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| Based in | Camden Town, London |
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| Broadcast area | National (Breakfast 06:00 - 09:25) |
| Launched | 1 February 1983 |
| Closed | 31 December 1992 |
| Replaced by | GMTV |
| Owned by | Self-owned |
TV-am was a breakfast television station that broadcast to the United Kingdom from 1 February 1983 to 31 December 1992. It made history by being the first national operator of an ITV franchise at breakfast-time, and was broadcast every day of the week, for most or all of the period between 06:00 and 09:25.
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February 1983: The beginning
The Independent Broadcasting Authority awarded the breakfast franchise to TV-am on 28 December 1980. Unlike the other franchisees that went on air in January 1982, TV-am were granted an extension period before beginning transmissions to reflect the greater complexities in starting a completely new television service.
Although the initial launch date was for June 1983 the station commenced broadcasting on the 1st of February 1983, two weeks after the BBC launched their show Breakfast Time. The Independent Broadcasting Authority allowed the station to bring forward its start-date in response to the BBC service.
This hurried start affected the company in two ways. ITV had failed in its negotiations for royalties and rates for advertising on the new Channel 4 and breakfast service with the actors' trade union, Equity. The union instructed its members to boycott the new station which meant there was little or no advertising in the early days which subsequently affected advertising revenue.
Secondly it was believed that the BBC's breakfast service would be highbrow, focusing on news and analysis. Tv-am had developed its new service to copy that. However the BBC launched a lightweight, magazine-style programme that mimmicked the style of American breakfast television. With the launch of the BBC's Breakfast Time brought forward at short notice this gave little time for Tv-am to redevelop its plans.
TV-am was spearheaded by 'The Famous Five' who were not only lined up as presenters on the station, but were also shareholders—Michael Parkinson, David Frost (1983–92), Angela Rippon (1983), Anna Ford (1983) and Robert Kee. Esther Rantzen was originally one of the team, but she dropped out in 1982, when the BBC persuaded her to remain on their staff, presenting That's Life! There had been many difficulties for the other presenters in the run-up to the station launch. When the franchise was announced in 1981, Angela Rippon's contract with the BBC was about to expire and it was not renewed as a result of her defection. Anna Ford was dismissed by ITN. Michael Parkinson remained with the BBC, who hoped to persuade him to stay, as they had with Rantzen. In the end, he was replaced by Terry Wogan at the corporation.
TV-am's headquarters and studios were at 'Breakfast Television Centre', Hawley Crescent, Camden, London. Designed by Terry Farrell and converted from a former Henleys garage, the building included a number of large plastic egg-cups on its roof. These are still present on the building today, despite now being home to MTV's European operations. The TV-am logos, on the front of the building, are now obscured but still partially visible.
Programmes originally ran from 06:00 to 09:15, with Daybreak and Good Morning Britain filling weekday mornings, followed by engineering announcements before the start of the regional ITV franchises at 09:25. It was not until later that the IBA extended its hours to 09:25 to allow continuous programming, and not until some years after that the ITV stations extended their hours to 6am to provide 24-hour television. (The engineering announcements were later moved to Channel 4, and cancelled in 1990 when the IBA was replaced by the ITC.)
The Summer of 1983: Troubled times
While the BBC's Breakfast Time was a huge success, TV-am's early ratings were profoundly disappointing. Its high-minded and somewhat starchy approach summed up in chief executive Peter Jay's phrase "mission to explain" sat uneasily at that time of day, and was easily upstaged by the rival's sure-footed and accessible magazine style which effortlessly mixed heavy news and light-hearted features (famously moving cabinet ministers, after a serious interview, to help with a cookery demonstration).
Peter Jay was forced to resign when he refused to dismiss some of his star presenters. His replacement, British politician Jonathan Aitken wielded the axe and fired both Angela Rippon and Anna Ford and threatened to dismiss Michael Parkinson, whose weekend show was the only success the station was having - largely because the BBC did not broadcast in the mornings at the weekend. All three had given support to Jay live on air, which infuriated the station's management. David Frost was moved from the main show as part of the shake up. Anna Ford refused to be moved, leading to her dismissal. Angela Rippon was not a hit with viewers who complained when she was 'rude' and 'belittling' to sports presenter Nick Owen. When Anna Ford encountered Jonathan Aitken at a party some months later, she threw her glass of white wine in his face. Their replacements were Anne Diamond (1983-1992) and Nick Owen (1983-1986). A new director of programmes Greg Dyke was brought in, and slowly ratings improved. To save money, the show spent the summer on the road, in a show coming from various seaside resorts and presented by Chris Tarrant. A notable gimmick introduced in this time was the puppet, Roland Rat; this attracted large audiences of youngsters, but pushed up overall viewing figures.
The low audiences brought financial problems. The company was close to having its power supply disconnected: a London Electricity official arrived during a press conference with a warrant to terminate power for non-payment. Elsewhere, a local newsagent stopped supplying the station with newspapers, for the same reason.
