26th July 1976
Channel Television switches to colour
Channel Television switched from black and white to colour broadcasts in 1976, with a party in a tent beside its transmitter on Jersey’s Freemont Point. It had taken a long time and much discussion for the technicians to work out how to transmit the signals without causing interference to neighbouring networks, on account of the power that their own transmitter would need to put out. In the end, they settled on installing a SABRE aerial in Alderney, developed specifically by IBA engineers. This relayed colour broadcasts from Stockland Hill in Devon, and thus completed the “colourisation” of the UK’s independent television network.
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Other events that occured in July
Jersey’s Theatre Royal burns down
- Jersey lost its theatre on the morning of 31 July 1863. It was discovered ablaze at 4am and, by 9am, nothing was left of the £5000 building.
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Jersey Royal potatoes are trademarked
- The Department of Agriculture and Fisheries applied to the UK patent office to register the terms Jersey Royal and Jersey Royals.
- Read more…
Jersey families camp on Ecrehous to repel the French
- When French fishermen looked set to invade Ecrehous, Jersey families owning huts there camped out to repel them.
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Jersey invader Philippe de Rullecourt is born
- Philippe de Rullecourt led and was killed in the French invasion of Jersey that later became known as the Battle of Jersey.
- Read more…