It would’ve been an exciting day for television viewers in Tasmania 25 years ago today. After more than three decades of one commercial broadcaster covering the south of the state and one covering the north, viewers finally had a choice of two when aggregation came to Tasmania.
Hobart based TasTV (now WIN) took the Nine affiliation and Launceston based Southern Cross took dual Seven and Ten affiliation. It was always fun to look at the television listings for Southern Cross before TDT launched in 2003 to see how they married the Seven and Ten schedule to compete against the top rating Nine content on WIN.
So many shows we missed out on, full launch of TDT wasn’t really until 2004 either and even then they were only in Hobart for several months.
It was also quite a few years before Southern Cross eventually dropped all their Ten programming. During the early years of TDT there were a lot of nights with several hours of Simpsons replacing other Ten programming pinched to be shown on Southern Cross exclusively.
I remember the launch of TasTV though. Dad had tuned the TV in (none of this new fangled auto tuning or remote controls) and we now had doubled our channels by having SBS added to the mix as well. No more only ABC and Southern Cross.
Did your family stick predominantly with the Southern Cross shows you always watched pre aggregation or did you dive into the TasTV Nine shows that were popular on the mainland that you’d been missing out on ?
Hard to remember as I was still very much an ABC watcher for the kids shows but I think in general we watched a reasonable mix. We’ve always been Southern Cross News viewers, although at times in the late 90’s that had changed to WIN but that was mainly because we’d always watched Burgo’s Catch Phrase with tea. I remember watching Sale of the Century though but also Neighbours and Home and Away on Southern Cross so it was still a mix. Southern Cross traditionally romped it in with the ratings by having both channels so I think that also played a big factor - things like Blue Heelers, All Saints, Picket Fences, NYPD Blue were all things we/mum watched and were all SC content.
Thanks for the Tasmania posts. I’ve always thought of Tasmania as quite a small state, so the idea of two distinct and separate television markets is quite surprising in some ways. Prior to aggregation (and since, I guess) how much of the state was covered by the Launceston and Hobart television markets/signals? Was there an overlap area between the two cities where viewers could - if they wished - receive signals from both TasTV and SCTV?
Nowadays, parts of Tasmania are still not served by either market and are part of the VAST/Remote and Central market. Which areas does this apply to - is it coastal places that are distant from the two major cities, and/or pockets/valleys inland where terrestrial signals can’t get to? [I was surprised to learn that some areas of Regional NSW and VIC, reasonably close to Sydney and Melbourne, can only get signals via VAST and therefore receive the Remote and Central TV channels].
Not sure specifically about areas that might have got both but there were a few little pockets I believe in random places, I think the Risdon Road/Brooker Avenue intersection in New Town in Hobart was one as it can pick up clearly radio stations from the North and I’m pretty sure I’ve heard elsewhere that it was possible in the past. There may have also been a couple of similar places in Launceston and Devonport, Deloraine and other places as well where you can also currently get the radio stations reasonably clearly.
I know people in inner-suburban Melbourne who rely on VAST for their TV reception!
There was a cafe in the CBD (now closed) which had VAST channels on their television. The tall skyscrapers made reception of Melbourne channels especially on digital impossible! And a sports pub in an inner-city suburb had a VAST setup, in the days before Fox Footy telecast every match of every round live, and Ch7 screened Sunday afternoon footy on delay, this pub carried these AFL matches live via Southern Cross Seven Central and GWN7. And it was perfectly legal due to them being in a poor (over the air TV) reception area.
Thought I’d bring up a reality TV show that aired on Seven during the noughties - The Mole.
This show has produced some memorable alumni -
Alan Mason, became the adjudicator on the Australian version of The Weakest Link (in which the nine remaining contestants from the 2002 season featured on, winning a record low $14,100).
Shane Jolley, hosted a travel show called Luxury Guides on Channel Ten. I also recall he hosted a show on Seven - just can’t remember what it was called.
Petrina Edge, became a movie producer.
Liz Cantor, now a weather presenter on Seven Gold Coast News.
On the topic of The Weakest Link - as some of you may know, a young Brydon Coverdale appeared on the show in 2001 and is now “The Shark” on The Chase Australia.
Those who watched an ep of The Chase Australia in February may have also noticed contestant Graham K Furness; he also appeared on TWL in 2001. Coincidentally, Brydon was the Chaser on this particular ep.
There is a pub in the Sydney CBD in a similar position, I saw some of the Ashes and BBL cricket on there in the summer of 2017/18, but now with the FOXTEL simulcasts, they show that instead.
An Canberra Museum and Gallery exhibition from 2016 for a large Doctor Who collection has the owner stating something in back of those promotional TARDIS cutouts.
He claims that he got into Doctor Who via ABC afternoon repeats of the Tom Baker era in the late 80s, but was shocked when the new Sylvester Mccoy episodes started airing, but he got used to it and he was his favourite doctor ever since.
30 years today since the first episode of Media Watch (a television program which IMO, the Australian media landscape is all the better for having) went to air on ABC-TV with Stuart Littlemore!
Axed in 2000 before being revived in 2002, the program would later be hosted by Richard Ackland, David Marr, Liz Jackson (RIP ), Monica Attard, Jonathan Holmes and of course, three time presenter Paul Barry.
), Monica Attard, Jonathan Holmes and of course, three time presenter Paul Barry.