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September 6, 2019 1:42 pm  #1


Sept. 6, 1952: The Day TV Came To Canada - And It Wasn't Toronto

September 6th marks the day 57 years ago that TV officially and finally made it to Canada, after being on in the U.S. for several years (including Buffalo's Channel 4, which first flickered onto screens in 1948.) 

But despite now being the biggest market in the country, Toronto's CBLT was not the first TV station in Canada. That honour goes to what was then called CBFT in Montreal, which began broadcasting September 6, 1952. Toronto's CBLT didn't light up screens here until two days later, on September 8th.

That launch is perhaps best remembered for an embarrassment that saw the CBC I.D. slide come on both backwards and upside down (below). On the CBC's website, they outline the reason for the now legendary mistake. 

"Seconds before the cameras went live, a technician removed and cleaned the CBC logo slide. Producer Murray Chercover shouted at the technician, "Don't do that!" and the rattled crew member placed the slide back in upside down as the network took to the airwaves. "I can't remember what we did, or if we shot the poor guy responsible," Norman Jewison, then a 25-year-old floor director, later recalled."

CBC Archives: TV Debuts In Canada, Sept. 6, 1952



 

September 6, 2019 1:48 pm  #2


Re: Sept. 6, 1952: The Day TV Came To Canada - And It Wasn't Toronto

By the way, worth noting as a sort of historical footnote that someone at the CBC had a sense of both history and humour. When CBLT shifted from Channel 6 to Channel 5 in 1972, I got up early to watch the sign on. (I was a lot younger then!) 

And while few besides me saw it, the first image shown on the new dial position after the colour bars and tone disappeared was the then-CBC logo shown upside down. It only lasted for a second or two, before it was flipped right side up. But it was obviously a homage to that long ago moment of infamy and I got a real kick out of it.

 

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September 6, 2019 3:31 pm  #3


Re: Sept. 6, 1952: The Day TV Came To Canada - And It Wasn't Toronto

RadioActive wrote:

September 6th marks the day 57 years ago that TV officially and finally made it to Canada, ...

Applying my somewhat limited Ontario Grade 13 (what dat???) math skills, I calculate that it was 67 years to the day that CBC Television first went to the air in la Belle Provence (took some french is high school too!) 
 

 

September 6, 2019 3:42 pm  #4


Re: Sept. 6, 1952: The Day TV Came To Canada - And It Wasn't Toronto

Yeah, sorry. Not bad math (and not the discovery kind.) Just bad typing! Appreciate the correction.

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September 6, 2019 7:21 pm  #5


Re: Sept. 6, 1952: The Day TV Came To Canada - And It Wasn't Toronto

Also 53 years to the day (I triple-checked my math!) since WXXI-TV signed on in Rochester, bringing educational TV to the market on a full-time signal. 

(Rochester Area Educational TV Association, or RAETA, had been kicking around since 1958, producing programming that was shown on commercial stations and then applying for channel 13 when it opened up in 1962. RAETA became one of more than a dozen competing applicants who partnered up to form an interim operating company to put channel 13 on as WOKR, then dropped out of the partnership to build WXXI in 1966.)

 

September 6, 2019 8:33 pm  #6


Re: Sept. 6, 1952: The Day TV Came To Canada - And It Wasn't Toronto

Also 53 years to the day (I triple-checked my math!) since WXXI-TV signed on in Rochester, bringing educational TV to the market on a full-time signal. 

(Rochester Area Educational TV Association, or RAETA, had been kicking around since 1958, producing programming that was shown on commercial stations and then applying for channel 13 when it opened up in 1962. RAETA became one of more than a dozen competing applicants who partnered up to form an interim operating company to put channel 13 on as WOKR, then dropped out of the partnership to build WXXI in 1966.)

 

September 6, 2019 9:17 pm  #7


Re: Sept. 6, 1952: The Day TV Came To Canada - And It Wasn't Toronto

RadioActive wrote:

September 6th marks the day 57 years ago that TV officially and finally made it to Canada, after being on in the U.S. for several years (including Buffalo's Channel 4, which first flickered onto screens in 1948.) 

But despite now being the biggest market in the country, Toronto's CBLT was not the first TV station in Canada. That honour goes to what was then called CBFT in Montreal, which began broadcasting September 6, 1952. Toronto's CBLT didn't light up screens here until two days later, on September 8th.

As always I enjoyed this flashback along with the pictorials from the moment. This may seem nit-picky but in 1952 Montreal was actually Canada's largest market and it did only beat Toronto by two days. Any idea as to when CBC began using the famous map of Canada for their I.D,-ing? It seems they had that on for years.

 

 

September 6, 2019 9:49 pm  #8


Re: Sept. 6, 1952: The Day TV Came To Canada - And It Wasn't Toronto

Just a guess, but I would think that the CBC Map logo would have been created and used to herald in the microwave network completion and use starting in the summer of 1958. The "Trans Canada Skyway" was inaugurated on July 1st, 1958.

The arrival of colour broadcasting in 1966 saw the use of the "CBC Butterfly" logo with the accompanying harp music.

 

September 7, 2019 8:30 am  #9


Re: Sept. 6, 1952: The Day TV Came To Canada - And It Wasn't Toronto

According to the website logopedia, the trans-Canada map was indeed introduced in 1958 and was used until 1974. The butterfly arrived in 1966 and was only used to announce a colour program was about to begin much the same way NBC used the "Laramie" Peacock.It was retired in 1974 when all CBC programming was in colour. The "Gem" otherwise known as the  exploding pizza first arrived in December 1974 in a reddy/yellowy/orangy display on a blue background. From 1986-92 the logo was blue on a white background. In 1992, the number of geometric sections in the logo was reduced from twenty five to thirteen and the colour was changed to red on a white background. It is still in use today.

 

September 7, 2019 4:26 pm  #10


Re: Sept. 6, 1952: The Day TV Came To Canada - And It Wasn't Toronto

A nice collection of logos over the years:




 

Last edited by AspectRatio (September 7, 2019 4:26 pm)

 

September 7, 2019 11:24 pm  #11


Re: Sept. 6, 1952: The Day TV Came To Canada - And It Wasn't Toronto

Interesting mix of CBC/RC idents. Does anyone remember in the early 90's when both CBC and CTV had radio jingle like idents for a few years. CBC's was contemporary with a jingle CBC and YOU and over at CTV something like.. .. CTV we're tuned into you....And some of the US networks had jingles around this time. I don't know if anyone has them but it would be cool to see them again. I'll check on retrontario and youtube to see if they were kicking around..Also remember when CBC had a long 30 or 60 second promo for the fall season around this time that was really well done and had a long jingle to the tune of the song I Only Want to be With You.

 

September 8, 2019 9:52 am  #12


Re: Sept. 6, 1952: The Day TV Came To Canada - And It Wasn't Toronto

Speaking of math - which was my worst subject in school and continues to plague me in later life - I would never be able to figure this one out. But several people tried to. Unfortunately, they both seem to have come up with completely different answers. (And if you added in Canada, that would just make it even worse.)

How many different 4-letter radio call letters can be made using the 26 capital letters of the English alphabet if the first letter must be K or W?

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