THE ARRIVAL OF THE TELEVISION IN SPAIN

THE INTRODUTION OF THE T.V. IN SPAIN

By Inés Moraga.

Nowadays we are used to the television and we almost have it switch it on, all day long. But before people have television at home, life was quite different. This event happened in the year 1956. Television was invented by a German Paul Nipkow. We have asked people who lived the transition from the radio to the TV, one nun Lola from Ces Don Bosco, two priests, also from this university, Jose María and Lorenzo and my mother in order to have information from first-hand about this event. This essay will describe the changes in their lives brought about by the television.

Before people had TV their lives were rather different, for example people knew about the news from newspapers and radio. And these news were not so quickly to come to the houses as nowadays with the TV. Nowadays at nighttime we watch TV but at that time my mother says that they listened to the radio or read a book

In the radio they didn’t listen only to the news, they also had radio novels, Lola, the nun, remember specially one of them called “Ana Rosa”. Javier talked us about another one called “La Doctora Francis” where that doctor gave advice to people who send letters to her, telling her their problems and asking for advice. Later on they discovered that the Doctor Francis was not a woman, instead was a man, a journalist, he wrote the answers but his voice was made by another person.

Like all the changes, at the beginning they were afraid and didn’t like the idea of the television. We can see this in the magazine Radio television that said “the television will be add to the numbers of inventions that makes life more complicated if you want to, but more interested too”

At the beginning not all the families could buy a television, only the rich families. That’s why not all the televisions came at the same time in every family, Lola remember that before having television on her house they went to an oncology hospital because that was the first place in having one. She was one of the first families in having television at home, so all the children went to her house to watch it. In 1960 that situation changed, television could be paid by installment. Even so, there were great differences between some areas and others, the 70-80% of the televisions was at urban areas like Madrid, Barcelona, Pais Vasco, and only 25% of the farmers had a television. But in the second half of the decade of the years sixties, television lives its “years of gold”. *

Television as well has change; it is not the same as today. At the beginning it had only one channel, it consisted in the retransmission of the mass, official speeches, etc. Javier explained that in the Franco regime the retransmissions had political controlled. *blogmastervero.blogspot.com/.../historia-de-la-television-en-espana.h...

After some years it came the second channel, “la primera” had popular programs and “la segunda” had more cultural programs. In the years eighty begins the autonomics channels.

All the programs were in black and white. Neither it was all the day long, my mother says that it begun around 14.00 with the “carta de ajuste”, at 15.00 you could watch the newscast and at 24.00 the retransmission finished. When a film wasn’t recommended for children under 14 years old, they signed it with one diamond and when it wasn’t recommended for children under 18 years old they put two diamonds. There were also programs for children with clowns. And Javier thinks that television has help to vocalize in a better way, because the presenters were forced to speak well. Before the entrance of the television he says that you could not understand people of the south of Spain but afterwards they improved, the ceceo and seseo has decreased a lot with the television.

About the programs in the television all of the interviewed remember the first football match they watched on TV, especially the men. Although Javier has told us that before the television, they listened to the matches in the radio and they retransmitted so well that it was if you were watching it. And my mother says that there were a lot of contests.

Television had repercussion not only in the houses; pubs were one of the first places in having television because it was a claim for consumers. But the cinemas didn’t have so much luck with the entrance of the television because people preferred to watch TV than going to the cinema. In the cinemas they watched dumb films. And they also had news of the world called “Nodo”.

The first television in color came in 1975. Javier remembers the first thing he saw in color, and it was the king’s coronation. But outside Spain, the color in the television came before, that’s why Lola’s brother in law and sister brought a television from Germany, there was in color and here was not in color yet, so here they saw it in black and blue.

Asking Lorenzo what he thinks about the television he has said that it is a great invention, a good vehicle of information and as teachers we are going to be, we have to teach how to see the television, to be critical with the programs in the television, we can’t think that everything that is on television is good.

Doing this research I think I can say that the television has been a great invention, it has bring with it good changes in the lives of the people. Although we have an overuse of it nowadays.

The fist television in Spain

Television a way of seeing the past

By Mayra Armas

Nowadays everybody can enjoy television in their homes, select what to watch and when, but how was the first television broadcasting in Spain? 

Just imagine watch in black and white, or just have one channel.

To achieve this we must move exactly to June 10, 1948 12:45 then came the first television broadcast, which was responsible for Spanish Television (TVE). But the official beginning of television in Spain was on October 28, 1956 while TV emissions started years before in other countries, as in England in 1936, and United States on April 30, 1939, coinciding with the inauguration of the Universal Exhibition in New York.

