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News and Weather
| News has always been the cornerstone of regional broadcasting and Wales and the West has seen many changes over the years. We also take a glance at the weather and some Community Service Announcements |
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The Sixties
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For over twenty years, "Y Dydd" was the flagship news programme of Teledu Cymru and subsequently HTV Wales. Its look changed regularly and we can see two samples from the sixties, above.
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The Seventies
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After the arrival of S4C in 1982, HTV Wales was free to concentrate fully on its English language service. By the mid-eighties "Report Wales" had become "Wales at Six" and HTV enjoyed themselves with this histrionic sequence.
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| A dynamic sequence focusing on a circular motif - even to the point where the opening studio shot was though a fisheye lens. Here's (117Kb) the soundtrack, picking up from the end of ITN's "News at 5.45". The Wales newsreader is Liz Lloyd-Griffiths.
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1987 and West are deploying an aerial view for their news programme - presented by West's legendary news man, Bruce Hockin.
 
This venetian blind effect had been adopted by 1988.
Newsreader is Alan Rustard.
A few late eighties' publicity shots of Wales newsreaders are available in the the features section.
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Into the 1990s, and much use was made of this stylised "WS", perched behind presenter Nichola Heyward-Thomas, though some might say it's rather crude. Much better was the computer generated sun-dial from a year later.
Here's (17Kb) the sting which accompanied it.
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| A 1992 example left, from West and Wales' 1993 revamp following the renewal of HTV's franchise. |
| West lost no time incorporating the new HTV logo in their new news titles. Presenters here are long time West presenter Richard Wyatt and sometime continuity announcer Patricia Yorston. |
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In 1994 Wales' news was revamped and renamed when it was moved to six-thirty - competing directly with BBC Wales' "Wales Today". Now known as "Wales Tonight", it came complete with another new, portentous theme (75Kb). |
| This 1997 (66Kb) sequence is from West, it used an image of the Seven Bridge. The lines visible here are resolved from the bridge's cables. Voice over is by West's head of news and former ITN man, Ken Rees. |
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Left, a 1998 grab from "The West Tonight" co-presented by Kevin Owen, erstwhile host of the BBC's "Wales Today". Here's (98Kb) the theme and preamble. Right, the revamped "Wales Tonight" titles used between 1997 and March 1999 with yet another new theme (97Kb), this time based on the Welsh national anthem.
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Axing "News at Ten" caused changes all down the line. On March 8th 1999, HTV news was moved back half an hour, making way for the main ITN news at 6.30. HTV used the move as an excuse for a revamp and a title sequence incorporating the new HTV colours. The "Wales Tonight" tag was also dropped.
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| For the seventies and most of the eighties a simple slide covered the weather requirement. The first is from 1981 and was one of a collection of weather-specific cartoons. The "W" is from 1987. |
| Despite having proceeded quite happily with this arrangement for years, HTV suddenly decided that something more elaborate was needed - it also provided on-screen employment for Dilwyn Young-Jones, who quickly established a trademark wink. Several other forecasters popped up too. |
| The March 8th, 1999 changes also extended to the weather, the new ident colours were incorporated and the graphics polished up.
A Real Audio of the weather through to the revamped "Wales Tonight" opening can be heard here. (185Kb) |
Community Service Announcements
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The first example, from 1989 employs that old favourite, video feedback. This was accompanied by the "Ba-boing-boing-boing" jingle deployed by a number of regions for their community announcements. The second, now called a "Community Message" is from 1992 and makes use of some chunky graphics effectively animated. The third is the "environmental" style, currently used.
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Some of the pictures on this page have been supplied by the Transdiffusion Archive Project
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Next: a selection of breakdowns and temporary faults.
  
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