help support amtv by becoming a patron an amtv staff member and following us over on [Music] Twitter Romania like many nations is one with both an interesting yet troubled past From the Ashes of World War II having switched sides from the axis to Allied Forces the country would rebuild and under the sphere of influence emanating from one of the world's leading Powers the Soviet Union but in those years following the conclusion of the war with rebuilding came huge leaps and advancements in technology the world over in no field was that more clear than in the world of Television we've seen how other nations adopted the medium so what kind of Journey would tv take in Romania well perhaps not the one you may have been expecting to those of you who are seeing television for the first time and who are therefore the people for whom this film is primarily intended we'd like to sound a note of caution television is essentially the entertainment of the home viewer and is the family group that our producers and artists normally consider to be Their audience and so if this your first introduction to television is not by your own Far Side do believe me when I say that you'll enjoy it so much more when you meet us once again in the intimacy of your home when you're sitting relaxed in your own armchair television had been around in some form since the 1920s but didn't really have the chance to truly come into its own until the 1950s with the various post-economic booms of World War II various countries were able to implement television much more effectively than in the past costs gradually came down and the United States even cracked some form of color broadcasting and before long Millions upon Millions were swept up with the idea of having their very own television sat in the corners of their living rooms however there were many Nations who were only just introducing television for the very first time after the second world war and one of those Nations was Romania the crushing pressure on Germany from Western Europe the Balkans Italy and Russia is steadily mounting the 23rd of August 1944 would see the Romanians celebrate their Liberation from the Nazis by the Soviet Union but so sovet Leader Joseph Stalin wanted to keep Romania under what became turned as the Soviet sphere of influence essentially viewing it as an occupied territory with the communist government installed soon after The Liberation Romanians began noticing a strong Soviet military presence throughout the country and after the Paris peace treaties in 1947 they could technically be there by law and would remain so throughout the rest of the 40s and most of the 50s during that time as Romania attempted to rebuild and progress press forward it was time for the world of Television to make its official debut when gearing up for the first television broadcasts Romania lacked any sort of dedicated Studios an improvised setup was created with the company responsible being called Televisa ramuna or TVR for short the staff comprised of just around 150 employees and only one reporting car which itself had been given to them by the Soviets however they didn't let Li mited resources stopped them from running a television service TVR officially launched on December the 31st 1956 to welcome Romanian audiences to the world of Television whilst also helping to celebrate the New Year like with most late 50s TV around the world programs were shot and broadcast live by 1959 television in Romania had around 1,000 subscribers all contributing a license fee style payment to to help keep the Public Service of TVR running even at this early stage the channel reportedly was broadcasting for 13 hours a day between 8:00 in the morning and 11: at night with a couple of hours break in the middle of the day quite the comprehensive service for 1959 as the 60s began the subscriber base for TVR continued to grow and by 1965 viewership had truly skyrocketed from Just Around 1,000 back in 1959 they now had roughly half a million of them with TVR programming being accessible to around 40% of Romania's territory so still a fair way to go but a significant growth nonetheless whilst all of this was going on a new Romanian leader had come to power one who claimed he would break away from the Soviet sphere of influence celebrate Romanian nationalism and ultimately promise a time of prosperity and peace for his people this new leader was Nikolai chesu born in 1918 chesco had always been involved with Communism in some form or another his close friendship with yor yor who would become the leader of Romania in 1952 practically ensured Nikolai would have some level of power and influence as Major General he was the deputy Minister for the Armed Forces of Romania before ultimately Rising higher and higher within the political hierarchy until he was right underneath yores when his comrade died in 1965 chesu would take his place as communist party leader before becoming head of state now leading Romania Nikolai wanted to prove he was no puppet of the Soviet Union and notably was the only leader of a major warsa pack country who had openly condemn the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 in defying the USSR chesu earned himself a lot of praise and respect both at home and abroad he'd soon be seen mingling with US president Richard Nixon and also taking a trip to bookham Palace to visit Queen Elizabeth II having become Romania's first president in 1974 chesu was truly trying to carve himself as being this unshakable unbreakable leader who had a love for his people the truth behind the facade was vastly different but what was going on in the world of Television during this time at the beginning of the 1970s several European nations on either side of the Iron Curtain had begun or completed their transition