The Power Station

Background

The Power Station was a British music channel ran by British Satellite Broadcasting as part of a 5 channel network. The channel remained after BSB's merger with Sky and eventually closed in 1991, so that Sky Movies could launch in its place and since Sky only wanted MTV as their mainstream music channel on their service.

(March 25, 1990-April 8, 1991)

Logo: We see a rounded windmill of sorts, which starts spinning as pieces of metal with all sorts of shapes begin to form something, some of them having lights. The pieces nearby begin to fall onto the object, which then grows a tree on a model globe, where more metal forms up into a diamond with a thunderbolt on the bottom. The diamond itself is printed with a large "P" on it, with a small "S" on the rounded section of the "P". After the logo is complete, smoke and pyrotechnics appear all around it, as the text "The Power Station" in a white font appears near the left, with the BSB logo appearing more to the right.

Variants:

Beginning on November 2, 1990, after the merger of BSB and Sky, the text on the bottom of the logo was replaced with "BRITISH SKY BROADCASTING" to reflect the new owners.
A version exists where pink text reading "CEASE TRANSMISSION 4am MONDAY APRIL 8th" appears during the ident. Then a countdown with the text "FROM 6am MONDAY APRIL 8th" plays. After that, the Sky Movies variant of the 1989 Sky Channel/Sky One logo plays. It then shrinks and the text "STARTS MONDAY MORNING 6 AM" fades in with "Cable viewers should contact their local operators" underneath. This is to signify the death of The Power Station, and as it said, it was replaced by Sky Movies, 2 hours later. It played just seconds before the closure.

Technique: Great looking animation done by Lambie-Nairn!

Music/Sounds: A really cool sounding track. After the BSB-Sky merger, a male announcer would say "You are watching The Power Station, part of the British Sky Broadcasting Network".

Availability: Extinct, but preserved on tape by various people.

Legacy: Amazing graphics for its time.