Westward Television
Westward Television was the first ITV franchise-holder for the South West of England. It held the franchise from 29 April 1961 until 31 December 1981. After a difficult start, Westward Television provided a popular, distinctive and highly regarded service to its region, until heavy competition led to its franchise not being renewed by the IBA. Westward launched the career of many broadcasters who became well known nationally, won numerous awards for its programming, and heavily influenced its successor, TSW.
History
The company's first chairman was Peter Cadbury, who had left the board of Tyne Tees Television to set up the company and bid for the south-west franchise, which he won against 11 competing bids. Cadbury named the company after the golf course at Westward Ho! in north Devon, where he played. Ironically, Westward Ho! was part of the region that found reception of the television signal most difficult, until the construction of the Huntshaw Cross relay transmitter in 1968. Westward's region was surrounded on three sides by the sea, which was strongly reflected in Westward's output and its company logo, a silver model of the Golden Hind.In early January 1969, plans were drawn up for a merger between Westward and the Keith Prowse company, as Peter Cadbury was chairman of both. By 17 January, the deal was done. EMI purchased Keith Prowse Music Publishing from Westward in the latter part of 1969. Soon, the Westward board was in continual disagreement, and in January 1970 Cadbury was sacked and re-hired within days as the chairman of the Westward board, after he made outspoken remarks against the levy imposed on advertising revenue imposed by the IBA while also withholding a Westward corporation tax bill to the Inland Revenue over the same matter. By July 1980, Cadbury was finally removed from the Westward board and over the following six months, he tried to regain control.
Westward began broadcasting in colour in 1971, initially from the Redruth transmitter, and a few months later colour was extended to the Stockland Hill and Caradon Hill transmitters. To mark the change, Westward's ident was re-shot in colour.
Franchise loss
On 28 December 1980, while the ITV network was showing Drake's Venture, ITN interrupted a commercial break to announce ATV was to undergo major changes and Southern and Westward had not had their licences renewed by the IBA; the south-west franchise was awarded to TSW.Following the loss of its franchise, Westward's management decided to sell up quickly, and the company was purchased by TSW, early in 1981, for £2.38 million. TSW continued using the Westward name and symbol on screen until 31 December 1981; thereafter, it was re-branded on screen as TSW.
A special programme, 20 Years of Westward, was broadcast on 21 December 1981 to look back on the company's achievements. It was presented by Roger Shaw, and recorded in front of a studio audience. Hastings Mann's Westward Ho! was used as the theme music. Studio guests included Angela Rippon, Kenneth MacLeod and Sheila Kennedy. There were filmed contributions from Alan Freeman, Jan Leeming and David Vine and many clips of Westward programmes were shown. The special programme ended with a message from Peter Cadbury, in which he wished TSW well.
Closure
Unlike the other ITV stations that lost their franchises in this round, Westward opted to hand over at midnight on 31 December 1981. On that evening they broadcast the first 25 minutes of Scottish Television's Hogmanay show live, and then cut away just before midnight when Roger Shaw appeared on camera in a traditional dinner jacket seated at an antique wooden desk, surrounded by staff wearing formal suits and holding film reels and 2-inch videotapes. He closed Westward Television with this announcement:Launch of TSW
TSW then began with a short video clip of a champagne bottle being opened, accompanied by the short audio version of the station ident "That's Soul, Write". Shaw then re-appeared wearing a modern suit, no longer in a dinner jacket and now in a modern chair, surrounded by staff wearing TSW T-shirts and holding 2-inch videotapes. This was clearly to remind viewers of a new modern era as well as a new look. Shaw made the first announcement on TSW:This was followed by the full version of TSW's ident. One or both of the in-vision announcements had been pre-recorded due to the rapid change of outfits.
The comedy programme was followed by further continuity, an epilogue, weather and shipping forecast and closedown - all with TSW branding. However, when the screen finally faded to black at approximately 12:40am on 1 January 1982, Shaw made a final out-of-vision courtesy announcement and managed to mention the now-defunct Westward one last time, saying 'from all the staff here at Westward - good night'.
