In the summer of 1962, the Mayor of Mechelen Jos De Saeger became the very first person in Belgium to make a transatlantic phone call. This was made possible by an iconic moment in space history: the launch of the Telstar communications satellite. The recording of the call has now been rediscovered in the VRT's archives. Watch and listen to the first transatlantic phone call from Mechelen (Antwerp Province).
Recording of Belgium’s first transatlantic satellite phone call surfaces in VRT Archive (VIDEO)
Colin Clapson
Published:
On 27 July 1962, at exactly 0.47 am, the black Bakelite telephone rang in Mayor Jos De Saeger’s office. Numerous prominent figures had been summoned to witness the historic call. A Flemish TV camera crew, operating for VRT-forerunner BRT, was standing by, and large tape recorders were running to capture the moment.
In the interview after this historic conversation the mayor spoke of the great emotion it had involved, being the first Belgian to speak on the link and representing the only Belgian city on the call. Quizzed about the quality of the call the mayor told Flemish TV viewers he hadn’t understood everything said by his Bay City counterpart but that was probably due to his level of English.
The initiative came from Bay City in Michigan in the US under the People-to-People programme launched by President Eisenhower to get US cities to twin with towns and cities in the rest of the world.
