Thanks for posting that article. I certainly didn’t have issues receiving the VHF signals clearly when I lived in the North Sydney/Neutral Bay areas during the '90s. I wasn’t even aware there were issue with reception at that location. I’m guessing the areas affected were those closer to the harbour foreshore.
OOoh those Ten PRG with the brackets … pissed me off as 15 year old!! and still grinds my anger today! Grrr I am so mad that I saw that again! 
Who in their right mind creating that presentation thought putting brackets and then the text of the programing in italics was fundamental awesome? It made Ten look like English oxymoron with a caffeine problem.
The One To Watch graphics on Seven were the best I thought ,personally.
I never watched Channel 9 back then, I always viewed Channel Nine as the forbidden channel in my house. We never watched channel Nine. EVER. So I wouldn’t remember what kind of presentation they had back then.
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Yes, the areas lower down on the North Shore that didn’t have a good LOS back to Artarmon/Willoughby/Gore Hill would have been served by Kings Cross.
Also those very close to anyone of those 3 TXs would have found those retransmissions useful so they didn’t need 3 VHF antennas pointed in 3 different directions,
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I think they started around 1986-87.
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Another NBN gem. Big Dog had his own show
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I’d say that you were deprived of something special. I’m not sure about everyone else but personally, I think that Channel Nine’s On-Air Presentation from the '80s up until they dropped the dots from the logo in 2006 was for the most part, absolutely outstanding and probably among the best that Australian TV has ever seen.
Of course Seven & Ten have also had some decent graphics packages over the years, but I definitely think that Nine’s use of animation, music and voiceovers made much of their pre-2006 On-Air Presentation almost as memorable as the popular, ratings topping programs they aired during. 
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That was their biggest mistake. Ever. Glad the dots are back.
I never liked “We heart TV” stuff, made it sound like a romance channel.
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Big Dog & Friends - Halloween Special 
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Back in the days where Nine were very inconsistent, changing their graphics regularly (IIRC they had one which lasted only 6 months). So much better now.
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So true. It just seemed like change for change’s sake, plus it took away affiliates’ visual assocation with the Nine Network, which gave an unnecessary opening to WIN who never restored the dots.
Just look at how valuable to Nine’s current branding those dots are (not just providing that visual association with their secondary channels).
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It looked better though - Nine’s initial package after the relaunch in January 2006 was great.
The whole channel had a clean and consistent look and sound - now Nine’s logo looks different on the news to regular programming, and their other elements are an inconsistent mess.
The 2006-era Nightline titles are probably my second favourite TV presentation element, just all well put together (with the Seven production ender of the 90s being number 1).
Seven’s logo change is the one that should have been reversed, not Nine.
It was identical to FOX US’ presentation.
It looked better on analogue back in 2006, but the whole 2006 look has aged horribly. The overreliance on blue and orange and the use of Times New Roman (yes, that was there from Jan 2006).
Meanwhile, most of Nine’s presentation from 2003 would still be fine today. It’s incredible how well that CGI was done that it manages to look somewhat better than Nine’s efforts today.
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It was a fantastic package, but I don’t think it was suited for a network like Nine. It would have worked really well for a premium drama channel.
It sure has. They also started mucking around with it towards the end of 2006 (the warehouse look) which ruined it.
Nine never used Times New Roman. It was Drajan Trajan Pro which is a really nice font. I reckon the designers would roll in their grave if anyone associated their work with Times New Roman 
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Trajan?
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That’s the one! Whoops
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30 years ago this month, one of the most controversial moments in Australian Television took place when Alan Bond bought TCN-9 and GTV-9 from Kerry Packer for for an unprecedented $1,055,000,000 to complement STW-9 and QTQ-9 and form Australia’s first coast to coast network.
The Hawke Government’s 1986 media reform paved the way for national networks to become a reality with astute players like Packer and Lowy keen to hit the big time. Alan Bond also had the same idea and wasn’t going to let anything get in his way to make it happen.
After previously meeting in late 1986, Packer and Bond met again in January 1987 and it was here that a deal was agreed to after a much heated discussion and negotiation with the National Australia Bank. The final transaction took place on March 31st 1987 and Bond was officially in charge of the Nine Network (TCN/GTV/QTQ/STW)
NWS-9 Adelaide continued to be an affiliate of the Nine Network during this time under ownership of the Parry Corporation which also owned NBN-3 Newcastle.
From then subtle on air changes started to be made to STW-9 and QTQ-9 to bring them into line with TCN/GTV. Up until becoming a Nine O&O station, STW’s promos and graphics were a dogs breakfast, however the biggest change once they became O&O was the rebranding of “Channel 9 News” to National Nine News with Peter Waltham defecting from rival TVW-7 to join Anne Conti on the 6pm news a couple of months after the Bond takeover of Nine. This was a partnership that would last 5 years and it was probably STW’s most succesful era in the ratings. STW-9 dominated the news in Perth between 1988 and 1990.
Also Hey Hey It’s Saturday made its debut on STW-9 in 1987 not long after Aussat launched meaning it could be beamed from the East Coast to WA with minimal cost.
STW-9 would only be an O&O station for a couple of years as Bond was forced to sell in 1989 due to breach of cross media laws, and it was quite a while before they rejoined the Nine family in 2013.
Packer once again took control of Nine in July 1990. He was able to convert $250 million subordinated debt into a 37 percent stake in Bond Media which now included QTQ-9 Brisbane and worth about $500 million. Reflecting on the whole episode, Packer famously said “You only get one Alan Bond in your lifetime and I’ve had mine”
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These days we’re a lot looser with what can be permitted on TV.
But would a major network news bulletin air a piece of footage like this in these modern times?
WARNING: Footage is of a plane crash. It’s relatively close up and you can see the lady wing walker get thrown around like a dog toy during the crash.
A reason to more cautious now is larger TVs with clearer (HD) pictures, so what used to be blurry may now be very clear.
There is still some really awful quality footage that gets used in some of today’s news stories.
Some of the video cameras on today’s mobile phones aren’t very good at all (certainly nothing wrong with the ones on the flagship phones like the iPhone7).
And also how some people persist in filming stuff in portrait mode (ie. 9:16 rather than 16:9 format) doesn’t help either.
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