Thursday, July 24, 2008

If a Tower could speak......


“The engineers on Caldecott Hill planned for my birth in the early 1960s. Eventually I grew up ,8km away from Caldecott Hill and stood tall 155 m above Bukit Batok Hill. They said the Department of Broadcasting spent a lot of money so that I could carry a TV antenna for Singapore first black and white transmission over Channel Five.. Eventually on 15 February 1963 I delivered the first TV programme to the homes - a 15-minute documentary produced by TV Singapura called TV Looks at Singapore followed by a cartoon called Heckle and Jeckle. I was told that many Singaporeans were very pleased with me that day. After that day my load increased steadily not only in terms of hours of transmission but also another TV channel called Channel 8 mainly for the Chinese-speaking. More responsibility was added in 1967 when FM Radio was introduced. And when they wanted to add another channel in 1981 called TV12 it was too much for me . So another one was born. Also they did some succession planning knowing that I would go one day and the third was built. The day came when engineers spotted massive brown stuff on me. I believed they called it rust. My days had arrived. on 14 July 2006 where all signals and lights were switched off at mid-night. A big party was organized to bid me good-bye. Who am I?
I was the first TV transmission tower in Singapore – a eyesore to some but a memorable icon to many who travelled along Bukit Timah passing by Beauty World”.

Many would have noticed there are now only two transmission towers on Bukit Batok Hill. Many retired staff as well officials came for the party on that night to pay a tribute to the old tower who had served Singapore viewers very well for 45 years without a word of complaint……....
Info from SY Tan and Cynthia

2 comments:

Frank said...

Hi just saw your blog about the Bukit Batok transmission tower.
What is left of the tower now ? Who is the owner ?
Are there any kind of radio transmission from the tower ?

VinnyB said...

Its seems like it still belong to government , although it's look highly protected area in 2020s. Wonder our next generation kids will still see it anot .