City’s first TV station goes live

CBLT-TV kicked off its big day — Sept. 8, 1952 — with the Boyd Gang.

For several weeks prior, a crack team of CBC technicians and producers based at a Jarvis St studio field-tested Toronto’s first television station — a project announced by the CBC back in 1949. And aside from a minor technical screw-up (broadcasting live from the Ex with the CBC logo upside-down), they were ready.

It turned out to be a big news day. At around 7 a.m., a guard patrolling the death watch cells of the Don Jail noticed that the infamous, bank-robbing “Boyd Gang,” had escaped during the night. Front-page spreads of their mug shots graced every major newspaper in the city.

CBLT-TV followed suit with its coverage. As the Boyd Gang stared back at him from a TV screen in-studio, director A. Davidson Dunton joked that even the subjects of their coverage were “Canadian talent.”

The station went live at 7:15 p.m., segueing into their “News Magazine” show and a heavyweight lineup of performers, politicians and CBC brass at 8 p.m. It all went off seamlessly.

“And out of the last hectic moments of daylong rehearsal came the polished performance Toronto district viewers saw last night,” the Star reported.

CBC telegraphed their aims for CBLT-TV that night — a Canadian-focused station with groundbreaking news, commentary and educational coverage (the latter garnering significant interest from the Star). Some utterances seem laughable today. According to a brief of CBC’s comments in the Star:

“Argo games are definitely out — Argos don’t want them televised. Televising baseball playoffs is under consideration, but not likely. And of course hockey was decided long ago.”