CBC Celebrates 55 Years of TV
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Posted by Susanna McLeod Sep 16, 2007 |
Recently the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation celebrated 55 years of on-air broadcasting. On September 8, 1952, the first broadcast stations went into operation, CBLT-TV in Toronto and CBFT-TV in Montreal. While these were years before I was born, 5 ½ decades is not a long time – television is still in its youth.
According to Timeline: The History of Canadian Broadcasting, television reached half the homes in Canada by 1955. Colour television made its Canadian debut in 1966 and the network of new television broadcasting stations was growing by leaps and bounds. (CTV began in 1960)
I remember the television in my childhood home in the late sixties. A boxy-shaped item sitting in the corner of the small living room, the picture was in black and white. Rabbit ears, slender metal antennae that could move in almost any direction, were adjusted to pick up station signals. We received only two or three stations and reception was not always clear and crisp, often it was blurred and snowy. When the television stations were not broadcasting, a buzzing, small graphic came up on the screen, reminding me of a movie Indian in full headdress.
There were a number of children’s productions on TV, all in black and white, of course. The Friendly Giant was a favourite, about a large, pleasant man living in a castle with Rusty the Rooster and Jerome the Giraffe. The Giant read stories and played music on a recorder. Another was Romper Room, with a pretty, serene hostess. She held up a Magic Mirror and called out names. “I see Bobby and Cindy, I see Gloria and Jimmy.”
Happy 55th Anniversary, CBC Television. I’m still watching.
See Pages on:
More about the CBC History
CTV History