The people at NZBC liked a good sleep in I see.
Thatâs right, @LiamP. In 1977, broadcasting hours were cut on both TV One and SPTV and as a result SPTV lost 16 hours of broadcast time a week, forcing the network to begin its daily broadcasts at 3pm. However, weekend transmissions began at 12 noon (according to the NZ Listener).
Why were they cut? Some sort of government order?
I donât know.
Todayâs TV: Thursday 1 March 1979
from the NZ Listener
TV One
Noon News
12.05 The Young and the Restless
12.30 Beauty and the Beast
1.00 The Nature of Things
1.30 Days of Our Lives
2.25 Crown Court
2.50 Play School
3.20 King Wilbur III (Rpt)
3.35 Jabberjaw
3.55 Thunder
4.20 Gomer Pyle, USMC
4.40 Lorne Greeneâs Last of the Wild
5.05 Lancer (Rpt)
6.00 Sha Na Na
6.30 News
7.00 Coronation Street
7.30 WKRP in Cincinnati
8.00 When Havoc Struck (Final)
8.30 Kaz
9.30 News
9.45 Nightingaleâs Boys
10.45 Maude (Final)
11.15 News and Weather
Followed by Closedown
South Pacific Television (SPTV)
3.00pm Chic Chat, followed by Romper Room
3.30 Clutch Cargo (Rpt)
3.35 Rainbow
3.50 The Undersea Adventures of Captain Nemo
4.00 Good Time Show with Tracy, followed by The Flintstones (Rpt)
4.30 The Champions
5.30 My Three Sons (Rpt)
6.00 News at Six
6.30 Welcome Back Kotter
7.00 Doctor on the Go
7.30 The Persuaders!
8.30 Dave Allen Special
10.00 Late News
10.20 On the Mat
10.50 Snooker (The Black and Decker Snooker Series)
11.20 Surfing (2SM Coca-Cola World Surfabout)
11.50 Pacific Viewpoint (Rpt)
12.05am Goodnight Kiwi/Closedown
1 Like
Could have been a shortage of water in the hydro dams that year, just from the top of my memory.
1 Like
@OnAir I have a fact for you.
Television New Zealand (TVNZ) was created in February 1980, through the merger of Television One and South Pacific Television (SPTV). In mid-February 1979 Ian Cross, chairman of the Broadcasting Corporation of New Zealand (BCNZ) at the time, announced a plan to amalgamate both TV One and SPTV into TVNZ as a unified two-channel system, with the inclusion of complementary programming.
Bruce Crossan was appointed as the new systemâs controller of news and current affairs, and Des Monaghan was appointed as its controller of programming.
Hereâs a full rundown of programmes on TV One and SPTVâs last day as competing networks.
Friday 15 February 1980
from the NZ Listener
TV One
Noon News
12.05 The Young and the Restless
12.30 Beauty and the Beast
1.00 Wildlife of Papua New Guinea (Final)
1.30 Days of Our Lives
2.20 Crown Court
2.45 Play School
3.15 The Tale of King Midas (Rpt)
3.35 Moby Dick and Mighty Mightor (Final) (Rpt)
3.55 Dirty Sally (Final) (Rpt)
4.20 Horse in the House
4.45 Movie: Room Service (1938) (B&W)
6.05 Sha Na Na (Final)
6.30 News
7.00 Coronation Street
7.30 CHiPs (Final) (Rpt)
8.25 The Mary Tyler Moore Show (Final)
8.50 Accident of Birth
9.45 News
9.55 Movie: They Call Me Trinity (1972) (Rpt)
11.50 Closedown
South Pacific Television (SPTV)
3.00pm Chic Chat, followed by Romper Room
3.30 The Undersea Adventures of Captain Nemo
3.35 The New Adventures of Superman
4.00 Good Time Show with Tracy, followed by Battle of the Planets
4.20 Search and Rescue (Final)
4.45 Land of the Lost (Final)
5.10 Good Time Sounds
5.45 Goodbye GTS
6.00 Headlines at Six
6.05 The Ice Palace (Final)
6.55 The World About Us: Wings in the Wilderness
8.15 Late News
8.35 Victorian Scandals
9.25 Hawaii Five-O (Final)
10.15 The Goodbye Show
A fond farewell form SPTV, introduced by Peter Sinclair
12.15am Weather Outlook/Goodbye SPTV
Within the next day (16 February) TV One and TV2, under TVNZ as a two-channel system, began transmission.
