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TV Pop Diaries
Pop Music on British Television 1955 - 1999

After the success of the Old Grey Whistle Test Christmas simulcasts on BBC2 and Radio 1's FM channel a series was commissioned with most of the shows recorded at the Hippodrome, Golders Green, the venue for many of Radio 1's In Concert series, with introductions from Radio One DJs Pete Drummond, Alan Black, Anne Nightingale and John Peel.


Produced by Whistle Test’s Michael Appleton and directed by Tom Cocoran the first series gave the whole show over to a band promoting their new album, but the second series gave space to two bands, including some new wave acts who were making their album debut.


The technical problem of broadcasting a pre-recorded show with both separate audio and video was resolved by someone at BBC Broadcasting House wearing stereo headphones with the sound of the mono TV broadcast in one ear and a mono feed of the stereo FM in the other ear. If the two audio feeds got out of synch' at any point then it could be adjusted by means of a vari-speed controller on the FM stereo output.


The show went into technical overdrive when one show featuring Gentle Giant in January 1978 was presented in ‘quadraphony’, which by this time had fallen out of fashion with the public and industry.


Headphones were more often than not used to immerse the listener rather than putting stereo hi-fi speakers either side of the television screen, which if not put a reasonable distance away would turn cathode ray tube screens a funny colour.


From Radio Times: To obtain the best effect viewers with stereo Radio 1 should turn off TV sound and position their loudspeakers on either side of the screen but close enough to relate stereo image to picture size. Stereo headphones provide a suitable alternative.


A few of the shows have been released on DVD.



SIGHT AND SOUND IN CONCERT


BBC2

8th January 1977 - 31st March 1984