Hebrides Television

In 1960, the Scotland committee of the Independent Television Authority (ITA) had thought of setting up a third region after North of Scotland Television (later Grampian Television, now STV North) was awarded the franchise for North and East Scotland, and that third region could be the 'West of Scotland", including the Inner Hebrides (aka the Inner Isles) and the Outer Hebrides (aka the Western Isles).

However, oddly enough, they might as well launch a weekend franchise for the new area. Thus, making that region the fourth in the UK to earn a separate weekend franchise alongside London, the English Midlands and the North and remaining so until New Year's Eve/Hogmanay 1981 when the two franchises we asked to merge their operations.

That weekend franchise is known as "Dal Riata Television (DRT)" operating from Friday evenings at 6:00 (later Friday afternoons at 5.15) to late Sunday nights (later early Monday Afternoons just before TV-am).

And so on New Year's Day 1961, the West of Scotland franchises were simultaneously awarded to both Hebrides Television on weekdays and Dal Riata Television on weekends.

With plenty of time left before the stations' launch in late September 1961, the ITA had set up two newly-built transmitters: one in Torosay on the Isle of Mull (serving Fort William, Lochaber, the Mull and Islay Groups, and the Kintyre peninsula) and the other in Eitshal on the Lewis side of Lewis and Harris (serving the Lewis and Harris group, the Skye group and Wester Ross). Scottish Television was interested in the former, while Grampian had interests in the latter. Both offers are rejected and so they were given to the new 'West of Scotland' area, despite both STV and Grampian calling foul.

On Thursday, 20 September 1961, Hebrides Television first went on the air and their first station identification is this: a pentagon composed of five triangles appearing one by one (upper, center-left, center-right, lower-right, and lower-left) to the "mi-mi-re-do-sol" tune followed by the station's corporate text and the station's VHF channel numbers.

The following Friday the 21st, the first start-up sequence is a test card with neighbouring Grampian Television's "Lochlaggan" by Muir Mathieson playing in the background. And the announcement goes like this: *"This is Hebrides Television, broadcasting to the West of Scotland from the transmitters of the Independent Television Authority on channel 8 in Torosay and channel 13 in Eitshal."*

Meanwhile, Dal Riata Television was also ready to launch on Saturday 22 September. And their first ident logo is a silent zoom-in of the words "Dal Riata Television" (much like the first ident of London Weekend Television almost seven years later) without the channel numbers, leaving half of the population in the region perplexed.

Prior to the auction, smaller ITV stations sought to affiliate with one of the Big Four ITV companies for the bulk of their programming. So Hebrides decided to stick with Rediffusion (the London weekday franchise) while Dal Riata chose to affiliate with ABC (the weekend franchise for the Midlands and the North of England). By the time of the 1967 ITA franchise auction, both Hebrides and Dal Riata faced fierce competition and ultimately won. And while the weekend franchises for the English Midlands and the North are removed (along with ABC in the UK), those in the London area and the West of Scotland remain. Unlike one of Thames and LWT, the relationship between Hebrides and Dal Riata is symbiotic as both are hardworking and inventive companies: one provides drama, news and documentaries to the region while the other provides comedy and entertainment for both adults and children, both even share a news department. Hebrides even partnered with Anglia, the East of England franchise holder on an episode of "Survival" concerning the wildlife of both ends of Great Britain. Thus, making that episode the first co-production between two companies on opposite sides of the country. Before the auction, there were 19 franchises covering 15 regions, four of which have both weekday and weekend franchises: London, the English Midlands, the North of England and the West of Scotland.

To celebrate the new franchise, Hebrides Television removed the channel numbers from their ident completely (pictured above). And soon enough, colour came along. Dal Riata became the first to switch to the colour spectrum on 27 December 1969, two weeks after Scottish Television (STV) did the same. Hebrides Television did the same two days later on Monday the 29th, just in time for the Hogmanay preparations. Here below is Hebrides' colour ident. This time, with a different five-note sound: "Sol-sol-fa-re#-la#". And at the start-up sequence, the music has changed to Gordon Langford's "Hebridean Hoedown" and the announcement had went like this: *"This is Hebrides Television, broadcasting to the West of Scotland including the Inner and Outer Hebrides from the Torosay, Eitshal, Skriaig, Bowmore and associated transmitters of the Independent Television Authority."*

Gaelic version
And this is the said station's startup slides: one from 1969, the other from 1971. The 1971 announcement goes like this: *"This is Hebrides Television, broadcasting to the West of Scotland including the Inner and Outer Hebrides from the Torosay, Bowmore, Eitshal, and Skriaig transmitters of the Independent Television Authority."*

Along came the turn of 1974, and the ITA was replaced by the IBA. And the 1980 franchise round is on the horizon, so all the franchises within the country are to be renewed in time for the new phase of British television at the turn of 1982. By early 1981, all television sets in the West of Scotland has switch to full colour service and for a few years from 1972 to 1974 the announcement went like this: *"This is Hebrides Television, broadcasting a full colour service to the West of Scotland from the transmitters of the Independent Television Authority."* The music was replaced by HTV's "Young Kingdom" by Jack Trombey from 1980.

