Transdiffusion Broadcasting System
Transdiffusion Broadcasting System

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This is the Transdiffusion Broadcasting System (TBS), a not-for-profit historical society dedicated to documenting and preserving broadcasting history.

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Granada logo Granada (1956-2002)
Granada was the last of the original "Big 4" companies to come on air.  Operating from Quay Street in Salford, broadcasting began from the Winter Hill transmitter on 17 February and from Emley Moor on 5 November 1956.  Granada operated across the entire North region on weekdays only, with ABC on weekends, until 1968 when the ITA changed the structure of the network and Granada became a 7-day operation but only in the North West.  Granada was regularly accused of being Manchester-centric, although they opened studios in Liverpool in the 1980s.  In the consolidation of ITV in the 1990s and early 2000s, Granada became the largest ITV company and eventually merged with the second largest, Carlton, to form the Granada-dominated ITV plc, which operates all the English and Welsh ITV contracts.  As part of this consolidation, Quay Street is to close and its operations, except news and Coronation Street, will move to the former Yorkshire Television studios in Leeds and the company will be renamed ITV Productions.  Famous figures in Granada included Sidney and Cecil Bernstein, the founders, Denis Forman, David Plowright, Peter Eckersley, Gus Macdonald and Jack Rosenthal.  Famous programmes included World in Action, Coronation Street, What The Papers Say, Cinema, University Challenge, Lift Off With Ayshea and Chelsea at Nine.

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