Staff and Organisation

The staff of Independent Television as a whole amounts to some 8,000 people. This is apart from the many thousands of artistes and musicians who obtain employment each year with the programme companies, and also excludes the considerable numbers employed in ancillary industries serving Independent Television. Details of the staff, officers and members of the boards of the programme companies are given in pages 15-47. The following pages contain details of the staff and organisation of the Independent Television Authority itself.

The Senior Staff of the Authority
Director-General Sir Robert Fraser, O.B.E.
Deputy Director-General (Programme Services) B. C. Sendall, C.B.E.
Deputy Director-General (Administrative Services) A. W. Pragnell, O.B.E., D.F.C.
Chief Engineer P. A. T. Bevan, C.B.E.
Chief of Finance and Establishments L. Waight, C.M.G.
Secretary E. A. O. G. Wedell
Advertising Control Officer A. Graham
Programme Services Officer R. Ponsonby
Programme Clearance Officer Miss J. Choyce
Head of Regional Services F. H. Copplestone
Press and Information Officer M. Hallett
Publications Editor E. H. Croston
Head of Planning and Construction A. M. Beresford-Cooke, O.B.E.
Head of Operations and Maintenance R. C. Harman, O.B.E.
Senior Engineer (Transmitter Planning) T. S. Robson
Senior Engineer (Contracts) H. W. Boutall, M.B.E.
Senior Engineer (Lines) W. N. Anderson
Senior Engineer (Operations) P. S. Stanley
Senior Engineer (Maintenance) A. James
Accountant A. S. Curbishley, O.B.E.
Assistant Accountants R. G. Read, R. Bowes
Personnel Officer R. L. Fox
Deputy Personnel Officer R. H. R. Walsh
ITA Regional Officers
Northern Ireland WH Wilson
Wales and West of England LJ Evans
Southern England Cmdr GW Alcock, OBE, RN (Rtd)
East Anglia Major-General DAL Wade, CB, OBE, MC
Scotland John Lindsay
North-East England RJF Lorimer
South-West England and the Channel Islands WAC Collingwood, OBE
The North SD Murphy
The Midlands Vacant
Engineers-in-Charge of ITA Stations
St Hilary W Woolfenden
Lichfield NG Payne, MBE
Winter Hill WH Jarvis, MBE
Emley Moor ICI Lamb
Croydon GE Tagholm
Chillerton Down H French
Black Hill PT Firth
Burnhope FL Firth
Black Mountain R Cameron
Mendlesham WD Thomas
Dover PJ Darby
Caradon Hill K Archer
Stockland Hill GW Stephenson
Caldbeck HN Salisbury
Durris DH Rennie
Mounteagle PG James
Fremont Point WD Kidd
Presely L Evans
Moel-y-Parc E Warwick

ITA Organisation
The Authority’s staff on 1st January 1963 totalled 547, made up as follows:

  • Headquarters – 180
  • Regional Offices – 17
  • Transmitting Stations – 350

The major proportion of the Authority’s staff consists of the engineers directly concerned with the transmission of Independent Television programmes from the Authority’s twenty-two transmitters in various parts of the United Kingdom. The Regional Officers are similarly dispersed throughout the regional centres of television production, and act as the Authority’s representatives to the local television companies and the public in these areas.

Under the Director-General, the headquarters staff is divided into three divisions:

  • Programme Services
  • Administrative Services
  • Engineering

The Programme Services Division
This Division, under the Deputy Director-General (Programme Services), is responsible for the whole range of the output of Independent Television in both the programme and the advertising fields, its control and supervision. The Programme Department deals with the approval and supervision of programmes in relation to general matters such as balance, quality, good taste and decency, and the maintenance of political impartiality; and to detailed matters such as the administration of the control of hours of broadcasting and the requirements concerning foreign material. The Advertising Department deals with the whole range of advertising on television, and is responsible for ensuring that the strict control provisions which apply to advertisements are observed.

The Head of Regional Services, who works for the Deputy Director-General (Programme Services), co-ordinates the work of the Regional Officers and acts as the focal point for the liaison between the Authority and the regional companies.

A statistical unit attached to the Programme Services Department deals with the maintenance of the statistics of programme hours and foreign material, which are essential to the Authority’s work.

Administrative Services Division
This division, under the Deputy Director-General (Administrative Services), consists of three departments.

The Finance Department is responsible for the Authority’s internal financial controls and procedures, e.g. budgetary control, preparation of forward estimates of income and expenditure and submission of regular financial returns to the Authority. It is responsible also for advising the Authority on matters of financial policy and on the financial aspects of general policy. The Personnel Department is responsible for general establishment, accommodation and welfare matters and for liaison with the recognised staff union, the Association of Broadcasting Staff. Both these departments are under the direction of the Chief of Finance and Establishments.

The Secretariat, under the Secretary to the Authority, is responsible for the conduct of the business of the Authority itself and its contractual relations with the programme companies. The conduct of the business of the Standing Consultative Committee, which constitutes the formal link between the Authority and the programme companies, is also undertaken by the Secretariat Lastly, the Secretariat provides, as a common service to the Authority as a whole, the Press and Information Office, the Publications Department, and the Reference Library.

Engineering Division
This division is under the control of the Chief Engineer, who takes general responsibility for the development and maintenance of the Authority’s transmitting system. The division has two departments. The Planning and Construction Department is responsible for the siting, construction and equipment of the broadcast transmitting stations. The Operations and Maintenance Department is responsible for the running of the broadcast transmitting stations once they are built. The Engineers-in-Charge and staff of these stations are responsible to the head of this department. The Operations and Maintenance Department also includes a Lines Transmission Section, which is responsible for the planning of the programme distribution network and its daily operation. Certain point-to-point link construction, as well as radio propagation and specialised field strength measurements, are also undertaken by this section.

Training Facilities
The Authority’s station engineering staff receive training at special courses at the Marconi College at Chelmsford. These courses are residential and last for about four months each. There are two types of course: one concerned mainly with elementary principles, and the other a more advanced one dealing with the techniques employed on ITA transmitting stations.