What was that??

I SPENT 12 years working in ITV news – Border Television, Yorkshire Television, Granada Television – and Judy, the first woman on-screen reporter for Anglia TV, went on to cover news in Manchester for Granada. Both of us occasionally contributed to what was then ITN News At Ten.

Our pictures spoke for themselves; sound was never an issue. Viewers could hear what we were saying; what our interviewees were saying; loud and clear. We worked with skilled and dedicated sound recordists. So did our rival BBC reporters. Sound recordists in news were professionals at the top of their game.

How times have changed. ITV News still maintains a reasonably consistent sound delivery but BBC News sound is a mess – audio levels are up, down, loud, soft, furry, blurry – all over the place. Don’t you agree? What’s your experience of watching/listening to BBC TV prime newscasts? I’ll bet that you ride your remote control’s volume buttons like a pilot does flaps and rudder during a thunderstorm.

One moment the news anchor is bellowing; the next a correspondent is muttering inaudibly on location. Then a voice-over deafens you before the correspondent signs off in near-silence. You turn the volume up just in time to be deafened again by the newscaster.

We, the licence payers, underwrite this infuriating audio switchback. Can’t something be done to fix it?