BBC Night Network
The BBC Night Network (sometimes referred to on-air as BBC North FM and originally Radio North East) was an all-evening radio network which linked up the North East England, Yorkshire and the Humber, and later the North West England regions of BBC Local Radio. Each station would share the same programming.
Pre-history
In 1984 a Saturday evening, a 45-minute programme consisting of organ music, At the Console, began broadcasting. It was aired during the winter sports period at 6:45 pm on BBC Radios Leeds, York and Humberside. In August 1986, networked specialist music programming in Yorkshire was expanded into a weeknight service which was broadcast on all four Yorkshire stations (Leeds, York, Sheffield and Humberside) and aired from 6:05 pm to 7:30 pm. A year later this was further extended to a nightly service (apart from on Tuesdays to allow for local sports coverage) and the programmes were extended to two hours, broadcasting from 7:05 pm to 9:00 pm.
History
The BBC Night Network was launched on 29 May 1989 in the then BBC North and BBC North East regions – broadcast nightly on
The network was expanded in May 1991 to include the four
Following Bob Roberts' departure, the 10 pm to 1 am slot was taken over by a talk show called Late Night North, presented initially by Mike Parr from the
News
Initially, a single news update was broadcast across the entire network on the hour. However, regional bulletins were introduced when the North West stations joined the Night Network. Three separate bulletins were broadcast, lasting exactly five minutes, each weeknight - one for Yorkshire and Humberside, one for the North East and Cumbria and one for the North West. Charles Lees read the news in the Yorkshire and Lincolnshire area (BBC North) and Sharon Barbour read the news for the North East and Cumbria.
Jingles
BBC Night Network's jingles were produced by TM Century, now
Current simulcast arrangements
Since the Night Network arrangement was abandoned, the stations involved have taken steps to produce more locally produced programming and in some cases, extend broadcasting hours.
- BBC Yorkshire: BBC Radio Leeds, BBC Radio York and BBC Radio Sheffield simulcast late-night shows every night. Radio York also carries some programming from the BBC North East and Cumbria region.
- BBC Yorkshire and Lincolnshire: Both BBC Radio Humberside and BBC Radio Lincolnshire carry regional output from BBC Yorkshire. Radio Lincolnshire also carries some weekend programming from the neighbouring BBC East Midlands and BBC East regions.
- BBC North East and Cumbria: BBC Radio Newcastle and BBC Radio Tees simulcast late night and weekend evening output with BBC Radio Cumbria and BBC Radio Tees also simulcasting Braithwaite's Country on Sunday evenings.
- BBC North West: Indus is broadcast on BBC Radio Manchester and BBC Radio Lancashire on Sunday evenings and both stations broadcast the Allan Beswick phone-in from 10 pm to 1 am each Monday to Thursday night from MediaCityUK in Salford Quays.
Notable presenters
See also
- The Superstation – former night time service on most UK commercial radio stations
- Night Network – night time service by the ITV network
External links
- transdiffusion.org – Details of Newcastle studios.
- northeastradio.co.uk – Details of Nicky Brown's involvement.