Welcome to Sound & Vision Media

Two Exeter journalists with more than fifty years of print and broadcast experience between them are teaming up to provide a new media and public relations service for the city.

Former Westcountry Television Head of Sport Mark Tyler has joined forces with ex ITV producer Trina Lake to launch a new chapter for his Sound and Vision Media company.
From new offices at The Senate in Southernhay Gardens, SAV Media will be offering a range of services including corporate and website video production, press and PR guidance, media training and event management.

“This is major step forward for SAV Media,” said Tyler. “Trina and I are both passionate about the Westcountry and Exeter in particular and working together in the heart of the city as part of such a vibrant business community is something we are incredibly excited about.”
“It’s great to be working with Mark again,” Lake added. “We spent nearly 20 years together as part of a successful and award-winning team at ITV and we want to offer all that experience and enthusiasm in this new partnership.”

Tyler has enjoyed a varied broadcasting career in radio and television with the BBC and ITV where he worked on network and regional programmes and also presented their flagship news programme, Westcountry Live.

Lake began her journalistic career at the Tiverton Gazette and moved on to the Express and Echo where she was a senior sports reporter covering the Exeter Chiefs and Exeter City for many years before joining ITV as a reporter and award-winning programme producer/director in news and current affairs, sport and features.

Also working under the SAV Media banner – all of them based in Devon - are author and broadcaster Paul Nero from Exeter FM, Doc Martin actor and award-winning news, sport and current affairs cameraman/editor Dan Rose and Demelza Sampson, formerly on the production team at Channel 4’s Countdown and ITV’s Heartbeat and Emmerdale.
“We have assembled a team with huge experience, energy and expertise and a fantastic network of contacts,” said Tyler. “ It’s a team that we feel can handle the media needs of any company and, just as importantly in these challenging economic times, tailor our services to suit a variety of budgets. We know there are some amazing organisations in the South West and we want to make sure everyone else knows it too by using our skills to celebrate and share their success.”

MEET THE TEAM

Mark Tyler is the founder of Sound & Vision Media and has enjoyed a varied broadcasting career in radio and television with the BBC and ITV, working on network and regional programmes. He was latterly head of sport for ITV Westcountry where he also presented their flagship nightly news programme, Westcountry Live. Mark is now a much sought-after conference host.
 
Trina Lake worked for local, regional and national  newspapers before joining ITV as a reporter and award-winning programme producer and director in news and current affairs, sport, features and light entertainment. As a pioneering sports journalist in her home city, she spent many years covering the Exeter Chiefs and Exeter City and has also provided public relations and media support for local and national organisations.
 
Paul Nero is a writer, broadcaster and co-founder of successful copywriting agency Plain Text. He started his career in local  newspapers and radio before working in advertising and PR at the  Financial Times, the BBC, Visa and ITV. Paul has an MBA from Bristol Business School and presents news and music programmes on radio and is the author of business and humorous books.
 
Demelza Sampson began her career in the art department on the BBC series Down to Earth and has since worked on many other well-known shows including Emmerdale, Heartbeat and Countdown. Demelza has mentored media newcomers and built strong working relationships with independent film and TV companies. She also helped former colleague Carol Vorderman launch an online maths school.
 
Dan Rose has worked as an actor in film and TV, appearing most recently in shows like Doc Martin and Casualty. He is now more often found behind the lens as an award-winning cameraman/director and editor for major TV and satellite networks, working on news, current affairs, documentaries, light entertainment, drama and sport and has a reputation for going the extra mile. Dan also has extensive corporate production experience.

I'm really, really proud to be a Vice Patron of the 'Families for Children' Adoption Charity.  This is an article about my adoption which has been written by Ally Coulton to be included in the next newsletter and distributed to local press along with the birth and life story of celebrity chef Michael Caines, who's the Patron of the Charity.

Mark finally meets his birth Mum, Moira, in 1991

Our Vice Patron Mark Tyler was adopted when only a few weeks old.  Mark’s adoptive parents, Dorothy and Henry chose him as he was the ugliest baby – or so his adoptive mum used to tease him!  Mark always knew that he was adopted and “felt special and not embarrassed” about this.  His adoptive parents were always honest with him and he feels that the earlier children know the better.

Mark’s birth mother Moira was only nineteen years old in 1963 when she became pregnant by Roger.  Moira’s parents made the decision that she should have her baby adopted – she was therefore sent to Dartmoor during her pregnancy before going to Torquay for the birth.  Baby David Christopher (as Mark was then known) was then taken to Exeter ready to be adopted. 

Dorothy 39 and Henry 43 had been married for seventeen years at this time and Mark is unsure why they didn’t or couldn’t have birth children.  However, they had made the wonderful decision to adopt and so Baby David Christopher became Baby Mark and grew up in the Exeter area.

Mark was painfully shy as a child and as a result suffered from bullying at school – not physical but mental – which makes his decision to become a radio and TV presenter all the more admirable.  Mark explains that he has become good at ‘hiding’ his bashfulness and has developed strategies to cope.

Despite only giving Mark a quick cuddle before he was whisked away, Moira never forgot her baby boy.  Thinking of him often, especially on his birthday and at Christmas wondering what he was doing.

