BBC North East and Cumbria is one of the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

's English regions covering

Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne, or simply Newcastle ( , Received Pronunciation, RP: ), is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is England's northernmost metropolitan borough, located o ...

North Tyneside North Tyneside is a metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of Tyne and Wear, England. It forms part of the greater Tyneside conurbation. North Tyneside Council is headquartered at Cobalt Park, Wallsend. North Tyneside is bordered by Ne ...

Gateshead Gateshead () is a town in the Gateshead Metropolitan Borough of Tyne and Wear, England. It is on the River Tyne's southern bank. The town's attractions include the twenty metre tall Angel of the North sculpture on the town's southern outskirts, ...

South Tyneside South Tyneside is a metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of Tyne and Wear, England. It is bordered by all four other boroughs in Tyne and Wear: Gateshead to the west, Sunderland in the south, North Tyneside to the north and Newcastl ...

City of Sunderland Sunderland () is a port city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is a port at the mouth of the River Wear on the North Sea, approximately south-east of Newcastle upon Tyne. It is the most populous settlement in the Wearsid ...

County Durham County Durham, officially simply Durham, is a ceremonial county in North East England.UK General Acts 1997 c. 23Lieutenancies Act 1997 Schedule 1(3). From legislation.gov.uk, retrieved 6 April 2022. The county borders Northumberland and Tyne an ...

Northumberland Northumberland ( ) is a ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North East England, on the Anglo-Scottish border, border with Scotland. It is bordered by the North Sea to the east, Tyne and Wear and County Durham to the south, Cumb ...

, north and mid

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders the Scottish council areas of Dumfries and Galloway and Scottish Borders to the north, Northumberland and County Durham to the east, North Yorkshire to the south-east, Lancash ...

and parts of

North Yorkshire North Yorkshire is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in Northern England.The Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority areas of City of York, York and North Yorkshire (district), North Yorkshire are in Yorkshire and t ...

. The region provides unique

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television b ...

programming, including regional news programmes, and local radio stations. It is headquartered at Broadcasting Centre,

Spital Tongues Spital Tongues is a district of Newcastle upon Tyne, located due north-west of the Newcastle City Centre. Its unusual name is believed to be derived from ''spital'' – a corruption of the word ''hospital'', commonly found in British place names ...

, Newcastle upon Tyne.

Services

Television

''BBC North East & Cumbrias television output, headquartered in Newcastle, is broadcast on

, and consists of the flagship regional news service ''

Look North ''BBC Look North'' is a name used by the BBC for its regional news programmes in three regions in the North of England: * ''BBC Look North (North East and Cumbria), BBC Look North'' for the BBC North East and Cumbria region * ''BBC Look North (Y ...

'' and ''

Politics North Politics () is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of status or resources. The branch of social science that studies politi ...

''. The rugby league highlights programme '' The Super League Show'', produced by PDI Media at

BBC Yorkshire BBC Yorkshire is one of the English regions of the BBC. It was formed from the division of the former BBC North region into BBC Yorkshire and BBC Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, based in Kingston upon Hull. Serving West, North and South Yorkshir ...

's studio in Leeds, is also broadcast to North East and Cumbria.

Radio

The region is the controlling centre for three local radio stations -

BBC Radio Newcastle BBC Radio Newcastle is the Local BBC Radio, BBC's local radio station serving Newcastle upon Tyne, the neighbouring metropolitan boroughs, Northumberland and north east County Durham. It broadcasts on frequency modulation, FM, Digital Audio Br ...

BBC Radio Tees BBC Radio Tees, formerly known as BBC Radio Teesside, BBC Radio Cleveland and then BBC Tees, is a BBC local radio station broadcasting from Broadcasting House, Newport Road, Middlesbrough. It broadcasts to parts of County Durham and North Yor ...

and

BBC Radio Cumbria BBC Radio Cumbria is the BBC's local radio station serving the county of Cumbria. It broadcasts on FM, AM, DAB, digital TV and via BBC Sounds from studios in Carlisle. According to RAJAR, the station has a weekly audience of 80,000 liste ...

. The three stations simulcast some programmes, as well as the overnight programmes offered by

BBC Radio 5 Live BBC Radio 5 Live is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It broadcasts mainly news, sport, Talk show, discussion, interviews and phone-ins, and is on air 24 hours a day. It is the principal BBC radio station Broadca ...

Online and Interactive

''BBC North East & Cumbria'' also produces regional news and local radio pages for

BBC Red Button BBC Red Button is a brand used for digital interactive television services provided by the BBC, and broadcast in the United Kingdom. The services replaced Ceefax, the BBC's analogue teletext service. BBC Red Button's text services were due to cl ...

and ''BBC Local News'' websites for each county.

History

''BBC North East & Cumbria'' began television broadcasting on Monday 5 January 1959, following the separation of the region from the

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

-based

BBC North BBC North (Group) is an operational business division of the BBC. It is also a brand that has been used by the BBC to mean: *The large ''BBC North'' region, centred on Manchester, that was active from the late 1920s until 1968 and was based u ...

