Back in the early 1950's a group named the European Broadcasting Union was formed. The idea was to share know-how and technology in a fledgling entertainment industry known as "Wireless Television". The years went by and the EBU's members built studios and transmission networks, news rooms and personalities. Then one day some fool called Chris Bonnington decided that it would be "jolly fun" to climb a pile of rocks just off the Orkneys called the Old Man of Hoy. It should be noted that Orkney Islanders eat nails for breakfast. They are a hard bunch whom don't take fools gladly. It should also be noted that this was the first successful attempt at the stack. Needless to say the islanders laughed at the idea.
The BBC on the other hand thought it was a fantastic idea. So did the EBU. They got their heads together and came up with an idea for a live outside broadcast that they would transmit not only to the British but to the rest of Europe too. Remember that this is now 1966 and we don't yet have TV relay satellites. Imagine the engineering feats that had to be pulled off to get TV pictures from a pile of rocks about 75 miles from the mainland all the way down to London and then on again to the other recipients. It took 2 years of planning and experimentation but they pulled it off.
So what's all this got to do with a song contest? Everything! The engineers had such a hard time televising the climb that it was decided to set up an annual experiment to give other engineers experience in this aspect of television. Radio equipment was getting smaller and more efficient by the year (we still had valves in 1966) and so broadcasting from outside to a local television studio was getting easier but still nothing was possible on larger scale.
The Eurovision Song Contest was born. The idea was that each member country would get their heads together and come up with an act that would be televised for the viewing pleasure of all the other members - at the same time. As the BBC had the most experience in this field they would have the job of re-transmitting these pictures back to the European viewers after they have made the pictures into a program. This was to be a live event. Not a problem when you consider that almost all TV was live. No VCR's y'see (it is still 1966).
The first show was hosted in London at the Ally Pally, the BBC's longtime studios, which was its last show to be ever made there. The home country of the winning song would host the competition next year thus ensuring the skills were evenly distributed. There would be a panel of judges in each country whom would be watching the event. These judges would mark the songs in various areas. This allowed the engineers to practice telephone linking too as this was just a primitive as television.
Well on it went for a few years. The engineers came up with techniques and tricks. Honed skills and developed technologies until one day there was not a spot on earth that could not be covered by either a microwave radio link or a satellite TV feed. But the engineering effort was surpassed by the show itself. It had become something of an icon.
1974 saw the first really significant viewing figures for the Contest. There was a pretty big storm over most of Europe on the night of broadcast thus ensuring that the TV's were on all over the continent.Coupled with the fact that for the first time ever a group had been entered into the contest whom could actually hold a tune and sing a decent song. The world was exposed to Abba and the rest, as they say, is history.
Sweden won the Contest that year and as the years went by others did too. Until that is Johnny Logan won for Ireland in 1980 with What's another year?. To date Logan is the most successful Eurovision artist ever with 3 wins under his belt. Moving the Eurovision to Ireland almost bankrupted RTE (the Irish state broadcaster). from now on the contest would not be moved to the winning country but would be produced as a traveling show and bid for by the member nations just as if they were bidding for the Olympics.
So why is it so successful? When I was a student we'd have drinking games based on the scores. Each person would drink for a certain country and take a drink every time they won a scoring round. One year Norway actually scored no points at all! Then there's the hostess. Usually a well known English female personality. She'll get all poshed up in a frock, get her hair done etc. Then she'll host the show announcing the acts and collecting the scores. The host has to speak in both English and French which most of them don't do. This in itself was gripping viewing.
© & ® Mark A Phillips, G7LTT 1995-2004
This page was last updated Tuesday March 09, 2004 13:34 Eastern Standard Time