PTV Echo on the wave of memories [PHOTOS, VIDEO]

PTV Echo is one of the major landmarks in Wroclaw's history. Even though its history spanned only five years, the broadcaster has managed to blaze the trail and enter the city's chronicles as the first private TV station in Poland. The initiative, which was often reported to take off on the spur of the moment, turned the local media upside down at the time when the market was dominated by the one and only public broadcaster. In 1990, PTV Echo was so "exotic', i.e. surprising, an enterprise, that people talked about it not only in Europe but in places as remote as Japan!

Twenty-five years since the residents of Wroclaw first saw PTV Echo's blue display board on their screens, its founders and former personnel have come together to set up the ECHO 25 Society for the Media Initiative. They have decided to live beyond mere memories. They want to relive the memory of PTV Echo to promote independent multimedia productions (locally and in the region), educate and contribute to new TV broadcasts. They are planning to begin with creating a digital archive of their major broadcasts to preserve the city and its residents the way they looked twenty-five years ago. You can help them by submitting your own archive materials from the time, so do not waste your time and visit this web page to find out more about the times when PTV Echo pioneered their broadcasting ideas.

PTV Echo was launched 25 years ago at the Arka, one of Wroclaw's student houses. Newsfeed on Poland's first private TV

Marek Młynarczyk, Henryk Pacha and Andrzej Zygmunt came up with the idea to set up Poland's first private TV station, which was something unheard of at the time. Already at the preparations stage they were joined by several other people, including Waldemar Szewc, an economist who took care of the business's organisation, and Ireneusz Orzechowski, Ireneusz Bisikiewicz, Mirosław Jakubiak and Michał Ogonowski, who were all entrepreneurs willing to provide the necessary funding. From September 1990 onwards, Marek Młynarczyk, Andrzej Zygmunt, Ireneusz Orzechowski and Waldemar Szewc were the only four business partners to stay on-board.

• The team including Andrzej Zygmunt, Marek Młynarczyk and Dariusz Wasilewski builds ECHO's first 20W transmitter, which produced a PAL TV signal, far more advanced than that of TVP, the latter still using the SECAM system at the time. The transmitter was homologated for a year by institutions responsible for maintaining order across the airwaves.
• Henryk Pacha, who comes from the Wroclaw local public television centre, becomes Echo's first Editor-in-Chief.
• With a transmitter mounted on the roof of the ARKA, the University of Agriculture Student House in Wroclaw's Biskupin, ECHO creates a temporary broadcasting studio and attracts students to contribute and try their hand at journalism. Three reporting duos are created as a result.

PTV Echo's owners, creators and journalists with the founders of the ECHO 25 Society for the Media Initiative at a press conference held on 4. February at the ATM

• October 1989 - ECHO submits a request to the then President of the Radio and Television Committee, Andrzej Drawicz, who grants permission to launch a private and experimental radio and television broadcasting station.
• November 1989 - January 1990 - negotiations with the Ministry of Communications and the Radiocommunications and Teletransmission Division to receive a broadcasting frequency range. The agreement to broadcast a television signal on channel 28. by 30. June 1990. New regulations and new decisions are expected to take effect following that date.
• Encouraged by Słowo Polskie journalists, ECHO launches trial retransmissions of its satellite programme as of 29. January 1990 to give its audience the time to find the channel across the airwaves.
• 6. February 1990, the ceremony to inaugurate ECHO TV attended by local authorities, university governance, Church officials and celebrities, including Maryla Rodowicz. The station launches regular daily broadcasts between 4 p.m. and 8 p.m.
• ECHO on air: first news night broadcasts conducted by Grażyna Krzywik and Dorota Michalak-Kurzewską, city reports prepared by Marek Hamera sports coverage by Ryszard Szołtysik. The station's programme is complemented with satellite TV retransmissions.
• March 1990 - a larger editorial team is created whereby Witold Świętnicki becomes new Editor-in-Chief, and Leszek Turowski his Deputy. They both have just completed the Lodz Film School. New decisions are taken to extend ECHO's existing programme format.
• April 1990 - the new programme format is put in place; first journalists are given regular days to remain on duty.
• May/June 1990 - ECHO's editorial office and broadcasting studio relocate to the Poltegor Building's 22nd floor. The television transmitter is mounted on the roof, that is, on the 24th floor of the then tallest building in Wroclaw. ECHO TV aired its broadcasts within a 50-km radius from Wroclaw.

• 30. June 1990 - first action to defend ECHO TV as its first broadcasting license is about to expire.
• 30. September 1990 - second action to defend ECHO TV as the three-month extension of the original license is about to expire.
• In June 1990, ECHO attracts Italian entrepreneur Nicole Grauso, who is willing to invest in the business. This results in the process of setting up a private television network known as Polonia 1.
• January 1991 - the Ministry of Communications extends ECHO's broadcasting license by 30. April 1991 while looking forward to new broadcasting regulations to be passed by the Polish Parliament. However, new regulations come into effect at the end of 1992, when the Radio and Television Broadcasting Act of 29. December 1992 is passed. With the setting up of the National Broadcasting Council in 1993, ECHO is made to apply for a broadcasting concession to continue its operations.
• 1994 marks the beginning of the new concession process according to new regulations
• ECHOand Telewizja Dolnośląska TeDe, created by former PTV Echo journalists disaffected by Polonia 1 taking over their independent urban TV project, enter the competition to obtain a broadcasting frequency range in Wroclaw. The concession is finally granted to Telewizja Śląska TeDe, which began broadcasting its programme as of June 1995. The programme followed ECHO initial editorial formula.
• Despite appeals to the National Broadcasting Council, ECHO was refused to obtain a concession, which resulted in the prohibition of any broadcasting activity and the business being folded in March 1995.

Photographs: PTV Echo Archives, Miłosz Turowski/www.wroclaw.pl

Video materials: PTV Echo Archives, Miłosz Turowski/www.wroclaw.pl