2 Likes
Todayâs TV: Sunday 2 March 1975
from the NZ Listener
NZBC TV
12.30pm Sunday Grandstand
Davis Cup Tennis - live from Stanley Street Courts, Auckland
2.00 News and Weather
2.05 Sunday Grandstand
Includes Davis Cup Tennis and cricket (MCC v New Zealand, second test)
5.05 The Mouse Factory
5.28 News
5.30 Cricket
MCC v New Zealand - second test
6.05 The Basil Brush Show
6.35 Heart and Soul
6.50 Regional Sport (All B&W)
AKTV2 (Auckland): Northsport
WNTV1 (Wellington): Eye on Sport
CHTV3 (Christchurch): Sideline
DNTV2 (Dunedin): Southsport
7.00 Network News (B&W)
7.15 Regional Weather and News (B&W)
7.23 Country Calendar Special
1975 Golden Shears highlights
7.53 The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau
8.42 Father, Dear Father
9.07 Newsbrief
9.09 Plain Speaking (B&W)
9.14 The Regiment
10.03 Intrumi
10.31 Late News and Weather
10.37 Feltex Television Awards for 1974 (B&W)
Followed by Closedown
All programmes on the NZBC TV network (AKTV2, WNTV1, CHTV3 and DNTV2) were broadcast in colour, unless otherwise specified.
Dedicated to @TelevisionAU.
1 Like
One Day after B&W become Extinct in Most of Australia, New Zealand were still airing some Programming in B&W.
1 Like
Tuesday 1 April 1975
from the NZ Listener
TV One
2.00pm News
2.05 Harrietâs Back in Town
2.33 Medical Centre
3.30 Prisma (B&W)
3.45 Play School
4.10 Spot On
4.35 Filopat and Patafil
4.40 Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kids
5.05 The Kids from 47A
5.30 Something Else
6.00 The Amazing World of Kreskin
6.30 News
Includes regional news from Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin
7.00 TV One Opening Special (aka âThis Is Television Oneâ)
9.00 Tonight
9.30 War and Peace: Preview
10.05 Justice
11.05 Closedown
All programmes on TV One were broadcast in colour, unless otherwise specified.
âLadies and gentlemen, you are very welcome. Television One is here at last.â - Dougal Stevenson
TV One began its first day of transmission at 2pm on the afternoon of Tuesday 1 April 1975 with a news summary read by Bill McCarthy. There was also a two-hour opening night special later that evening (at 7pm); it was broadcast live to air from the Avalon Television Studios in Wellington - which although officially opened a fortnight before nowhere near ready for transmission.
Dougal Stevenson was the host of TV Oneâs opening night special, which was executive produced by Roy Melford, produced by Tony Rimmer and directed by John Whitwell. However, the two-hour special was not an auspicious beginning, with fluffed lines, faulty microphones, a camera failure and an atmosphere of uncertainty among many of the performers themselves about the hyped-up image they were called on to present. The phones went crazy with complaints as viewers reacted to TV Oneâs deliberate effort to establish that it was not simply a continuation of the NZBC TV network under a different name.
Alan Morris, who had returned from a senior executive position with ABC television in Australia, was appointed CEO of TV One. Bill Munro, an ABC colleague, was appointed TV Oneâs controller of programmes and brought his knowledge of the competitive Australian television scene with him.
