General TV History

That’s Emma Power. She used to be the medical reporter in Melbourne and a big part of the Royal Children’s Hospital Good Friday Appeal. Would be interested to know what she is doing now?

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https://au.linkedin.com/in/emma-power-760a2714

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Seven would sometimes do a game that started at 7pm then pick up a game from Perth that started at 9.10pm, usually from quarter time, but sometimes the early game would start at 6.30pm and as soon as the early game was done, they’d cross to the game in Perth.

Sydney television guide from 1980, notable for the telecast of the first State of Origin match on ATN7, and it being the era of John Singleton’s atrocious talk show on TEN10. Also, noticed Nine were broadcasting 24/7, yet Seven and Ten at that time opened at 9:00am on weekdays.

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Seven in Melbourne went 24/5 (overnight Monday to Friday nights only, closing Saturday and Sunday nights) in 1985. I imagine Seven Sydney was much the same as this was on the basis of them both carrying News Overnight from NBC/CNN from 1985. Ten in Sydney and Melbourne went 24/7 in 1987 but were broadcasting overnight on Friday/Saturday nights from about 1984.

Also to be found on that listing: Nine running soaps from 10.30am to 4.00pm breaking only for The Mike Walsh Show at midday.

And Number 96 re-runs at midnight on Ten. That was a Sydney-only thing.

The Big Valley was one of Nine’s regular rotation of 5.15am titles during the '80s. Dangerman and The Seaway also got regular runs in that timeslot during the 1980s. Nine were still running repeats of Dangerman and The Seaway on Gem in recent years.

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Thanks for that!
Very interesting read.

Never knew it was Seven who broadcasted Origin back in 1980, or that their 6pm news was a Sydney local bulletin followed by national news at 6.30pm.

Also odd that the guide has the order of stations as 7-2-9 then 10,
Not sure what the logic is there!

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My guess is because the guide is from The Sydney Morning Herald, who’s parent company Fairfax also owned ATN-7 back then! :slight_smile:

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Seven in Sydney was owned by Fairfax who owned the Sydney Morning Herald, so it got first position in the listings.

TV Week used to do the same in the old days by preferencing 9, which it was linked to then, in its order of channels.

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Sydney TV guide 17-18 July, 1976 Montreal Olympics Opening Ceremony live coverage on ATN7, TCN9, ABN2. At the time I found it strange watching the likes of the ABC’s Norman May and TCN9’s Ron Casey on all three channels. There was some controversy (and I think it was 1976 and not 1972), that Nine wanted to show extra Olympic coverage from ABC America, apart from the shared coverage over the two weeks, but ABC and Seven refused to give Nine permission. (Nine had the rights to ABC’s Wide World of Sports and often showed what was billed as a “Special International Edition” on Sunday afternoon).

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Yes! The Daily Telegraph heavily favoured TCN-9 in its early years as both were owned by Frank Packer.

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The Seven Sydney News didn’t last. It was advertised as “Sydney you’re big enough to have your own news”. Other programs Seven tried at 6:00pm were Willesee at Six, and when that failed Makin Time hosted by then Willesse reporter Paul Makin.

Thanks, I suspected it didn’t last long,

…and here’s a promo for “Seven Sydney News” from 1980, with thanks to Conniptions886 for the upload:

I’m guessing that the Seven Sydney News/Seven National News combo of bulletins was some sort of failed attempt at emulating the US-style local news at 6pm and national news (although somehow I doubt that Seven National News wasn’t even actually national, despite the Seven Sydney News bulletin!) at 6.30pm?

Although in any case, Seven didn’t really do that well in the Sydney news ratings back in the 1980s did they?

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Seven National News from Sydney would have been relayed to various regional stations in NSW/ACT though. Likewise, Seven National News from Melbourne was broadcast across all regional VIctorian stations (and I think also SES8 in Mount Gambier) up until 1987.

With regards to Olympics coverage. I recall Nine did want to mount its own “exclusive” coverage in addition to the pooled coverage with Seven and ABC. I think that was the reason for Nine to stay on-air overnight broadcasting Olympic events, results and highlights as they came in overnight, whereas ABC and Seven were tied to just daily one-hour highlights packages.

Meanwhile, the 0-10 network opted to stay out of the pooled Olympic coverage, presenting only news reports in its evening news.

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Funny to think that all commercial stations went 24/7 in the Late 80s in Melbourne/Sydney, yet here in Perth TVW didn’t go 24/7 until 2000. While STW9 seemed to have fully local 24/7 operation, the NEW10 feed in the late 90s in Perth seemed to be a dirty feed overnight (I remember the early morning repeats of Sports Tonight having Sydney ads).

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During the late 1980s and early 90s even Ten in Melbourne used to get a dirty feed from Ten in Sydney overnight, complete with ads, differing PRG’s etc.

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Apparently Seven National News did quite well in Sydney during the late '70s and very early '80s. Roger Climpson was widely respected and popular at the time. This Is Your Life was huge when he was hosting it so that would’ve helped Seven’s news ratings. It took a while for Nine’s News to recover from the failed News Centre Nine experiment with Henderson and Hitchener.

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It was similar in Melbourne, where 9 went to the extreme lengths of first getting Eric Pearce out of retirement to read the news (He’d retired in 1972). That was not successful. So then they manage to get Brian Naylor in a weak moment to move across from Seven which of course became a very successful move but it didn’t get Nine to #1 straight away.

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Wh[quote=“littlegezzybear, post:392, topic:137, full:true”]
Sydney television guide from 1980, notable for the telecast of the first State of Origin match on ATN7, and it being the era of John Singleton’s atrocious talk show on TEN10. Also, noticed Nine were broadcasting 24/7, yet Seven and Ten at that time opened at 9:00am on weekdays.
[/quote]

What I’m amazed with (and was just a tad too young to remember, probably) is that Seven had Sydney news at 6 and a National News bulletin at 6.30.

Does anyone remember a Yoplait commercial where the boy says "when i grow up i want to be a fireman’?

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