BBC All Network Service 1978

[@stevewilliams6374]

I didn't know about the strike and its effects on BBC radio in particular. Great to hear some timeless, class presenters improvising in the circumstances brilliantly. Thank you!

[@johnking5174]

The unions originally called out the television staff. However to force the BBC, they asked their radio colleagues to go on strike too, and they did, reluctantly as they didn't walk out on 21st December with the television staff. 4.00pm until 2.00am was the all network service. 10 hours, a weird 10 hours.

[@christopherhulse8385]

The 70s were all about striking, unions and power cuts.

[@alangiles8103]

It sounds like David Hamilton in that first announcement.

[@johnking5174]

ITV was the only television channel available on this day (except for Yorkshire TV viewers, as they were on strike too) - The schedule on ITV for the evening of Fri 22 Dec 1978 was: 7.00pm The Muppet Show. 7.30pm Sale of the Century. 8.00pm Survival Special. 9.00pm Vegas. 10.00pm News at Ten. 10.30pm Gene Kelly's Dancing Years.

[@johnking5174]

What goes missing from this strike date is the fact that ITV Yorkshire Television was also off air with their own industrial dispute. Yorkshire Television served over 6 million viewers who were left with no television at all from December 20th to 22nd 1978.

[@christopherhulse8385]

Unless you could pick up a neighbouring ITV station which i understand many could in Yorkshire.

[@arthurvasey]

ATV, Tyne Tees, Granada or Anglia, depending on where you lived! I often wonder what opportunities might have presented themselves if they had a box type of thing that enabled you to watch content from other regions - if your region was showing some rubbish old film on a Monday or Friday afternoon - where movie matinées were confined to - you could find an alternative on another region - network stuff was largely shown nationally - but there was a lot of regional content - either programmes from your ITV region, programmes from other regions that were shown on different times and days, films and imports from mainly America, Canada, Australia and New Zealand! On holiday in a place far away from home, you could still tune in to your regional news broadcast!

[@johnking5174]

@@arthurvasey Back then the ITV regions were like different TV stations - held together by networked shows in prime time and the ITN News, the rest was a moveable feast with each region even allowed to import their own US shows and place them where they wanted.

[@patdbean]

​@@arthurvaseylike sling box?

[@whatamalike]

Interestingly despite living nowhere near the Tyne Tees region (being from south yorkshire) i could always pick up TT rather than Yorkshire in my bedroom! Never understood how that worked as I probably lived closer to a granada or central transmitter!

[@arthurvasey]

With there being more than twice the number of radio networks, it would not work today, a combined service - unless it was independent of the other networks - like the World Service used to be before its news obsession - programmes of mixed music from pop to classical across the day, the odd comedy or play and so on - you couldn’t feasibly have a programme or whatever with one presenter playing the latest hits, oldies and classical music all in one programme! Who do they think they are - hospital radio?

[@johnking5174]

The emergency schedule was designed to cater for tastes at the best time - so from 4pm until 6pm it was for Radio 2 listeners. 6pm to 8pm for Radio 1 listeners. 8pm to 10pm for Radio 3 listeners. 10pm to 2am a mix for Radio 1 and 2 listeners. Radio 4's only look in was the news headlines on the hour, but even that had the Radio 2 news jingle.

[@BelfastGav]

This is a great piece from wireless history. It gives a real flavour of that manic day.

[@anthonyperkins7556]

In the mid 80's there was a NUJ strike on BBC Local Radio, many stations just didn't broadcast anything keeping to Radio 2 all day and night, some broadcast non-stop music and jingles for a few hours, some with an additional pre-recorded announcement as to why the station wasn't broadcasting anything, and others like BBC Radio Lancashire mainly carrying Radio 2 all the time, just opting out for an hourly news bulletin read by a skeleton staff newsreader but that was it.

[@johnking5174]

Note how Jan Leeming was heard on BBC Radio News, as she was largely working with BBC Television News. They needed non union staff in to work the newsroom at Broadcasting House, which was virtually empty

[@Sheffield_Steve]

I bet Radio 3 listeners were overjoyed to hear R1 & 2 and vice-versa??

[@johnking5174]

You are right. In a way this moment gave us British an idea of what the Irish had been having, as until 1979 RTE Radio had just one main radio station, having to cater to all tastes in one station.

[@steeviebops]

Great upload, I never knew about this.

[@christopherhulse8385]

With the current BBC cutbacks, I can see an all network service catching on! Imagine the money they could save.

[@nowster]

Amazing that Brian Perkins sounded exacly the same in the early 2000s when Dead Ringers did their mickey takes.

[@mattgeldart519]

Fascinating - although not in this clip - I'm sure I remember one of the presenters dubbing the All Network Service "Radio 10" (1+2+3+4)

[@arthurnibble4763]

Correct, Bill Rennells referred to "Wonderful Radio 10" in this clip... kzbin.info/www/bejne/aqPCcpZuqMyUhbM

[@EddieHutchinson-jm9zc]

Indeed - Bill Rennells at 3:47 in this clip kzbin.info/www/bejne/aqPCcpZuqMyUhbM

[@suehedges]

So what was the song that Bill Reynolds was going to play when he said Cila black is optimistic about the outcome?

