April 1993 highlights It was a big day for BBC News - a virtual reality relaunch which would introduce a new unified identity to Breakfast News and the One, Six and Nine O'Clock News (more on this below). There was little change to the presenter line-up though, other than the curious bringing in of former BBC World Service head John Tusa to present the One O'Clock News. Martyn Lewis and Michael Buerk continued to share the Nine, while the Six had a large rosta of presenters, including Peter Sissons, Anna Ford, Andrew Harvey, Jill Dando and Moira Stuart.  Newsnight meanwhile, remained aloof to the revamp - one of their producers described it as akin to British Telecom changing their vans. Even the Nine O'Clock News editor had his suspicions, expressing worries that if 'the Nine' looked too similiar to 'the Six' it would risk losing its reputation for gravitas.
Michael Buerk was a busy boy at this time, as he was also co-presenting the first in a new series of 999, while David Attenborough marked 100 editions of Wildlife on One by selecting the first of his twelve favourite programmes. On a somewhat lower brow note, children's programmes today included the umpteenth series of Bodger and Badger (right) and, incredibly, a cartoon series starring Orville and Cuddles.  1993 would prove to be a turbulent year for Radio 1. At the moment all seemed calm, with a familiar, unchanging DJ line-up (although most of the regular DJs seemed to be on holiday this week). Even the launch of Virgin Radio at the end of April would make little immediate impact thanks to poor medium wave coverage. But within months Dave Lee Travis would make his dramatic on-air resignation, and then in October incoming controller Matthew Bannister would radically revamp Radio 1, showing many of its ageing DJs the door. The station would never be the same again.
But for the time being Radio 2 (with Terry Wogan (left) recently reinstated on the breakfast show after an eight year break - but on holiday this week already) would make no attempt to pick up Radio 1's disenfranchised listenership - its own revolution was still a whole three years away from beginning...
 And in Radio Times 10-16 April 1993 Price 60p
Radio Times previewed the new-look news: 'Factual reporting enters the world of science fiction this week with an overhaul of the BBC's television news broadcasts. The news and current affairs resources team has been developing its computer graphics potential for the past three years to create a visual style that will brand
all news broadcasts from breakfast to nine o'clock. "This isn't just modernising for its own sake," says Tom Wragg, head of the team that developed the designs. "There was a need to give BBC news a clear identity now that so many other channels carry news broadcasts. It's important that the news looks up-to-date and fresh." The new look revolves around images of cut glass, all rendered by computers, starting with a spinning glass globe and eventually making up the backdrop for the newcaster. "You won't be able to tell where the 'real' reality ends and the virtual reality begins," says Wragg.' 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1997 1999 Radio Times Covers | 