If we go back a bit in time perhaps remember the differences between programming that was when we were small, and there is now, the number of new channels, the addition of DVB, etc. But if you ask older people about television we can see from a very different point of view and high contrast.

During those years, television was very different from what we know today, for that reason we wanted to gather first hand information asking people who have lived at that time so they can tell us their experience.
We asked some teachers of our university CES Don Bosco; Lola Vicente, José María Maíllo, Lorenzo San Pablo.

They told as their experience and their point of view. They said there was only one TV channel, for Spanish society it was a great innovation, and a great way of integration into the world and technology.

José María Marillo told us that during the early years, television was black and white with only one channel and the programming was very general. There was general information news, mostly country information and official acts of Franco. It was also common parts of the war, retransmissions of football games, and bullfights. The majority of the population did not have the financial resourses to have a television own home. So there are neighbourhood cinemas, places where neighbours would gather to watch television, such as some hospitals, houses of a neighbour who had the equipment, and bars.

Lola Vicente told us that all children from the neighbourhood gathered at the hospital on the oncology floor to see there television.

In 1959 begun the connections between Madrid and Zaragoza, Barcelona, ​​Bilbao, Valencia, Seville, Santiago, etc.., By hertzian link: television is becoming a reference currency throughout the Spanish territory.

This connection at the same time gave place to a unified language, since each region for many years was acquiring their own dialect and use, such as in Andalucia that had an accent so thick that some locals found it very difficult to understand. So this connection which language allowed the correct pronunciation, intonation and vocalization accessible to more people. This was an important cultural resource emphasized José María Marillo.

On November 15, 1966 appeared a second channel of TVE (TVE 2), originally known as UHF, to use for broadcast this band of radio frequencies. TVE 2 would be issued in cultural content, sports and public service.
In 1969, TVE emissions debuts in PAL, which is technically and allows you to broadcast in colour. However, the lack of infrastructure to produce programs in this environment, mainly the lack of cameras and recorders in colour, regular production delay in colour until 1973. The first output colour TVE importance (not the first retransmission) was on-1969. The Eurovision Song Contest that year is from the “Teatro Real de Madrid“ with team colour borrowed from abroad.

Between 1969 and 1973, some productions are done in colours with film cameras, but they are sporadic. In 1973 become the first cameras and recorders in colour, from this moment making joint programming with programs in colour and black and white. The final suppression of black and white come in 1978, resulting from that moment all programming in colour.

The colour TV was a boom, one of the most important moments for Spanish society at the time was the coronation of the King, thanks to television many Spaniards could see the live crown, feeling closer and being part of the history seeing the beginning of changes in the country. José Maria mentioned that one of his earliest memories of the color TV was the coronation of the king, and how his uncle a man who supports the crown was impatient to see the new king crowned.

Television has been witness to many things, many events, testimonies, and experiences ... but above all has been, is and will witness of the changes.

Changes that are necessary, continue to exist and will exist. Without forgetting the past and always looking forward to learn from life experiences and seeking to improve. And we are witnesses of these changes, and in a few years we'll look back just to see what a day we left and we will realize that all changes are good because they help us to improve and give us stories to tell.

THE ARRIVAL OF THE TV TO SPAIN

THE ARRIVAL OF THE TV TO SPAIN

by Laura Compte

Many years after the first regular emissions, the TV is a part of the daily life of the Spanish people. It is a very important media that reaches the vast majority of households and it is also the media with the greatest influence on people.

It seems interesting to know how it was for some people the introduction of this device in their lives. So we've selected four people who lived this moment: Lola Vicente, José María Maíllo, Lorenzo San Pablo (the three of them teachers in our university) and Mari Cruz (Ines’ mother)

The first commercial TV was created by John Logie Baird in January 1926 but it did not reach Spain until 1956. We asked our respondents how they managed, until then, to learn and find out what was going on in the world. Their answers were: "I basically found out the news through the newspapers" (Lola), "Before the TV, news were known through the radio" (Jose Maria).

The radio was a major informative media. Besides, it was also an entertainment media used by Spanish families to spend their leisure time, as Mari Cruz pointed us when she said: "Before the TV, at night we listened to the radio or read."

