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September 1, 2022 7:08 pm  #1


September 1 1966 CTV and CBC Start Broadcasting in Colour

On this date 56 years ago, both CTV and CBC began broadcasting programming in colour.  CBC aimed for 30% of programming to be in colour and CTV was looking at 55%.  Both networks had been experimenting for a few months prior with some late night colour programming. Also on this date CBC and CTV introduced new logos for colour programming.  CBC with the famous butterfly and CTV with a variation of their current logo. 

Canada was the third country in the world to introduce regular colour programming.  US was first and Japan second.

Question- What year did you or your family first purchase a colour TV?  What brand was it and what style (floor model, stereo TV combo, or portable.)

 

September 1, 2022 7:28 pm  #2


Re: September 1 1966 CTV and CBC Start Broadcasting in Colour

This is how Australia brought in colour in 1975. 

 

September 1, 2022 7:31 pm  #3


Re: September 1 1966 CTV and CBC Start Broadcasting in Colour

The experimental test period was supposed to begin at midnight on July 1, 1966. Legend has it that CKSO-TV Sudbury jumped the gun by showing their late movie in colour some time before midnight on June 30. Back then, the CBC National News only ran about 15 or 20 minutes, followed by a short local newscast, which led into the traditional "late movie". 

They were slapped on the wrists by the then Board of Broadcast Governors, and fined $25.

 

September 1, 2022 7:32 pm  #4


Re: September 1 1966 CTV and CBC Start Broadcasting in Colour

from the Museum of Broadcast Television Camera
http://www.tvcameramuseum.org


Philips/Norelco PC-60 studio television camera 315° view

This is the Philips PC-60 camera, also marketed by Norelco, Peto Scott* and Pye according to the target market.

In 1966 CBC bought the first four colour cameras for their studio 7 in Toronto, these photographs were taken in the public hall at CBC in Canada. There is (or was?) an area set aside for display of vintage equipment. There is also a small museum and further display in the basement. Well worth a visit if you are in Toronto. *(The Peto Scott model number was EL8521 and EL8526 for the CCU)

 

September 1, 2022 8:30 pm  #5


Re: September 1 1966 CTV and CBC Start Broadcasting in Colour

From the CBC Archives:

CBC In Living Colour

 

September 1, 2022 8:34 pm  #6


Re: September 1 1966 CTV and CBC Start Broadcasting in Colour

I can't find any evidence of this but I'm positive it's true - before the CBC was allowed to broadcast in colour, they showed an animated black and white penguin before some shows, with an announcer saying "CBC presents this program in black and white," a sort of nudge at the NBC peacock. Does anyone else remember this?

 

September 1, 2022 8:42 pm  #7


Re: September 1 1966 CTV and CBC Start Broadcasting in Colour

paterson1 wrote:

On this date 56 years ago, both CTV and CBC began broadcasting programming in colour.  CBC aimed for 30% of programming to be in colour and CTV was looking at 55%.  Both networks had been experimenting for a few months prior with some late night colour programming. Also on this date CBC and CTV introduced new logos for colour programming.  CBC with the famous butterfly and CTV with a variation of their current logo. 

Canada was the third country in the world to introduce regular colour programming.  US was first and Japan second.

I've looked at the same sources you have and I think you're right about the CBC. But I'm not sure how to explain this from the TV Guide dated Feb. 1966. Was the dateline moved up for some reason?

 

September 1, 2022 9:03 pm  #8


Re: September 1 1966 CTV and CBC Start Broadcasting in Colour

I do remember CFTO, CHCH and CBLT promoting upcoming colour programming during the summer of 1966, with commercials.  CFTO had a big contest with the Toronto Telegram and were giving away console colour TV's.  CFTO even had a snappy jingle that they were using to promote the 1966 fall season with the slogan...Where the colour will excite you, and the black and white delight you, on CFTO Channel 9...

Anyway, nobody has mentioned the first colour TV in their family, what year, and what was the brand, so I will kick it off.

We purchased a SONY Trinitron 17 inch colour TV in 1971.  I remember that CFPL TV in London had the best colour and never needed adjusting.

