BBC East Midlands
Encyclopedia
BBC East Midlands is the BBC English Region
BBC English Regions
BBC English Regions is the division of the BBC responsible for local television, radio, web and teletext services in England. It is one of the BBC's four 'Nations' - the others being BBC Scotland, BBC Wales and BBC Northern Ireland....

 covering Derbyshire
Derbyshire
Derbyshire is a county in the East Midlands of England. A substantial portion of the Peak District National Park lies within Derbyshire. The northern part of Derbyshire overlaps with the Pennines, a famous chain of hills and mountains. The county contains within its boundary of approx...

, Leicestershire
Leicestershire
Leicestershire is a landlocked county in the English Midlands. It takes its name from the heavily populated City of Leicester, traditionally its administrative centre, although the City of Leicester unitary authority is today administered separately from the rest of Leicestershire...

, south Nottinghamshire
Nottinghamshire
Nottinghamshire is a county in the East Midlands of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west...

, South Kesteven
South Kesteven
South Kesteven is a local government district in Lincolnshire, England, forming part of the traditional Kesteven division of the county. It covers Grantham, Stamford, Bourne and Market Deeping.-History:...

 and Rutland
Rutland
Rutland is a landlocked county in central England, bounded on the west and north by Leicestershire, northeast by Lincolnshire and southeast by Peterborough and Northamptonshire....

.

Television

BBC East Midlandss television output consists of the flagship regional news service East Midlands Today
East Midlands Today
East Midlands Today is the BBC's regional television news programme for its East Midlands region, which covers Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Rutland, and the Grantham and Stamford areas of Lincolnshire....

, the topical magazine programme Inside Out and a 20-minute opt-out during the weekly Politics Show
The Politics Show
The Politics Show is an hour long BBC One television political programme broadcast in the United Kingdom on Sundays. The programme usually starts at midday, but is often earlier or later when sporting events clash in the schedules. It was launched in 2003 and was originally presented by Jeremy...

. A football magazine show, Late Kick Off
Late Kick Off
Late Kick Off was a BBC One regional television football programme which was launched on 18 January 2010 and ran up to and including the 2010-2011 football season...

, is co-produced with BBC Midlands.

The television area is bigger than the region's radio area, because of the coverage from Waltham over Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire. In reality, Radio Leicester covers much the same area as TV reception from Waltham, including all of Northamptonshire.

Radio

The region is the controlling centre for BBC Radio Nottingham
BBC Radio Nottingham
BBC Radio Nottingham is a BBC Local Radio station serving the English county of Nottinghamshire. It broadcasts on FM, AM, and digital DAB radio from studios located on London Road in Nottingham city centre.-Transmission frequences:...

, BBC Radio Derby
BBC Radio Derby
BBC Radio Derby is the BBC Local Radio station for the English county of Derbyshire, covering all but the northern tip of the county, and also serves eastern Staffordshire, mainly Uttoxeter and Burton upon Trent. The station broadcasts from its studios in Derby on 104.5, 95.3 and 96.0 FM and 1116...

 and BBC Radio Leicester
BBC Radio Leicester
BBC Radio Leicester is the BBC Local Radio service for the English counties of Leicestershire and Rutland. The station broadcasts from studios in Leicester on 104.9 FM, on DAB, and via the BBC iPlayer.-History:...

.

On weekdays, the three stations carry local programming between 6am and 7pm before joining together for a regional evening show presented by Richard Spurr. The weekday 'Late Show' presented by Amanda Bowman
Amanda Bowman
Amanda Bowman is a British disc jockey.Her broadcasting career began in the mid 1980s while she was working for Radio Trent. Initially one of the station's Careline presenters, she went on to host a show at Trent in her own right, before later taking a career break in order to bring up her children...

, produced from Nottingham from Sunday to Thursday, is also simulcast with stations in the BBC Midlands region (which now includes BBC WM
BBC WM
BBC WM is the BBC Local Radio service for the West Midlands, South Staffordshire, north Worcestershire and north Warwickshire, operated by BBC Birmingham. Launched on 9 November 1970 as BBC Radio Birmingham, it broadcasts from central Birmingham on 95.6 FM, DAB and on the internet...

) between 10pm and closedown at 1am.

Online and Interactive

BBC East Midlands also produces regional news & local radio pages for Ceefax
Ceefax
Ceefax is the BBC's teletext information service transmitted via the analogue signal, started in 1974 and will run until April 2012 for Pages from Ceefax, while the actual interactive service will run until 24 October 2012, in-line with the digital switchover.-History:During the late 60s, engineer...

, BBC Red Button and the 'BBC Local News' websites for each county.

