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Post by Simon B Kelly on Apr 19, 2024 8:09:48 GMT
Good to see the thread title has been edited, although it's still not entirely accurate. Although the medium wave transmitters have finally been switched off, Radio 4 will continue broadcasting on LW until "at least March 2025".
The LW exclusive programming, i.e. Daily Service and the extended edition of Yesterday in Parliament are now available on Radio 4 Extra on DAB, Digital TV and BBC Sounds. The shipping forecast is available on Radio 4 FM, though only twice a day during the week and three times at weekends instead of the usual four times a day.
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Post by Simon B Kelly on Apr 14, 2024 12:41:33 GMT
Love the clickbait thread title! I'm actually surprised to hear that any BBC stations are still broadcasting on MW and LW - it must be about twenty years since I last used those frequencies. After all, it's a limited bandwidth mono signal and if I'm listening to music or drama I want full-range stereo. All my cars have included an FM radio and my most recent also offers DAB. Plus, of course, there are numerous radio apps allowing us to tune in to our favourite local stations from anywhere in the world. Presumably shipping vessels now get their forecasts via internet or satellite so there really is no valid reason to waste money transmitting on MW or LW anymore.
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Post by Simon B Kelly on Apr 1, 2024 14:47:01 GMT
Since December last year, in addition to several Crossroads-related audio clips from other shows, the Crossroads Appreciation Society (Facebook group) have uploaded 40 complete missing episodes and 2 partial episodes from the Sue Grainger cassette collection. Last month, the Anonymous member who has been posting them pledged to upload the complete archive of Sue's audio episodes - although a week later they said they would be taking a break for a while due to health reasons.
Anyway, these are the Episode numbers of what has been uploaded to date:
1832,1833,1838,1839,1840,1841,1842,1843(extract),1844,1845,1846,1847,1848,1850,1851,2159,2177,2179,2234,2235,2245,2299,2347,2452,2453,2454,2455,2461,2462,2463,2473,2474,2514,2515,2561,2562,2563(extract),2584,2585,2586,2587,2588
Audio quality varies as these were originally recorded between 1972 and 1976 by placing a portable cassette recorder next to the TV. However, with today's technology I'm sure they could be improved, and with A.I. who knows - we could even recreate moving pictures to go with the sound recordings...
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Post by Simon B Kelly on Jan 22, 2024 1:05:46 GMT
There are quite a few Crossroads episodes listed as missing on TV Brain but they definitely exist as they are on the Noele Gordon boxset!
All the Central episodes have been repeated twice on UK Gold so I can't believe any of those are now missing - there are certainly plenty of off-air copies - so I'm sure when they get round to adding Crossroads to ITVX or whichever streaming service decides to licence it, it will be complete from July 1978 [Episode 2974] with only Episode 3355 [18.09.1980] and Episode 3535 [17.11.1981] missing.
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Post by Simon B Kelly on Dec 27, 2023 23:47:45 GMT
Don’t worry, Gary. She has been traced and yes, she still has most of her original cassettes. Negotiations are ongoing but, as with most collectors, it’s complicated. The fact that some of her recordings have been shared recently is definitely a good sign, though. With the 60th anniversary approaching, who knows…?
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Post by Simon B Kelly on Dec 24, 2023 10:35:21 GMT
A few of Sue's tapes are finally coming to light, with uploads posted in the Crossroads Appreciation Society Facebook group over the last few days. These were tapes she lent out to a fan many years ago and never got back. As expected the quality isn't great - she used to put her portable cassette recorder next to the TV to record them, so there is some hum and background noise. Of course, with modern technology that could all be cleaned up and I'm sure much better versions of them will surface before long.
The episodes shared are all over 50 years old! 2 episodes from December 1972 (shortly after Sandy's accident) and 10 episodes from January 1973 (an almost complete run). Episode numbers, according to the Lost Shows database are: 1832, 1833, 1838, 1839, 1840, 1841, 1842, 1843 (partial episode as apparently the rest of the tape had been chewed by the cassette recorder), 1844, 1845, 1846, 1847, 1848, 1850 and 1851.
Let's hope this leads to the other 1,000+ missing episodes that she recorded being shared over the next few years...
