CTC (TV station)
The station's history can be traced back to 19 May 1958, when Canberra Television Limited (or CTL), a public company, was formed by executives of The Federal Capital Press of Australia Pty.
The company went public in September of the same year, on the Australian Securities Exchange in Sydney, offering 100,000 shares which were immediately oversubscribed, ending up with a total subscribed capital of A£300,000 (A$600,000).
Initially, Mount Ainslie (approximately 10 km north-east of Canberra's city centre, at an elevation of 842 m above sea level) was considered as a potential transmitter site.
[5] The studio complex, which, in later years, would be affectionately known as 'the tin shed' was planned, designed and constructed by Civil & Civic over a period of 28 weeks (from September 1961 – March 1962) at a total cost of £77,912 (A$155,824).
On 23 May 1962 at 5:45pm, the first live test transmission took place with the Safety Bureau Officer, Senior Constable T. A. M. Cooper presenting a 13-minute public service announcement on the proper use of fireworks.
Commencing at 6.58pm with the national anthem, the channel launch was officiated by the Prime Minister in a program called Bringing the World Back Home, also the station's slogan at the time.
Perhaps in an attempt to ingratiate local viewers lamenting the loss of the Today Show, on Monday 22 February, hosts Kerri-Anne Kennerley and Tim Webster broadcast a full episode of Good Morning Australia live from the front of New Parliament House in Canberra.
The company was subject to an inquiry by the Australian Broadcasting Tribunal in relation to media ownership rules[39] and had run into financial difficulties following the 1987 stock market crash two years earlier.
The proposals included selling off the network's three smaller stations; ADS Adelaide, NEW Perth and CTC Canberra to Charles Curran's Capital Television Group.
At this time CTC dropped Channel 10 branding in favour of Capital Television, the name of its parent company, except for the locally produced Ten News, which would retain the name for a further 12 months.
[47] With little opportunity to expand his regional television holdings, Curran sold CTC to Southern Cross Broadcasting in December 1994, retaining ADS Adelaide and NEW Perth.
In December 2016, Southern Cross Austereo lodged a planning application with the ACT Government to demolish the CTC studios, administration and playout facility to make way for a residential development.
However, local residents 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.
[citation needed] In October 1981 CTC launched its first one-hour local, national and international bulletin, airing at 6pm weeknights presented by Laurie Wilson and John Bok.
[citation needed] Perhaps in a nod to his local Canberra profile, CTC opted to broadcast Nine's breakfast program rather Network Ten's Good Morning Australia which had been on air for over a year and was preferred by most regional stations.
On 10 January 1986 John Bok, who had become a high-profile personality for CTC in the Canberra community, read his last bulletin to take up a role with ABC in Adelaide.
The station's commitment to metropolitan quality news in Canberra saw CTC defy other Network Ten affiliates in Australia, maintaining a number one position in the ratings for three years after Prime and WIN commenced broadcasting in that city.
Not only had the beloved 'Channel 7 News' as it was colloquially known been moved an hour earlier, but the 6pm-7pm slot had been filled by the tabloid current affairs program Hinch and the low-budget American dating show Studs.
[36] However, Prime couldn't drag the audience from CTC and in April 1991 the bulletin was scaled back to a five-minute update shown at the end of Seven Nightly News from Sydney.
Despite the lack of investment in technical equipment, the CTC newsroom maintained its selection of local and national stories and broad coverage of international news.
[50] The axing, in the same year as Prime cancelled its half-hour local bulletin in Canberra, sparked an Australian Broadcasting Authority investigation into regional television news.
The first episode went to air at 9.30pm on Tuesday 23 August 1966 and was entitled An Evening With Treblefolk, a local trio formed by Brian Triglone who is still involved in folk music in Canberra today.
While working for CTC, presenter David Brice optioned the rights of a book by Don and Elizabeth Coleman about a student protest against an Asian security conference to be held in Canberra.
The show was the brain child of Desmond Bishop, who ran the Canberra Children's Television Workshop at CTC and aimed 'to bridge the generation gap'.
[124] Motoring program RPM, which stood for road test, performance, maintenance, started a 13 week run on Wednesday 10 July 1985 following a pilot shot in February that year.
[128] A clip of Rock Till Dawn can be seen today featuring the Doug Anthony All Stars in which host Cooper incorrectly refers to the studio location as Dickson,[129] when in fact he was further up Northbourne Avenue in Watson.
Hosted by radio 2CC duo Donna Lynch and Cameron Humphries with Rowdy Rabbit, Saturday Morning Live ran for an hour at 8.30am from 12 October 1985 to 21 December that year.
The Up-Late Game Show was a 90-minute late night interactive television quiz program shown across Network Ten, written and hosted by Big Brother contestant Simon Deering, commonly known by the nickname Hotdogs.
In March 1988, after the station was acquired by Network Ten the previous year, Community Billboard was scaled back to three minutes[133] so it could run within commercial breaks during the day.
At its peak in 1987, over 100,000 spectators would line Lake Burley Griffin to watch contestants jump from a 10-metre platform, aiming to glide 50 metres to win the $10,000 prize.
