TSN: 25 years of broadcasting history

Today marks the 25th anniversary of TSN's broadcasting history...

http://www.tsn.ca/tsn25/story/?id=289509

I remember when TSN launched for the first time. A single channel dedicatd to sports... it seemed crazy at the time... but now it's part of our daily lives.

Happy 25 years TSN!

I remember being surprised when they were in the news, at the time, for being profitable.

Why surprised? They had a lot of filler that included old strongman rebroadcasts, European sports highlights shows that were at least weeks old, lots and lots of poorly-produced fishing shows and Gino Reda's cheesy mustache.

Can anyone confirm for me that Landsberg was a big stakeholder in the original TSN and is now swimming in dough?

shabbs wrote:Today marks the 25th anniversary of TSN's broadcasting history...

http://www.tsn.ca/tsn25/story/?id=289509

I remember when TSN launched for the first time. A single channel dedicatd to sports... it seemed crazy at the time... but now it's part of our daily lives.

Happy 25 years TSN!

Not so crazy when you consider ESPN was launched as the first channel dedicated to sports in 1979.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ESPN

TSN is owned by CTV Specialty Television, a joint venture of CTVglobemedia (80%) and ESPN (20%).

Yeah, but back then, up here... I had no idea what ESPN was at the time... I was just a young'un...

must have looked some cheesy compared to today's Hi Def Sportscentre, with the 80's graphics and such, would have loved to see it, mind you, I was 4 years old when it started.

shabbs wrote:Yeah, but back then, up here... I had no idea what ESPN was at the time... I was just a young'un...

Heh heh, you young'uns don't remember black and white TV either...and how we had to gather and chop wood to stoke the fires that powered those ancient television sets...
:^^^^:

davetherave wrote:

shabbs wrote:Yeah, but back then, up here... I had no idea what ESPN was at the time... I was just a young'un...

Heh heh, you young'uns don't remember black and white TV either...and how we had to gather and chop wood to stoke the fires that powered those ancient television sets...
:^^^^:

my parents did have one of those large floor model tv's, wasn't black and white, but was heavy as sin to move around and you had to get up to change the channel, that was an experience.

SensFan71 wrote:

davetherave wrote:

shabbs wrote:Yeah, but back then, up here... I had no idea what ESPN was at the time... I was just a young'un...

Heh heh, you young'uns don't remember black and white TV either...and how we had to gather and chop wood to stoke the fires that powered those ancient television sets...
:^^^^:

my parents did have one of those large floor model tv's, wasn't black and white, but was heavy as sin to move around and you had to get up to change the channel, that was an experience.

SF71>you'll love this...Ottawa had two TV choices 'back in the day' (now we're talkin way back, waaaay waaay back...)...CBC English and CBC French...and snow on all the other channels.

The founding of CJOH was a HUGE event.

Then there was the advent of colour TV...and less expensive 'alternatives'...I remember going to the GEM Store (Government Employees Mart) on Baseline Road with my folks and seeing this 'Magic Colour Screen' on display...it was a piece of red and green plastic you taped to your set that "instantly" made it a colour TV!

I used to go to my granparents every weekend to watch colour TV in Cornwall. They also had cable.

At home we had a floor model B & W RCA. Mind you, we got the Ottawa stations, the Montreal stations and US Networks via New York and Vermont.

Our first colour set was a Bradford purchased at Woolco in Cornwall.

SSF>we envied you all in Cornwall.

My dad got a pair of 'rabbit ears' for our 1952 RCA Victor (hey, it lasted us all the way into the 1970s) and managed to pick up WPTZ in Plattsburgh-North Pole-Burlington...on occasion.
:^^^^:

davetherave wrote:SSF>we envied you all in Cornwall.

My dad got a pair of 'rabbit ears' for our 1952 RCA Victor (hey, it lasted us all the way into the 1970s) and managed to pick up WPTZ in Plattsburgh-North Pole-Burlington...on occasion.
:^^^^:

Yeah. The Vermont stations were 3 (CBS), 5 (NBC) and 22 (ABC). Instead of Infomercials we had Cinema 12 out of CFCF and one of the American stations had The Saint, The Avengers and the like late at night. Good memories.

My grandparents TV was late-60s vintage, I believe, and outlived them well into the 80s.

SeawaySensFan wrote:

davetherave wrote:SSF>we envied you all in Cornwall.

My dad got a pair of 'rabbit ears' for our 1952 RCA Victor (hey, it lasted us all the way into the 1970s) and managed to pick up WPTZ in Plattsburgh-North Pole-Burlington...on occasion.
:^^^^:

Yeah. The Vermont stations were 3 (CBS), 5 (NBC) and 22 (ABC). Instead of Infomercials we had Cinema 12 out of CFCF and one of the American stations had The Saint, The Avengers and the like late at night. Good memories.

My grandparents TV was late-60s vintage, I believe, and outlived them well into the 80s.

We had Foster and Bill Hewitt or Danny Gallivan, and Rene Lecavalier, calling the hockey play by play on CBC; and Uncle Chichimus and Toastmaster Junior Auction on CJOH.

davetherave wrote:

SeawaySensFan wrote:

davetherave wrote:SSF>we envied you all in Cornwall.

My dad got a pair of 'rabbit ears' for our 1952 RCA Victor (hey, it lasted us all the way into the 1970s) and managed to pick up WPTZ in Plattsburgh-North Pole-Burlington...on occasion.
:^^^^:

Yeah. The Vermont stations were 3 (CBS), 5 (NBC) and 22 (ABC). Instead of Infomercials we had Cinema 12 out of CFCF and one of the American stations had The Saint, The Avengers and the like late at night. Good memories.

My grandparents TV was late-60s vintage, I believe, and outlived them well into the 80s.

We had Foster and Bill Hewitt or Danny Gallivan, and Rene Lecavalier, calling the hockey play by play on CBC; and Uncle Chichimus and Toastmaster Junior Auction on CJOH.

I'm a lot younger, so my early recollections are of Harlem Globetrotter and Mohammed Ali cartoons!

SSF> we had recycled Looney Tunes and Popeye cartoons from the 40's; Mickey and Donald, but only on Sundays; Woody Woodpecker; Rocky and Bullwinkle; and Tennessee Tuxedo and Chumley...oh yeah, and The Flintstones.

davetherave wrote:

SensFan71 wrote:

davetherave wrote:

shabbs wrote:Yeah, but back then, up here... I had no idea what ESPN was at the time... I was just a young'un...

Heh heh, you young'uns don't remember black and white TV either...and how we had to gather and chop wood to stoke the fires that powered those ancient television sets...
:^^^^:

my parents did have one of those large floor model tv's, wasn't black and white, but was heavy as sin to move around and you had to get up to change the channel, that was an experience.

SF71>you'll love this...Ottawa had two TV choices 'back in the day' (now we're talkin way back, waaaay waaay back...)...CBC English and CBC French...and snow on all the other channels.

The founding of CJOH was a HUGE event.

Then there was the advent of colour TV...and less expensive 'alternatives'...I remember going to the GEM Store (Government Employees Mart) on Baseline Road with my folks and seeing this 'Magic Colour Screen' on display...it was a piece of red and green plastic you taped to your set that "instantly" made it a colour TV!

I remember having CBC and SRC, plus when CTV came into the mix, or ATV, whatever it was at the time, then when MITV (who is now under Global) came out, that was a huge thing, until the network went out during the super bowl one year and never returned until it was Global.