50 years on, cameras still rolling
Fifty years ago, people huddled around electronics stores to catch their first glimpse of television in Cyprus. It has come a long way since
Fifty years ago this week there was a revolution in the home in Cyprus: the introduction of TV. On October 1, two cameras and various other equipment were set up at what has since become the CyBC (Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation) building as an attractive young women with a distinctive 50s hairdo and dress sat down and transmission began. In these media intense times, it’s hard to picture there was a time when the little box (or large plasma screen) we have come to depend so much on today was practically non-existent. And when it did happen, only the privileged few were able to watch.
The very first television programme was broadcast on an experimental basis and transmission was available twice weekly, for a total of 2½ to three hours. Gradually, broadcasting hours were increased but reception was still limited to a 16-mile radius within Nicosia. It wasn’t until 1965, when two transmitters were placed on Mount Olympus and Mount Sina, that more people around the island were able to watch history in the making.
Colin Matthews, a 20-year old air force photographer was among a limited number of people who witnessed CyBC’s first television transmission. “The Cyprus Mail newspaper contacted me and asked me to go and take a few pictures,” he recalls. “We were shown around the studios and met the director and the female presenter. It was quite funny actually because you could tell everyone was so nervous, not sure the cameras, the transmission and everything was going to work.” Colin, who had visited several studios in the UK, was impressed with the CyBC’s equipment.
“The set up was very professional and they had two massive cameras filming the news bulletin, which was in Greek. The presenter was reading from papers she had in front of her. I think most of their equipment came from the UK but for something that big, happening for the first time, the level of professionalism was very impressive.” He also recalls seeing crowds of people huddled around electrical appliance stores trying to catch a glimpse of the newest technology. “I remember everyone talking about it and then it was announced over the radio,” says Maroulla Iacoumi, 74. “We didn’t own a television set at the time, very few people did, but we rushed to the closest store to watch. We thought it was magic.”
At first, programmes were broadcasted in three languages: Greek, English and Turkish but towards the end of 1960, English language programmes were abolished and three years later, so were Turkish ones. Emilia Orphanidou, a pioneer in the media world of Cyprus, worked behind the cameras at the CyBC studios from 1955 to 1994. “I remember Fridays were Turkish-language days on the air but due to the lack of presenters, the shows ceased after a while,” she said. Emilia, who in 1955 was working for the radio section and earning £18 a month, was among the first women to fight for a place at the studios. “Women were not meant to work,” she says. “There was only one destination and that was marriage and kids. But when I found out they were opening positions for TV, I took the exams, went for an oral examination after that and passed.”
There were no more than 50 employees working at the studios in those days and Emilia was in charge of technical matters. “For years, I worked in the sound and picture alternation department, which was an interesting job,” she says. Foreign films were dubbed and the sound was on a separate cassette and Emilia had to synchronise them. “Sometimes it worked and other times it didn’t. I remember we played a lot of Andy Pandy episodes and whenever the sound wasn’t synchronised, I would either push the cassette to go further or catch it and hold it back. There weren’t many options.” Other shows included live theatrical performances.
“All the productions were ours and they were live,” Emilia says.
“We had three-hour live performances, which was very nerve-racking. Hours were required to set up the scenes and during our first live broadcast one camera broke down and we had to improvise with just one.”
Emilia explains that it wasn’t until 1967 that proper news bulletins took place. She left her husband and three young children behind to go to Scotland and study TV production, an unusual step in those days. Once back, she was responsible for the first news bulletins. “We started the news bulletins with very few visuals,” she recalls. “We would receive tapes from abroad but they were sent by air and not by satellite like today, so we were always a bit late reporting on images.” Cameramen normally ran back to the studios with images of the president or other important matters that were taking place and they would make the news bulletin.
The biggest challenge to TV broadcasts in Cyprus came with the 1974 invasion. “Those were extremely tough times,” says Andreas Constantinides, director of the station from 1969. “People felt disconnected and almost destroyed but with the station’s constant sourcing of information and broadcasts, we were able to help in a very significant way.” Reporters were sent out to capture images and inform people about the happenings around the island. Nayia Roussou, who also worked at the station as a television producer during the invasion, recalls: “As television producers at the time, we didn’t just do our job. We went through intense mental and emotional suffering. We witnessed and recorded scenes of tragic despair at the Philoxenia Hotel where we filmed the missing men who made it back home, bearded, terrorised and shaken. We interviewed 80-year-old women who, among others, had been raped.
“For many years after the invasion, we, as producers, continued to produce documentary and magazine programmes about the misery of the uprooted people, the destruction of the cultural heritage in the occupied areas, presenting these in film festivals like the Leipzig Festival and talking about the destruction.”
During those days of filming in basements and hotels, all images were hurried back to the studios where a time-consuming process of developing and projecting began. “Our equipment was up-to-date but back then everything worked so differently so we had a lot of work on our hands when the cameramen would come back,” said Constantinides. “The 16mm film used was black and white and we had to change the polarity by developing the negative, which also meant that the quality wasn’t excellent.” However, cameramen also had a hard time recording images as they were the only people on the job those days apart from various foreign reporters who were sending information around the world. “The people of Cyprus depended on us,” says Constantinides. During the invasion and despite the constant roll of information, broadcasts began late in the afternoon and finished around midnight. “A lot of what we were broadcasting was live with various presenters coming in but the announcements were recorded.”
CyBC 2 was launched in 1992 as more commercial and mainstream stations began operating. It was CyBC’s attempt to lure housewives to the box by airing endless South American dramas and soap operas without losing its reputation as a source of informative reporting.
Once upon a time, people worked hours on end, sometimes risking their lives to get an image or an article through; they loved their jobs and working as a team was of utmost importance. Nowadays? “It’s a shame that competition is what is driving people in this area,” says Emilia. “Everything has become about mass production and while the Greek shows airing every night are fun and light, I prefer watching The History Channel.”
Even though we now have five local TV channels to chose from, the need for more Americanised ra
w and entertaining programmes brought to us bang up-to-date, mostly initiated by the younger generation, brought the era of pay TV to our island. Between them, CyBC, MEGA, ANT-1 and Sigma have not managed to fight the popularity of satellite TV, with increasing numbers of homes on the island displaying a dish on the roof.
LTV may have made the first step in 1993, but it wasn’t long before The Cyprus Electricity Board popped up with Cablenet and the Cyprus Telecommunications Authority followed suit with MiVision as well as Athina Sat, launched in May 2005. It is the first Cypriot-owned DTH satellite provider in Cyprus and one of two satellite platforms, the other being NOVA Cyprus.