to full-time color broadcasts Romania wasn't quite there yet but throughout the 1960s TVR had seemingly gone from strength to strength with their half a million subscribers in 1965 they were invested in delivering programming that audiences would fall in love with one such example is T encyclopedia a science and Culture magazine show that still continues to air on Saturdays over 60 years later by 1968 a new T Center was opened with six brand new Studios some of which were used to help launch tvr2 the second television channel in Romania by 1970 a new headquarters was opened one that was strongly influenced by the BBC television Center in London and by this point the television had around 1.5 million subscribers and its broadcasts were reachable in over 80% of Romanian territory so despite all of this growth and success why were they not broadcasting in color well according to Dan nananu who joined TVR in 1968 he claims that Romanian television was color capable from around 197 72 assuming he means the equipment was available why did the transition not take place surely this would be a moment of national significance and pride well all Dan says is that the higher ups at TVR weren't too keen on the idea at least back in the early '70s this could have been for financial reasons the cost of implementing all the new equipment or perhaps for the fact that color television sets were not readily available throughout Romania whether ker capable or not TVR continued throughout the '70s strictly in monochrome as their subscriber base grew the lack of color didn't seem to be much of an issue for audiences even for major international events the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal bore a proud moment for Romania as local athlete Nadia konish became the first gymnast in history to score a perfect 10 Millions around the world saw this moment in glorious color but for Romanians tuning in to bolster one of their own to Gold they would be watching in black and white as the 70s became the'80s there was more of a positive shift amongst TVR employees towards the idea of beginning color broadcasts but there was one pair that the state-owned broadcaster would have to get through first the chesus like I said before the image of Nikolai and his wife Elena caring for the people of Romania was far from the truth in fact the way they went was practically based on the North Korea model at the time and whilst we'll touch on some of the more disastrous aspects later what did they have to say on the idea of color television ion avam who was the minister of heavy industry at the time is quoted in his book as to having a conversation around color television with Elena around 1981 at this point in history with Albania beginning to introduce color that left Romania as the only major European nation that was broadcasting exclusively in black and white Aram proposed the idea of making the transition to Elena and considering TVR had allegedly been color capable for almost a decade then why not according to avam Elena responded to the idea as follows but why should we think about color television now avam isn't it enough for them that we gave them a TV in every house anyway the idiots should be content with what they have why should we put the idea of color television in their heads avam what have you gone crazy now bear in mind this is the account of but one man but given that Elena chesco was known to be quite a nasty piece of work generally I would argue this retelling may not be all that far from reality so the message seemingly was that Romanians should be grateful that they have any television at all so you can forget the idea of color coming anytime soon but despite this Viewpoint from the country's dictators the emergence of color television in Romania would take place just a few years later the Great Leap would occur on the 23rd of August 1983 this was a rather significant day for Romanians as it marked The Liberation from fascist occupation day quite a title this day had had marked a turning point for Romania in World War II changing allegiances to be more in line with the Allies instead of the axis every year since this event was a call for national celebration with lavish parades and displays put on by the Romanian people this naturally presented a great opportunity for the team at TVR a true chance to Showcase color television to the Romanian people on their most celebrated of days when looking back you can truly appreciate the lavishness of these celebrations the vibrant colors of the displays and costumes alone would have been absolutely lost when viewed in black and white the broadcast was a Triumph although it wasn't achieved without risk the engineers at TVR went over the heads of the chesus to broadcast the event in color and when the presidential couple found out such a thing had happened they weren't best pleased however the tempers of the two were able to be somewhat smoothed over as they were told with great enthusiasm that color was a lot more flattering to their image when compared to the Delights of monochrome thus a victory was achieved although admittedly this would have largely been for TVR and not the Romanian people at large color TVs were still insanely expensive to purchase almost half the price of a car in some instances not only that but your purchase had to be approved and then if that got through you'd be on a special waiting list meaning the arrival of your brand new color set could take months so whilst the majority of Romanians would watch the National Day celebrations in black and white for Romanian television as a whole they had finally taken their first true steps into the wondrous World of Color nearly two decades on from when several of their European contemporaries made the same leap whilst