David Crossley

I was the person who started York Student TV in 1967. Initially it was a combined film/TV production outfit called 'York University Tele-Film Productions' - a clumsy name which lasted less than a year and bit the dust when the film part was hived off into a separate student society.

The original idea came from a lecturer in the Education Department at York whose name I now forget. I was a Biology and Education student who had recently taken over the running of the student filmmaking activity that was then part of the Drama Society. The Education Department had just acquired some early video equipment, together with three technical guys to run it, and essentially didn't know what to so with it. The lecturer suggested to me that I should start a student TV society to make use of the equipment and the whole thing took off from there.

I initially gathered together a group of about 10 people, mainly through a student society stall at the beginning of the first term in October 1967. We met every Monday evening in the little meeting room overlooking the Langwith dining room (is is still there?). At these meetings we discussed ideas for the weekly 'news magazine' programme we called 'Newsround', wrote some scripts and generally had a good time. Script writing was made easier because a couple of our members (not me) could type - not a common skill among university students at that time. One member actually owned a portable typewriter which we used extensively. This was Sieta Rijkelijkhuizen who later became station director and who, like me, now lives in Australia.

We produced 'Newsround' on (I think) every Wednesday afternoon in the 'studio' in the basement of the Chemistry building. We had two cameras on dollys and a very primitive vision switching device which may have been 'home-made' by the technicians employed by the University. The vision switching (such as it was) was done by the senior technician. Cameras were operated sometimes by the other technicians and sometime by trusted students (a couple of our members had some camera experience).

The first two or three "Newsrounds' were pre-recorded. I remember watching the first one in the Langwith common room surrounded by our production team and a couple (only) of curious students. We soon went to live programmes which made the whole production process much more exciting.

I now live in Sydney, Australia and have been in Australia for 40 years - I arrived here after graduating from York in 1968. I initially came to Australia to do a PhD but dropped out of that one. I then became, for four years, an educational TV producer at a university in Sydney - the only job in which I used my experience with YSTV. I did get a PhD several years later, spent some time working for government, and now run my own consultancy company providing advice on energy and environmental policy and programs.

YSTV was actually very important to my personal and professional development. It gave me my first experience of starting an organisation from scratch - I've started several others during the last 40 years. At YSTV I also gained my first experience of leading and managing a team of people. I'm very grateful to that initial group who put up with my inexperience and enabled me to learn a great deal.

I visit the UK about once a year to see my father (who's now 91) and my sister who live south of Manchester. It's possible that I could travel to York during one of these visits if any YSTV people are interested in talking with me. I'd certainly be interested to see where YSTV has got to, 40 years later. I'm actually very proud that my baby survived all this time and is still going strong.