Southern Television start-up, New Year's Eve, 1981

Following the final playing of Southern Rhapsody, Verity Martindill opens up Southern Television on its last day of transmission, 31 December 1981.

[@mirkomation]

It’s 31 December 2023 for me and I played this on me iPhone!

[@michaelmcdonald2348]

What a great piece of music Southern Rhapsody was. Shame it was probably never heard again after this. Likewise the Southern Fantasia composed for the final programme.

[@thealmightynootdoodle5615]

My girlfriend sent me this. Gotta agree this is a beautiful piece of music. Hi bb love you 😘

[@tabascocat5102]

Southern Rhapsody-great and distinctive tune

[@revinhatol]

"This is Southern Independent Television, broadcasting from transmitters of the Independent Broadcasting Authority in the South and South East of England."

[@CaptainSiCo]

I have a poor quality version of this on my channel, but the quality of this one is superb!!!

[@MrVCidade]

To be honest this has a Quadruplex quality to it, while yours is from VHS or Beta, something like that

[@brucedanton3669]

Thank you for this of course so then too. A shame really that this was their last full day on air too. I remember Verity Martindill too. Although I live in the London area, I know she announced on LWT at times, along with Hillary Osborn at one stage too. I don't think she was on Thames though. A shame too that she died in 1985 with cancer later on from what I read too. Well done too!

[@adultmoshifan87]

I’m here because I’ve watched Bob The Fish’s ITV in The Face series. I was born in 1987 and only remember Meridian being the ITV South East franchise holder. TVS is a name I didn’t know until sometime in the early 2010s. The first bits of the 1990 Broadcasting Act (except that it was the reason why these happened) I came across in 2007, which were that Teletext Ltd. and GMTV replaced Oracle and TVAM. Had I been around for Southern’s final night of broadcast, I would’ve watched a bit of And It’s Goodbye From Us to make fun of them for how bitter they were over TVS taking over, but turned over to the BBC around midnight.

[@SatsukiVM]

As for the next day, New Year's Day 1982, Southern Television is now Television South

[@msirma0077]

What dumbfounded me, is that when TVS replaced Southern Television, it was offered the Worzel Gummidge franchise - and declined. Hence the reason why the show transferred to New Zealand with "Worzel Down Under." TVS didn't have too many critical successes, but Worzel was, without doubt, loved by young and old around the Anglosphere.

[@neilrobinson1761]

Must have been a very sad day at Southern Television as this was their last day on air, their programme library does live on with Talking Pictures TV unlike what replaced them.

[@timdean2340]

Probably the very best of independent regional television,which has been lost to British broadcasting but lives on in Germany to a similar and successful format.Southern would have been a larger company if they had been allowed to broadcast from the new Membury transmitter near Hungerford in 1965...... losing out rather strangely to Midland ATV.....,..Unfortunatly this mean that Southern were more or less relegated to a strip along the south coast from Lyme Regis to Thanet.

[@christopherhayes2556]

who is that raving beauty of an announcer hope she kept her job after the old franchise

[@MrEurochannel]

It’s Verity Martindill.

[@christopherhayes2556]

@@MrEurochannel thank you

[@brucedanton3669]

I have no idea there but I know sadly as I have already put that she died in 1985 with cancer too from what I have read elsewhere too.

[@christopherhayes2556]

@@brucedanton3669 sorry i probably havent read all the comments further down sad to hear shes been gone so long. love to receive replies even months/yrs later!!

[@brucedanton3669]

@@christopherhayes2556 Thank you there for the reply too. I am not too sure but that sadly is what I read about her on another comment a while ago too. I had no idea too that she had died then so it came somewhat as a surprise too sadly of course.

[@garrysimpson1395]

Dear T.B.S. Did Southern Television go off the air for seven weeks from August 1977 to September 1977. I seem to remember this at the time. We had a wonderfull catch-up service when Southern came back on-air. Do you have the confirmed dates for me please. I love your sites. Thank You.

[@MrBreadman1966]

This version looks its a very good mock of the original startup sequence

[@TheWillsy]

It's not a mock.

[@22pcirish]

Yes, news years eve 1984 started at 09:30! Lie in anyone?

[@brucedanton3669]

This was New Years Eve 1981 though surely too of course was it not?

[@simonmoore2380]

ITV generally started at 9:30 and finished at not longer after midnight. BBC started even later (apart from schools programs). It wasn’t until “breakfast TV” around 1983, and then late night TV on ITV around 1987 that TV became more of a “round the clock” service.

