Midlands Today

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Midlands Today
Midlands Today titles
Format	Regional News
Presented by	Nick Owen Mary Rhodes
Theme music composer	David Lowe
Country of origin	England, UK
Language(s)	English
Production
Editor(s)	Chas Watkins
Location(s)	The Mailbox, Birmingham England, UK
Camera setup	Multi-camera
Running time	30 minutes (main 6:30pm programme)
Production company(s)	BBC Midlands
Broadcast
Original channel	BBC One Midlands
Picture format	576i (SDTV 16:9)
Original run	September 28, 1964 (1964-09-28) – present
Chronology
Related shows	BBC News, East Midlands Today, Central Tonight
External links
Website

Midlands Today is the BBC's regional television news programme for the West Midlands region, which covers the north of Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, Worcestershire and the West Midlands county. Midlands Today began on 28 September 1964, from a small studio in Broad Street, Birmingham.

Overview

Midlands Today is produced by BBC Midlands and broadcasts on BBC One during the regional news slots during and following the main national news. The programme is produced and broadcast from the BBC studios in The Mailbox, Birmingham which has been its base since 25 October 2004. Journalists are also based at newsrooms in Wolverhampton, Coventry, Hereford, Worcester, Stoke-on-Trent, and Shrewsbury.

In 1988 the programme became the first regional news magazine to adopt the formal news format already commonplace on network news.

The programme began broadcasting from a small room in the Birmingham Register Office and moved to the custom-built Pebble Mill broadcasting centre in Edgbaston on 10 November 1971. It remained there until the studios closed on 22 October 2004.

Midlands Today is broadcast from the Sutton Coldfield transmitter on analogue & digital terrestrial and can be watched in any part of the UK on Sky channel 979 and Freesat channel 963, and in the rest of Europe via Astra 1N at 28.2° East (10788V 22000 5/6). The latest edition is also available to view again on the Midlands Today website.

Coverage area

Until 1991, "Midlands Today" covered the entire Midlands region - the East Midlands counties of Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire are now covered by BBC East Midlands Today based in Nottingham.

Today the programme covers Staffordshire, Shropshire, Worcestershire, West Midlands, Herefordshire, North Gloucestershire, and Warwickshire.

On Air

On weekdays, Midlands Today broadcasts six three-minute opt-outs during BBC Breakfast at around 25 and 55 minutes past each hour. A fifteen-minute lunchtime programme follows at 1:30pm and a short mid-afternoon update at 3pm (with sign language), before the main half-hour edition at 6:30pm. A short 30-second headlines update is broadcast during the 8pm BBC News Summary and a seven-minute late update is shown at 10:25pm, following the BBC News at Ten.

At weekends, there are two short bulletins on Saturdays (lunchtime & early evenings) and Sundays (early evenings & late night). Broadcast times for these bulletins usually vary.

On air team

Presenters

Correspondents

Past presenters

Former presenters have included Tom Coyne, the late Alan Towers (until July 1997), David Stevens, Guy Thomas, Grant Mansfield, David Davies, Kathy Rochford (who transferred to the East Midlands), Sue Beardsmore, Matt Smith, Julian Worricker, Ashley Blake (who was sacked in August 2009 after being found guilty of wounding and perverting the course of justice), Bernardette Kearney, Michael Buerk and Suzanne Virdee.

Senior presenter Alan Towers's on-air departure in July 1997 (after twenty five years) brought about one of the most controversial moments in the programme's history when he shared indignant views on BBC management, describing them as pygmies in grey suits wearing blindfolds.^[1]

References

BBC portal

External links