On this day in 1961

Four years and one day after the launch of Scottish Television, Border Television debuted in a region straddling the Scottish / English border. Based in Carlisle, its area covered Cumbria, Scottish Borders, Dumfries, and Galloway, and, between 1965 and 2009, the Isle of Man.

It had originally been scheduled to launch in February, but this was delayed by transmission problems.

Border Television launch night

The station launched at 5.45pm with an opening ceremony, followed by the National News and Border News at 5.55pm and 6.06pm respectively. Focus followed at 6.14pm, which that day’s Newcastle Journal described as “a topical magazine presented by Maurice Lindsay”. There were also several bought-in programmes, including The Flintstones and Emergency Ward 10.

Although initially successful, the broadcaster had financial problems in the 1970s and 1980s. It was also beset by several strike actions.

Border Television expands

It established several radio stations, which brought it to the attention of London’s Capital Radio, which bought it in the early 2000s, kept the radio stations and sold the television assets to Manchester-based Granada Media Group, which later took over the job of transmitting to the Isle of Man when Border was merged with Tyne Tees.

The Granada take-over was the beginning of the end for the Border brand. Over subsequent years, Britain’s independent stations consolidated and, one by one, their individual names disappeared from screens. From late 2002, the network was simply known as ITV.

 

...and on this day in 1795

James Gordon Bennett Sr was born in Banffshire and initially trained to become a priest. However, in 1819 he instead travelled to Nova Scotia, then the United States, where he found work as a proof-reader, translator and, latterly, freelance writer.

New York Herald

He founded the New York Herald in 1835, which remained in print until 1924. Just four years after founding the paper, he landed a scoop when he interviewed Martin Van Buren, who was then President of the United States.

Today, many know him less well than they know the mild oath, ‘Gordon Bennett’, which can be used to denote anger or surprise. On 5 February 2017, the BBC News website wrote that the term may have been inspired by the publisher himself, or his son, also called Gordon, who “one very drunken evening… turned up late to a posh party held by his future in-laws, and ended up urinating into a fireplace in full view of everyone. The engagement, unsurprisingly, was broken off.”