CTC Canberra turns 60
Although technically in breach of broadcasting rules, CTC was the first station in Australia to broadcast the majority of its output in colour.
- Published by David Knox
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At 6pm on June 2, 1962, Australia’s 26th Television Station CTC 7 commenced transmission.
Opening night included a documentary on the construction of the CTC studios, known as “the tin shed”, a film of the Queen’s Birthday Procession from the military barracks at Duntroon, The B.P. Super Show hosted by Margaret Fonteyn, detective series Michael Shayne and an epilogue.
Broadcasting to Southern New South Wales & ACT, CTC has also had many different identities on-air – including CTC-TV, Super 7, Capital 7, 10 TV Australia, Capital Television, Ten Capital, Southern Cross Ten, Channel 9 and Channel 10.
CTC was a pioneer of colour television, commissioning the first purpose-built colour production studio and film laboratory in Australia. The new facility in Watson opened in 1974 boasting sales and administration, a full size production studio supplemented by two smaller studios for commercial recordings and on-air presentation. Over 80% of the broadcasts were in colour, five months before the official commencement date of 1 March 1975. Although technically in breach of the Australian Broadcasting Control Board rules, CTC was the first television station in Australia to broadcast the majority of its output in colour.
The Watson studios stood until August 2020 when the demolition of the entire studio was completed to make way for a housing development.
As the only commercial television station in Canberra, locals would often complain of big name television programs missing from the Canberra schedule, while cheap repeats of American sitcoms such as Bewitched and Gilligan’s Island were staples until the late 1980s.
Hey Hey It’s Saturday was never broadcast by CTC nor were Burke’s Backyard, Wheel of Fortune, Sons and Daughters and Home & Away.
Original shows included An Evening With, Tonight in Canberra, Tonight with Frank Jones, Meeting in the Middle, Constable Kenny on Duty, Rock Till Dawn, and The Up-Late Game Show hosted by Hot Dogs.
Now under the ownership of Southern Cross Ten, it switched its affiliation back to Channel 10 from 1 July 2021.
A reunion for former employees will be held on Saturday night.
4 Responses
Being Canberra-bred, I grew up with CTC-7 and ABC-3- the only TV stations around. Miss Karen (Karen Barlen (sic)) was the host of the children’s shows, and was the face of the station, and who I remember the most. And the jingle they used for the introduction of colour TV was “Colour My World”.
“locals would often complain of big name television programs missing from the Canberra schedule” … it wasn’t just the “locals”, Kerry Packer complaining to Bob Hawke that he couldn’t get 9 programs on air in Canberra was essentially the reason why “regional television aggregation” became government policy and allowed Packer to get his wish via Bruce Gordon’s WIN TV …
Love love love reading all about the stations around Australia. What a different time to live in, where shows were so local. Bliss
In the six months between when colour test programs began and the official launch of colour TV (October 1974 – March 1975) we were one of the 1st to buy a colour TV. I had seen the program guides with just one or two programs a week designated as colour. Imagine our surprise when we turned on the television and almost all of the programs were in colour. One of the programs shown in colour was on Friday night during late night shopping. It was Travelling Out West – a country music show hosted by John Williamson and recorded at NBN in Newcastle. The colour TVs showing it always had a huge crowd around them, and I remember at Woden Plaza there was a downstairs electrical store called Canes nationwide stores which had a colour TV out the front and I remember looking behind me and people were three deep around the upstairs plaza area looking down at the TV.