On this day in Yorkshire

January 22, 1949

Third station will be for Yorkshire

THERE is now very little doubt that Britain’s third television station will be somewhere on the ridge of the Pennines, probably not far from Huddersfield. The Assistant Postmaster-General, Mr C.R. Hobson said in the Commons yesterday that the station would probably serve South Lancashire and a “substantial part Yorkshire.”

If situated on the Pennine ridge its signals should carry easily at least 50 miles to the east and west, and might be received at far greater distances.

It has been scientifically proved - partly by recent tests along the Yorkshire-Lancashire border with captive balloons serving as receiving aerials - that hills can obscure television signals in much the same way as ordinary light-waves are checked by material obstacles. Hence it is important that television transmitting stations should be situated on high places whence the signals can travel to the horizon with as little interruption as possible.

None the less, some very curious results have been obtained with the television programmes broadcast from the comparatively low-lying Alexandra Palace. While the normal maximum range of these programmes is presumed be 40 miles, ‘Ally Pally’ signals have often been received successfully at far greater distances. There is, for instance, a receiver in the Channel Islands that regularly and effectively receives them.

The Birmingham Television Station, to go into operation next autumn will be more than twice as powerful as that at Alexandra Palace. But its normal range is expected to be only 10 miles greater. Unless unexpected scientific developments occur during the next year or two, the Yorkshire-Lancashire station is unlikely to exceed the Midlands transmitter in normal range.

No date ran given for the opening of this third station. Nearly everything depends on the availability of materials and labour, for neither of which the BBC receives priority. But it is improbable that the Pennine Range station will be functioning for another two years.

Probably the fourth of the six stations envisaged by the Hankey Report of 1944 will be on high land in Northumberland or Durham, to serve the North-Eastern area of the country. The Midlands station at Sutton Coldfield should give a television service of some kind to parts of South Yorkshire.