AGT CTV Delay Centre

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AGT CTV Delay Centre

Postby albertaboy4life » Sun Feb 05, 2017 8:44 am

If you can tolerate the shaky cam video of an old crt tv screen you might find this 1983/84 documentary about the AGT CTV Delay Centre in Calgary quite interesting -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CD9fo-Mv8Cc

Thanks to Rick Slobodian for posting it.
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Re: AGT CTV Delay Centre

Postby jon » Sun Feb 05, 2017 9:22 am

Alberta Government Telephones (AGT) was never, it seemed, scared to expand into areas associated with what they already did. In this case, as part of their national alliance with other phone companies, owning the Alberta portion of Canada's first national Microwave Network, expanding into building and running the facility in Calgary that time-delayed CTV programming to match time zones in the West.

Another example was Altel Data, initially formed to get a larger discount on the Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) PDP series of computers that AGT used in major exchanges throughout the province of Alberta. They got that discount by signing an Alberta-wide reseller agreement with DEC, and soon sold more than DEC's offices in Alberta. Customers loved the single source for support model that Altel Data used: you buy a computer from them and they fix all your problems, no matter whether it turns out to be the computer or the AGT network it is attached to.

AGT later went International, sending staff all over the world to set up telephone systems and computer systems.

AGT was the first to privatize, with a new public company created to own it. That company was given the name TELUS. Edmonton Telephones came next, then a merger with BC TEL, which also included BC TEL's U.S. parent company's telco in Quebec.

There was even a Radio connection in all this. AGT advertised so much that they ran their own recording studio in the AGT Tower, just to record spots. Audio only for TV ads, with the video produced by others.
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Re: AGT CTV Delay Centre

Postby jon » Sun Feb 05, 2017 1:07 pm

To whet your appetite for the video, here is the YouTube description:
promo tape of the AGT CTV Calgary Delay center 1963 1988 made around 1984 20161113 48 mb
Rick Slobodian
Published on Nov 13, 2016

This was a video made about the relationship between AGT ( Alberta Government Telephones ) and CTV Television network . AGT built and ran the CTV Calgary Delay Center from 1963-1988 . I worked there from 1982-1989 . All CTV network programs came thru and were handled by our delay center and then was fed to Saskatchewan Alberta and BC
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Re: AGT CTV Delay Centre

Postby drmusic » Sun Feb 05, 2017 7:49 pm

With an appearance by the Alan Thicke show.

So it appears this centre continued to operate after CTV switched to satellite delivery? I thought that was sometime before 89.
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Re: AGT CTV Delay Centre

Postby Mike Cleaver » Mon Feb 06, 2017 5:37 pm

CJOC-TV (CJLH) in Lethbridge got it's first VTR in the late 60s when the CBC Delay Center in Calgary was replacing the 2" black and white Ampex machines with the new colour models.
I think they basically got it for free, as CJOC was a CBC affiliate.
The thing was huge and required a full time operator, Andy Durina, who fed and cared for the beast.
It required a ten second pre-roll before the video would lock up.
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