Television screens were still so small that people sometimes placed a jar of water in front of them as a magnifying lens. Yet on November 6, 1954, in Āgenskalns, Latvia’s television era began: today’s Latvian Television, the first in the Baltics, started regular broadcasts. The evening opened with the Riga Film Studio feature Mājup ar uzvaru; at first airtime lasted only one and a half to two hours twice a week, but in the rooms where the first sets stood, Latvia saw a new medium.

Television arrived in Latvia under Soviet occupation, but technologically it was a genuine turning point in everyday culture. From brief broadcasts a few times a week grew a medium that later became one of Latvia’s most important carriers of public information and culture.