The result was that TV One went to air with a strongly competitive style and an emphasis on personalities and personalities which took us as New Zealanders by surprise - particularly as there was no competition at the time. The image softened in response to the outbreak of criticism from what Munro identified as âthe clobbering machineâ, but it certainly served to shake viewers loose from NZBC expectations.
The approach eventually developed over the next few months was to present a coherent, packaged, competitive television network, lead by identifiable personalities like newsreaders Bill McCarthy and Dougal Stevenson, and weather girl Tina Carline.
News and Current Affairs
When it came to news and current affairs programming, the NZBCâs Doug Eckhoff was appointed TV Oneâs controller of news and current affairs. TV One had the advantage with a full national network and several monthsâ lead before TV2 would be on air, and it set out to make the most of it.
TV One would open its daily broadcasts at 2pm with a five-minute news summary, with the main evening news to follow later in the evening (at 6.30pm). The network employed the youngest of the NZBC television newsreaders, Dougal Stevenson, who alternated with Bill McCarthy fresh from his Commonwealth Games success. It also replaced the regional news magazines with a local breakout of up to 10 minutes within the main evening bulletin.
The evening news bulletin was followed at 9pm with Tonight at Nine, produced by Bill Earl. This was New Zealandâs first serious effort at nightly current affairs. The team included Terry Carter and Shaun Brown as associate producers, and Ian Johnstone, Spencer Jolly, Murray McLaughlin, Barbara Magner, Gillian Woodward and a young Lindsay Perigo and Simon Walker as reporters - with occasional contributions from Fred Dagg (alias John Clarke). It was a hard-working and energetic team which proved that nightly current affairs could work in New Zealand - sustaining it was the problem.
@TelevisionAU @OnAir What do you think?
5 Likes
Todayâs TV: Wednesday 3 March 1982
from the NZ Listener
TV One
10.35am Play School
11.00 You and Your Child
11.05 The New Ed Allen Show
11.30 Take Kerr
11.35 One Day at a Time (Rpt)
Noon News
12.02 The Young and the Restless
12.30 Another Town, Another Place
12.35 Beauty and the Beast
1.00 Crown Court (Rpt)
1.30 Days of Our Lives
2.25 You and Your Child (Rpt)
2.30 Play School (Rpt)
2.55 Wattoo Wattoo Superbird
3.00 Chic Chat
3.30 After School, including:
3.30 Kid Power
3.50 Odds and Ends with Isobel
4.00 Once Upon a Story
4.10 Take Hart (Rpt)
4.30 Secret Squirrel (Rpt)
4.55 Sign Time
5.05 Wildtrack (Rpt)
5.30 Children Around the World
6.00 King of the Castle
6.30 News
7.30 Coronation Street
8.00 Close Up
9.00 Hill Street Blues
9.55 Fallen Hero
10.55 News
11.00 Closedown
TV2
2.30pm Prisoner
3.25 General Hospital
3.50 Special Edition (Rpt)
4.10 The Love Boat (Rpt)
5.00 Dustyâs Trail (Rpt)
5.30 The Young Doctors
6.00 News
6.10 Custom Cars
6.30 The Greatest American Hero
7.30 The Goodies
8.00 The Sullivans
9.00 Eye Witness News
9.45 Movie for Television: A Question of Guilt (1978)
11.25 United States: Married
11.50 Closedown
1 Like
Kind of weird to find childrenâs programs on TV1, I always thought that was a TV2 thing and a TV2 thing only. Apart from What Nowâs early years though.
Also, TV2 still opened late. Another energy crisis perhaps, @TV4?
In February 1987 all childrenâs programming (except weekend mornings and the mid-morning hours during the week) was transferred to TV2, which subsequently became Network Two. What Now remained on TV One until November 1989 when early morning television had commenced on the newly rebranded Channel 2 (now TVNZ 2).
Up until mid-1985, TV2 opened its daily transmissions at 12pm on weekends and 2.30pm on weekdays. It gradually expanded its transmission hours, with an 12pm start on weekdays and an 11am start on weekends.
