Just A Minute

The current run of 'Just A Minute' episodes from 1970, in ABC's Tuesday 5am slot, are all concluding with 2 minutes of playout music after the end credits.
 
As this optional music is being played in full, and would be the easiest part of the episode to cut, I think we can conclude that no edits are being made.
 
The Transcription Discs which ABC are playing these shows from are only 27 minutes long at most, due to the technical limitations of this type of Vinyl LP. The playout music aside, this leaves about 25 minutes of actual programme content. Therefore the fact that less than 30 minutes is being allowed in the ABC schedule to play these episodes, which now follow the hourly news bulletin, is not significant.
 
The shows were edited down to 25 minutes in the 1970s, in order to fit them on this type of disc. It usually meant simply dropping one or two subjects, i.e. one minute rounds, in order to reduce the running time of the episode.
 
When the discs were originally in use, they were the BBC's primary distribution method for radio. Magnetic tape was never used, except internally in London, to ensure compatibility with overseas stations - all of which could play vinyl records but few of which used tape.
 
It's interesting that Nicholas Parsons almost never announces the score during a programme. He might say that Clement is 2 points ahead, or that Kenneth is just one point behind Derek; but he never says, for example, that Derek has 9 points and Kenneth has 15. This is because it might encourage listeners to keep score. One reason why this would be a bad thing is that with some rounds being cut from the Transcription recordings, the points total as heard by overseas listeners won't tally with the total in the studio.

Stephen
 
Stephen Poppitt
Jimmy Clitheroe - The Kid Himself
http://www.JimmyClitheroe.co.uk
 

 > To: just-a-minute@...

> From: charles_rooke@...
> Date: Tue, 28 Feb 2012 20:42:57 +0000
> Subject: [just-a-minute] Re: ABC now editing down Transcription Disc episodes
>
> Hi Mark
>
> Anything's possible. I'm never keen to judge whether something is fast/slow 'cos I don't have the ear. And comparing the speed of a 2012 digital broadcast with an older encode is liable to the risk that the older encode was made from a tape playback - in which case I'd tend to suspect the old tape playback of being slow rather than the digital broadcast of being fast. But I did play a few of the recent ISIHAC streams alongside older encodes and the result was that they were pretty much in sync until the initial burst of applause/cheering - which was cut much shorter in the recent dgital transmissions.
>
> If all they are doing is editing out applause then it's not a big deal - I haven't listened word for word through an entire episode to see if anything else is being cut.
>
> Charlie
>
>
> --- In just-a-minute@..., "mark_mckay" <mark_mckay@...> wrote:
> >
> >
> >
> > Hi Charlie,
> >
> > I've had a bit of a listen to the start of the Ipswich compilation cf the 2007 broadcast and it seems to be running fast - gaining a few seconds every minute. Odd, since I assume these shows are issued to the ABC on CD. I suspect an ABC cock-up rather than anything deliberate but who knows?...
> >
> > Cheers,
> >
> > Mark McKay
> >
> >
>
>
>
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