Prior to the fall of 1966 virtually nobody had a colour TV but that changed  more and more as  programming in colour eventually became the norm.   However even in 1971 colour TV was still not what most households in Canada had in the rec room or living room. 

 

     Thread Starter
 

September 1, 2022 9:25 pm  #9


Re: September 1 1966 CTV and CBC Start Broadcasting in Colour

paterson1 wrote:

On this date 56 years ago, both CTV and CBC began broadcasting programming in colour.  CBC 

Question- What year did you or your family first purchase a colour TV?  What brand was it and what style (floor model, stereo TV combo, or portable.)

In 1974 we got a 16" RCA portable. We got it at Woolco and I recall it was aroud $500, which represented more than two weeks wages.
 


I started out with nothing and I still have most of it.
 

September 1, 2022 10:07 pm  #10


Re: September 1 1966 CTV and CBC Start Broadcasting in Colour

paterson1 wrote:

...

Question- What year did you or your family first purchase a colour TV?  What brand was it and what style (floor model, stereo TV combo, or portable.)

May of 74 or 75?  25" Admiral floor model,  My dad was a manufacturing/plant manager for a company which was a major parts supplier to Admiral's appliance division (both of Admiral's plants were in the Lakeview area in Mississauga).  He paid about $400 for the set, as it had been a display model at a dealer/buyer show.   The unique feature for this model was that it was Admiral's "hybrid" model. It had part solid state circuitry and nine other vacuum tubes in addition to the 25" CRT.  Admiral could not compete with the Japanese brands, and the other established Canadian and US brands. The TV manufacturing plant closed in 76 or 77.

Here is another little known fact to geek out to...  Panasonic had their own picture tube or CRT manufacturing plant in Etobicoke just north of the (then) QEW past the hwy. 427...  the property that it was on is now the IKEA outlet. Panasonic found it cheaper to build and assemble their TV sets in Japan and ship them to Canada without the CRT. The CRT was typically the heaviest component in the TV set. Lots of lead shielding in the CRT.  So, the shipping cost was greatly reduced. And I recall that they also benefited from a break on import duties, as the CRT was a major component that was being built in Canada, and final assembly/testing was also performed in Canada.

Last edited by Glen Warren (September 1, 2022 10:20 pm)

 

September 2, 2022 12:34 am  #11


Re: September 1 1966 CTV and CBC Start Broadcasting in Colour

My late grandparents bought a colour TV clear back in about 1960-61. They lived outside Sault Ste. Marie and could get WTOM from Cheboygan, MI which was (and still is) an NBC affiliate, and they were broadcasting colour by then. It was a big wooden VHF-only floor model which was still in operation in 1994; living in Northern Ontario they never needed a UHF tuner.

My mom had a Panasonic colour set in 1969-70.

Last edited by MJ Vancouver (September 2, 2022 12:39 am)

 

September 2, 2022 7:29 am  #12


Re: September 1 1966 CTV and CBC Start Broadcasting in Colour

My sister and I bought our parents their first [and only] colour tv for Christmas 1978. It was a Zenith 20" portable. Cost about  $600. It was still working 38 years later after my parents had passed. I guess the quality really did go in before the name went on.

 

September 2, 2022 8:11 am  #13


Re: September 1 1966 CTV and CBC Start Broadcasting in Colour

In 1970 my parents bought a 19 or 20 inch Zenith "portable" VHF/UHF colour set that took about two people to carry. They also got an antenna tower with a rotor. I remember my dad saying the set alone cost $500. The whole rig must have set them back about a thousand dollars, a huge outlay back then.
Cable became available in our neighbourhood in about '72, but my dad said he wasn't about to pay for TV service after just shelling out for an expensive OTA setup.

 

September 2, 2022 8:37 am  #14


Re: September 1 1966 CTV and CBC Start Broadcasting in Colour

mace wrote:

My sister and I bought our parents their first [and only] colour tv for Christmas 1978. It was a Zenith 20" portable. Cost about  $600. It was still working 38 years later after my parents had passed. I guess the quality really did go in before the name went on.