The cost-cutting was brought sharply into focus in the Brighton hotel bombing in 1984. The night before the terrorist attack on the British Cabinet TV-am sent the production team home as they could not afford to pay for hotel rooms. When the blast occurred in the early hours, the BBC and ITN provided immediate coverage. TV-am's response was limited to a caption of reporter John Stapleton while he reported over the phone while the BBC were showing graphic coverage of the attack. Trade union rules of the time forbade technical staff at the local ITV station TVS from providing cover for another ITV company and previous conflicts with ITN meant that they would not share their footage with TV-am.
The whole affair earned the company a severe rebuke from the Independent Broadcasting Authority, who told the company to invest and improve their news coverage, or they would lose their licence.
1984-1991: Recovery and success
In 1984, the Australian business tycoon Kerry Packer took a substantial minority interest in the company and in May appointed his own Chief Executive, Bruce Gyngell, who had run Australian networks and previously worked in the UK for ATV in the 1970s, and would go on to run Yorkshire Television. Greg Dyke left to take a new position with TVS but Gyngell pursued the same lightweight, populist approach that Dyke had forged to establish the station's viability; a model parodied later in a Guardian newspaper headline as 'Snap, Crackle and Pap'.
The station began a Saturday morning programme for children called Wacaday that gave Mike Myers (actor) his first regular television work, having been spotted at the Edinburgh Festival.
In an echo of the changes which had occurred in newspapers, Gyngell was determined to make use of technical developments in television in order to reduce staff and save money. He believed that the ease of use of modern video recording and other broadcasting equipment meant that staffing levels could be reduced: ENG crews would no longer require a separate lighting technician (following a pattern familiar in Gyngell's native Australia) and technical personnel could be virtually eliminated. This brought him into conflict with the broadcasting trade unions, but gained him support from the then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and her government.
In 1987, technical staff at the station went on a 24 hour strike. Management locked out the strikers, but stayed on air using non-technical staff to broadcast a skeleton service including (among other things) episodes of the American series Flipper, Batman and Happy Days - while secretaries manned cameras Gyngell himself directed the show. Although shambolic at times, this schedule turned out on occasions to be more popular than former programming (although not what they'd be allowed to broadcast under any other circumstances).[citation needed] In the hurricane-force storms that hit England in October that year the electrical power to TV-am's studios was lost and an emergency programme had to be transmitted from facilities at Thames Television's Euston Road centre using reports from TV-am's own crews and those of ITN, TSW and TVS. All this withstanding, the programme continued to thrive. Eventually, Bruce Gyngell fired all of the strikers, replacing them with non-unionised labour from around the world.
In the years that followed, the station gradually found its feet again, and by the early 1990s, operating with a significantly reduced staff, it was the world's most profitable TV station, in terms of turnover. During this period the station became the most popular breakfast television service in the UK as the BBC's Breakfast Time lost viewers: In 1989 the BBC replaced the magazine style Breakfast Time with a more in-depth and analytical news format called Breakfast News, reminiscent of TV-am's original format.
1991/2: Franchise loss
In 1990, changes in the law meant that ITV franchises were no longer allocated on merit or potential but rather through a blind auction, the results of which were made public on 16 October 1991. TV-am bid £14.3m, but were outbid by another consortium, Sunrise Television (known as GMTV by its launch), which had put down £36.4m. (In the years following GMTV's launch, the group approached the ITC to retrospectively obtain a reduction in this fee,[1] reducing it to a level below TV-am's original bid.[2])
By February 1992 the first on screen effects of the licence loss became obvious, with TV-am closing its in-house news service and contracting it out to Sky News for a one-off payment. Children's programming also suffered, with fewer appearances of Timmy Mallet and 'Wacaday', replaced by 'Cartoon World', which also ran on a Saturday from 8am (extended to 7.30am later in the year).[3]
Margaret Thatcher, whose government had introduced this reform (but who had by then been replaced as Prime Minister by John Major), famously wrote to Bruce Gyngell, apologising for being partly responsible for the loss of its licence. It read, in part: "I am ... heartbroken. I am only too painfully aware that I was responsible for the legislation."[4] The letter was written for private consumption but Gyngell made it public, an act which drew criticism from friends of the former Prime Minister.
TV-am broadcast its last show on 31 December 1992, and was replaced by GMTV on 1 January 1993. While TV-am, as an independent station, had used an expensive, custom-built studio complex at Camden lock, GMTV used studio space at The London Studios owned by one of GMTV's shareholders, LWT.
The station's broadcast finished on 31 December 1992 at 09:21 with a caption over a black and white still of the station's cast and crew in the studio:
"TV-am: February 1, 1983 - December 31, 1992"
This was then followed by a final commercial break in which there was no final appearance by the famous eggcups. Instead the final commercial was for GMTV.
At 09:25 the other franchise losers (TVS, TSW and Thames) began their final day's schedules and were replaced at midnight by Meridian, Westcountry, and Carlton respectively.
