That’s my understanding, too. I think Neighbours was the biggest indication of that, given that HSV wanted to keep it going but ATN convinced the other stations that it was not sustainable even though it was rating well in Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide, and to vote it out while keeping Sydney-based dramas A Country Practice and Sons And Daughters. HSV had put a lot of money into it and of course we saw the outcome of ATN’s move to dump it.
It was a similar strained relationship between ATV0 and TEN10 in the late 1970s which only got remedied when Rupert Murdoch bought them both up. Although I think they still kept being fairly autonomous for some time afterwards.
HSV had to be sold, there was no option. It was convenient for Fairfax to buy it and would give them the top three cities on the east coast.
I don’t think there was any argument that HSV needed changes made. It was probably a bit too parochial and old-fashioned. Its 6.30 news was rating well behind Nine and Ten. But Fairfax was so extremely brutal in gutting it that it just made the future recovery all that much harder.
Only remember Mark Holden hosting The Love Game. Gavin Wood must have replaced him after it was dropped in Melbourne. This is from 22.09.1984 edition of TV Week:
I had no recollection of Denise Drysdale being involved in that! And I don’t think Nine ever did proceed with The Love Connection. Interesting that they subtly dropped that John Burgess had taped a pilot. He must have been just about to head over to Wheel Of Fortune at Seven?
What I don’t quite understand is why Fairfax wanted to rip apart HSV but keep BTQ Brisbane nearly relatively intact.
BTQ managed to keep Boris’ Breakfast Club, Agro related programs, Wombat and Sportscene and whatever local programs around, but HSV programs like World Of Sport had to go.
Main BTQ Newsreader Mike Higgins left to join TVO (now 10) down the road but not sure he was sacked or saw the writing on the wall but came back when Skase took over. Frank Warwick who was already known to the BTQ audience took over so there was no blow in from another city like what happened with HSV and Mal Walden.
I guess it was a Sydney v Melbourne rivalry which Fairfax wanted to destroy?
Actually after a bit more research it was of a bit of a muddled time. Skase owned both BTQ and TVQ for a few months in 1987 (after having bought BTQ off Fairfax) and sold TVQ to Darling Downs Television (operator of DDQ Toowoomba).
The only major change was BTQs News went for a full hour and State Affair was axed.
ABV2
6.00 Rage (cont’d)
8.00 Couch Potato with Grant Piro
8.02 Danger Mouse
8.25 Ghostwriter
8.50 Toucan Tecs
9.00 Tennis: 1993 ATP Tour
9.30 Indoor Cricket: 1993 National Championship
10.00 Yachting: World Match Race
11.00 Songs of Praise
11.35 Witness “To India with Love”
12.00 Landline
1.00 Review (arts)
1.30 Sunday Afternoon with Peter Ross (includes 1.32 Maestro, 2.20 Peter Ross with Susan Cohn (designer), 2.30 Europe by Design: Facing Fashion, 3.00 Peter Ross with Leon Van Sena (also at 3.20), 3.10 Building Sights: Europe, 3.35 Songs of the Birds: A Portrait of Pablo Casals, 4.40 Peter Ross with Ken Cato, 4.50 Trattoria Trax)
5.00 The Woman in White
6.00 Dancing “The Individual and the Traditional”
7.00 News
7.30 Heartbeat (final)
8.25 News
8.30 True Stories
9.30 Tell Tale Hearts (premiere)
10.20 Compass
11.00 The Late Show
12.00 Girls on Top
12.30 Australia Television News
1.00 Embassy
2.00 Movie “Boys in Brown”
3.20 Understanding Newspapers
3.55 Aspel and Company
4.35 Doctor Who
5.00 French in Action
5.30 Discovering Psychology
HSV7
6.00 Sing Me a Rainbow
6.30 Kids Inc.
7.00 Space Knights
7.30 ZooLife with Jack Hanna
8.00 Now You See It
8.30 Animal Park
9.00 Sportsworld
12.00 Movie “You Ruined My Life”
1.50 Movie “Justin Case”
3.20 Movie “Star Trek: Motion Picture”
6.00 News
6.30 Talk to the Animals
7.27 Scratch ‘n’ Spin
7.30 Golden Girls Hour (2 episodes)
8.30 Movie “The Doctor”
11.05 Movie “Revenge of the Nerds”
1.00 NBC Today
2.00 NBC Meet the Press
3.00 Miss USSR (BBC documentary)
5.00 Woops!
5.30 Sons & Daughters
GTV9
6.00 Turn 'Round Australia
6.30 CTA
7.00 Guess What?
7.30 Look Who’s Talking
8.00 Business Sunday
9.00 Sunday
11.00 Cricket: NSW v. Tasmania
1.30 Golf Show
2.00 Formula One: Japanese Grand Prix
4.00 Cricket: NSW v. Tasmania (continuing coverage)
6.00 News
6.30 Our World “River Deep, Mountain High” (Charles Wooley presents some of New Zealand’s spectacular scenery)
7.29 Keno
7.30 60 Minutes
8.30 Movie “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade”
11.05 News
11.10 Movie “Senior Week”
1.05 Golf: 1993 World Match Play (from Surrey, England)
3.30 Baseball: World Series highlights
ATV10
6.00 Sword Fish
6.30 Mass for You at Home
7.00 Debate!
7.30 Wild Weekend
8.30 Video Hits
11.30 Meet the Press
12.00 NBL: Melbourne Tigers v. Perth Wildcats
3.00 Uncle Toby’s Ironman Series (from Bondi Beach)
5.30 The Look of the Year (63 models from 39 countries compete for a contract with New York Elite Modelling Agency)
6.30 Baywatch
7.30 Beverly Hills, 90210
8.30 Movie “For the Boys”
11.30 News
12.00 Sports Tonight
12.30 Uncle Toby’s Ironman Series highlights
1.30 Movie “The Last Days of Frank and Jesse James”
3.30 Anything But Love
4.00 Equal Justice
5.00 War & Remembrance
SBS
10.30 Golf: 1993 Mercedes German Masters highlights
11.30 On the Ball (soccer)
12.30 Greek News
1.00 Italia News (Telegiornale?)
1.30 The Cutting Edge “I Won’t… I Can’t” (BBC documentary)
2.30 Dateline
3.30 Movie “The Girl with the Blue Hat” (Netherlands)
5.30 Italian Soccer highlights
6.30 SBS World News
7.00 Vox Populi
7.30 As Long as the Rivers Flow (Canada; part 3 of 5)
8.30 The Celts (part 4)
9.30 Movie “The Big Dipper” (Denmark)
11.15 Soccer: Coca-Cola League’s Match of the Day highlights
12.15 Movie “Police” (France)
2.05 sign-off
Another electricity strike hits Victoria and a double whammy with gas supplies also affected. TV is restricted to a maximum of 2 hours in 30 minute blocks at certain times. 10am to 10.30am, 1.30pm to 2pm, 3.30pm to 4pm and 9.30pm to 10pm.
ABV2
10.00 News
10.10 Bajazzo and His Dog
10.25 Service Information
10.30 Close
1.30 News
1.40 Service Information
1.45 Notre Ville
2.00 Close
3.30 News
3.40 Service Information
3.45 Kindergarten Playtime
4.00 Close
9.30 News
9.55 Service Information
10.00 Close
HSV7
10.00 News
10.30 Close
1.30 News
2.00 Close
3.30 News
4.00 Close
9.30 News
10.00 Close
GTV9
10.00 News
10.30 Close
1.30 It Could Be You
2.00 Close
3.30 Take the Hint
4.00 Close
9.30 News
10.00 Close
