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Central (1982-1999)

Central was born out of the IBA's conviction that Lew Grade's ATV wasn't focusing its attention on the Midlands.  When the 1982 contract negotiations began, ATV applied for its existing contract under the name ATV Midlands Ltd, but the IBA insisted that on a name change and required Associated Communications Corporation, ATV's owner, to divest itself of much of the new company.  Central differed from ATV by operating a dual region, with production and news centres in both Birmingham and in Nottingham.  Later this became a triple region, with the addition of services from Abingdon.  Central was unopposed in the 1993 contract auction, winning with a four-figure bid, and later merged with the victorious London bidder, Carlton.  This led to Central adopting Carlton's poor branding methods in preference to those that had developed from years of ATV's xperience.  In 1999, even the name Central was dropped in favour of the bland Carlton identity.  Famous figures in Central included Ted Childs, Lewis Rudd, Jean Morton and board member Robert Maxwell.  Famous programmes included Spitting Image, Auf Wiedersehen Pet, Crossroads and Inspector Morse.

Latest Comments

• On The quest for Arne, Patrick Purcell said: P.S I checked a bit more and found this reference to 'Suite of Dances' by Arne - but its for clarinet quintet!, but maybe it will help : http://www.music.cmich.edu/about_the_school/ensembles/the_powers_woodwind_quintet/difficulty.html... Read more and comment on this article.
• On The quest for Arne, Patrick Purcell said: I, too, looked and looked and found an MP3 version attached: http://www.sub-tv.co.uk/mp3s/atv_sch_interlude_60s_2.MP3 'finale' to a dance suite was apparently part of tutorials done by Arne. I can't remember where I... Read more and comment on this article.
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