Westcountry Live – First Edition

Presented by David Foster and Katy Haswell. Westcountry Live, the new hour-long nightly news magazine for South West viewers, hit the airwaves on Monday 4 January. It promised (and delivered) a revolution in regional news, firmly sweeping out TSW Today and everything it stood for. Predictably, viewers were alienated by the new style and lack of familiar faces. David Foster, ex-TV-am and Central took the hot seat with Katy Haswell, previously a fleeting Spotlight newsreader. Mark Tyler continued to do the sports report and Ian Stirling settled into a new soaps feature. The biggest surprise was the choice of weather presenter – a certain Ron Bendell. Until now Ron was known only to viewers of TSW Farming Week, the Sunday lunchtime agricultural round-up, and he admitted to having no knowledge of weather forecasting. But his new role was a masterstroke for Westcountry and Ron soon became a local legend. Unfortunately, his first forecast was tempered by computer trouble. Sadly we don't have a recording of the first programme. This clip is from Westcountry's ITV50 celebrations.