[@BruceDanton-xw6eg]

​@simonmoore2380 you are so right there too of course.

[@MrEurochannel]

amazing quality .. how come? much better than home VHS.. did someone get hold of the 1 inch off air reels or Umatic copy?

[@TheWillsy]

Now_1 Very possibly 😉

[@kristijannemethmotorolavid2837]

Betacam SP

[@aidanlunn7441]

Looks like broadcast quality!

[@revinhatol]

As it is.

[@stickytapenrust6869]

No it isn't. It's 480p, not 575i 50Hz (576i for SD digital, but 575i for 625-line analogue. And before you ask, 405-lines would be 377i in digital form), which would be broadcast resolution if it was from a UK broadcast!

[@robertcomer2767]

God with a new year's eve line up like that no wonder it was taken off the air

[@itseventuallymekenty]

The Lost Island is a series made by aussie, Which basically you may see the text above Paramount um maybe the name of an aussie network.

[@antster1983]

It was a co-production between Paramount Television (the same ones who made Happy Days, Star Trek post-Desilu, Mork & Mindy and Cheers) and the 0-Ten Network of Australia (the name being a reference to the first stations on the network, ATV-0 in Melbourne and TEN-10 in Sydney, the network changed its name to Network 10 in 1980 when ATV changed channels to 10)

[@revinhatol]

@@antster1983 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paramount_Global

[@revinhatol]

After the Viacom (owner of Paramount Pictures)/CBS (owner of what was then The 0-Ten Network) merger deal, The Lost Islands is Paramount property.

[@xr6lad]

@@revinhatolParamount back in 1981 wasn’t owner of the 0-10 Network. So it can’t have had its name on this with the 0-10 network for that reason. It must be a sheer coincidence et.

[@revinhatol]

@@xr6lad Let me get this straight: CBS just bought Network 10, then 2005 Viacom merged with CBS, and now they changed their name to Paramount Global.

[@ianmorris3998]

How i miss Southern and TVS. Meridian should never of won that franchise in 1991. Meridian have been a flop in my eyes.

[@GryphLane]

It was more that TVS lost because they overbid to such an extent that they'd have become bankrupt within a year anyway. I loved TVS but it was pretty much self-inflicted.

[@davidpoulton2860]

Meridian are poor, South Today BBC, much better regional program .

[@abandoned---channel-o7b]

I think southern is more famous than granada or Thames! Because they got hijacked in 1977......

[@GryphLane]

Only a bit of it did. The northern edge of the region which relied on Hannington low power relay transmitter. The rest of the region wasn't affected.

[@abandoned---channel-o7b]

@@GryphLane oh, thanks for telling me. I will fix my comment.

[@stickytapenrust6869]

@@GryphLane Hannington wasn’t and still isn’t a low power relay transmitter. It’s a high-power main transmitter. You can receive it as Far East as West London, as far north as Oxford, as far south as Southampton and as far west as Salisbury. It’s microwave fed from Rowridge, yes, but that’s because Rowridge (and Chillerton Down) themselves had to be microwave-fed owing to being on the Isle of Wight and Southern’s studios being on the mainland. When Hannington ITV service opened in November 1971 it was just cheaper, quicker and easier to receive the signals off-air from Rowridge (BBC used a microwave link from Rowridge) than get the GPO to install new lines feeding it and new switching equipment in the nearest town’s exchange (which would be Newbury, I think).

[@ДиДи-н5к]

0:02

[@videonut1988]

Before Southern got rebranded into TVS...

[@colinclarke4285]

And fred dineage is still going ..I swear the guy doesn't age

[@videonut1988]

@@colinclarke4285, and he used to do Sport reports on “DAY BY DAY” before he did the news...

[@loosehorse2220]

It really wasn't re-branded as such, rather it lost its franchise licence and was replaced by a new company, TVS.

[@brucedanton3669]

@@colinclarke4285 I think he has now retired though surely from what I have read too though of course?

[@brucedanton3669]

It was odd really somehow that when the then IBA of old now decided that TVS would take over from Southern, they said that the region would be the South and South East of England too. Fair enough really, but the new company of course would be called Television South too. In a way, a reverse of the old one too. But they did not call it TVSE though did they, with the East added at all though really too? I know really it is just a minor point somehow, but it sort of does make you wonder though too?

[@stephenholmes1036]

Westwards music is better