When you realize Public Television has been on the air for 30 years, it makes you reflect on the very beginning. The first year of the Virgin Islands Public Television station, from August 29, 1972 the station presented over 200 hours of local programs in addition to the regular scheduled PBS programs. WTJX-TV started with a five day week, telecasting from 4:00 pm to 11:00 pm, we soon discovered the demand for "Sesame Street" and began broadcasting it at 10:00 am.
Local programming included sports events, local plays, concerts, and public affairs programs. We had an eight week, sixty minute series on drug abuse, "Turned on Crisis" with a half hour follow up program with concerned Virgin Islanders. A popular weekly, hour presentation entitled, "Rigamarole", featured Virgin Islanders singing and dancing. In the first year of the station, we broadcast thirty-one "Rigamarole" programs. Other local productions included programs involving the public affairs broadcasts, such as "Forum on Delinquency and Youth Crime in the Virgin Islands", shown in two parts in its entirety. We also presented then Governor of the Virgin Islands, Melvin Evans' tax proposal hearings, the opening of the Legislature, and the State of the Territory Address.
"It is a nice nostalgic feeling to look back on the old days - and realize how far we've traveled", says Marge Beimer, former WTJX-TV Director of Public Information; who was with the station for 20 years.
- WTJX-TV, Ch. 12 was the first PBS station in the Caribbean offering national PBS and local programs to the area, starting August 29, 1972.
- The first locally produced series by Virgin Islands Public Television was entitled Turned on Crisis, an eight week series on drug abuse with a panel discussion after each program.
- The first time Virgin Islanders could watch from their homes a tennis match, a football or basketball game was with Ch. 12 in 1972.
- The first televised cricket game was also broadcast in 1973.
- By 1973, the station began to regularly produce tennis tournaments on St. Thomas and St. Croix.
- The first weekly series spotlighting local performing talent, Rigamarole, aired in 1972 and 1973 with thirty-one programs.
- First LIVE! coverage of V.I. Carnival, 1975!
- In the Virgin Islands, WTJX was the first to present regularly scheduled local children's programs such as Storytime, Undah de Taman Tree, and the special Up the Mountain One Time (which later became published).
- We were the very first to broadcast an educational game series, the VI Quiz bowl.
- The first LIVE! circuit teleconference with telephone participation, via satellite, for V.I. Department of Health, 1979.
- The first to produce a local series on V.I. poets, Poets in Paradise, a two part series, 1986-1989.
- After Hurricane Hugo in 1989, WTJX was the very first station to return to the air, offering PBS, CNN, and other network news programs, with the cooperation of St. Thomas - St. John Cable TV.
- In 1994, WTJX-TV expanded it's broadcast facilities to Gallows Bay, St. Croix. The new facility is currently the home of the live, viewer call-in talk show Topics, Teacher is In and Behind the Headlines.
- WTJX-TV in 1995, was again the first station to return to the air after the territory was devastated by Hurricane Marilyn. WTJX -TV became the flagship of the Recovery Network, broadcasting a locally produced disaster assistance series, Recovery Review. The Recovery Network was a partnership with St. Thomas - St. John Cable TV, and WSVI Ch. 8. WTJX provided PBS, CNN and AFRTS to the community despite serious damage to the station's broadcast and operations facility.
