Eye Spy Glasgow: How Glasgow's broadcasting revolution helped educate a generation of kids

The simple idea was to boost the city’s education and to do it through the emerging medium of television. Television itself had only just arrived in the city in the shape of Scottish Television at the Theatre Royal in 1957.

Now Glasgow Corporation Education Department (GCED) was hurtling towards greater engagement with youngsters through Education Television, branded as ETV.

Broadcasting from studios in the GCED headquarters at 129 Bath Street the ground-breaking project was to pipe a series of programmes to educate and inspire primary and secondary school students across the city.

The building is now a hotel.

When it began, the ETV schedule included French lessons for primary level and maths for secondary schools.

Other programmes including science were added and later there were even hygiene tips for infants.

(Tim Curry (right) in City Sugar, shot at the ETV studios)

ETV was delivered on an underground cable system provided by British Relay. The network was 100 miles long with 18 repeater stations.

Some of the remaining plant is still visible on the walls of older Glasgow schools.

And you might also notice the letters BRW (British Relay Wireless) embossed on some manhole covers around the city. Beneath, lay the cabling used by ETV.

The revolution spawned not just one channel, but two.

A former British Relay engineer says there were around 50 transmissions a week on ETV1 in 1967 with 30 per week on ETV2.

It was the first of its kind and has been variably described as bold and innovative.

The pioneering ETV was closed in the mid-70s.

Its studios were later used to illustrate the STV drama City Sugar starring Tim Curry as a radio DJ.