network (weekdays), A.B.C. Television (weekends)

The first proposal for covering the great Northern area with its population of about thirteen million was to build a high-power transmitting station close to the existing BBC Band I station at Holme Moss on the high central rib of the Pennine Chain. Studies showed that this would have been technically attractive had it been possible at that time, without a very considerable delay for special development, to provide an effective radiated power of about 500 kW with a mast height of at least 1,000 ft. Even so, severe fading would undoubtedly have been experienced at the fringes of the service area, on the west coast at Liverpool and on the east coast at Hull.

These and other considerations led the Authority to conclude that the area would be served best by two transmitting stations, one on the western slopes of the Pennines to serve Lancashire, Cheshire and parts of Staffordshire, and another on the east side of the Pennines to serve Yorkshire. The Postmaster-General agreed to this proposal, which constituted the first of several departures from the general principle that Band III stations should be sited close to existing Band I stations. The quality of service which has been given to the North of England as a result of this departure has fully justified the decision. Winter Hill, the Lancashire station, was constructed on the summit of Rivington Moor, a fine site 1,450 feet above sea level. The aerial, which is carried on a self-supporting 450 ft. tower radiates 100 kW omnidirectionadly. Construction work began in September 1955 and the station went into programme service on 3rd May 1956.

The selection of the site for the Yorkshire station posed considerable problems largely because coverage of the main concentration of population within the hill-shadowed towns of the West Riding had to be combined with the provision of a service as far away as Kingston-upon-Hull some 5o miles away across the Yorkshire Plain.

Sixteen different sites were studied theoretically and tests, using a balloon transmitter, were made at four of them before Emley Moor, 850 feet above sea level on the eastern slopes of the Pennine Chain, was finally selected. Once again, because of the small area available, a 450 ft. tower was used to support the aerial, which has a semicircular power-radiation pattern delivering 200 kW e.r.p. in all easterly directions but only a few kilowatts backwards to the west into the natural barrier of the Pennines, thus preventing waste and an unnecessary overlap with the service area of the Winter Hill station. Emley Moor went into service on 3rd November 1956.