History

The region itself used to be part of BBC Midlands as one large region controlled from Pebble Mill Studios
Pebble Mill Studios
The BBC 's Pebble Mill Studios were located in Edgbaston, a suburb of Birmingham, England. The views from the roof overlooked Cannon Hill Park, a nature centre, as well as Birmingham's city centre...

. However, to serve the viewers in the East of the region, a few changes were made. Initially, the region was given a seven minute opt-out of the Midlands Today
Midlands Today
Midlands Today is the BBC's regional television news programme for the West Midlands region, which covers the north of Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, Worcestershire and the West Midlands county...

 programmes, but this was expanded in January 1991, when a whole new region was created. The new region had a new news programme, although the programme's visual identity remained the same as its West Midlands counterpart. The region is now very much separate from the Midlands region.

Transmission service area

Although the East Midlands and West Midlands are similar in size, the Birmingham programme covers a larger area than the Nottingham programme because its region has three main transmitters, and the Nottingham programme has one, of which the eastern half of Waltham's TSA is outside the BBC East Midlands area. Waltham is on the eastern edge of Leicestershire, and is also the main transmitter for south Lincolnshire. North Northamptonshire is near to Waltham as well. Much of Cambridgeshire and Bedfordshire is also covered by Waltham.

The journalistic coverage is different from the broadcast coverage because of the set of radio stations that are tied to the BBC East Midlands region, and which are not. Peterborough and north Northamptonshire, although mostly covered by Waltham, have their radio stations both tied to the BBC East
BBC East
BBC East is the BBC English Region serving Norfolk, Suffolk, north Essex, Cambridgeshire, northern and central Hertfordshire, most of Northamptonshire, Bedfordshire, and parts of Buckinghamshire.-Television:...

 region in distant Norwich
Norwich
Norwich is a city in England. It is the regional administrative centre and county town of Norfolk. During the 11th century, Norwich was the largest city in England after London, and one of the most important places in the kingdom...

.

It began broadcasting in widescreen
Widescreen
Widescreen images are a variety of aspect ratios used in film, television and computer screens. In film, a widescreen film is any film image with a width-to-height aspect ratio greater than the standard 1.37:1 Academy aspect ratio provided by 35mm film....

 format in July 2002.

Studios

In 1991 the TV studios, Radio Nottingham, and the BBC region's offices were at York House on Mansfield Road. This became Nottingham Trent University
Nottingham Trent University
Nottingham Trent University is a public teaching and research university in Nottingham, United Kingdom. It was founded as a new university in 1992 from the existing Trent Polytechnic , however it can trace its roots back to 1843 with the establishment of the Nottingham Government School of Design...

's Centre for Broadcasting & Journalism, with the TV studios left intact, which opened in September 1999. York House is soon to be demolished. NTU moved its broadcasting centre in 2009 to its Chaucer Building on Goldsmith Street.

New headquarters

The Nottingham headquarters were built especially after the region was created and were state of the art when constructed in 1999, containing the newsroom for East Midlands Today
East Midlands Today
East Midlands Today is the BBC's regional television news programme for its East Midlands region, which covers Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Rutland, and the Grantham and Stamford areas of Lincolnshire....

, a small studio for use by regional news, and accommodation for BBC Radio Nottingham
BBC Radio Nottingham
BBC Radio Nottingham is a BBC Local Radio station serving the English county of Nottinghamshire. It broadcasts on FM, AM, and digital DAB radio from studios located on London Road in Nottingham city centre.-Transmission frequences:...

. It is located on London Road, Nottingham
Nottingham
Nottingham is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England. It is located in the ceremonial county of Nottinghamshire and represents one of eight members of the English Core Cities Group...

.

In addition to the main headquarters, the region has offices in St. Helens Street, Derby
Derby
Derby , is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands region of England. It lies upon the banks of the River Derwent and is located in the south of the ceremonial county of Derbyshire. In the 2001 census, the population of the city was 233,700, whilst that of the Derby Urban Area was 229,407...

 containing BBC Radio Derby
BBC Radio Derby
BBC Radio Derby is the BBC Local Radio station for the English county of Derbyshire, covering all but the northern tip of the county, and also serves eastern Staffordshire, mainly Uttoxeter and Burton upon Trent. The station broadcasts from its studios in Derby on 104.5, 95.3 and 96.0 FM and 1116...

, and in St. Nicholas Place, Leicester
Leicester
Leicester is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England, and the county town of Leicestershire. The city lies on the River Soar and at the edge of the National Forest...

 housing BBC Radio Leicester
BBC Radio Leicester
BBC Radio Leicester is the BBC Local Radio service for the English counties of Leicestershire and Rutland. The station broadcasts from studios in Leicester on 104.9 FM, on DAB, and via the BBC iPlayer.-History:...

. Both of these premises also contain news bureaux for East Midlands Today.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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