Engineering Announcements
| Engineering Announcements for the Radio and Television Trade | |
|---|---|
| Created by |
ITA (1970–1972) IBA (1972–1990) |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Production | |
| Running time | 10–15 minutes |
| Release | |
| Original network |
ITV (1970–1983) Channel 4 and S4C (1983–1990) |
| Picture format | 576i (SDTV) |
| Original release | 1970 – 1990 |
Engineering Announcements for the Radio and Television Trade, sometimes abbreviated to Engineering Announcements, was a weekly magazine of news and information intended for technicians and salespeople in the United Kingdom, produced and transmitted by the Independent Television Authority (and later the Independent Broadcasting Authority) from 23 November 1970 until 31 July 1990. It covered technical advances in the industry such as the launch of satellite television and NICAM stereo, along with details of new transmitters and the scheduling of transmitter downtime.
Engineering Announcements, and the BBC's similar Service Information, are examples of regularly scheduled "ghost programmes," so called because they were never advertised in on-air schedules, in newspaper TV listings, the TV Times or on teletext.
Scheduling
Engineering Announcements was originally scheduled directly after Monday's Newcomers, another example of a ghost programme which offered the advertising trade the opportunity to watch first runs of new adverts before they aired in prime time on ITV. It was shown at 9.45am.
In September 1972, Engineering Announcements moved to 9:10am on Tuesdays, where it remained until May 1983. The launch of TV-am meant that the ITV network would no longer be available to show Engineering Announcements at the old time although they were still shown on ITV in the 10-minute gap between the end of TV-am and the start of ITV - the gap was needed to allow for switching ITV from national transmission to the local ITV contractor. This became automated shortly after TV-am's launch and the gap was no longer required. TV-am's hours were extended until 9:25 and consequently the slot used to transmit Engineering Announcements disappeared.[1]
Given that Channel 4 and S4C, still in its infancy, generally didn't start broadcasting until the early evening, the programme was transferred to Channel 4 (except for Wales where its handed over to S4C) and screened at 0915 each Tuesday, with a repeat at 1215 the same day. However, as Channel 4 and S4C gradually lengthened its broadcasting hours throughout the 1980s, Engineering Announcements was forced into increasingly earlier time slots, losing first the 1215 repeat when it took over ITV's programmes for schools and colleges in September 1987. It moved to 8:10am at the start of 1989 and when Channel 4 launched its own breakfast television service in April 1989, Engineering Announcements was moved to 5:45am, where it could be recorded by engineers for later viewing.
Engineering Announcements broadcast for the final time on 31 July 1990. This was a retrospective programme.[2]
During the ITV strike from August to October 1979, Engineering Announcements was the only programme broadcast on most of the network.