Channel Television celebrates 60 years of broadcasting to the islands

  • Channel Television was launched by Senator George Troy on Saturday 1 September 1962

Channel Television celebrates a big birthday in 2022 - 60 years after the company began broadcasting to the Channel Islands.

The station first went on air at 5pm on this day (1 September) in 1962, from its original studios at Rouge Bouillon, St Helier.

The first programme broadcast was The Adventures of Robin Hood, starring Richard Greene.

Oscar Puffin made his debut appearance in 1963. His name was chosen by a young Channel TV viewer, Christine Tongs.

It wasn't an easy task bringing commercial broadcasting to the Channel Islands. Politicians and business leaders originally applied to the IBA - Ofcom's predecessor - to start a commercial radio station, but that request was denied.

It would be another 30 years before independent local radio established itself in Guernsey and Jersey, with Island FM launching in October 1992 followed by Channel 103 two weeks later.

One of Channel Report's early studio sets

In 1969, Channel broadcast a special 15-hour programme to celebrate the first man to land on the moon, while the early teletext service, Oracle, was launched in 1973.

Channel Television started transmitting in colour in the summer of 1976, with a well-attended ceremony held at the Fremont Point transmitter on Jersey's north coast.

  • The late Jane Bayer reports on Channel Television switching to colour in July 1976

All of Channel Television's original black-and-white studio cameras were donated to local museums. One still remains at Jersey Museum while another is on show in the entrance of ITV Channel's Guernsey offices.

Channel was the only ITV region to continue broadcasting during a 1979 industrial dispute which saw the rest of the British Isles left without any commercial television channels.

In the 1980s, Channel Television continued to grow - moving into new premises at La Pouquelaye in Jersey and St George's Esplanade in Guernsey.

Channel TV become the first regional ITV franchisee to have a computerised newsroom in the 1980s.

To help reach as many people in the Channel Islands as possible, the BBC paid Channel TV to advertise the launch of its local radio services in 1982.

An ITV-wide charity telethon took place in 1988, broadcasting 27 hours of non-stop programming.

Months of planning saw Bergerac star John Nettles join Gordon de Ste Croix and Peter Rouse to present Channel's portions of the programme.

Fundraising events ranged from Guernsey politicians organising and serving at a children's party, to a modern-day Lady Godiva riding bareback through the cobbled streets of St. Anne in Alderney, while in Sark, men took the place of horses and pulled carriages around the island.

Telethon '88 raised more than £170,000 in the Channel Islands (around £430,000 today)

The ITV telethons had raised more than £560,000 (or £1.1 million today) for good causes in the Channel Islands by the mid-1990s, and of all the ITV regions, Channel viewers raised more per head of the population than any other in the British Isles.

In the 1990s, a consortium including a number of former Channel TV employees put together a rival application to challenge for the regional ITV licence.

The team behind CI3 claimed Channel TV didn't provide the islands with the service they deserve, and bid more than 100x what Channel was paying for the licence to broadcast - but the regulator opted to renew Channel's licence instead, saying CI3's application 'didn't pass the quality threshold'.

Under its new licence, Channel Television began broadcasting early morning news bulletins as part of GMTV every weekday and producing programmes with subtitles for the first time.

A Channel TV camera operator filming a fire at Jersey's Hotel de France

In 1995, both the ITV network and Channel 4 broadcast Channel TV's coverage of the death of Jersey Zoo founder, Gerald Durrell.

Channel's Guernsey offices moved to Bulwer Avenue in 1997, where they remain today.

There have been many famous faces popping up on Channel TV over the years - from presenters to politicians and presenters, sometimes even both...

Jersey's Chief Minister, Deputy Kristina Moore, previously worked as a presenter at Channel Television

Channel Television remained an independent company until 2011 when it joined the other regions in England and Wales as part of ITV Plc.

At the time, Northern Ireland's UTV was also run separately, but a few years later it too was acquired by ITV Plc. leaving it and STV in Scotland as the two Channel 3 broadcasters in the British Isles.

  • Leah Ferguson reports on ITV's purchase of Channel Television

At the time, there was some speculation over the future of ITV's news service in the Channel Islands. Would the 30-minute evening news be shortened? Would the local news become any less local?

Thankfully those fears never came to be. Under its new owners, in 2015 Channel left its previous Jersey offices at La Pouquelaye for a new waterfront studio complex at Castle Quay in St Helier.

It also launched a new ITV News app for mobile devices, allowing viewers to get the latest updates for their island wherever they are.

So what do the next 60 years have in store? As technology continues to evolve and viewers consume content in new and different ways, Channel will continue to bring you the latest local news, sport, weather and everything you need to know about life in the islands.