Midlands Today

Midlands Today is produced by BBC Midlands and broadcasts on BBC One seven days a week. The programme is produced and broadcast from the BBC studios in The Mailbox, Birmingham. Journalists are also based at newsrooms in Coventry, Shrewsbury, Stoke-on-Trent and Worcester.

The programme began on 28 September 1964, broadcasting from a small room in the Birmingham Register Office before moving to the custom-built Pebble Mill broadcasting centre in Edgbaston on 10 November 1971. It remained there until the studios closed on 22 October 2004 when the BBC Birmingham operations were switched to the current studios at The Mailbox.

Up until 1991, the programme also served the East Midlands, which has since received its own BBC regional news service. The programme's editorial area consists of the West Midlands, Warwickshire, Staffordshire, Shropshire, Herefordshire, Worcestershire and northern Gloucestershire.

Midlands Today is broadcast from the Sutton Coldfield transmitter in the West Midlands and can be watched in any part of the UK on Sky, Freesat and in the rest of Europe via Astra 2E at 28.2° East (10788V 22000 5/6). The latest edition is also available to view again on the Midlands Today website and on BBC iPlayer.

On weekdays, 3 breakfast bulletins air as part of BBC Breakfast at 26 minutes past the hour, between 6:26am and 8:26am. A fifteen-minute lunchtime bulletin airs at 1:30pm, following the BBC News at One. The main edition of Midlands Today is broadcast every weeknight between 6.30pm and 7.00pm. The late night bulletin airs at 10.30pm on weeknights, following the BBC News at Ten.

Midlands Today also airs short early evening bulletins on Saturday and Sunday evenings, although times usually vary. A late night bulletin is also broadcast on Sundays, following the BBC News at Ten.

Former presenters have included Tom Coyne, Kay Alexander (the programme's longest serving presenter), Alan Towers, Alastair Yates, David Davies, Sue Beardsmore, Stuart Linnell, Matt Smith, Julian Worricker, Ashley Blake (who was sacked in August 2009 after a criminal court case), Suzanne Virdee and Jackie Kabler.

Senior presenter Alan Towers' on-air departure in July 1997 (after 25 years) brought about one of the most controversial moments in the programme's history when he shared indignant views on BBC management, describing them as pygmies in grey suits wearing blindfolds.[2]

• Midlands Today at BBC Programmes