SANWO-OLU APPROVES MULTIMILLION NAIRA UPGRADE OF LAGOS TELEVISION
The Governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has approved a multimillion Naira upgrade of key infrastructure at the Lagos Television (LTV) as part of a comprehensive plan to reposition the State-owned television station for national and international competitiveness.
According to a release by Mr. Rasaq Musbau, the Director, Public Affairs, Lagos State Infrastructure Asset Management Agency (LASIAMA), the Project Management Team from the Agency recently went on an inspection tour of the complex and expressed satisfaction with the pace of work.
He explained that the facility is now a beehive of activities carried out by construction workers to deliver a phased plan to revamp the 41-year-old television station.
Musbau stated that the upgrade entails the modernisation of the entire complex as the first step towards a complete turnaround of the station's facilities.
His words: “Governor Sanwo-Olu has put together an ambitious plan to completely turn around the television station and make it compete with some of the best privately-owned stations in the country. The ongoing infrastructure revamp is the first phase of the turnaround plan”.
“Lagos Television was established in October 1980 during the administration of the first civilian Governor of the State, late Alhaji Lateef Kayode Jakande. LTV was the first in Nigeria to operate on two frequencies or bands - VHF and UHF - but is now on UHF Channel 35. It is also the first State-owned television station on cable satellite DStv Channel 256 and Startimes Channel 104”, the Director added.
Recall that 14 Fire Service Stations, FADAMA, Lagos State Drivers Institute (Lagos Island and Oshodi complex), Local Government Service Commission and Public Service Office are among other facilities currently under renovation by the Lagos State Government, through the State Infrastructure Asset Management Agency (LASIAMA).
These are specific (special) tv belts, not the generic ones.
1) LWT
Basically, television stations began their daily transmission at 5pm and went off air at midnight every weekday. At weekends they, at first, started transmitting at 12pm and went off air at midnight. Later (in the 1980s) they would start transmitting at 9am (on weekends), go off air at midday, resume at 4pm and close for the day at midnight. Then came LWT.
(After the frequency battle between the Federal Government/NPN/Radio Nigeria/NTA2 Channel 5 vs Lagos State Government/UPN/LTV was resolved)
That was the signature tune of Lagos Weekend Television (LWT).
LWT ran nonstop from 7pm on Friday evening till 7am on Monday morning. You'd hear the saxophone playing Chariots Of Fire and you'd know that Lagos Television (LTV) had transformed into Lagos Weekend Television (LWT).
LWT showed movies almost all night long. Nobody cared about copyright then, so they could show any movie that they wanted. The evenings (8:30-11pm) were dedicated to crime/detective series like:
Skarsky and Hutch Hawai Five-O Dan August Monty Nash The Proffessionals (CI-5) Etc.
Then it was movies all the way until 6 or 7am.
At 6/7am they showed great shows like:
The Invisible Man The Six Million Dollar Man Bionic Woman The Man From Atlantis Secret Service (my favourite) Wonderwoman Incredible Hulk (Lou Ferigno & Bill Bixby) etc until around 9am.
It was so much fun from 1981-1986. Then the LWT studio got burnt and that was the end of that.
Super 7:20 Belt
NTA2 Channel 5 went commercial in 1987 and made a lot of changes that set them apart from other stations. They began transmission at 4pm each day, instead of 5pm, developed several eye catching idents (♪Your reach out station, NTA2, NTA2 Channel 5♬), broadcast a new and more modern arrangement of the national anthem (on the keyboards, rather than a brass band) and created the Super 7:20 Belt.
The Super 7:20 Belt began at 7:20pm and ended at 8pm. Silverbird Productions owned the rights (in Nigeria) for most of the programmes that were shown.
The programmes that were shown included:
Frank's Place (starring Tim Reid)
The Cosby Show
A Different World
Brush Strokes
The Oprah Winfrey Show
The Arsenio Hall Show
New Trends (fashion show hosted by Ime Oge James)
The Fresh Prince of Bel Air
Video Soul (Donnie Simpson)
Video Vibrations
Family Matters
and a british sitcom about a London cab driver, who bumps into an old (female) friend from his teenage years. She is now a successful businesswoman, but she pretends that she's a secretary and that her actual secretary is her boss. She does this in order not to embarrass the taxi driver.
The Super 7:20 Belt ran from c1988-1993.
Cadbury's Breakfast Television
This was a syndicated programme belt that was produced for Cadbury by the Silverbird Group. It was broadcast for roughly 2 hours on Saturday mornings. It featured a mix of cartoons and sitcoms, with the occasional movie on the last Saturday of the month or at public holidays. It ran from 1993-early 2000s. It featured these and other programmes:
Cartoons
Spiderman And His Amazing Friends Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Biker Mice From Mars Freakazoid Animaniacs Pinky & The Brain Dungeons & Dragons X-Men Justice League Batman: The Animated Series Superman: The Animated Series
Sitcoms
Rags To Riches George Living Single Out All Night The Jamie Foxx Show Getting Personal The Parenthood In The House Suddenly Susan Sparks On Our Own Family Matters Nick Freno: Licensed Teacher
and many more.
Cadbury's Breakfast Television was cancelled after the Cadbury/Bunmi Oni financial crisis of the early/mid-2000s. By that time, The Silverbird Group, the producers of the programme belt, had already established their own tv station.
Tv Africa
TV Africa was a pan-african free-to-air tv content provider/distributor which aimed to displace Multichoice as the largest pan-african tv company. It provided a mix of cartoons, sports, sitcoms and drama series that were rebroadcasted on free-to-air terrestrial channels across Africa. I can't remember most of the programmes, but their programme line up included:
Taxi Driver Home Sweet Home English Premier League
TV Africa was in air from the late 1990s to the early 2000s, but its business model was not good enough to enable it challenge Multichoice and it was eventually liquidated. Successor companies invluded Proudly Africa Media (in West Africa) and One Media (in Southern Africa).