That is one good TV to still be working after 44 years!  I had a used Zenith TV large portable for about 3 years that I didn't want to move be because it was heavy, so I sold it to a friend. It looked to be pretty old but still worked well. Might have been a similar model that Tq345 had, it looked to be an early 70's model. When I got to my new place in another town I bought an Electrohome 19 inch colour TV which lasted 17 years.

I remember when I was little the old B&W TV's often didn't  hold up, and always seemed to need a new tube.  Remember the tube testers that corner stores had back in the 60's?  We had a GE floor model B&W with a small screen from 1955 that only lasted 5 years, and then an Emerson 23 inch black and white that was about 7 years old when we had to replace it.  

     Thread Starter
 

September 2, 2022 8:39 am  #15


Re: September 1 1966 CTV and CBC Start Broadcasting in Colour

We got our first colour television, an Electrohome made in Kitchener I think, in the summer of 1972 so we could watch the Summit Series in September in colour.

 

September 2, 2022 9:31 am  #16


Re: September 1 1966 CTV and CBC Start Broadcasting in Colour

My dad took me downtown to the downtown Eatons store late that summer to see the display of colour TVs they were selling and CFTO provided the source of the signal fed to the display models. The shows themselves were what Channel 9 was going to air as part of their new fall lineup, including Star Trek showing highlights from what would end up being the series third episode -" Where No Man Has Gone Before". That episode being chosen by CFTO, I have to think now, because its title may have been thought to intrigue and entice new colour TV buyers into actually spending their money.

Our family already owned a colour TV - an Electrohome as I recall. My dad liked to buy 'Canadian'. We were already watching Bonanza and Hogan's Heroes in colour, and on rare occasion, if they had not already gone home,my dad's friends would stay and watch as well.


 

Last edited by DeepTracks (September 2, 2022 9:33 am)

 

September 2, 2022 10:16 am  #17


Re: September 1 1966 CTV and CBC Start Broadcasting in Colour

We didn't have a lot of money when I was a kid and with three other siblings, there wasn't always a lot of excess cash sitting around. But that didn't stop me from constantly pestering my father to buy a colour TV set. As has been noted here, they weren't cheap back then, and we had a perfectly good B&W Admiral that sat in all its monochromatic glory in the living room (and later the den) for most of my early existence. 

But the colour TV bug would not leave me and I probably drove my father crazy constantly asking for one.

And then one day, our old faithful black and white finally conked out. A family of 6 with no television set? That wasn't going to fly. Fortunately we had a neighbour two doors away who worked for a TV repair place and he leant us a tiny portable while we give him ours to repair. But while the screen was smaller, it was a colour model, the first one I'd ever seen up close. 

For two weeks, while our set was out getting fixed, we watched this thing and I swear I remember hearing the sounds of angelic choirs singing every time I turned something on. It was a real battle as to what to watch because, after all, this wasn't just TV it was colour TV and after that, well, black and white just didn't cut it. 

It took another year or so, but finally my father brought home another Admiral, this one in colour, from Eaton's. No idea how much he paid for it and back then, I didn't really care. By this point, we also had a portable B&W in the kitchen. But the battles with my brothers over who got to watch their favourite program in colour went on for months. 

While my longtime dream had come true, it was not without its problems. I'll admit to being somewhat neurotic, and unlike today's sets, I couldn't stop myself from always trying to make the picture better, changing the tint, the colour intensity and the brightness, and driving everyone crazy in the process. 

I've always loved the idea of the medium and that may be why I'm so sad to see what appears to be the inevitable loss of free primetime network shows, which seems to be happening as we speak. Or watch. Or don't watch as the case may be.

The next best thing to happen to our den after the coming of colour? When I paid almost $1,000 for the first RCA Selectavision VCR. But that's for another thread on another day. 

 

September 2, 2022 10:53 am  #18


Re: September 1 1966 CTV and CBC Start Broadcasting in Colour

The first time I ever saw colour TV was before we even had colour TV in Canada. For some reason, I can't imagine why, I was at something at University of Guelph. In a room a coulour TV was on. Must have been a US channel I don't recall the program, but I was struck by how unreal the colour was. Kind of pale and washed out looking. It reminded me of comic books.

