Paul Frost, Bob Greaves, Richard Whiteley, Judi Spiers, Fred Dinenage, Bill Grundy, Tony Wilson... all these names will have a special place in the memories of different groups of people, who grew up watching these characters on ITV regional news bulletins around the country.
In today's Guardian G2 section Stephen Armstrong pays a warm and funny tribute to this idiosyncratic corner of British broadcasting culture, which appears to be on the way out after ITV's Michael Grade announced plans to slash the broadcaster's regional news budget by up to £40m.
ITV still has to get its planned regional news cutbacks approved by Ofcom and the broadcasting unions have pledged to lobby vigorously against the proposals - NUJ members in the company's regional operation have already threatened strike action over the issue.
Is this another act of broadcasting vandalism? Or do the harsh realities of the digital media market mean that ITV's traditional regional news service is just no longer commercially viable?
