All posts by Andrew Mark
Below are all of Andrew Mark's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Bernard Hunt - I you live in Hereford, you are surely lucky to get ITV West as it broadcasts fom a panel relay on Ridge Hill to the south east of the mast (i.e. it's for those parts of north Gloucestershire that cannot get their regional ITV service from Mendip or its many relays in Gloucestershire). That's probably why it's labelled as Gloucestershire too.
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Michael - I suggest you e-mail the BBC regional manager for the West to complain about the fact that you cannot get BBC Points West (which actually provides a superior news coverage of Gloucestershire than ITV West). This is a ridiculous situation and pressure must continued to be applied on the BBC. (Gloucester's MP is also on the case). The e-mail address is: Lucio.Mesquita@bbc.co.uk
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Bernard - Happy to be corrected on that. It would therefore seem that the analogue ITV West relay on Ridge Hill is now redundant?
But I do not understand why there is 360 degree transmission of ITV West, when editorially they cover Bristol, Gloucestershire, Wiltshire, and Somerset....whereas Central covers the Midlands, including Herefordshire and Worcestershire.
So why transmit ITV West from Ridge Hill to Herefordshire and Worcestershire?
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John Lees - you are quite right about the ridiculous situation with us able to receive via your aerial ITV West and not BBC Points West, which gives better coverage of our area than ITV West news.
Can I suggest you complain to: your MP, BBC radio gloucestershire, and most importantly e-mail the BBC West regional manager: Lucio.Mesquita@bbc.co.uk
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Bernard - I live in Gloucester, and have received BBC West for the last 30 years. I have never seen a piece on Points West about a place in Herefordshire. The same applies for ITV West.
I would be very surprised if you could convince either the BBC West or ITV West that Herefordshire should be in their editorial areas. There is no issue from them about Gloucestershire, the only debate remaining is why Ridge Hill doesn't carry BBC Points West for north Gloucestershire, as satellite and cable does.
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Ridge Hill (ITV West) (County of Herefordshire, England) There Wednesday 26 October 2011 10:56PM
Gloucester
I have had a sympathetic response from the BBC West regional manager about the need for BBC Points West from the Ridge Hill transmitter to mirror the service from ITV West, so that we in north Gloucestershire do not have to receive the inappropriate and irrelevant midlands today .
However, the issue now is one of cost at a time when the BBC's funding from the government has been cutback dramatically.
From my research, I think that to leave the populations of Gloucester, Cheltenham, Stonehouse, Dursley, Cam, Newent etc (a population total of over 300,000) with the wrong BBC regional service is the biggest regional anomoly in the whole of England.
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Ridge Hill (ITV West) (County of Herefordshire, England) There Thursday 27 October 2011 9:27PM
Gloucester
Briantist - That may be the BBC's line, but the fact is that their west regional manager is very sympathetic to our plight in north Gloucestershire.
At the risk of repeating myself, the facts here are:
1. If you can get your pictures via satellite or cable, you get Points West.
2. BBC Midlands coverage of this area is minimal.
3. Points West have a reporter based in Gloucester.
4. Points West stories of Gloucestershire far outnumber those on Midlands Today.
5. When any stories from Points West are used by Midlands Today, they are usually stripped down from the amount of content that is on Points West.
6. If Midlands Today do carry a Gloucestershire story, it is only one from the north of the county, unlike Points west that provides stories for all of the county.
7. Away from the Ridge Hill service area, apart from a very small number of homes on the eastern border of Gloucestershire, the rest of the county is covered by terrestial signals from Mendip and its relays.
People in north Gloucestershire do not see themselves as being in the midlands culturally - the government see us as being in the south west; half of Bristol was until 1974 in Gloucestershire; our main sporting derby is the rugby match against Bath etc. etc.
These issues and our frustrations are also understood by the MPs for Gloucester and Cheltenham.
For the BBC to say that midlands today covers this area is rather fatuous and certainly inaccurate.
And with the infrastructure already avaiable on the Ridge Hill mast, it would not take a huge amount to resolve this longstanding sore. (i.e. capacity exists on the mux ITV west is using; the mast is in place with the transmitting panels; and there is a trough ereceiver in place to pick up signals from mendip.)
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Ridge Hill (ITV West) (County of Herefordshire, England) There Monday 14 November 2011 7:11PM
Gloucester
There's another potentially disasterous issue looming with north Gloucestershire's ability to receive Points West....and that is the proposal in the BBC's Delivering Quality First document that it will reduce the number of regions avaiable on satellite....I quote:
"We are reviewing the number of regional variants in England we carry on digital satellite and intend to reduce this to enable savings in distribution costs, though these programmes would continue to be transmitted on Freeview."
I think that the West region, as one of the smaller ones would be really vulnerable...and the removal of it would deprive those receiving their Points West pictures via Freesat or Sky.
I will be writing to the local MPs about this, and would urge others to do the same.
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Ridge Hill (ITV West) (County of Herefordshire, England) There Tuesday 22 November 2011 10:34PM
Gloucester
Ray - It is possible that BBC West has been stored in the 800s in your tuner. Alternatively you might have to do a manual scan to get it.
What can happen is that as the dreaded midlands channels are lower down the frequency range, they are stored first as your BBC and ITV region, so blocking out the west channels which come later in the frequency spectrum.
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Thursday 3 February 2011 10:28PM
Makes the situation from Ridge Hill for terrestial viewers in the Cheltenham/Gloucester area even more untenable with ITV West coming via their aerial after DSO, but from the BBC the itrrelevant Midlands Today.
Absolutely ridiculous when you consider the excellent coverage that BBC Points West gives north Gloucestershire. How much longer can this nonsense prevail?