This means that, in the 50-60’s, emerge the “Radionovelas” (radio dramas), which were an incredible boom. Lola remembers with special fondness the "Ama Rosa" radio drama. Jose Maria recalled a highly successful radio drama called "La Doctora Francis", in which that doctor received letters from people and she discussed these letters and gave advice to the people that had send them. "Some years later (said Jose Maria) was discovered who was Doctora Francis actually. She was not a doctor, he was a journalist, a man, whose voice was made by another person, but who wrote the underscores like if he was a lady. "

The transition from the radio to the TV was a novelty. Lorenzo told us that what struck him was the image. Jose Maria told us some of the advantages he found on the television: "The introduction of black and white TV was a revolution; it allowed images to reach the villages. People watched much television especially to SEE the news and know other things. And this helped to have more information and above all to unify the language, especially in Andalusia.”

“The Andalusian progressed so much, the seseo and ceceo that was very extravagant went down." Jose Maria told us that in the 60’s he went to Huelva to continue his studies, and he could not understand the people there. Language was so tight, that it was hard to understand. He was also doing a degree at the University of Granada for a year, and in the towns of Granada, in the Alpujarras, they had such a tight Andalusian spoke that it seemed Arabic for him. "But if you go now, this no longer occurs [...] this has disappeared thanks to television, which has uniformed the language and has forced people to pronounce well." (José María)

Regular emissions started in Spain in 1957. They consisted on the retranmission of the Mass, official speeches, performances by orchestra, etc. "There was only one TV channel. They used to put a lot of national news. In the Franco regime, of course, they had that very controlled because it served the regime. But it wasn’t more than what many channels do nowadays. […] Some news were given a little bit closed because of the political interest. "(José María)

Something that all of our interviewees allude is the passion that people had for sports and especially for football. "Sports erupted very strongly, especially football. Televising a football game was a spectacle. The verbosity and the wordiness were impressive. Even before the black and white TV, on the radio there were some fantastic speakers that explained the football games and it seemed that you were seeing it. "José María told us. "The football games were a big boom" Said Lola. "They commented the football games and they made you live ​​them..." said Lorenzo.

However, despite this huge success, it took many years that most of Spanish people had access to the programs. It was not until the 60's, and especially 70’s, that the TV use began to generalize in a massive way. The economic situation of the average Spanish family did not allow, for that time, that everyone had a TV at home as nowadays. Jose Maria told us that only intellectuals and professionals like his parents could afford to have one at home. Lola, meanwhile, told us that, at first, there was no television at home, and they all went to watch TV at the Cancer Center. The arrival of the first TV at her house was a great event. She was one of the first people to have one, so all the friends and neighbors went to her house to see it.

In the late 60's, the TV had already a great coverage in Spain. There were 3 million and a half of units. The differences were huge depending on the area. Between 70-80% of televisions were in urban areas like Madrid, Barcelona and the Pais Vasco. Just 25% of the farmers had a television. "The TVs in the bars came quite late. But it was the first place where they arrive. When it began to reach the villages, who bought them were the bars, mainly to attract customers. Then the people started to buy it for their home "(José María)

The color TV appeared in the United States and radically changed the image from a technical point of view. Lola remembered that her brother in law and her sister brought their first color TV from Germany, while here still being in black and white. Lorenzo said to us that before, Spain was about 15 years late, and he lived the first color TV outside Spain. Jose Maria remembers the year 1975 as the boom of the color television. He still remembers the first thing he saw on the TV in color: the Coronation of the King.

About the Television programming at that time, Lola remembers fondly a program she saw as a child of some clowns, emitted twice a week. And she also explained her movie and theatre TV nights when he was older. Lorenzo talked about the limitation of the TV. On Sundays, they emitted the News or Song Programs. And Mari Cruz told us: “The television started around 2 p.m. with the “Carta de Ajuste”, at 3 p.m. there was the news, and at 12 of the night it was over.”

Gradually television has become the main form of information and knowledge of millions of people. It became a social phenomenon: a powerful media with a huge impact.

"Television is a great invention. Good in every way. [...] Today is a vehicle of information, because people follow the image very well. It is a media, in a positive direction, of information and formation for people. It has an important influence on people, but then comes the use we make of it, which can be positive or negative. It has become such an important invention that nowadays people have the TV on all day ". (Lorenzo)

The coming of television in Spain

THE INTRODUCTION OF TELEVISION IN SPAIN

Carlota Tena.

