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Fifty years ago this week a former Southampton hotel, which played host to Hollywood stars boarding the great liners and passengers joining the Titanic's fateful maiden voyage, witnessed a television landmark as the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú launched a local TV news service from South Western House in the city.

On 4, 5 and 6 January, Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú South will be pointing the camera lens at itself to celebrate 50 years of broadcasting in the region – a memorable achievement that has seen some of the biggest names in the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú and in broadcast news pass through its doors over five decades.

Kate Adie, Jon Sopel, Michael Buerk, Jenni Murray, John Arlott, Sally Taylor, Bruce Parker, Andrew Harvey, Bob Wellings, Alan Little, Debbie Thrower, Martin Muncaster, Peter McCann and Sheila Tracey are just a few of those names.

Others have progressed to the top of the world's biggest broadcasting organisations – South Today programme producer Mark Byford became Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú Deputy Director-General and Chris Cramer, former head of Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú Newsgathering, became a president of American broadcasting giant CNN.

An era that has seen major advances in newsgathering – from typewriters and black and white film that had to be developed in chemicals prior to transmission, to the computerised world of digital newsgathering and computer graphics we now see on our TV screens.

Indeed, the last half century has seen not only the start of a Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú local TV service for the patch but also the beginning of Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú local radio – Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú Radio Solent celebrated its 40th anniversary on New Year's Eve – and the arrival of the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú's online news service in the Nineties.

The Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú's local TV service for the south was formally launched by the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú's Director-General, Sir Hugh Carleton Green, on 6 January 1961, who commented: "I believe this attention to local affairs, to the daily life of our own community, our own town or our own village, our own county, is the most valuable service TV can undertake."

In 1991, Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú South moved its broadcast operations to purpose-built studios in the city centre of Southampton – where it still remains.

But the traditions and heritage of broadcasting remain important to South Today editor Lee Desty, who has been with Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú South for over 22 years.

"The anniversary is about marking the contributions of thousands of people who have worked for Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú South over 50 years and it's about the celebrating a wonderful heritage of programmes to have come out of our studios at Southampton.

"Local news has always been a constant but Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú South has also delivered some wonderful news specials, documentaries, feature and entertainment programmes. Some of those have been shown across the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú TV's national network.

"In the Eighties – in the days before satellite news channels and the internet – one Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú South programme could expect to command an audience of well over a million Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú One viewers in the region. Although some commentators have been quick to write off the value of local TV news in the digital world, audiences have not. This year we had a Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú One audience of over 940,000 for South Today coverage of the January snow – that was a 20-year record. That shows there is still a big demand for high quality local news that is trusted and bang up to date."

Recently, Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú South staff discovered the earliest known edition of local TV news from its Southampton studios – an edition of South At Six, which dates from 1962 and which is in black and white.

Up to 150 existing and former Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú South staff will be gathering at The Hilton Hotel in Southampton on Thursday 6 January to celebrate the anniversary. The event has been organised and paid for by the staff themselves.

Notes to Editors

Pictures of Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú South in action in the early days are available.

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