Now the IBA came into being, and the national restructuring of ITV took place. A new 7-day franchise will be given to the West of Scotland area at the turn of 1982, so both Hebrides (Monday to Thursday) and Dal Riata (Friday to Sunday) have won both franchises but can have until New Year's Eve of 1981 to hold their franchises.

Thus, starting every start-up sequence for two test cards of each station (Hebrides/Dal Riata) from the IBA. (pictured below: test cards from 1974 and 1982) and there were two announcements: one from 1974 to 1983 -*"This is Hebrides Television, broadcasting a full color service to the West of Scotland from the Torosay, Eitshal, Skriaig, Bowmore, Clettraval and associated transmitters of the Independent Broadcasting Authority."*- and one from 1983 to 1985 -*"This is Hebrides Television, broadcasting to the West of Scotland including the Inner and Outer Hebrides from the Torosay, Eitshal, Skriaig, Bowmore, Clettraval, Castlebay and associated transmitters of the Independent Broadcasting Authority."*- to complement to the music.

The early eighties was a dreadful time for Dal Riata, but they managed to make it more worth celebrating from Christmas Night at 7:00 all the way through Boxing Sunday. The last three-day Christmas/Boxing Day weekend was all the worth celebrating all the good times and some of the bad times and on 27 December 1981, Dal Riata signed off for the very last time giving thanks and blessings to the staff and management of their soon-to-be-former rival Hebrides Television. And so after Hogmanay 1981, Dal Riata formally merged with Hebrides Television under its new seven-day franchise for the West of Scotland. And to celebrate the new combined franchise, the start-up music was replaced by an instrumental version of "Flower of Scotland/Fhlùir Na h-Albann" by Roy Williamson of The Corries. The people of western Scotland liked it so much to the point that they consider it the national anthem of Scotland more so than "Scotland The Brave" (the tune used for the idents of neighbouring Grampian Television). In 1985, the new start-up announcement goes like this: *"This is Hebrides Television, broadcasting from transmitters of the Independent Broadcasting Authority serving the West of Scotland."*

In came 1983, and Hebrides Television becomes the second ITV franchise in Scotland (after Grampian) to adapt their idents to CGI.

Gaelic version
Along came 1989, and ITV began knocking on the regions' doors to let them adopt their generic look for the new national network. Hebrides was a little reluctant because they feel half-and-half between 'Scottish' and 'Northwest British'.

The ITV generic look felt just right for Hebrides, so they used it for 4 years. Until New Year's Sunday 1993, to be precise.

From 4 January 1993 onward they use different identifications involving the region's scenery and popularities albeit keeping the 1989 theme from David Dundas. And they kept it until 1995, when they produce their own music again based on the first five notes of "Flower of Scotland".

Speaking of the 90's, another franchise auction was on the horizon in 1991. Compared to Hebrides' bid of £1 million (with backing from both Scottish and Grampian), Argyllshire Television's £1.75 million bid was deemed to be modest in part thanks to backing from Ulster Television, the ITV franchise for Northern Ireland. Surprisingly, the ITC ruled that Argyllshire's bid had not met the required business plan. Thus, leaving Hebrides the winner.

Version with 1989 ITV Logo
Along came the end of the 90's and Hebrides starts to revamp its on-air look, again showing the sights and sounds of the region. Pictured above are the idents used from 1993-2001 and from 1993-1998 respectively.

And finally, came the turn of the new millennium as Scottish Media Group purchased Hebrides Television plc from Wyvex Media Group Limited (owner of several newspapers in the West Coast of Scotland). But Hebrides still held on to using their local idents all the way to New Year's Eve 2001. By the turn of 2002, the "double pentagon" being the symbol of the company for half a century faded out for good and the unified brand of continuity idents used by SMG has been officially made its debut all across Scotland.

In 2003, the Celebrity idents were adopted.

Cat DeelyNiamh Cusack
In 2006, the STV "S" idents appeared, and that was that. After 55 years of service, the station was now merely known as STV West.