I wouldn’t mind, because when I was younger, I used to love watching Test Pattern!
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Me too! The commercial channels and the ABC used to play some good music over their test patterns in those days. Was never a fan of the SBS test pattern music, however. The ABC would sometimes play video clips in between programs, too. Used to love seeing those bunny rabbits in the Bright Eyes video when I was a kid. ABC played it often on the weekends. Funnily enough I only saw the full Watership Down movie, from which the images in that clip are derived, a few years ago.
This was my first year in “big school” and they used to sit us down in front of the TV first thing after roll call to watch Play School. Vivid memories of sitting on smelly, pee stained, green government carpet waiting for the ABC clock to cut in over the test pattern and all the Kindergarten classes crammed into a double room screaming the countdown to the show.
They only had one TV to share across K, first and second grade and they used to wheel it up and down the decking outside the classrooms as teachers had to book times to watch the ABC’s For the Schools programming as it went to air. No videos in those days. By the time I reached upper high school they’d installed a master control TV distribution system in the library from which they played videos. Half the time the teacher had to send a kid to run up to the library to find out if the librarian had forgotten to stick the video in the VCR or the system had broken down again. Teachers ended up bringing their own VCRs from home and, after a while, students would bring in certain videos from home to watch in vacant classrooms during free periods and lunch.
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Yes, I do too! Missed those times.
As a 5-yo kid, I was someone ‘special’ being able to see the Test Pattern as part of the inner working of the TV station… and believed the purpose of it was some signal or hidden message being sent.
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Note the listing for GEM - all those programs didn’t make it to air because while the channel was originally supposed to launch on Friday the 24th of September, it was delayed until Sunday the 26th (so the 10th anniversary will be tomorrow) due to technical problems.
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Crazy to think this was 10 years ago now. I remember liking 7mate for the first 6 months or so it was on air but after that lost interest. I can’t say I am fond of the way its been presented in the last 5 years or so. Also nice to see ONEHD back when it was a 24/7 sports channel with a 3 hour Liverpool FC block as well. I was very gutted when 6 months or so after this guide they dropped the all-sports theme and slowly began to transition to its current incarnation though they still carried a decent amount of sports content due to the existing contracts they had I assume.
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Today’s TV: 28.9.1970, Western Australia
Today’s TV: 28.9.1985, Perth & South West WA
Source: TV Week
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So Hey, Hey did’nt air in WA in 1985?
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Adelaide, Darwin, Tasmania and Perth started taking Hey Hey in 1987.
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Sydney had to wait until 1973 before it could take HHIS.
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What about Queensland?
I’m not sure that it “had to”. I’m sure TCN could have started taking the show earlier if it wanted to.
QTQ9 started it in 1984, when Hey Hey It’s Saturday switched to prime time.
And before anyone asks…
Canberra: 1989 when WIN came along
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WIN 4 Wollongong didn’t start carrying Hey Hey until the start of 1988.
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Would be earlier than other states to capitalise on the popularity of Jackie Mac surely.
In 1983 she co-read the weeknight news for TVQ-0 Brisbane and flew down to Melbourne to be on Hey Hey at GTV-9 on Saturday’s. Two networks in two different cities.
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and regional Victoria (ie. BCV 8, GLV 8, STV 8, BTV 6 and GMV 6) started carrying Hey Hey in 1982 when it was a Saturday morning show. When it moved to Saturday night these stations screened it late at night around 11.30pm. But by 1987 they moved it to its live 6.30pm timeslot.
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Did they all carry the whole show on a Saturday morning or would they start or end midway or dip in and out?
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I don’t recall the morning incarnation of Hey Hey ever being on WIN. I think they carried Sounds at one stage.
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they all carried the entire show.
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Hey hey did start off at 9.30pm before moving to 6.30pm, are you sure they didn’t air it there?
as a former Sheppartonian, I do remember GMV did show Hey Hey It’s Saturday Night in 1984 at 9.30pm for the first few weeks, but some locals were not impressed that the Saturday night classic movie was dropped in favour of it, so they moved Hey Hey to after the movie (which was around 11.30pm).
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