The Launch of SUPERCHANNEL

SUPERCHANNEL launched on Feb 1, 1983. Here is some wild footage of the sign on. On hand is Chuck Allard and his brothers as well as Wayne McDonald, George Young and others. I was there pushing the button to start it up. There's also a little nostalgia bit with some pictures of the now defunct Movie Central plant in Edmonton and I am shown at the end of the clip turning off the last bit of equipment bringing it full circle.

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  News & Politics

[RetroToledo]

It's a shame that it's gone now.

[billbertRIOR]

Love the video, but is it possible to recut it so the Star Wars audio isn't all over it... and therefore prevent the audio from being turned off by Youtube? 8^D

[dconflict]

It was an exciting time in Television in Canada back then. Where did the audio disappear to?

[Ragin' Ronic]

I'm just wondering...does ANYONE have the full Superchannel launch clip that played partially here on the MC monitors?

[Matlike1]

Used to love Superchannel, I remember before we got it I wnated it so bad I would sit and watch the scrambled lines, then when we finally got it it was awesome. Now everything sucks and is boring, oh well.

[Martin Farrell]

In the video they mention Canada. Did they also own Super Channel Europe which started late 80's?

[xelha24]

That was another Super Channel, launched on the 30th of January 1987.

This one from 1983 is not the UK channel available on Eutelsat II-F1.

[jwas65]

I remember the launch of Superchannel at midnight on February 1, 1983 (First Choice wanted to be the first channel to launch, but they had, if I remember, a couple of small CRTC items to iron out, so they had to wait until 6 am).

I even remember they had their own comedy show - The Lost Satellite - it which the premise was that a payTV satellite goes out of orbit and subscribers get bits and pieces of different shows every 20 seconds.

I agree fully with Jason's comment below.

[handsomeshyguy2008]

let you know they got superchanne back on the air it came out last year in november 2007 if youu live in canada you will get it from rogers

[handsomeshyguy2008]

let you know they got superchanne back on the air it came out last year in november 2007 if youu live in canada you will get it from rogers