 

The Worldwide prehistory of television goes from the end of the 19th Century till 1935. The television started being a laboratory invention and it became a free access media. The fist manufactures of television for domestic-familiar use took place in the United Kingdom in 1937 and in the United States in 1939. While this was happening around the world, in Spain, radios and magazines discussed about the characteristics of the new media that had not yet arrived to the Spanish territory. Even the newspapers were full of news about the impact that television was already having in other countries. In 1956 Barcelona and Madrid became the first Spanish cities with television but the citizens will need around 10 years to consider TV as a leisure option. The transmission was in black and white till it evolved to the colour version. The Olympic Games of Munich (1972) was the first colour transmission in Spain. Besides the historical facts and landmarks we value the personal experience of the people that lived this change. We have the testimony of Lola, a Salesian Sister and Don Bosco University teacher that lived the introduction of the television in Spain when she was a child. We also had the chance to interview Jose María, an old man that was around 3o years old when the fist television arrived to his little village.

Before the arrival of TV, life was very different. People knew about the news by reading the newspaper or by listening to the radio. The worldwide information arrived days or even weeks after it had occurred so people were less aware of what happened abroad. With the introduction of television people would have much easier access to information. Information that would be more unified but that would be mostly controlled by the state. So as almost everyone saw TV, most citizens opinions would be based on the information shown on it. It would become an important manipulation tool. Lola remembers not only listening to the news on the radio but entertaining with the radio soap operas. “We used to listen to the soap opera Ana Rosa and when it finished we felt so anxious for the next day to come to be able to discover how the story was going to continue” Lola recalled. Jose María told us about the hit of the soap opera La Doctora Francis, “Everyone in the village listened to this program and when I arrived to the city I could observe that many women cleaners were listening to it all day”. The arrival of television changed the way of spending time. People used to spend more time on the street. “When we were kids we used to play outside but with TV we spent every Thursday afternoon watching the children’s program. We were all looking forward to it, it was so much fun! Lola explained us cheerfully. Instead of going to the cinema they started watching movies at home.

The first experiences with television marked a generation. Lola did not have TV at home at the beginning. She told us that she used to go to an oncologist hospital near her house to watch it. “When we could have our own TV, everyone would come along to our house, it was a great event”. Jose María points out that the first places to have television were the rich family houses of the city but on the village people would meet on the pubs to watch the news. Another thing that was quite different from today was the TV’s programming. It had two channels and around lunch time there was “Carta de Ajuste”, at 15.00 the news and it would finish at midnight. “When I entered to the nunnery, my colleagues and I would watch a film every night. There were no programs after 00.00” reported Lola about her youth. Jose María told us a curiosity about the films, “When they weren’t recommended for kids under 14 years old they would sign it with one rhombus at the beginning of the transmission and when they were not recommended for young people under 18 years old they would show two rhombuses. Both of our interviewers stand out the importance of the transmission of the football matches; “you can’t imagine how spectacular it was to see it in the little screen and hear those great speakers reporting the match in such an exciting way!” described Jose María. But this wasn’t the end of the excitement: the colour version TV was about to arrive. Lola remembers that her sister and brother-in-law brought the first colour television from Germany. “When they brought it, Spain had not yet installed the colour system so the images would actually look quite bluish”. Jose María’s memory is about the first thing he watched in colour; “I hanged out with my brothers and some friends and we watched the coronation of the Spanish king, Juan Carlos I, in 1975”.

To conclude we would like to highlight the power of TV from Jose Maria’s point of view: “The television has an important role on the evolution of the Spanish language talked on the Spanish territory. When I was younger I used to study and live in Andalucía and when I arrived I could not understand what they were saying. The TV has unified the language what makes it easier to communicate among the same country”. In addition to this, the introduction of the television in Spain was big moment. Leisure time changed, the access to information became easier, new programs appeared… A new model of life started to be developed.

Results&Conclusion

To measure these factors we have done some researches in internet and we have also gone to the different districts and we have asked the neighbors, in the libraries, watch the neighborhood, etc.

The punctuation is from 1 to 5, being 1 for the worse and 5 the best.

Mobility 30%

After searching in the page web of the organization “la Once” and going to the districts to look how is the mobility for blind people there, we can say:

A) Bus and subways voice

 1) 0-20% have voices for blind people

 2) 20-40%

 3) 40-60%

 4) 60%-80%

 5) 80-100% 

  Francos Rodríguez  5/5 - 10/10

  San Blas 4/5 - 8/10

  Barrio de salamanca  5/5 - 10/10

B)  Traffic lights

1) 0-20% are adapted to blind people

2) 20-40%

       

3) 40-60%

       

4) 60%-80%

       

Francos Rodríguez  5/5-10/10

San Blas  4/5-8/10

Barrio de salamanca  5/5-10/10

C) Pedestrian cross walk  

  

1) 0-20% are adapted to blind people

  

2)20-40%

       

3) 40-60%

       

4) 60%-80%

       

Francos Rodríguez   4/5-8/10

San Blas  4/10-8/10

Barrio de salamanca  4/5-8/10

Final results:

Francos Rodríguez: 10+10+8/30=9,3/10

San Blas: 8+8+8/30=8/10

Barrio de Salamanca: 10+10+8/30= 9,3/10 

Accessibility 25%

Open areas.