African Broadcasting Network (ABN)
ABN's programmes were rebroadcast on AIT in the early 2000s. They showed soap operas and sitcoms. I can't remember any of their soaps, but their sitcoms included:
The Parkers Cosby (not to be confused with The Cosby Show) Kids Say The Darndest Things Damon Becker Taina One On One Everybody Loves Raymond
naptu2: I found a clip of an LWT broadcast/station ident, but unfortunately it's not the animated graphics. It's just the background artwork and the duty continuity announcer.
naptu2: I just heard that Lagos Weekend Television (LWT) is making a comeback. They said that Governor Ambode commissioned the new LWT two days ago. I wonder what their selling point will be this time.
TV stations usually started transmitting at 5pm and closed down at midnight every week day in the early 1980s. Weekend transmission was usually from 9am-midnight (they sometimes took a break between noon and 4pm).
LWT changed all that in 1980. LTV transformed into LWT at 6pm on Friday and continued transmitting until 6am on Monday. They showed lots of movies through the night and great detective shows like Invisible Man, CI5, etc in the early mornings and evenings.
Old Man would order everybody to go and sleep and everywhere would be quiet for between 30 mins to one hour, then you'd hear noise coming from the kitchen - my brother preparing his tv meal (Old Man eventually gave up and stopped trying to make him go to sleep).
Unfortunately LWT's studios got burnt in 1985 and that was that.
These are the “other” stations. Lagos Television began broadcasting c1980 and it was on channel 8. The Lagos Weekend Television was created shortly afterwards, around c1981 and it ran from around 7pm on Friday nights till 7am on Monday mornings between 1981 and 1985 when a fire burnt down its studio.
I actually don’t know when OGTV started broadcasting. All I know was that I was playing with the UHF dial one day and there it was. It also showed very interesting programmes, just like LTV and one of its unique selling points was that it began transmission at 7am at weekends, unlike other stations that began transmission at 9am.
OGTV was a little difficult to get. The problem wasn’t just that it was transmitting from Abeokuta, it was also the fact that it was nearly impossible for us to get it clearly and also get other stations clearly.
I was the deputy antenna engineer in my house in the 1980s (I used a very long ladder to climb to the roof in order to adjust the antenna) and the problem was that whenever you adjusted the antenna in order to get OGTV clearly, you’d end up making NTA2 Channel 5, NTA Channel 7, LTV 8 and NTA Channel 10 very unclear and whenever you make the other stations clear, you’ll end up making OGTV almost invisible.
(Turn it a bit. Turn it a bit. A bit more. Stop! Wait while I check the other channels.
Turn it back!)
The 3rd song on this video was part of OGTV’s unique selling point. It was the theme tune to the OGTV’s Breakfast Headliners, a newspaper review show that was shown at 7am on Saturdays and Sundays.
Toshiaki Tsushima and his Optonica New Sound Orchestra – Little Broun Jug (1978)
This was the theme song of the Lagos Weekend Television (LWT), one of the unique selling points of Lagos Television (LTV). It was probably the first 24 hour television station in Nigeria. It ran nonstop from 7pm on Fridays to 7am on Mondays between 1981 and 1985.
The LWT actually continued after 1985. It was shown well into the 1990s, but it stopped being a 24 hour station after its studio burnt down in 1985.
Long overdue, but better late than never. I just hope personal interest interest won't hinder the progress of the station cos I know most of the Lagos state project even including APC campaign that LTV are suppose to be covering and airing are been covered and airing by TVC.
I'll also like to use this opportunity to portray my interest to work as a Yoruba/English/pidgin language OAP. I'm very fluent with all languages with bits of Hausa and igbo language. I can handle transcriptions and make jingles, read news and handle political programmes. If You can help, Drabeey will be happy.
Anago55: . Mr Itunu, but you will have to drop that your molue bus if you really want to work in the Lagos State television network. Though you might make more mulla while with your molue bus but working in the television show will give you more heads-up about the realities of life and connection
By the way,where did you get hold of Igbo language because I know for a fact that you have never been to Igbo land? Does this mean that Lagos State is now Igbo land by extension?
First time i entered one-chance was in Imo state. I used 5days for a starter.
isn't this funny, FYI, I've been to 30 Nigeria states...
Fahdiga: One can only imagine what Lagos would have achieved without Tinubu always demanding for Lagos monthly allocation
Without any fear, Can you tell us your state of origin. At least Tinubu isn't collecting allocation from your governor. Let's compare the development rate in your state with Lagos state and compare your governor with Tinubu stooge since the beginning and the end of your generational problem is Tinubu. You won't face the problem at your backyard, but poking noise into other people's affairs.
I grew up watching LTV 8 and NTA 2 channel 5, with these stations you stayed glued to your TV especially during weekends.
Of recent, my cable TV subscription ended and I watched LTV 8 for like two days what I saw was not fascinating. They either spend the whole time on praising governor Sanwo Olu and his THEMES agenda or read boring news in English, Yoruba and Egun. By evening, the rest of their programs are church sponsored.
God continue to bless Pa Awolowo and Alhaji Jakande, thunder destroy that ojuyobo, people should stop blaming Sanwoolu, ojuyobo will not allowed him to work, fashola achieved much because he doesn't listen to him every time
self centered idiot including that monkey at ota who have the opportunity to bless southern youths as Buhari is doing to his fellow aboki. as a president, he couldn't construct Lagos/Ibadan expressway, ikorodu/Sagamu road but he can give advise
Ernie Watts - Chariots Of Fire