My One Channel Childhood Universe

I was born just in time to catch the surge of TV's popularity in Canada.  This fascinating device was planted in the loving room of our family home in Taber, Alberta, just before I was born, making me the a part of the first generation to be fully exposed-- from diapers onward-- to television. When the question, "What's On TV?" came up, it referred to the programming on CJLH-TV, Channel 7.  It was the one and only channel we had. Life was simple then. There was no "Where's the remote?" and no complaints about 500 channels and nothing worth watching. No need to buy a TV Guide magazine for anything other than the articles. If you were a serious planner, you could check the one-channel listing in the Lethbridge Herald.

The Pope's Coronation (Pope John XXIII) adds some variety to this otherwise routine Wednesday/Thursday schedule from the Lethbridge Herald, November 5, 1958.

CJLH-TV, first day of broadcasting, Nov. 20, 1955.  Lethbridge Herald Collection, Galt Museum and Archives

There were a few adventuresome and elite individuals who would erect a giant UHF antenna on their roof and aim it at Sweetgrass Hill, just across the border in Montana, in order to pull in a couple of fuzzy channels from Great Falls. And by "pull in," I mean "pull in." Even after the guy wires for the antenna's giant mast had been erected. It was still an effort. It was like an electronic laboratory, involving a receiver box on top of the TV set and a lot of fine tuning. At my friends and relatives houses, I would watch with fascination and some impatience at as the user fiddled with the dial like someone at Cape Canaveral trying to locate a spaceship somewhere outside the earth's atmosphere-- and then guide it in. ("Come on, Rocky and Bullwinkle is starting in two minutes.") But for most of us, one channel and one small external antenna pointed West to Lethbridge was good enough. Or, at least our parents told us that.

The Ed Sullivan Show, Hockey Night in Canada, Walt Disney... You watched what was on or you didn't. Some shows were outstanding.  Some were simply watchable. The technology itself was main source of fascination, it seems.  This is probably why I watched Don Messer's Jubilee. The song "Goin' to the Barndance Tonight" still plays in my head.-- and I only recently learned that this show was a big deal across the country.  It was the #1 show in Canada next to Hockey Night in Canada and even more popular than Ed Sullivan. Pretty amazing

Speaking of pretty, there was Juliette, a classy lady with "high hair," blonde coloured, and who wore fancy, swanky outfits-- a high society variety show in my mind. But my mind was only six to ten years old at the time-- so who knows what the show was trying to be?  It came on after Hockey Night in Canada, which is one of the main reasons I watched it, I think. I remember taking my Saturday night bath between hockey periods-- so, I was all squeaky clean while watching this pretty, clean lady sing and introduce guests. Cool gig, I thought. And there was no channel alternative to tempt me.

"Let's Play Tiger" 1966 Esso TV Commercial promoting the "next big thing in Canadian Television: Colour

Colour TV would be just around the corner. Esso's "Let's Play Tiger" commercial was priming us for that with it's win-a-colour-TV contest.  (The TV spot's jingle is another sixties TV memory that still plays in my head.) The commercial promised us that this incredible technology would be coming soon to Canada and that by entering, we could be among the "select group of Canadians" to have it. Even with just one channel, that was mind-blowing enough.