At the same time TV One also expanded its transmission hours, with a 7am start on Saturdays, an 8am start on Sundays and a 10.30am start on weekdays. Within the next year, weekday transmission opened at 9am.
Todayâs TV: Saturday 3 March 1990
from the NZ Listener
TV One
8.45am Teletext in Vision
9.00 Summer Cooking with Vic Williams
9.30 Earthwatch (Double episode)
9.50 One World of Sport
Includes triangular cricket (Australia v India) and racing from Ellerslie
6.00pm One Network News
6.30 Treasure Hunt
7.30 Our World: Gorillas in the Midst of Man
8.30 Saturday Night at the Movies: Gandhi (1982) (Rpt, PGR)
10.30 One Network News
10.35 Saturday Night at the Movies: Gandhi (Continued)
12.20am Closedown
Channel 2
6.15am Teletext in Vision
6.30 The Breakfast Club, including:
6.31 Flash Gordon (G)
7.00 Bugs Bunny (Rpt, G)
7.30 Denver, the Last Dinosaur
8.00 What Now
10.05 Perfect Strangers
10.30 The Hogan Family (G)
11.00 Summer Sounz!
Noon The Beverly Hillbillies (Starting today) (Rpt)
12.30 My Two Day (Starting today)
1.00 Peaceable Kingdom (Starting today)
2.00 Saturday Cinema, Yours, Mine and Ours (1968)
4.00 The Adventures of Black Beauty (Rpt, G)
4.30 Charles in Charge
5.00 A Country Practice
6.00 RTR Countdown
6.30 Family Ties
7.00 Growing Pains (G)
7.30 Major Dad (G)
8.00 Lotto (Live draw)
8.05 Whoâs the Boss? (G)
8.30 21 Jump Street (AO)
9.30 Mission: Impossible
10.30 WWF Superstars of Wrestling
11.30 The Tracey Ullman Show
12.00am Midnight Movie: Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982)
1.40 Closedown
TV3
7.00am The Early Bird Show, including:
7.00 Gummi Bears
7.30 Garfield and Friends
7.40 Mighty Mouse and Friends
8.00 Mickey and Donald
8.30 The Real Ghostbusters
9.00 The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show
9.30 Get Smart
10.00 Shakedown (G)
11.00 Coach (G)
11.30 Sheâs the Sheriff (G)
Noon High Mountain Rangers (G)
1.00 Stir Crazy (G)
2.00 Saturday Afternoon Matinee: Fort Algiers (1953) (B&W)
3.30 Saturday Afternoon Matinee: Belle Starrâs Daughter (1948)
5.00 Those Amazing Animals (G)
6.00 3 National News
6.30 The Wonderful World of Disney: The Worldâs Greatest Athlete (Part two) (G)
7.30 Hey DadâŚ! (G)
8.00 Roseanne (G)
8.30 Hunter (AO)
9.30 Midnight Caller (AO)
10.30 Late Movie: Partners (1982)
12.30am Closedown
2 Likes
Not sure⌠that may have had something to do with Piggy Muldoon by then 
EDIT:
Actually on second thought, TV2âs late start would have had more to do with the Govt trying to appease calls for an independent channel⌠have you hever heard of Northern TV? It used TV2âs frequencies in the mornings in '81 I think. @PaddyTePou will know (I think heâs posted about it before).
By the mid 80âs the idea of a third independent broadcaster had morphed into a prolonged Broadcasting Tribunal process that eventually led to TV3⌠so TV2 by then could start each day when it liked, I suppose.
1 Like
@LiamP @TV4 Northern Television was, in fact, a private television company that was owned by Wilson & Horton. It played host to Auckland morning daily The New Zealand Herald and 18 other newspapers spread throughout New Zealand, and its studios and broadcast facilities operated from a converted $12 million facility at 10 Panorama Road in Mt Wellington, Auckland. (These days, the Mt Wellington facility is now the headquarters of Sky Television.)