The next day, GMTV began at 06:00. Their opening studio segment included a tribute to TV-am in the form of a painting similar to their ident visible on the set behind the presenters.
The TV-am HQ in Camden Town was sold to MTV networks in 1993, where the famous eggcups still stand proud on the roof facing the canal. As well as being used by MTV for the production of its programmes, MTV Studios (as they are now marketed) are available for commercial hire within the TV industry. In 1999 a fire broke out in a video suite causing extensive damage to the first floor and roof of the building. Production studios and offices were undamaged, as were the famous eggcups.[5] TV-am performed a reverse takeover to become Crockfords, a gambling company.
"TV-am", the TV-am logo and fifteen registered trade marks are now owned by journalist Ian White. The archive of TV-am programmes made between 1983 and 1992 are now owned and managed by Moving Image Communications Ltd.
Presenters
- Anne Diamond, 1983-90, Good Morning Britain (Anne Diamond on Sundays)
- Maya Even 1989-1992 - began her television career at TV-am in 1987, first as a researcher in the political unit and then as a producer and reporter from 1989, mainly from Westminster. In 1990 she took over from Richard Keys as regular host of the early show and began deputising for Lorraine Kelly on "Good Morning Britain". She also fronted the revamped "First Report" and covered for David Frost with "Even on Sunday", which ranged across politics, the arts and sport
- Anna Ford, 1983, Good Morning Britain
- David Frost, 1983-1992, Good Morning Britain (Frost on Sundays)
- Angela Rippon, 1983, Daybreak, Good Morning Britain
- Kathy Tayler, 1989-1992, Good Morning Britain, After Nine
- Kathy Rochford, 1988 - 1992, Good Morning Britain
- Mike Morris, 1983-1992 ;Good Morning Britain; ;Sport;
- Richard Keys, 1984-1990 ;Good Morning Britain; ;Sport; ;The Morning programme
- Lorraine Kelly, 1984-1992 ;Reporter;Good Morning Britain;
- Rustie Lee, also consistently appeared on the show in the cooking segment.
- Ulrika Jonsson, presented the weather.
- Jayne Irving, 1984-1989 ;News, Good Morning Britain, After Nine
- Wincey Willis, 1983-1987, presented the weather.
- Nick Owen, 1983-1986, presented Good Morning Britain alongside Anne Diamond.
- Gordon Honeycombe, 1984-1989, Newsreader.
- Henry Kelly, 1983-1987, weekend Good Morning Britain presenter.
- Lizzie Webb, aka 'Mad Lizzie', fitness guru.
- Anneka Rice, 1985-1987, guest presenter, Good Morning Britain.
- Lisa Aziz, 1989-1992, Newsreader.
- Kathryn Holloway, 1998-1992, presenter, The Morning Programme, Good Morning Britain.
- Adrian Brown, reporter, newsreader, presenter Good Morning Britain.
- Caroline Righton, April-October 1987
- Kay Burley, 1985- , reporter, newsreader, presenter.
- Geoff Clark, Saturday Sport
- Gary Champion, sports reporter.
- Michael Parkinson and Mary Parkinson, 1983-1984, weekend programmes.
- Robert Kee, early presenter, 'Daybreak'.
- Lynda Berry, 1983-1984, reporter, Daybreak, Good Morning Britain.
- Commander David Philpott, Weather.
- Moya Doherty, reporter, presenter, After Nine.
- Gyles Brandreth, host 'Postbag'.
- Paul Reizin, reporter, host 'Pick Of The Week'.
- Derek Jameson, newspaper reviewer.
- Eve Pollard, showbiz reporter.
- Martin Frizell, reporter, presenter.
- Charles Golding, contributor, host 'What's News?'.
- Jimmy Greaves, TV reviewer, presenter.
- Dr Hillary Jones, resident doctor, host 'After Nine'.
- Chris Tarrant, roving reporter and host.
- Jeni Barnett, host 'Pick Of The Week', 'Postbag'.
- James Baker, presenter, 'Wide Awake Club'.
- Arabella Warner, presenter, 'Wide Awake Club'.
- Tommy Boyd, presenter, 'Wide Awake Club'.
- Timmy Mallett, presenter, 'Wide Awake Club'.
- Michaela Strachan, presenter, 'Wide Awake Club'.
References
- ^ http://www.ofcom.org.uk/static/archive/itc/uploads/GMTV_Television_APR_text.doc
- ^ GMTV gets budget boost by rebate
- ^ Morning Glory - The History Of British Breakfast Television'
- ^ Bruce Gyngell, pink-thinking TV pioneer, dies aged 71
- ^ BBC News | Entertainment | Fire hits MTV studios
External links
- TV-am.org.uk - the official company website
- www.tv-am.net - the official site of the TV-am Archive (1983-92) owned and managed by Moving Image Communications Ltd.
- TV-am at TV Ark
- Videos from the TV-am archive:
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