[@sambda]

Hilarious that this joint service broadcast music: "That was the Sex Pistols with Anarchy In The UK. Next, Shostakovich's 5th symphony in D-minor. Then at seven pm tonight, Dave Brubeck introduces his 5 best Brotherhood Of Man tracks."

[@johnking5174]

Well it wasn't quite like that. Programming was split into different shows on the one united network as seen in the emergency schedule.

[@johnking5174]

The emergency schedule was designed to cater for tastes at the best time - so from 4pm until 6pm it was for Radio 2 listeners. 6pm to 8pm for Radio 1 listeners. 8pm to 10pm for Radio 3 listeners. 10pm to 2am a mix for Radio 1 and 2 listeners. Radio 4's only look in was the news headlines on the hour, but even that had the Radio 2 news jingle

[@RyanSchweitzer77]

Kid Jensen, aka Dave Jensen, would later on leave the BBC in 1980 to be a news presenter for the "TBS Evening News" on Ted Turner's Superstation WTBS in the States--he'd later return to BBC Radio 1 in 1981.

[@richiehoyt8487]

A service combining the four national networks? My first thought was, well, how the hell were they planning on making _that_ work?! Be hard to see Radios 3 (serious, ie "classical" music) and 1(pop/rock) making for easy bedfellows! But after a moments consideration I realised that my own country's national station, Radio Éireann in Ireland had basically been running such an "All things to all men" service for decades - on the face of things, successfully, but the 1980's would see them getting a serious run for their (advertising) money from a plethora of pirate stations, the addition of a national - and legal - pop station about this time being too little, and far too late! As for the UK, it's kind of hard to see how a strike, be it over pay or whatever, could knock out practically all non - commercial broadcasting in the state (which, in Britain, must have equated to well over 50% of it!) It's like, _what?_ was _everyone_ from the canteen staff, to the guy reading the 9 o'clock news, to the engineers and riggers that serviced the transmission equipment _all_ out.?! But then, it _was_ the 70's; hidebound bureaucracies; a labyrinthine, entrenched, civil service; overarching national pay deals; benchmarking etc... Not to mention, as glad as I am to live in a country which, like Britain, still has Trade Unions with _some_ rights, _the 70's_ were a time when if you changed _a light bulb_ without permission, you'd have the electricians out picketing the place... then you'd have the Amalgamated Steeplejacks & Bottle Washers coming out in sympathy, and, just like, forget about it... (It wasn't until 1980, I think, that the obligation on the BBC to have a live orchestra on Top of the Pops, the country's most popular music programme, _notwithstanding that the actual BANDS being featured were DUBBED(!)_ was dropped); you couldn't make it up! Almost inevitable when you look back, really, that Margaret Thatcher, the arch Neo~Con, was able to just _stroll_ into № 10! Anyway, they obviously sorted it out in the end... and God, here I am waffling and ranting about it 45 years later in age when we get our telly on screens that either wouldn't be out of place in a multiplex, or which we slip into our trouser pockets when we're not watching!

[@johnking5174]

The majority of staff who worked at the BBC were part of the ABS union which meant a huge loss of staff - this is why it was impossible to keep the four stations on air so a merged station was required. BBC Radio had planned for this. When BBC One and BBC Two television was knocked off air on 20th December, the radio services planned an emergency schedule for whenever a strike would hit them. It involved non union staff which amounted to around 10 to 15% of staff left which included a lot of the presenters and some non union tech staff.

[@johnking5174]

Viewers would have lost the following programmes on BBC One this Friday night - Star Trek, Citizen Smith, The Liver Birds, News, Starsky and Hutch, Max Boyce and the film The Thomas Crown Affair.

[@johnking5174]

Viewers would have lost the following programmes on BBC Two this Friday night - Film, The Nun's Story, Country Game, Leo Sayer Show, Film, She Loves Me, Emerson, Lake and Palmer Special and a Late Night Horror Story.

[@altfactor]

Wasn't this all network radio service also simulcast on the BBC World Service, replacing regular World Service programming in English and other languages?

[@johnking5174]

Yes, as all radio staff under the union rule were called out.

[@patdbean]

This sends shivers down my spine, because it is very like the uk planed war time broadcasting service. That would have come on line in the run up the a nuclear strike on the uk.

[@richardsharpe2966]

Is that Sky Sports Cricket Charles Coleville

[@RandomRadioJottings]

The very same. Charles was a Radio 4 announcer for a while.

[@richardsharpe2966]

@@RandomRadioJottings Thank you for that kind information he is now a TV legend

[@rachel.mcgowan]

Yes, and he was also briefly on the old (better) Radio 5

[@darren2514fv]

@@rachel.mcgowan There is a video on another YT channel of Charles Colville making a announcement for Teachers on BBC1 Schools for BBC TV on 20 March 1980

[@adamsblog2161]

BBC All Network Service

[@johnking5174]

Unique service, never matched again

[@johnking5174]

Just think there was no television on BBC One and BBC Two from Wednesday December 20th, and then radio affected badly by Friday December 22nd. ITV and the commercial stations benefited so much on this day.

[@foobar83]

scab radio

[@patdbean]

This sends shivers down my spine, because it is very like the uk planed war time broadcasting service. That would have come on line in the run up the a nuclear strike on the uk.