Westward Television

Westward Television

Type	Regional television network
Branding	ITV1
Country	England
First air date	April 29, 1961
Founded	1959 by Peter Cadbury
TV transmitters	Mendip, Stockland Hill, Exeter, Plymouth, Portfield, Oranges, Bristol, Cornwall, Huntshaw Cross, Caradon Hill, Redruth, Beacon Hill, Ridge Hill
Headquarters	Derry's Cross, Plymouth, England
Broadcast area	West of England & South West England
Owner	ITV plc
Key people	#Staff
Dissolved	Lost on-air identity on 27 October 2002; Now known as ITV1 at all times.
Former names	Westward Television (1961-2002)
Picture format	1080i (HDTV)
Affiliation	ITV
Language	English
Subsidiary	Westward Video

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ITV1 Westward is the British television service provided by ITV Broadcasting Limited for the West of England and South West England franchise area on the ITV network. After a difficult start, Westward Television provided a popular, distinctive and highly regarded service to its regional area, something which still continues to this very day.

ITV Westward are also obliquely required to produce 13 hours of non-news regional programming a year.

History

As with many obvious gaps in the geographical coverage inquiries were made to the ITA long before the plans for the South West of England were announced. The main delay came from the difficulty in securing sites for the two transmitters required, permission for which was granted in mid 1959. The franchise was offered on 14 October 1959, and attracted applications from 12 new organizations, as well as Southern Television, TWW and Associated Rediffusion (which always seemed to apply for anything!). From there, The 12 groups were narrowed down to 5, and ultimately the one drawn together by Peter Cadbury was picked. Cadbury seemed to have drawn his support locally, and amongst all persuasions, ranging from the Lords Lieutenants and County Councils, to the local TUC, Red Cross and St John Ambulance Brigade, and last, but not least the author Ted Willis and Billy Smart's Circus. The only stipulation on the new company of Westward was that they would be required to cooperate with any company who might in the future be awarded a Channel Islands appointment.

Cadbury wanted a start by November 1960, but the Post Office claimed it could only supply the links by August 1961, although the transmitters themselves would be ready by February. In secret plans, Cadbury and his board decided that they would act as if they were going to start in March, and recruited staff and equipped their purpose built studios with that in mind. The Postmaster General was lobbied intensely, and a date of 1 March was finally conceded. However, this in the end had to be reneged upon, with late April being the earliest possible. Cadbury was annoyed at this date, as it co-incided with just about the worst time for advertising revenue, but managed to get four months rental deferred until the end of the license period. Despite storm and floods, when the Stockland Hill site was awash with mud, the April 29 start date was maintained.

Westward began broadcasting in colour in 1971, initially from the Redruth transmitter, and a few months later color was extended to the Stockland Hill, Huntshaw Cross, and Caradon Hill transmitters. In 1979, Peter Cadbury appointed Lord Harris (recently a Labour minister at the Home Office which regulated broadcasting) as a director, in an attempt to justify its license renewal, which looked extremely difficult. However, the tactic backfired as Harris sniffed the political wind and told his boss at a board meeting that with his behavior, they did not stand "a snowball's chance in hell" of renewal. Harris persuaded the board to vote Cadbury off, but the staff eventually petitioned for his reinstatement. Cadbury reluctantly decided not to force the issue.

Harris then started restructuring Westward, but within weeks five other board members left. The IBA was unhappy at how Harris was able to to buy his way into the company, because labor ministers were legally blocked from owning the ITV contractors, which also stated that Westward's original programme policies and operations were sound. As a result, the IBA forced Harris from the chairmanship of Westward and eventually appointed by Kevin G. Jackson as the replacement for Harris. Jackson later said "I expect many people are thinking I need my head examining, but I decided to take it up all the same. The public should have the kinds of programmes it wants, which means you must take into account minority interests as well as majority ones". Jackson made it quite clear that he expected to have full control within the company without any interference from Harris. By August 1981, Jackson reappointed Emilio Johnson as Director of Programmes, along with many of the original personnel who helped start up the company between February 1959-October 1961.

In May 1982, Westward was reorganized to form a new company, Westward Television Limited which allowed the company to expand into a number of new ventures, including Hutchinson Publishing. Jackson later said "an important factor was the deal would provide revenue from a wholly different source thus in part insulating Westward from the effects of any future adverse fluctuations in advertising revenue". In the same month he stood down as Chief Executive, and the Board appointed Jacob Tesler as the company's managing director. Emilio Johnson died later that year, and Tesler doubled as the company's Director of Programmes until he appointed Cody Taylor to that role in February 1985. Three decades later the official history of ITV, Independent Television in Britain, observed "Under Jacob Tesler's Managing Directorship, Westward was to become the success for which its founders, almost all of whom had by that time left the company, had so earnestly striven."

In 1987, As part of the cost-cutting review, the idea was floated that Westward could become a "commissioning" organization, similar to Channel 4, with its programme production operations being sold off to a new company, in a bid to "sharpen up its competitiveness". The plan was halted in early 1988, as Westward started to streamline operations. over four years, more than 690 people were made redundant, whole layers of management were scrapped and working practices were overhauled.

