WINNIPEG -- CTV Winnipeg is celebrating 60 years of television today.
“It would’ve been great to have a much larger celebration, but of course that’s not happening right now for obvious reasons,” said Jeff Bollenbach, general manager of Bell Media Manitoba.
On Nov. 12, 1960, at 5 p.m., CTV Winnipeg, which started out as CJAY, went on air for the first time.
“I do recall those early days, in the late 60s and 70s, when of course there was two, maybe three, television stations. Three for a long time,” Bollenbach said.
“That was what we watched.”
At that time, all the shows were done live so it was a busy time in television.
Some of CTV Winnipeg’s iconic shows over the years include ‘S’kiddle Bits,’ a noon-hour kids’ show that aired in the 1980s, when the network was known as CKY, as well as ‘Archie and Friends.’
“S’kiddle Bits’ really was a blessing for me because it was like a second child with a bigger allowance,” said the show’s host Joey Gregorash.
“We put the show together with kids in mind, but we also wanted to involve their parents.”
CTV Winnipeg is currently located in Downtown Winnipeg, but when it was first built, it was located at Polo Park in the 1960s.
Now, some local artifacts from the station’s history are stored at the Manitoba Museum, including an old television set from the 1960s
“It’s a big part of television history and it really speaks to early television in Winnipeg as well,” said Roland Sawatsky, curator of history at the Manitoba Museum.
- With files from CTV’s Rachel Lagace