So, years later, when we finally got our own colour TV, I expected it to be like that I was amazed at the brilliance.


I started out with nothing and I still have most of it.
 

September 2, 2022 12:24 pm  #19


Re: September 1 1966 CTV and CBC Start Broadcasting in Colour

Here are early colour idents for ABC,CBC,CTV,CBS, NBC and NET.  The clip also shows the year they were first used.  Interesting how all of the idents were animinated.  https://www.yout-ube.com/watch?v=7dafR55WHK8 

Last edited by paterson1 (September 2, 2022 12:27 pm)

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September 2, 2022 6:33 pm  #20


Re: September 1 1966 CTV and CBC Start Broadcasting in Colour

RadioActive wrote:

I can't find any evidence of this but I'm positive it's true - before the CBC was allowed to broadcast in colour, they showed an animated black and white penguin before some shows, with an announcer saying "CBC presents this program in black and white," a sort of nudge at the NBC peacock. Does anyone else remember this?

I remember seeing this as well.  I think it may have been at the beginning of one of the Wayne and Shuster specials on CBC before they were in colour.  Checked around youtube but couldn't find anything. 

     Thread Starter
 

September 2, 2022 9:58 pm  #21


Re: September 1 1966 CTV and CBC Start Broadcasting in Colour

paterson1 wrote:

Here are early colour idents for ABC,CBC,CTV,CBS, NBC and NET.  The clip also shows the year they were first used.  Interesting how all of the idents were animinated.  https://www.yout-ube.com/watch?v=7dafR55WHK8 

While 1957 was the year NBC introduced the Peacock, most viewers would be more familiar with the "Laramie" Peacock that was introduced in the fall of 1962 before an episode of the Western series. During this period [1959-75] the "Snake" was the official NBC logo. The Peacock didn't become the sole logo for NBC until May 1986. John J. Graham is responsible for the creation of it.

 

September 11, 2022 4:36 pm  #22


Re: September 1 1966 CTV and CBC Start Broadcasting in Colour

Way back in 1960, TV Guide tried to explain to viewers how colour TV worked. Of course, this was long before HDTV.



Speaking of which, I wonder whatever happened to this idea from 1955: 

 

September 11, 2022 10:44 pm  #23


Re: September 1 1966 CTV and CBC Start Broadcasting in Colour

We got our first colour TV in 1970, the same year we got cable. However, my paternal grandparents had a colour TV a few years earlier so our Sunday visits were a joy! Our next-door neighbours also had colour TV (and FM radio!) so I would glad volunteer to baby-sit.


"Life without echo is really no life at all." - Dan Ingram
 

September 11, 2022 11:40 pm  #24


Re: September 1 1966 CTV and CBC Start Broadcasting in Colour

Across the lake, I believe my parents got their 25" colo(u)r Zenith as a wedding gift in 1969, a few years before I came along. That TV moved with us from apartment to house, got a cable hookup in 1980, and broke for good a year or so later, replaced by what I recall was a GE. 

I'm not sure if the 13" color Toshiba in their bedroom also came from the apartment or was a new purchase when they bought the house in 1975. 

Someone mentioned Admiral upthread, and I vividly recall going with my mom to the Two Guys discount store around 1976 when they had a 12" B/W Admiral on special. That became their first kitchen TV set and lived a good long life, well into the late 1980s. I remember late-night snacks while watching some of Johnny Carson's last shows on that little set. 

 

September 15, 2022 9:53 am  #25


Re: September 1 1966 CTV and CBC Start Broadcasting in Colour

Bill Dulmage wrote:

A Fleetwood floor model in Dec/74. I was still using that TV (was mom & dad's) up to the end of 2002!

Fleetwood was a Canadian TV and radio manufacturer out of Montreal.   In 1960 believe it or not there were 23 manufacturers of TV and radios in Canada.  Some of these were branch plants like Admiral, GE,  RCA and Philco but many were also domestic companies.  Best known Canadian companies were Electrohome, Clairtone, Fleetwood and Sparton.

     Thread Starter