. Up until that point, the Manchester-based operation had been serving the entire North of England with nightly news bulletins. The new service from Newcastle introduced localised bulletins, read originally by George House and Tom Kilgour. By 1962, the bulletins became a 20-minute magazine programme called ''Home at Six'', presented by

Frank Bough Francis Joseph Bough (; 15 January 1933 – 21 October 2020) was an English television presenter. He was best known as the host of BBC sports and current affairs shows including '' Grandstand'', '' Nationwide'' and '' Breakfast Time'', which he l ...

. With the launch of BBC Local Radio Stations, BBC Radio Durham was created at Neville's Cross, but later transferred across the Pennines to become BBC Radio Carlisle/Cumbria. Then followed the establishment of BBC Radio Teesside (later BBC Radio Cleveland and now BBC Radio Tees) in Linthorpe Road, Middlesbrough from New Year's Day 1971. It was followed the next day by BBC Radio Newcastle at Crestina House, Archbold Terrace, Jesmond, managed by Richard Kelly and Programme Organiser Ted Gorton, with News Editor Mike Nally and Station Engineer Don Gill, operations later to be merged with new BBC headquarters known as the Pink Palace in Spital Tongues. Prior to this, at Broadcasting House at New Bridge Street. The arrival of former Tyne Tees Television presenter Mike Neville coincided with a relaunch as ''Look North''. In 1986, transmissions from the Caldbeck transmitter, to the majority of

, were transferred from ''BBC North East'' to

BBC North West BBC North West is the BBC English Regions, BBC English Region serving Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Merseyside, as well as parts of North Yorkshire (western Craven District, Craven), Derbyshire (western High Peak, Derbyshire, High ...

, as it was believed the area would be served better from

. However, following complaints from local viewers, the transmitter was transferred back to ''BBC North East'' in 1990. In 1990,

and ''BBC North East'' were merged to form one large region, named BBC North. As a result, all managerial and administrative posts from the three regions were merged to form one, allowing cost savings to the corporation. As part of this, each region's programming remained the same; however the region identified itself on-screen as BBC North with all its programmes being ''BBC North productions''. This remained until 1996, when the regions were separated. The region was renamed ''BBC North East & Cumbria'' in 1997, coinciding with the adoption of the new BBC logo and the new BBC One ident package. The on-screen name was adapted slightly to ''BBC NE & Cumbria'' in 2002, following the adoption of the Dancer idents for

, as the regional name needed to fit inside the box logo. On the next batch of new "circle" idents the full North East and Cumbria name was used.

Studios

''BBC North East & Cumbria'' has its headquarters and studios at the Broadcasting Centre,

. The first live broadcast from the building was on Saturday 16 January 1988, with the first ''Look North'' broadcast the following Monday. The building itself housed two studios, A and B, with the studio complex housing the regional news team,

and some network productions, with BBC North East specialising in children's television. ''Look North'' was based in the large studio A, but moved to the smaller studio B when a network production was using studio A. ''Look North'' was permanently moved to studio A in 2000 following the reduction in the number of network productions. This move prevented the studio itself from being closed, as happened in the

Midlands The Midlands is the central region of England, to the south of Northern England, to the north of southern England, to the east of Wales, and to the west of the North Sea. The Midlands comprises the ceremonial counties of Derbyshire, Herefor ...

and the North West; the studio was not too big, so could house the programme comfortably. The building itself has distinctive architecture, with glass panels and walls coloured in varying shades of pink, resulting in the building gaining the nickname from local residents and staff of "The Pink Palace". Following the launch of the service, and prior to the move to the Broadcasting Centre, the BBC was based at Broadcasting House at New Bridge Street in Central Newcastle, in a former

lying-in hospital A maternity hospital specializes in caring for women during pregnancy and childbirth. It also provides care for newborn infants, and may act as a centre for clinical training in midwifery and obstetrics. Formerly known as lying-in hospitals, most ...

, which housed the news service, a single studio for ''Look North'' and BBC Radio Newcastle. This building, in a central location in the city on New Bridge Street, proved just big enough for their needs. However, when technology needed upgrading, it turned out to be easier to build a new studio complex, rather than refit the small building. It was last used on Friday 15 January 1988. In addition to their headquarters, BBC North East and Cumbria has local radio stations and news bureaux located in

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ), colloquially known as Boro, is a port town in the Borough of Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, England. Lying to the south of the River Tees, Middlesbrough forms part of the Teesside Built up area, built-up area and the Tees Va ...

and

Carlisle Carlisle ( , ; from ) is a city in the Cumberland district of Cumbria, England. Carlisle's early history is marked by the establishment of a settlement called Luguvalium to serve forts along Hadrian's Wall in Roman Britain. Due to its pro ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bbc North East And Cumbria 1953 establishments in England North East and Cumbria Mass media in Newcastle upon Tyne North East England Television channels and stations established in 1953