Here are some notes in accordance with Robert Boyd-Bell in his book, âNew Zealand Television: The First 25 Yearsâ.
In 1980 the Broadcasting Corporation of New Zealand (BCNZ) offered some 30 hours per week of unused morning time on TV2 (now TVNZ 2) for tender as one way of attempting to meet the political pressures for wider participation. In the end none of the tenders were accepted, but negotiation proceeded and in mid-1982 Northern Television mounted its ill-fated âGood Morningâ show at 11am on TV One (now TVNZ 1). It was first shown on the morning of Monday 21 June 1982.
A compromise at its best, the programme provoked union unrest by giving private enterprise access to the public network and allowing it to retain the income from advertising generated within the programme time. It was never an economic proposition for Northern, which regarded the chance to broadcast as better than nothing and one further stage in the political campaign. Fronted by former actress/model Tina Grenville and produced by Kevan Moore & Associates, the programme highlighted the difficulty of private enterprise integrating with the existing system.
Within the next year (1983) the Good Morning show became â11AMâ with new host Heather Lindsay and producer Robin Scholes, but they could not save it from either the generally unfavourable critical reviews or the mounting financial losses, and the whole experiment folded after probably doing private enterprise television more harm than good.
In late 1982 the possibility of a third regionally based private enterprise network gained credibility for a short time when the Governmentâs own Communications Advisory Council reported in its favour, as the most satisfactory method of giving effect to the election promises.
However, the Government caucus refused to give its approval, partly on the grounds of the estimated $60 million such a network would cost to establish, and partly because it anticipated a backlash from those rural electorates denied access to the new channel. Caucus instead came up on another idea that pleased nobody - offering private enterprise the chance to bid for breakfast to noon time on the existing TV One network.
The Alternative Television Network (ATN) - a consortium that linked New Zealand News Ltd (publishers of the Auckland and Christchurch Star newspapers among others) with Independent News Ltd (publishers of both Wellington daily papers, the Waikato Times, both Sunday papers and several other weeklies) - declined to enter the fray, arguing the morning television was not financially sustainable. Northern Television again assessed that it could not afford to let the opportunity pass.
City Television (CTV) was formed by Andy Tyler who headed an electronic production company with studios in Auckland and Wellington, with additional support from the Chase Corporation which also owned Amalgamated Theatres. That production company was known as The Video Workshop, and CTV joined the race.
Both Northern and CTV spent months preparing formal applications for the Broadcasting Tribunal hearing which was to determine the issue following hearings in August 1983. Then at the eleventh hour, both companies withdrew in the face of the scale of charges which the BCNZ announced it would levy if it were to lease the TV One network, charges amounting to a $3 million initial fee, and some $1,400 per hour for the lease of the national transmission system. Fierce debate followed over both the scale and the timing of the BCNZâs announcement - but the breakfast television option was dead for lack of applicants.
1 Like
Until Breakfast came along in 1997 to finally bring breakfast television back to the public eye. And it did it successfully too!
@LiamP Early morning television was, in fact, introduced in the first week of November 1989 on Channel 2 (now TVNZ 2), not TV One (now TVNZ 1). This was to make way for competition with TV3 (now Three).
Before Breakfast came along, weekday cartoons were supplemented with a half hour news bulletin called âBreakfast Newsâ (or âGood Morning New Zealandâ). Anchored by Tom Bradley with weather forecasts by Penelope Barr, Breakfast News aired on Channel 2 at 7am and ran for half an hour, with a brief news and weather update for five minutes at 8am. By the start of 1990, it changed to five-minute bulletins on the half hour between 7-8.30am until Friday 27 July 1990.
During much of the early 1990s we were treated to ITN World News (via satellite from the UK) at 7am with a same-day repeat at 8am. Over the summer months it was shown once a day at 8am.