The Broadcasting Act 1990 brought changes to the way ITV contracts were awarded. No longer a 'beauty-contest', but rather a blind auction, where the winner was to be the applicant who bid the most. Westward threatened not to bid for its franchise again, as opposition to the new franchise bidding process gathered momentum. They denied it was trying to blackmail the government, but admitted the threat of some of the largest contractors packing their bags might make government think again. The controversy led to the introduction of a 'quality threshold' which allowed that, in exceptional circumstances, a bid could be rejected if it were deemed excessive, or that an incumbent could be chosen against a higher-bidding applicant if it were felt that incumbent's programming was 'exceptional'. Cody Taylor later stated that the franchise round "became a crapshoot. You had to work out [in the franchise round] who was bidding against you. Of those, would they pass the quality threshold and would they pass the financial test. Scottish Television and Central Television both discovered that nobody was bidding against them, and both bid only a token amount". It was the 'quality threshold' that saved Westward Television. Despite streamlining with a successful conflict with trade unions, Westward knew that if it were to keep on making quality programmes, it could not over-bid. It had to rely on the quality of its programmes and submit the best offer it could, knowing it could be far less than a rival bid; the strategy worked, and LWT won a third contract with an annual bid of £7.5M, against a rival who bid £39.41M but whose plans were deemed by the new Independent Television Commission to be unsatisfactory.

In early 1993, Westward Television was bought by MAI (owners of Meridian Broadcasting), who merged with United Newspapers to form United News and Media. They were joined by Anglia and HTV in 1996. In 1999, plans emerged of a merger between UNM and rival Carlton, however these talks failed when it appeared that Meridian would have to be sold off as a condition of the deal (partially due to the Competition Commission intervening on the sale). Following United's aborted merger attempt with Carlton Communications, Granada bought Anglia, Meridian, and Westward for its own purpose (whilst selling off HTV, which at the time did not include its studios, to Carlton).

By 2001, Carlton and Granada controlled all of the franchises within ITV, and in 2002 took the decision to unify the playout and branding of all of the companies to become ITV1, with regional references used only in accordance with regional programming. Westward marked its final day on air with a series of tributes to LWT's past, with long-serving continuity announcers Ian Stirling and Ruth Langsford appearing in-vision, from its studios within Plymouth. When GMTV handed over to the weekday franchise the following morning, the national ITV1 brand was on-air, with the new team of network continuity announcers announcing for the first time; former Meridian announcer Paul Seed was the first network voice. The channel from this point on was only known verbally as "ITV1 Westward" prior to regional programmes only. The Westward logo continued to appear at the end of its programmes until 31 October 2004.

Studios

Westward is based at purpose-built studios at Derry's Cross in Plymouth, with a London office (sited at various locations including New Bond Street, Marble Arch and Sloane Square) and a sales office in Bristol. The Derry's Cross studios were designed by the architects Treadgold and Elsey, who had previously designed the TWW Studios at Pontcanna, Cardiff and Arno's Court, Bristol (Howett 1994). During Westward's tenure, Derry's Cross had three studios. Studio 1 was 2,500 sq ft (230 m²), Studio 2 was 400 sq ft (37 m²) and used for news, sport and interview programmes and an announcers' studio was located beside Master control. The studios were originally fitted out by Marconi, using top-of-the-range studio equipment. Westward engineer Peter Rodgers recalled: "From the start, where we could afford it, we bought the best." (Howett 1994) By the time Westward began broadcasting, Derry's Cross had cost Westward over £500,000, with the company committed to spending another £20,000 on the studios by April 1962.

Identity

Westward Television's initial corporate branding focused on the sea, and mainly used a ship emblem for their on-screen look. The first ident featured an image of a boat on the water, before replacing the image with a stylized ship image in a circle, complete with Westward legend and channel nine and twelve identifiers (representing the Stockland Hill and Caradon Hill transmitters of the time), to a tune of four chimes. This was replaced in the mid-1960s by a model of the Golden Hind, shot against a black background with a simple Westward caption beneath accompanied by the Holly and the Ivy tune on brass instruments. When color television came to the region on 22 May 1971, the Golden Hind was re-shot against a blue background with the caption altered to include a small stylized ship image in a box in the lower left corner, followed by an outlined 'Westward TV' caption, with 'TV' in red. The tune that accompanied the color television ident was originally a nautical fanfare on brass instruments, based on the song "Come Landlord Fill the Flowing Bowl", arranged by Paul Lewis. This formed part of a longer ident theme titled An English Overture, used at the start of each day's broadcasts. In addition to these idents, Westward used a clock contained in a curved box with both analogue and digital displays, alongside the Westward Television stylised ship logo and name. Westward was also a frequent user of in-vision continuity, with many of the station's personalities becoming well known in the region.

