and looking at the Melbourne guides from the Age archive the day before (there is no Age edition from January 1 1974 in the archive) both HSV7 and ABV2 carried the Australian Open Tennis, unusual that ADS7 did not carry Seven’s tennis coverage into Adelaide, this could be either: (1) doubling up, seeing though it was on ABS2 or (2) there was no direct relay link from Melbourne to Adelaide back then (even though ABS2 and SAS10 carried the Perth Cup horse race (the latter taken from TVW7) and due to common ownership there would be a relay between Adelaide and Perth back then). Meanwhile in Sydney ATN7 did take the tennis, as well as the Perth Cup that day (source: SMH archives)
Adelaide was first linked to Melbourne for TV on 25 Jan 1963.
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Was that a formal link or was that just the one that was facilitated by special aircraft flying between the cities to pick up the signal from Adelaide and then bounce it back to Melbourne? Sort of like a primitive satellite.
I just have a video from an XXX years of TV special “Welcome … to GTV for a first time ever occasion for television, the linking of Adelaide and Melbourne on January 25th 1963.” and there is a cricket match in progress.
I think that was just the experimental plane/satellite link. Not sure when the permanent link was established either by cable or microwave.
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There is nothing in the recording to provide any clues.
Yep. I just found TV Times for Melbourne for 1.1.1974 and ABC, HSV7 and GTV9 all broadcast the tennis. Seemingly no exclusive broadcast rights in those days for the tennis?
From TV Times, 30 January 1963:
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Was there a competition in 1974 between 7 and 0 who could have the best musical movie at 10.30am in the morning? They must have been big back then.
old movies were often either musicals or westerns 
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My Mum was told that every night her uncle had to clean up all the dead Indians from behind the TV as his chores before he went to bed. There were Western movies just about every night.
Saturday 5 January 1980, Melbourne, from TV Times:
Cricket on Channel 9, Tennis on 7. ABC had its annual Sportsman Of The Year awards, and on a different note, Channel 0 had that bizarre Brady Bunch Variety Hour.
And Channel 9’s Saturday night movie was Jane Fonda in Barbarella
And interesting that Jana Wendt read Eyewitness News solo on Saturdays. A decade later she won the Gold Logie…
That was her first presenting gig after being an on-the-road reporter. She did the weekend news but was then promoted to weeknights when the news was revamped with David Johnston as chief newsreader.
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Monday 16 August 1982
NBN 3 Newcastle
7am National Today Show
9am Romper Room
9.35 Here’s Humphrey
10.30 Here’s Lucy
11am Coronation Street
11.30 Family Feud
11.55 News
12pm The Mike Walsh Show
1.30 Days Of Our Lives
2.25 Community Noticeboard
2.30 The Young And The Restless
3.25 Bewitched
3.50 Cartoons
4pm Go Health
4.05 Wombat
4.30 Matchmates
5pm The Brady Bunch
5.30 The New Price Is Right
6pm News
7pm Sale Of The Century
7.30 The Love Boat
8.25 News
8.30 Cop Shop
9.30 Lotto
9.35 Jessica Novak
10.35 Not The Nine O’Clock News
11.05 SWAT
12am Movie: The Prisoner Of Zenda. (1937)
1.50 Close
Interesting that this was one of the earlier Sign Ons and later Sign Offs of the time for a regional TV Station
Only slightly trumped by WIN Wollongong
WIN 4 Wollongong (The same date)
6.30am Facing The Week
6.35 Jazzercise
7am Good Morning Australia
9am Fat Cat And Friends
9.30 The Bernard King Show
10am The New Ed Allen Show
10.30 Donahue
11.30 News
12pm The Mike Walsh Show
1.30 Days Of Our Lives
2.30 The Young And The Restless
3.30 Ace
4pm Simon Townsend’s Wonder World
4.30 Flipper
5pm The New Price Is Right
5.30 Mork And Mindy
6pm News
7pm Sale Of The Century
7.30 The Greatest American Hero
8.30 Vegas
9.27 Go Lotto
9.30 The Don Lane Show
11pm The Odd Couple
11.57 Go Lotto (Rpt)
12am Movie: The Bounty Hunter. 1954
1.25 Reflections
1.30 Mannix
2.25 Close
I’m more intrigued by the fact that Bill Collins (I’m guessing it’s the same Bill Collins as the Golden Years of Hollywood) doing the sport and racing on Seven’s news.
Nope, different Bill Collins, race caller predominantly, song and dance man on the side.
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Thanks! I was having a very hard time imagining the movie Bill Collins reading sports news.
Yes there were 2 different Bill Collins likewise there were 2 different Ron Caseys… one at HSV7 as sports commentator and station manager, and the other was a sports commentator and radio presenter in Sydney.
And just to confuse the issue both Rons were commentators for the 1976 Olympics coverage which was pooled between ABC, 7 and 9 
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That’s crazy. Did they start having to use middle names or anything as a differentiator?
And how did the pooled coverage work in those days? Did different channels show different events, or did they all show the same things at the same time?
My recollection is that is what happened, the same coverage on all three channels.