Overseas TV History

TV History
899

Emmer was joined by legendary English composer and musician David Bedford, well-known for his work with Mike Oldfield, as well as being a prolific composer and conductor of avant-garde and kids-oriented classical works. The piece was recorded by the string and percussion sections of London’s Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the Midlands-based England Symphonic Orchestra, with Bedford directing. Here’s a selection of extra cuts from the package, including the normal-length start-up ident, a normal ident, a closedown ident and some cuts used for promos.

Here’s how the new look launched on April 4, 1988, the day Nederland 3 went for the first time on-air (today is the network’s 26th birthday). The new logo was designed by Frans Schupp, an updated, “sexier” version of the interlocking KRO symbol used since the 1950s. The KRO commissioned a survey among the readers of female magazine Libelle; the results of the survey suggested the use of a dark purple color for the overall identity. The impressive, fast-paced ident used new and revolutionary techniques, including a flying “skymote” steadicam, which elevated costs to nearly 1 million guilders, a significant feat for the time.

Here’s how the NOS covered Nederland 3’s launch back in 1988; the opening ceremony was held in Utrecht’s Vredenburg Music Hall (since rebuilt and greatly expanded as a cultural center), and was initially targeted to minorities, with programming emphasizing long-form news programming and cultural content, plus new, experimental formats which couldn’t fit Nederland 1’s nor 2’s schedule; longer-form sport programming was also show in the weekends. NOS became the main programmer of the new frequency, which gave the smaller, public-service, ethnic and minority-oriented services a fixed place to broadcast.

Nederland 3’s inaugural branding was designed by Will Bakker, a prolific designer who was worked for all Dutch TV networks working with production company NOB’s design department, and used 3D technology with a very contemporary and minimalist style for the time, produced by Gabrielle Otten. Music was composed by Dutch composer and bandleader Tonny Eyk (composer of NOS’ Studio Sport fanfare).

The same day, Nederland 1 and 2’s remits were reorganized and rebranded: N1 became the home of conservative broadcasters EO, NCRV, and KRO, plus the liberal-left broadcaster VARA. The network unveiled a new stylized Roman 1 logo from Theo Dijkslag (NOB Design), with music from Emmer; as for N2, the channel became targeted at a broader audience, featuring programming from AVRO, TROS and the Veronica Organization, and, on Sundays, avant-garde progressive offering from the VPRO; the network, nicknamed ATV, wouldn’t have a consistent branding during that time, with a simple, blue “2” numeral being used as channel identification, preferring the use of each broadcaster’s branding.

3 Likes
900

In his new video, YouTuber Adam Martyn takes a look at the history of ITV network logos in the UK:

5 Likes
901

Since you’ve mentioned VPRO, here are some idents from the 1970s. Several of them are very funny and freaky! :rofl:

3 Likes
902

Some listings pages of the vintage Argentine magazine Canal TV in May 1971, with a different design from the one posted here last year (that was from June 1970).

20240406_165709
20240406_1657091920×1080 188 KB

20240406_170346
20240406_1703461920×1080 190 KB

3 Likes
903

A compilation of IDs, promos and bumpers of the Italian rolling news channel Rai News 24 from 1999 (when it was launched) until today.

2 Likes
904

A 2011 edition of the 5:30 p.m. news on Ireland’s TV3:

2 Likes
905

It’s 1993, you’re in Europe and using a motorized satellite dish to surf through all the (analog) TV and radio channels available on the major satellites. This is what you would have seen (some of the channels are encrypted):

3 Likes
906

A 1982 edition of the 10 p.m. news from WBBM Chicago, covering the death of Saturday Night Live star and Chicago area native John Belushi:

3 Likes
907

In 2002, the BBC began producing special Spotlight-branded opt-outs just for the Channel Islands. Here’s an example from 2003:

And here’s one from 2017, with the pan-regional Spotlight brand giving way to BBC Channel Islands branding:

4 Likes
908

In light of Robert MacNeil’s passing, this was him in BBC’s Panorama in 1968, during his 4-year tenure in the Beeb before heading to PBS:

3 Likes
909

And this is how PBS NewsHour remembered MacNeil’s career:

3 Likes
910

In his latest video, Adam Martyn takes a look at the logos used by Channels 4 and 5 over the years:

2 Likes
911

Some excerpts of ITV Meridian’s pretty cool 2002-04 purple coloured news package and studio. The music (introduced in 1999) fitted it properly.

2 Likes
912

A selection of idents and promos of Brazilian round-the-clock news channel Globo News, that went to the air on Tuesday 15 October 1996. During its first 14 years, this network had a very catchy signature theme for its IDs, replaced in 2010 by electronic pips.

2 Likes
913

The BBC can’t use whatever music they like for broadcast purposes. The department which clears music issues an internal “hotlist” of artists to be avoided because they are either unclearable for many foreign markets or prohibitively expensive.