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Post by Simon B Kelly on Apr 10, 2023 21:05:56 GMT
I would imagine we'll be seeing multiple AI generated recons made by fans of the show long before any official BBC release...
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Post by Simon B Kelly on Apr 8, 2023 19:12:11 GMT
Having played around with some of these AI tools myself, I was thinking exactly the same. With AI software being able to generate life-like moving pictures instantly upon demand this is a real game-changer for animation studios. No longer do they need to spend days creating 3D models and months animating them frame by frame. Instead, with the right text prompts, and the right AI software, it can be done in hours. You no longer need to spend a fortune on special effects when a computer can do it all for you in a fraction of the time.
I'm looking forward to all the missing episodes being realistically recreated using AI within the next few years...
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Post by Simon B Kelly on Feb 12, 2023 0:30:59 GMT
Having purchased the recent box set are there any missing episodes in private hands rumoured to be existence ? I remember reading this article when it was first published, 29th July 1979: She's holding a portable cassette player which is probably what she used to record them. 1,400 episodes means she must have started taping Crossroads back in 1972 - at the time ATV would only have had a few hundred episodes in their archive, if that, so many of her recordings may have been the only existing copies in the world! It 44 years on, now, which would mean she will be 67 this year - where is super-fan Sue and her cassette collection today?
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Post by Simon B Kelly on Mar 13, 2022 21:29:44 GMT
When I first read about a missing series, I did a bit of a double-take... For most of us, because of where we live, there were only ever three series of MYL. Only five ITV regions showed the full Series 4: TSW - 13 episodes - 30th Sep-31st Dec 1985 Granada - 13 episodes - 4th Jan-24th Apr 1986 Anglia - 13 episodes - 9th Jan-1st Apr 1986 Central - 13 episodes - 1st Feb-6th Sep 1986 HTV West - 13 episodes - 1st Feb 1986-6th Mar 1987 Both Central and HTV West dragged out transmission by showing the series in blocks instead of a complete run. Two regions showed only some episodes: Tyne Tees - 9 episodes - 1st Feb-19th Mar 1986 Border - 4 episodes - 1st Feb-22nd Feb 1986 The remaining ITV regions don't appear to have shown it at all: STV - UTV - Grampian - Channel - HTV Cymru Wales - Yorkshire - Thames/LWT - TVS Unlike the LWT series, the TRI Films series doesn't appear to have had any repeats in the UK either. N.B. The broadcast dates given on TV Brain are for the Birmingham transmissions (presumably because that's Kaleidoscope's local area) rather than first broadcast.
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Post by Simon B Kelly on Mar 12, 2022 21:24:53 GMT
Living in London I missed out on Series 4, as it appears LWT didn't want anything to do with it. I have seen clips of it on YouTube, though, uploaded last year by someone who went on to post the following comments:
When challenged that the series wasn't broadcast until 1986 he responds:
And when quizzed about the bland set and the fact that there are fewer students in the class, he mentions:
If, as suggested, it was sold overseas, then there may still be one or two international broadcasters who still have copies. TV Brain are now listing all 13 episodes as missing...
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Post by Simon B Kelly on Oct 3, 2021 18:14:46 GMT
Sold for £10.50 - three bidders. The first two had put in a maximum bid of £10 which l think was a more than fair price...
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Post by Simon B Kelly on Sept 23, 2021 4:53:00 GMT
Nowhere in the eBay listing does it mention film. It clearly states audio only 1/4 inch magnetic tape. It's just the labels stuck on the boxes that are confusing, although one does have 1/4 magnetic written over the top.
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Post by Simon B Kelly on Jul 16, 2021 4:50:51 GMT
The drummer isn't even hitting the drums or the cymbals - he's just air drumming! The obvious giveaway, of course, is there isn't a microphone in sight and none of the electric instruments are plugged in...
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Post by Simon B Kelly on Jul 15, 2021 4:03:39 GMT
It's nice to see that there are still well-maintained machines out there, and operators who know how to get the best possible playback. The worrying part is that they always appear to be elderly gentleman. Hopefully they're passing their knowledge on to the next generation. I fear we may lose all our skilled professionals soon and tapes will turn up that no-one knows how to recover...
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