1 Like
Monday 30 June 1975
from the NZ Listener
TV One
2.00pm News
2.05 Journey
2.30 Harrietâs Back in Town
3.00 Play School
3.27 Sesame Street
4.26 Teddy Edward
4.33 Professor Balthazar
4.43 The Porky Pig Show
5.05 Saddle Up
5.10 The Tomorrow People
5.37 Wild, Wild World of Animals
6.00 Happy Days
6.25 This Week in Britain
6.30 News
Includes regional news from Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin
7.00 Close to Home
7.30 Doctor at Sea
7.55 Bon Appetit
8.10 Colditz
9.00 Tonight at Nine
9.30 Ascent of Man
10.20 Callan
11.10 Closedown
TV2
1.00pm Search for Tomorrow
1.25 Speakeasy
2.00 A Going Concern
2.30 Doc Elliot
3.30 Romper Room
4.00 These Are the Days
4.30 Now C Here
5.00 Seven Little Australians
5.30 The Flintstones
6.00 Regional Programmes
Auckland: The Good Time Show
Christchurch: Norman
6.30 My Three Sons
7.00 News
Auckland: Two at Seven
Christchurch: Points South
7.30 Upstairs, Downstairs
8.30 Encounter
9.00 Softly, Softly: Task Force
10.00 News at Ten
10.30 The Marcus-Nelson Murders (Kojak Preview)
1.00am Closedown
Television Two (TV2) came on the air on 30 June 1975 and launched a new era in broadcasting. Viewer choice had arrived.
It transmitted only in Auckland and Christchurch, and in Christchurch transmission hours were initially limited by a faulty transmitter aerial. Three months passed before viewers in the Waikato and Bay of Plenty joined the potential audience, but it was to be late November until Wellington finally received the TV2 signal.
Like Alan Morris at the Wellington-based Television One, Allan Martin had returned from Australia and was appointed CEO of the Auckland-based TV2. Kevan Moore was appointed TV2âs controller of programmes, and TV2 itself was designed to be more more community-oriented than TV One. One week after going on air, that promise was partly realised when they introduced us as New Zealanders to the concept of Telethon and set the community on its ears by raising nearly $600,000 ($593,878, to be exact) in aid of the St John Ambulance.
In daily programming they faced bigger problems breaking viewersâ patterns and habits, and challenging TV Oneâs establishing lead.
Jennie Goodwin became New Zealandâs first regular woman newsreader on the âTwo at Sevenâ programme, which began by including more regional content than TV One. Tom Bradley and Sam Gardiner co-anchored âNews at Tenâ. The documentary programme âEncounterâ was set up under Australian Ted Morrisby, after early hopes of attracting back NZBC stalwarts Austin Mitchell and Linda McDougal had faded. However, Tom Finlayson was attracted back from Australia, and he was to make a major contribution to TV2 news, current affairs programmes and drama during the networkâs independent existence.
In local entertainment, TV2 maximised its limited studio facilities in Auckland and Christchurch and presented shows like âOpportunity Knocksâ, âThe Goodtime Showâ, âNormanâ and âRay Columbus PresentsâŚâ
In local drama, TV2 mounted a series called âA Going Concernâ, along with seven plays in the âImmigrantâ series and âThirty Minute Theatreâ plays - producing 100 parts for actors and work for 20 writers.
Meantime, Kevan Moore was facing criticism for programming his channel with âcops, pops and parlour gamesâ in an imitation of Sydneyâs commercial stations like ATN7 and TCN9 - which Allan Martin defended as a question of survival and generating new revenue. For @TelevisionAU, Australian soap âThe Boxâ was shown on TV2 here in New Zealand⌠initially twice a week in an afternoon slot (although it was shown in primetime in Australia). Famous for its adult storylines, frequent nude glimpses and sexual content just like âNumber 96â out of Sydney, the Melbourne-based âThe Boxâ ran for 611 episodes over a four-year run (1974-77).
2 Likes
I wonder if it went to air unedited given its afternoon timeslot. I imagine it was edited.
But it probably also got a run in NZ because one of its lead actors, Fred Betts, was a New Zealander.
3 Likes