I would expect that it’s largely the same as the one circulated at ITV; the main problem areas highlighted are tracks or artists whose work can’t be cleared for worldwide use, but there were some that were unclearable even just for the UK.

It was a long list, and I don’t have it to hand, but to give a few examples, anything conducted by Herbert von Karajan wasn’t clearable, along with Erasure and the Boston Pops Orchestra. Simon & Garfunkel was an issue as well, but that was resolved when Paul Simon signed to a new publisher. ABBA tracks were only permitted to be cleared for worldwide use if being used in a documentary about ABBA, and Groove Is in the Heart by Dee-Lite was unclearable for years, before suddenly becoming available again.

There were other artists who would only consider clearance if supplied with a rough edit of the programme on video first, others who wouldn’t give clearance if the programme was about certain topics… all interesting stuff.

5 Likes
914

And here’s the 1998-2011 version:

2 Likes
915

The closing segment of Telefe Noticias’ midday edition in September 1998, with anchors Amalia Rosas and Franco Salomone standing up in front of the desk.

The newscast ends with a humorous story about a giggle contest in the US and a live shot of a group of young people outside Boca Juniors stadium in Buenos Aires waiting to see the Backstreet Boys. The “experimental” news opener from that short-lived package (introduced in June of '98 and used until early 1999) can be seen here.

Looking back, Amalia Rosas was a familiar face to viewers as she had been on TV since 1971, when Telefe didn’t exist and channel 11 was called Teleonce. Her first on-air job was reading bulletins for the popular afternoon magazine show Matinee, an innovative weekday program (with lots of features!) that ran for no less than 4 or 5 hours every day. Here’s a picture from that era, with Amalia at the newsdesk and Matinee host Rosemarie next to her.

Matinee_Newsdesk
Matinee_Newsdesk581×643 257 KB

When Matinee ended in the late 1970s, Amalia became a permanent anchor of the lunchtime news and Rosemarie moved to street reporting and fill-in presenting. They continued appearing on the channel’s newscasts until both of them (along with dozens of colleagues) were laid off by Telefe in December 1998.

2 Likes
916

An edition of CNN’s World Report from 1989. The program featured reports produced for CNN by various broadcasters from around the world. At the 17:37 mark, you can see Ralitsa Vassileva reporting for Bulgarian Television. She would later join CNN and become one of the most prominent personalities on CNN International.

2 Likes
917

This is a snippet of how WNAC’s news and weather looked like in 1968. John Henning was the anchor (he had an UPI wire service machine behind him!) and Roland Boucher the forecaster.

2 Likes
919

Sticking with Boston 7, here’s how its successor, WNEV, launched on May 21, 1982, plus a closer look at the transition:

WNEV was the result of a legal challenge against WNAC and owners RKO General, who were accused of having illegally abused of corporate misconduct. Alongside the Boston licenses, stations in New York (WOR) and Los Angeles (KHJ) were also on target for closure, but these were sold in parts or fully (WOR to Cox Media Group and MCA/Universal Pictures, KHJ to Disney, becoming WWOR and KCAL), but a Supreme Court ruling dismissed these closures. However, WNAC was still in the process of closing, and the FCC had just tendered a construction permit to launch a new station on the frequency to the New England Television Corporation, a joint consortium of local interests led by grocery magnate David Mugar and Patriots owner Robert Kraft.

After settling out with RKO General, Mugar and Kraft took over all WNAC non-license property, including most staff, the CBS affiliation and all syndicated program contracts, allowing them to launch the new station in just under four months’ time. The new station became led by Winthrop “Win” Baker, who had last worked at Westinghouse Broadcasting and WBZ-TV, which imitated the programming style of rival WCVB, by producing a massive number of locally produced shows. News programming was led by Bill Applegate, who would later be known for his controversial stints at WBBM and WOIO, and, with the support of Mugar, pairing up veteran WCVB anchor Tom Ellis with PM Magazine Boston presenter Robin Young, forming a heavily promoted “dream team”.

Although the first days of the new station were heavily anticipated and promoted, they quickly fell back into the ratings cellar, leading to Mugar firing Baker and Applegate, and hiring another WBZ veteran, Sy Yanoff, who in turn hired former news director Jeff Rosser. Both fired many of the many “dream team” hires, the Ellis/Young pairing was disbanded after being mismatched, and the urgent NEWSEVEN presentation and “A New Day Dawning” was replaced by a increasingly spartan presentation which used chroma key backdrops; the station, although it had a period of momentum after hiring ATV anchor Dave Wright away from the Maritimes, failed to take the competition by storm until a takeover by Ed Ansin and Sunbeam Television, which brought the WSVN tabloid news model (albeit lighter, toned down and more focused on human interest content); although it was shocking in comparison with the other traditional formats of its rivals, and even generated resignations from high profile staff, it revived the laggard station and it is now generally in second place, behind WCVB, mainly in the evenings, but often it fights with WBZ and WFXT at other times as part of a three-way race for 2nd place in the ratings, particularly during sweeps.

3 Likes