On this day in 1961

Grampian Television formerly covered the north of Scotland, Northern Isles, Western Isles, Grampian, and parts of the Highlands, Tayside, and north Fife. It launched at 2.45pm on 30 September 1961 from studios in Aberdeen.

Early disappointment

On 2 August 1961, looking back over the first couple of days on air, the Aberdeen Evening Express sounded nonplussed, saying of Grampian, “[it’s] bright, it’s breezy, it’s blasé – thanks to the importation of programmes from other ITV networks… over the first two days of its existence it looks not only like being the baby [of the ITV family] but also the poor relation… more was expected from the local station on opening night… we hope we won’t be disappointed.”

It experienced its first real mishap a little less than two weeks later, with the same paper reporting on 11 October that it “suffered its first break in transmission when a fault developed in the land line linkage bringing programmes from the national Independent Television network. The break lasted about half-an-hour.”

Grampian’s successes

Grampian broadcast in black and white for its first decade, introducing colour in 1971.

Grampian Television became a permanent fixture of British independent TV broadcasting, successfully retaining its licence to broadcast each time it came up for renewal, and it extended its broadcasting activities to encompass radio as well as television. It was eventually acquired by Scottish Television’s parent company and its individual identity was retired in 2006.

 

...and on this day in 2013

Rod Stewart opened the SSE Hydro in style, with the first of four concerts at the Glasgow venue. With a capacity of over 14,000, it had taken two years and cost £125m to build but had been commissioned as far back as 2005. It was designed by Fosters + Partners and constructed using latticed steelwork supporting a 40-metre-high southern elevation and a span of 120 metres.

Reviewing its opening night, The Guardian of 1 October 2013 described the Hydro variously as “a gigantic sci-fi saucer that can house over 12,000 souls” with a “hubcap roof”, and “a deep pie dish with a rakishly tilted roof”.

World-leading venue

Less than 18 months after its opening, the BBC reported that it had been “ranked as the world’s second busiest live entertainment arena”. “With more than 1,000,000 visitors last year, The Hydro ranked higher than Madison Square Garden in New York,” the broadcaster revealed on 13 January 2015, saying it was “beaten to the top spot by London’s O2 in the list compiled by Pollstar, the trade publication for venues and tours”.