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)