60 years for CHCH

As many of you know — it’s our birthday, here at CHCH. We’re 60 years old — and we thank you, for the many good wishes we’ve received today. Tonight at eight — we’ll be running an hour long special on the history of CHCH. But this afternoon, we sent Scot Urquhart out to put together a small trip down memory lane.

It’s been quite a day for us here at the station — and I’ve got to admit — I was reminded today of many things that happened in the past — that I’d forgotten.

I still remember the first day I came to work for CHCH — it was May 27th, 1981 — and I pulled my battered Datsun B210 into a rutted gravel parking lot — behind three old houses that used to stand, right here where a highrise now sits.

I’ve been here, for more than half of the life of the station — but CHCH already had a rich, and glorious history — forged by true visionaries in the television industry.

It began with Ken Soble — who already owned a radio station — but saw television as the future. Proud of his hometown — he launched a station with the call letters C H C H — which stood for Canada Hamilton – Canada Hamilton — and incorporated a first in broadcasting technology:

The station used a microwave transmission system to send the signal from it’s studios — to what was, at the time — the tallest structure in Canada — the CHCH broadcasting tower.

One-thousand one hundred and 73 feet tall — it still stands out on the Niagara escarpment as the third tallest structure in the country. And the view from the top — is second to none.

The station built its reputation , and it’s audience on live hometown television — with some of the longest running shows in Canadian TV history. Tiny Talent Time, The Party Game, and the Hilarious House of Frightenstein — to name just a few.

It launched the television careers of stars like Bill Lawrence, Bill Walker, Steve Smith, Dick Beddoes, Paul Hendrick, Tom Cherington — and Don Cherry.

And viewers fell in love with local personalities they considered family — like Randy Steele, Stan Keyes, Dan McLean, Connie Smith, Ken Welch — and of course Matt and Maria.

From day one — CHCH has been a station of “firsts”. The first completely independent Canadian television station in 1961.

The first to broadcast an Oscar Winning movie blockbuster — before American TV viewers even saw it.

The first to work with law enforcement agencies to produce a special program aimed at catching a murderer. The award winning “Abduction of Kristen French” — which helped to track down Canada’s most notorious serial killer: Paul Bernardo.

We pioneered the first virtual news set in the country — and we continue to innovate — with the first system to allow advertising to be broadcast to specific geographic locations — and the first to launch an on-air viewer loyalty program.

So what’s ahead — well — here’s a hint: it was live television that powered our early success. We now broadcast more live news than any other station in North America — including this interview with station owners Cal and Romen Podzyhun — earlier today — on Morning Live:

If you missed the one hour special Friday night, it will be repeated Saturday night at 8pm.