Good buy Croydon.

Good buy Croydon.

On the 30^th of April 2012 the analogue Channel 5 station will close down for good and the transmitter will no longer be used to transmit any TV from the Croydon transmitter.

So what's so special about this transmitter?

Back in the black and white VHF television days there was only one television station,the BBC (Later renamed BBC1 and now BBC One)
This was transmitted from Crystal Palace in London and later from other transmitters around the country for other BBC regions.

Then on the 22^nd of September 1955, the very first independent channel (ITV) Rediffusion (weekdays) and TeleVision (weekends) was transmitted from the Croydon (TQ332696) transmitter.
Rediffusion/TeleVision later became Thames/London Weekend in July 1968.

When UHF 625-line started (Colour TV) you could get BBC1, BBC2 and Thames / London Weekend from Crystal Palace.So when all 405-line black & white TV closed down, this transmitter was available to transmit Channel 5 when it started years later.

As digital Channel 5 shares the same frequency as other channels the Croydon transmitter will close down all TV transmitions.

Click here to display the Rediffusion clock.