 1) 0-20% open areas

 2) 20-40%

 3) 40-60%

 4) 60%-80%

 5) 80-100% 

Francos Rodríguez  4/5 - 8/10

San Blas 1/5 - 2/10

Barrio de salamanca  4/5 - 8/10

Building:

 1) 0-20% buildings adapted

 2) 20-40%

 3) 40-60%

 4) 60%-80%

 5) 80-100%

Francos Rodríguez  2/5 - 4/10

San Blas 2/5 - 8/10

Barrio de salamanca  5/5 - 10/10

Fences

 1) 0-20% signed

 2) 20-40%

 3) 40-60%

 4) 60%-80%

 5) 80-100%

Francos Rodríguez  2/5 - 4/10

San Blas 2/5 - 4/10

Barrio de salamanca  3/5 - 6/10

LIFTS

 1) 0-20% Lifts adapted

 2) 20-40%

 3) 40-60%

 4) 60%-80%

 5) 80-100%

Francos Rodríguez  2/5 - 4/10

San Blas 3/5 - 6/10

Barrio de salamanca  4/5 - 8/10

GUIDE DOGS

 1) 0-20% near open areas

 2) 20-40%

 3) 40-60%

 4) 60%-80%

 5) 80-100%

Francos Rodríguez  3/5 - 6/10

San Blas 3/5 - 6/10

Barrio de salamanca  4/5 - 8/10

Final Results

Francos Rodríguez  5,2/10

San Blas 5,2/10

Barrio de salamanca  8/10

Inclusion 25%

a) Helpful neighbours

(We asked the neighbours of the district to evaluate the helpfulness of the people that live near by) 10 persons were asked. From 1 to 5

Francos Rodriguez – 41/50 – 8.2/10

San Blas – 37/50 – 7.4/10

B.Salamanca – 34/50 – 6.8/10

b) Volunterring with blind people

1-0

2-1

3-2

4-3

5-4 or more

According to the oficial web site of volunteeing in the Comunidad de Madrid

Francos Rodriguez:

The are 26 offers, 3 are for disable people

Asosiation like ONCE,

4/5 = 8/10

San Blas: 4/5 = 8/10   

B.Salamanca: 4/5 = 8/10

Final Results

FRANCOS RODRIGUEZ

8.2 + 8 =16.2/20 = 8.1/10 

SAN BLAS

7.4+8= 15.4/20 = 7.7/10

SALAMANCA 6.8 + 8= 14.8/20 = 7.4/10

Education

Schools with resources for blind people:

We have looked for information on the internet of 10 school of each neighborhood, to see if they would have the resources to attend a blind child.

 

1= only 1 or 2 of them had enough resources

2= 3-4

3= 5 -6

4= 7-8

5= 9-10

 

Final Results

SALAMANCA- 5/5= 10%

SAN BLAS- 4/5= 8%

FRANCOS RODRÍGUEZ- 5/5= 10%

Leisure & Culture.

Cultural projects (5%)

0= they have no cultural projects

1= they have 1 o 2 cultural projects

2= they have more than 2 cultural projects

 

Library resources (5%)

We have gone to some of the libraries of the neighborhoods and we have asked how many elements on the list did they have.

- Braille books

- Spoken books

- Spoken newspaper

- Typewriters for the blind

- Tactile maps and other documents

- Ground floor to avoid stairs and elevators

- Wide spaces for an easy movement

- Furniture without protrusions

 

1= they only had 1 of the elements on the list

2= 2 or 3

3= 4 or 5

4= 6 or 7

Final Results.

Total leisure and culture:

SALAMANCA=2,5+3=5,5%

SAN BLAS=2,5+2= 4,5%

FRANCOS RODRÍGUEZ=0+2= 2%

CONCLUSION

With these results, the final punctuations for each neighbourhood are:

- Barrio Salamanca: 82%

- Barrio San Blas: 68,75%

- Francos Rodríguez: 73,25%

So, we can say as a conclusion that the most liveable neighbourhood in Madrid for a blind person (among the three that we have studied) is BARRIO SALAMANCA.

It is the best adapted in terms of education, mobility and accessibility, and it is also good in leisure and culture.