Fifty years on
I don’t remember much about the launch of television in Ireland fifty years ago.
I very much doubt that many people do, as to witness the launch you would have had to have had a television and very few did. They were bulky and expensive yokes, costing several weeks wages, and seeing as there were only two other channels [BBC and ITV] people didn’t bother. Also the signals from the UK channels were very weak so you would have to have added the cost of a massive great aerial to the cost of the set. Television was the preserve of the wealthy.
It was another six or seven years before we got our own television. It was a far cry from the sets that litter virtually every home these days. No colour, a huge box with a small screen and six buttons to select the channels. Changing channels or adjusting the volume had to be done at the set as there was no such thing as a remote control. As well as the volume, chances were you’d have to regularly adjust the horizontal and vertical holds as the picture frequently broke up and would start to scroll or become a mess of horizontal lines. Every time a car went past outside the picture would disappear in a mass of screeching black and white spots.
Things have come along a bit since those days. Colour, flat screens, remote controls and satellite dishes have seen to that.
I have a choice of around seven hundred channels now, all with perfect reception and no interference. Nearly every single one of them is pure unadulterated crap. Of all those hundreds of stations I probably tune into about ten in all.
Fifty years of massive technological progress and all I get is fucking Jedward.
*sigh*
in another 50 years they will be saying back in the old days
you had to watch whatever some knob in RTE decided,
like Jedward, awful stuff from back in the dark days,
and the TV’s didn’t even connect to the internet,
And you had to use a fecking thing called a remote control
that always got lost or chewed up by the dog.
If you wanted to watch TV, you had to go into a room in the house
with this screen thing stuck in the corner, and you needed a dish stuck
on the roof
A couple of willy woofters there. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that.)
Correction: Yes there is. They look like fucking idiots.
I’ve taken to watching the wall. Its past written in brush strokes,
Stains and scratches before me. The indentations in the plaster hidden
by a multitude coats of paint, a mark where once a paint brush bristle
was trapped, now freed by an accident of friction. The colours fade along
each brush stroke, speckled with dust. A faint wine stain, a reminder of a
Bye-gone party. The slash of a pen, a green crayon swirl, evidence of my youngest
Artist at work.
TV is so fucking boring.
we shipped celine deon to the ‘mericans and now we’re stuck with “beiber” still not sure what that is…
At least you Irish and Canucks don’t have to suffer watching “Cunt of the Year” Tim Tebow on the TV. What a fuckin’ asshole.
Is anyone forcing you to watch Jedward or pay for shite cable? I got rid of my TV over a year ago and, apart from enjoying revelling in my own smugness, I have succeeded in reading many, many books that had gathered dust on my bookshelf, cooking elaborate meals and actually getting up off my hole and exercising. If I want to watch TV, I can do so online. And if I want to know what I’m missing on Irish TV, I can tune in to the Headrambles channel. Much more amusing than two gobshites in gold lame 🙂
Sean Eile – You know as well as I do that in fifty years we will have a choice of about five thousand channels with every single one pumping out endless X-Factor or all those other mindless “reality shows”. Grim.
TT – You presumably haven’t heard them? They have possibly the most irritating voices I have ever heard. There is a sound clip of them in here. Listen at your own risk.
Slab – I could live quite happily without it, as I prefer the wireless. Herself enjoys the News and programmes like that. It calms her nerves.
Cat – I know very little about that Bieber thing. That may be due to my not being a pre-pubescent schoolgirl?
Expat – Welcome! The problem with Jedward is that they sneak up on me and suddenly appear in some advertisement. I usually have the sound muted but one sight of those stupid fucking mullets is enough to raire the old bile level. The point I was trying to make is that countless billions have been spent on miniturisation, plasma screen technology not to mention all those satellites. And having achieved what is damn near a miracle of communication all the can think to put on it is Jedward.
Given a choice; I’d rather watch this:
http://www.ebaumsworld.com/video/watch/959872/
Take note Bog TV
Your tribute to 50 yeras of television and no mention of the blonde newscaster with the husky voice? Hmmmm.
InisEanna – I have downloaded that and will proceed to play it on the television just as Herself is expecting Coronation Street. Should be interesting?
Not Green – She asked me not to mention her for some reason. Who am I to go against her wishes or even question them?
You can’t mention ‘Her on Six-One – yeah, the good lookin’ one, with the black leather job’? Don’t worry mate, we’ll fill in for you.
Have not logged on for a few days so just wanted to wish you a belated, happy, peaceful and prosperous New Year from a grey and miserable Paris.
That pair should have been put down at birth – probably the worst article Ireland ever produced. I’ve never listened to their drivel, switched channels if they’ve made an appearance etc, etc. CRap
Sorry – InnisEanna’s link wasn’t viewed when I commented – class bit of editing that….
Was that Sharon GD?
Last comment for this evening – how about we team Sharon with
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uv3jQipUEwQ&feature=related
InnisEanna – “we’ll fill in for you” … as the local vernacular has it … you will in your hole.
Mossy – And many happy returns from a grey wet and very windy Ireland.
Cardi – You have been been ploughing a lonely furrow tonight? Was what Sharon? If it wasn’t a blond woman wearing black leather and reading the news on television, then the chances are it wasn’t. And as for that video…. [*cough*] .. I’m shocked! Such blatant exploitation of a weather map!
Dear Old Man,
You are so lucky that you’ve lived long enough to experience the glorious Jedward. And yet you can’t appreciate them. I think your brain may have floated away in the ether. Best wishes for your remaining days.
Welcome Katherine! I am indeed lucky to have lived so long, as the alternative doesn’t sound quite so pleasant. As for experiencing Jedward – I suppose you would call them an experience all right, in the same way that drilling a hole in your head could be classed as an experience? You see, my problem is that I lived through the sixties and seventies at a time when pop music was at its best, and where groups or acts survived on their talent and not some gimmick or other. I notice that a lot of the stuff churned out these days is just a rehash of the old songs. It’s a pity you missed those days. The music was great!