I wonder what the deal is with the 1-2 minute colour test pattern before the news services is?
Did they not realise in those days that would be an invitation to switch to a channel that had programming screening?
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it was a month before colour TV began in Australia, it was an opportunity for those early adopters with colour sets to adjust the colour/brightness/contrast settings on them and to view the full colour picture. As only test patterns and a handful of programmes were broadcast in colour, it was still black and white for the most part.
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No doubt but right before the news? I don’t remember that happening on the Sydney stations.
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From what I can gather it was a WA thing to run a minute of colour test pattern before the news. Probably no more risk of channel changing than running ads, which they probably sacrificed for that minute. Seems strange now to consider that ads used to run between programs but it was not uncommon then. Airtime wasn’t as tightly guarded as it is today where a every second of non-program or non-monetised airtime is whittled away to avoid channel changing.
EDIT: I am reminded of that time some years ago where TVW7 went to a blank screen at 5.50pm for about 20 minutes, the biggest invitation ever to change channels, and it still won the ratings for that time period 
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Could something like that work nowadays?
just get someone at Seven to pull the plug for 20 minutes and find out…
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Don’t tell 10!
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Well, it is TVW7 we’re talking about! You could replace Rick and Susannah with a rotting corpse and it would still win the 6pm to 7pm slot. That’s how rusted onto Seven Perth viewers are.
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… not only 7 Perth … many years ago there was a strike at the ABC so there was no news at 7pm … the diaries still recorded viewers for the timeslot … that’s why I laugh when people quote research that says that people “trust” the ABC - even when there’s nothing on 
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The good old paper diary days when people would just note the shows they regularly viewed, sometimes days after they aired, whether they watched them or not. Still proving to be an unreliable measure of audience for the radio industry.
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i can’t imagine anyone doing that 
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Couldn’t they find anything at 2pm on ABV?
the first Hey Hey It’s Saturday Night
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Yes, and the 10 minutes between 12:50pm and 1pm too!
There was probably the old ABC analogue clock on the screen?
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Now that could be a cheaply run multichannel nowadays…I know the digital processing time would make it unfeasible, but boy would that be fun!
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I don’t think QTQ9 have enough American daytime soapies in their schedule.
The blue ABC analogue clock taught me how to tell the time and count. My experience with some young people suggests it needs to be brought back because they’re unable to tell the time on a simple wall clock.
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