Romania may have been playing catch up in terms of launching color they followed a similar pattern to much of Europe when it came to its implementation in the schedules the National Day Parade broadcast didn't Herald an instant transition to full-time color programming far from it despite broadcasting several hours of content a day a 1984 report shows that just 20 % of TV's total output was in color somewhat understandable you could say as much of the public still could not afford or were not approved for color sets however those at TVR had reason to be optimistic as future years hoped for more uptake of color by audiences and an improvement on Studio resources the very next year in 1985 those Ambitions were severely challenged to put it bluntly the 1980s were not a good time for Romania at all the country was crippled by constant food shortages partly boyed by a focus on industrialization whilst ignoring the crucial agricultural sector which was left inefficient and dramatically underinvested this culminated in 1981 with the introduction of food rationing yes food rationing in a European country in the year 1981 all major food stuffs were included within this system but it wasn't just food that was a constant problem butg energy usage as well in an effort to conserve what energy they had under chiao esu's rule electricity and heating would regularly be shut off often without warning making the winters in particular a literal survival test for many Romanians fuel was also rationed immensely with locals even encouraged to abandon their trucks they used to transport materials around and to go back to using carts and horses I'm not making this up this all happened in the 1980s that's insane Romanian TV was also affected by all of these austerity measures too Nikolai chesu ordered that tvr2 in operation since 1968 be closed down and that the main Channel now renamed back to Simply TVR reduced their broadcasting hours to Just 2 to three per day the news may have been a shock for all those working at the station but what choice did they have whil small color broadcasts were taking place they now had barely any time to Showcase them to the Romanian public these limited broadcast hours would remain in place for several years until right at the end of the decade in 1989 TVR would capture one of the most momentous political events ever to take place in modern day Europe the year had been another one of progress for Romanian television as by this point around 80% of Transmissions were now in color You could argue only being permitted to broadcast for 2 hours a day aids this achievement but nevertheless color was fast becoming a regular part of the Romanian broadcast day however 1989 was also a year of of change the Cold War was fast drawing to a close and whilst the fall of the Berlin Wall is often the most remembered uprising of the Year close to Christmas a staggering and Swift Revolution was taking place within the borders of [Applause] Romania after days of mounting descent and protests across the country Nikolai chesu took to the balcony of the central committee building in Bucharest to address around 100,000 people many of which had been forcibly ordered to attend by Security Forces TVR cameras were in place to capture the scene also broadcasting in full color always proceeding for chesco as intended until a disturbance averts his gaze and resulted in this moment [Applause] [Music] what [Applause] [Applause] Romanians tuning in were left in the dark as the transmission was interrupted by the time the picture came back the disturbance had clearly thrown off the dictator and after several minutes of trying to calm the crowd he continued on this was the beginning of the end however all to be captured by the color cameras of the Romanian State broadcaster the following morning as thousands of protesters reached the Central Committee bill building chesu appeared on the balcony once again in an attempt to restore order when this quickly failed him and Elena fled to the roof of the building in which they were rushed off by helicopter just as protesters were beginning to wave Romanian flags from the top of that very same roof after eventually being caught and arrested after making an impromptu Landing the chesus were tried in a makeshift trial in which they were deemed guilty of all charges including a legal accumulation of wealth treason and genocide the sentence was death on Christmas Day 1989 Nikolai and Elena chesu were executed bringing to an end a quarter Century's reign of a devious dictator and establishing a turning point for Romanians in their country's history it's fair to say that from its initial introduction in the mid-50s up until the revolution of 1989 that television in Romania truly had a fascinating journey to look back on the spritely growth and expansion of services in the 19 60s one which continued into the 70s but the major thing missing was undoubtedly a color service the fact that it took until 1983 for the idea to be implemented even slightly is truly staggering and by the time it had truly outstripped black and white it coincided with the end of an era an end of an orwellian style leadership which saw millions of Romanians lose their lives in a whole manner of horrific ways but it marked the dawn of something new something that I'm sure every Romanian hoped would be [Music] better thank you to our patrons for helping to support the show and a special thank you to MRA Shan KN D Khan Ethan cry Holt Liam demain AJ ma 200017 deck Jen traffy EV har 41 Tim Ripley Mr Eur version 1986 Marano Thurman John Wakefield Kieran Bolton 40-some Manchild Jerry Ralph John McLoud St rocket 9 James Wallace Ben Kat hey Steven Oliver tan Shadow fiend 108x Liam wiggley Swan Ronson and Adam green are amtv staff members [Music] [Music]