Whilst studying for his ‘A’ levels in 1980 Mark spotted an advert for a Saturday job with Devon Air Radio, moving on to Radio Devon in 1983.  A colleague then suggested he complete a course as a Radio Journalist.  This Mark did before working at BBC Radio WM at Pebble Mill in Birmingham and then returning to Radio Devon.  It was at this time that Mark first considered tracing his birth parents and he took a trip to Somerset House to view the marriage records, presuming that his birth mother would now be married.  Unfortunately following Mark’s birth, Moira’s father had decided to move the whole family to Australia meaning that Mark could find no evidence of his birth mother marrying in the records held there.

Mark’s next career move was to Television South West (TSW) in 1989 before he successfully secured a job on London Weekend Television’s (LWT) Saint & Greavsie’s Football Show.  By now it was 1990 and Mark decided it was time to begin his detective work again. 

From his original birth certificate Mark knew his birth father’s address and wondered if perhaps his paternal grandparents were still there, he was really enjoying the thrill of the chase.  He decided to phone!  At this point, Mark was keen to emphasise that this really wasn’t the way to do things but he rushed headlong into it.  The telephone call was answered by Mark’s paternal grandmother – explaining he was an old colleague of Roger’s he asked for his address to send an invitation to a reunion.  Grandmother happily gave this over and also mentioned where Roger was currently working.  So off set Mark.  He says his meeting with Roger was a strange one with Roger immediately realising he was his son - because of ‘his eyes’.  Roger explained that he had known Moira was pregnant but had never been told about the baby’s birth.  He was however, able to tell Mark that Moira and her family had emigrated to Australia and provided Mark with her parents’ address.  This meeting with Roger has been the only one Mark has had.

So, Mark had his maternal grandparents’ address.  He wrote a letter explaining that he was hoping to get in touch with Moira.  Paternal grandfather had by this time died and grandmother was very happy to pass on Mark’s letter, knowing how her daughter had always remembered her baby boy.  So Moira and Mark were now back in touch.  For Mark the next step was to fly to Australia and meet his birth mother.

Moira had married an Austrian gentleman shortly after arriving in Australia and had two further children – so Mark was meeting not only his birth mother but his two half sisters (who now have children of their own).  The girls were excited about meeting their brother as Moira had always been honest with them about the baby she had given up for adoption. 

Wagga Wagga – halfway between Sydney and Melbourne – is where the family lived and Mark’s description of arriving on a grass runway and carrying his suitcase off the plane sounds like the start of an Indiana Jones Film!  Mark says that he felt an immediate bond with his birth mother and half sisters, but perhaps not quite as strong as he'd anticipated on that long flight.  They sounded ‘so Australian’ but he was warmly welcomed and enjoyed three weeks with them. 

Following his visit to Australia, Mark became part of the Westcountry Television Franchise bid and secured the position of Sports Presenter.  Mark continues to present the news on the West Country Tonight in conjunction with freelance work and running his own sound & vision media company SAV Media Academy www.savmedia.co.uk

Mark is now happily married to Carolyn and the very proud father of two children, James aged six and Laura aged four.  The family live near Exeter and Mark plans to take the whole family to Australia in four years time so that James and Laura can meet their extended family there.

In conclusion Mark said “I am not recommending that people should trace or not.  I needed to do so regardless of a happy or not happy outcome.  I needed to know my story, good or bad.  You need to do this in your own time, when it is right for you.  The outcome you hope for may be different to the one you get – it may be better, it may not.  But for me it has been absolutely brilliant and I’m glad I did it.  It’s comforting now that my adoptive parents have died to know that somewhere in the world I have someone.”

Mark's Mum in 1960

Mark's half sisters, Karen & Heidi

Shortly after coming back to work at BBC Radio Devon in 1985 I was given a great opportunity to meet TV legend Larry Grayson, still big news then after his camp efforts at hosting the Generation Game and Blankety Blank.   Every year he apparently spent a few months…in between filming schedules….at a house in the ‘Nouveau Riche’ part of Torquay, and one of his visits to South Devon coincided with the death of his close friend Noelle Gordon, the actress who’d become famous mainly through her role on the ITV soap Crossroads. Radio Devon decided it would be a good idea to dispatch me down to his house and do a tape recorded interview ….a memories and tribute type of thing.

So off I went, tape recorder in hand, to the address supplied. I was greeted at the front door by one of Larry’s team of young male assistants, and when Larry was ready I was summoned through to the living room where the great man was in a suitably distressed state. The interview was great, he was very nice, and I headed back to the studio with some excellent material.  I think my colleagues got a little sick of me going on about meeting him !

A few days later, a lovely hand written note arrived for me at the studio. It was from Larry, who said that he was so pleased with the way the interview had gone…and how understanding I’d been…that he’d like to take me out to dinner!   I thought about it for a bit….decided ‘hey why not, he’s a TV legend’ and wrote a short reply. Something along the lines of “Dear Larry.  It was great to meet you too. I would love to have dinner sometime,. Please give me a call and we’ll arrange it”.

It only transpired a few weeks later that the ‘letter’ from Larry had, in fact, been written by a couple of my work colleagues as a joke…What makes it even worse is that Larry never even replied to his dinner invite from me !

The lesson here is…..do not name drop too much about celebs you meet during the course of work duties…. Media colleagues are a cruel bunch….