TV and radio industry at Polygon Hotel before BBC2 launch

The date was April 14, 1965, when makers and sellers of televisions, radios, and the programmes that were broadcast to them flocked to the then-popular hotel.

It was the annual dinner of The Hampshire Centre and The Radio and Television Retailers’ Association, which had 125 members come together.

Present was Geoffrey Howard, the information officer for BBC Two, which was set to launch in Southampton that November.

At the special event, Mr Howard was present to explain and guide people on how to use this new service that had already been rolled out in other parts of the country. He answered questions and welcomed inquiries about what the station could offer.

The new channel was largely being seen as a blessing for the retailers of television sets. Because of the fact that most people already owned a television, BBC2 may have worked as an incentive to purchase a new one instead of having a failing one repaired.

At the time, most households were still only equipped with BBC sets, and therefore an upgrade was necessary to be able to watch both BBC2 and ITV, the latter of which had just started broadcasting.

Mr Berkeley Smith, Southern ITV’s controller of programmes, delivered a speech declaring that his company would be linking with America and Europe in a programme from the Early Bird satellite.

Early Bird was the first commercial communications satellite to be placed in geosynchronous orbit and provided a link between North America and Europe for television, telephone and telefacsimile.

So all in all the dinner was a great success in terms of both a social gathering and for the sharing of information from the cutting edge of the home entertainment industry.