No recordings of the end of Westward Television were known to exist until 2012, but then a full video recording of the evening, including the segment of STV's wiped Hogmanay show, was recovered by the classic television organisation Kaleidoscope. Parts of the recording were featured at a Kaleidoscope event and at that year's Missing Believed Wiped at the British Film Institute.
Studios
Based at purpose-built studios at Derry's Cross in Plymouth, with a London office 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.
During Westward's tenure, Derry's Cross had three studios. Studio 1 was, Studio 2 was 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." 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.
In 1981 the studios, along with the company, were purchased by TSW; in 1993 the building was sold to a firm of solicitors and converted into offices. In 2010 the buildings were demolished to make way for a new retail development.
Identity
Westward Television's 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 stylised ship image in a circle, complete with Westward legend and channel nine and twelve identifiers, 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. This ident was altered slightly in the late 1960s to update the font to Compacta Bold.When colour 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 stylised 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 colour 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. The short ident theme was changed around 1978 to a seven-note fanfare. This was Westward's final ident and remained with the company until the end of the franchise.
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 a frequent user of in-vision continuity, with many of the station's personalities becoming well known in the region.
Programming
Westward's small size and the structure of ITV 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 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. As part of the 1968 franchise round, the ITA created Independent Television Publications, and Westward's weekly listings would be obliged to appear solely in the local edition of the national listings magazine TVTimes, which was published by ITP.
Local programming
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.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.
News and current affairs
By 1969, Westward had more than 100 correspondents across the region, reporting newsworthy local events, and eight film cameramen who would travel the region gathering footage and compiling reports. The flagship programme was Westward Diary, which began as a regional magazine programme broadcast three times a week between 6:15 pm and 7 pm. Originally, there were three presenters – Barry Westwood, Reginald Bosanquet and Kenneth MacLeod – who rotated on a weekly basis. The regional news was contained in a separate ten-minute Westward News bulletin, broadcast every weekday at 6.05 pm, and subsequently supplemented by afternoon and late-night bulletins.Westward Diary was soon merged with Westward News, to become what was known at the time as a 'regional news magazine', and was broadcast every weekday between 6.00 pm and 6:30 pm. Kenneth MacLeod was asked to present the new programme permanently. The news would be read by the duty announcer, so MacLeod's role on the Diary was not as a newsreader but a presenter holding the whole package together.
The weeknightly Westward Diary had two halves, separated by a commercial break. The first half concentrated on the regional news, whereas the second half included other items of interest to local viewers. A number of experts would visit to present regular features: Ted Tuckerman would present a fishing spot called Tight Lines, Jon Miller.
Westward staff returned to work a few days before the end of the ITV national strike of 1979. Kenneth MacLeod had to present Westward Diary in what looked to viewers like almost total darkness, as the union permitted only the house lights to be switched on in the studio.
In the early 1970s, A Date With Danton was a stand-alone weekly programme that provided a round-up of local arts and entertainment events. This later became a spot entitled "What's On", in Friday's edition of Westward Diary. The Friday edition of Sports Desk was a stand-alone programme in the early '70s, but this too became part of the Diary towards the end of the decade. To accommodate this, the length of Friday's edition of Diary was extended to an hour, and it occasionally featured a live studio audience. Westward was one of the first ITV regions to broadcast a late-evening regional news bulletin.
The local weather forecast in Westward Diary, with an emphasis on specialist information for fishermen and farmers, was given by a popular local personality, Graham Danton, who presented several programmes for Westward, including Holiday Times, an events listings programme aimed at people holiday-making in the region, and Late With Danton, a consumer programme.
On April Fools' Day, 1973, Westward broadcast a film about the village of Spiggot, which had boycotted decimalisation and were still using pre-decimal currency. Many viewers wrote to Westward in support of the villagers' stance, oblivious to the date the film was broadcast.