Programmes

Westward's small size and the structure of ITV (which, at the time, deliberately made it hard for small and medium-sized ITV companies to contribute to the network) meant it produced comparatively little output for the network. Instead, the company concentrated on regional programming. From 1968 until the end of its franchise, the ITA (later the IBA) gave Westward a target of providing 6.5 hours of new regional programming a week, a target which they always exceeded. Westward's programming schedule was always published as a magazine for the public to access. Initially, they published weekly programme listings in its own programme journal, Look Westward. The first edition cost 5d, and featured a special article by Westward board member Daphne du Maurier. Many Westward personalities, such as announcer Sheila Kennedy, also contributed articles to the magazine.

Local

Westward Television had a dual policy for its local programming: it produced a wide range of programmes of particular interest to the south-west's rural and agricultural communities, whilst simultaneously producing programming designed to stimulate its audience's interest in new areas. ITV Westward's produces the local news service ITV News Westward. The main evening programme at 6PM on weekdays includes separate opt-out bulletins for the first 20 minutes from each of the two regions, some of which are pre-recorded depending on the day's news and due to the use of only one presenting team. One of the best known programmes was Treasure Hunt, a game show presented by Kenneth Horne and Keith Fordyce, among others, which ran for 14 years and at one stage featured Jethro as the pirate co-host.

An early programme for young people was Spin Along, a regional pop music programme presented by disc-jockey Alan Freeman. The first edition was broadcast on Tuesday 12 September 1961 at 6:15PM, in place of Westward Diary. A second series began on 24 September 1962 and moved to 7PM. Other 60s music programmes included Pop And Leslie and The Westward Beat Competition from 1964. The Westward Beat Competition had a panel of judges that included Brian Epstein and Dick Rowe and was won by The Rustiks. In 1980, Westward produced Maggie's Moor, a seven part networked children's drama series about a young girl living on Dartmoor during the Second World War. It starred Tamar LeBailly as Maggie and was produced and directed by John King, the father of wildlife photographer and presenter Simon King, who featured as "The Buzzard Boy" in Episode 5.

Another popular long-running regional programme featured a puppet rabbit, Gus Honeybun, who appeared with the duty announcer who read out birthday greetings to the region's children: The story went that Gus was found wandering Dartmoor by a Westward Outside Broadcast unit. Children could request that Gus waggle his ears, wink, stand on his head, count their age in "bunny-hops", use an magic button, or turn off the lights. Gus's behavior tended to be excellent for Roger Shaw or Cody Taylor, but for Judi Spiers and Iain Stirling he could be rather unpredictable. On Sunday mornings, Westward also aired Look and See, a thirty-minute children's religious slot for the under-8s broadcast from the continuity studio. As with most other ITV companies, the station also produced a nightly Epilogue under the title of Faith for Life, produced largely from the continuity studio.

Network

Westward's contributions to the network were very rare at first, mainly consisting of one-off programmes and editions of the Morning Service (later renamed Morning Worship). Initially, Westward had an arrangement with ABC Weekend Television (ABC) to provide its network programming. As Channel Television took its network feed from Stockland Hill, this obliged Channel to affiliate to ABC. These 'affiliate' arrangements lasted until they were abolished in the 1964 franchise round. Westward also had an arrangement with Associated Television (ATV), to play out any networked Westward programmes onto the ITV network.

On 19 January 1972, there was a relaxation on the restrictions of broadcast hours that had been set by the Minister of Posts and Telecommunications. This allowed regular daytime programming on weekday afternoons, and weekday morning programming during out-of-school term time. These extra off-peak hours gave smaller ITV companies a chance to provide some networked or part-networked programmes. By the mid '70s, Westward had taken advantage of this opportunity by finding a small niche producing adult education programmes for the ITV network. It also produced children's cartoon Tube Mice (about mice who lived beneath the London Underground).

One of the new daytime weekday programmes introduced through the relaxation of broadcast hours was About Britain. This strand was made up of half-hour documentaries contributed by each of the ITV regions covering interesting aspects of their respective regions. In 1973, the Countryside Commission opened the South West Coast Peninsula Walk from Minehead in Somerset to Swanage in Dorset via Land's End. Westward Television asked Diary reporter Clive Gunnell to walk the new route and film his journey. Additionally, Doing Things was also another series of half-hour filmed documentaries contributed by the various ITV regions and broadcast in the early afternoon. It was broadcast in 1973–74 and looked at hobbies. Westward Television contributed Beachcombing, a film presented and directed by Clive Gunnell, to this series.

Staff

• Directors: Abby Shanahan, Alan Littler, Alex Neekilappappy, Anthony Bianco, Beverly Omere, Cody Taylor, Collin Rosales, Corrado Santacroce, Diana Agostino, Donald Iheonu, Elijah Odjokoh, Evan Ledda, Fitsum Gebrekirstos, Fiona Yohanns, Gareth Farwe, Hailey Cordner, James Rzeznik, Jay Costea, Jhaleya Black, Johnny A. Serber, Junjie Xiong, Kezya Seko, Laurice Viscarra, Melissa Dinha, Michelle Agostino, Mischa Mallari, Neil Quirk, Oreo Nahid, Owen Prithwi, Peter Grosdanof, Phillip Semanic, Praveen Srisegar, Ryan Taumi, Robert South, Sameer Nadeem, Shaheem Hutchinson, Shayle Valentine, Sofia Drusian, Thomas Faween, Yannick Newell

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