But it happened on a Sunday didn’t it?
Yeah, happened on a Sunday afternoon/Monday morning so the first breakfast shows would have been Monday morning.
I was an avid Agro/Cheez TV viewer in 1997 I don’t recall any special bulletin that interrupted those shows (it’s the type of thing I would remember and get very angry at lol). I think Sunrise aired before Agro anyway so no doubt that would’ve comprehensively covered the massacre.
Ahhh Cheez TV, once Agro disappeared we had nothing in Tasmania. Only the little kids shows on the ABC because there was Sunrise or Today. Kids these days don’t understand how good they have it when they say there’s nothing on TV!
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Some coverage from Seven Nightly News (I had previously just uploaded the opner - this includes some of the stories)
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Why can’t they make TV magic again?
This is the NBC Today coverage from the day before. That was Sunday morning for the US and at the time there were still hostages being held by Martin Bryant. It was the first story on the news and the show opened discussing the events. There was vision from Tasmania and crosses by telephone to Dean Allen-Craig from Seven.
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What TV network here had Unsolved Mysteries? I can’t remember if it was Seven or Ten.
I’m pretty sure that Unsolved Mysteries aired on Ten (during the Late '90s I think), although it’s quite possible that the show may have switched networks at some stage.
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It did air on Ten but Seven had it originally (late '80s/early’90s).
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By the time the mid 90s came around it was a Saturday Night staple in the 10 lineup.
Some more stunning promotional clips from the conversion of TV0 to Channel Ten:
YouTube: FlemishDog
The “simple” instructions in the second clip don’t seem to bear any resemblance to the demonstration being shown on screen. Anyone puzzled about tuning their TV would have been more befuddled by this explanation! 
The bizarre thing though, that’s evident across the whole campaign at the time, was the unusual use of the 008 prefix. It’s shown with brackets, indicating that it’s an optional number sequence, when really it never was. 008 (like its successor 1800) were always followed with 6 digits and you had to dial the full number.
Perhaps Ten showed some initiative and managed to secure both 008 878 001 (with a superfluous ‘0’) and a local number 878 0010 so viewers could either dial the local Brisbane number or do the 008 option. (and some telephone trivia: the 008/1800 numbers were initially not free calls. They were local call cost only. “Toll Free” just indicated no STD (or distance) charge. Callers still paid the local component. Eventually they were made into free call numbers and 13/1300 were introduced to be the local call charge numbers)
If that was case with the numbers then Ten were quite clever cookies 
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878 0010 was for Brisbane 07 area code viewers and the toll free number was anyone that would otherwise have needed to make an STD call . At the time Gold Coast area code was 075; Sunshine Coast 074 etc.
There were lots of guides broadcast at the time - check out the one the kids undertake at 2:00
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That’s what I was saying that it was quite smart to have local and toll-free options essentially covered by the same number (i.e. 878 0010 for Brisbane local, or 008 878 001(0) for elsewhere), because it was unusual to do so. Most companies i seem to recall would have a local number and a completely different toll-free number for elsewhere.
The first time I ever saw a 008 number was for one of ATV10’s telethons in the early 1980s. I think it was something like 008 123 123. At that time, probably for good marketing and because there would have been heaps of combinations available), I seem to recall a lot of the early 008 numbers were 3-digits repeated, e.g. 008 123 123 or 008 234 234, etc.
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It was a good idea - I hadn’t picked up on the “extra )” at the end until your post though. It was probably made a bit easier, because IIRC phone numbers starting with 8 had only recently been introduced - previously they all started with 2 or 3; so there was probably some freedom in selecting a number.
Very sad to hear of the passing of Bruce Mansfield. My earliest memories of him are of reading the news at Channel 0 and being the “voice” of Channel 0 and later 10.
I met him many years ago when I was doing some volunteer work at 3INR-FM (Inner FM in Heidelberg) when it first started and Bruce Mansfield presented the drive time program there with Bruce Skeggs (founder of TV Week). Both lovely gentlemen. Bruce Skeggs passed away a few years ago.
I found this snippet from the Listener In-TV from 1967, with some viewers’ letters about both Bruce Mansfield and Philip Brady… then working apart at 3XY and IMT respectively… Their career paths crossed at GTV9 in the 1960s and then again in the 1970s at ATV 0, with Bruce reading the news and Phil hosting game shows. Then in 1990 they were to be the temporary hosts of Nightline at 3AW… and they stayed on… apart from a break in 2000 they continued working together until last year.
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A 1971 ident used on GTV9 featuring the voice of Bruce Mansfield.
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YouTube: mashfan72
Some interesting rare colour footage from 1974. HSV7’s coverage of the VFL Grand Final. Although TV was still transmitting in black and white in September 1974 most stations had converted their production facilities well in advance and test colour transmissions were to begin in October that year.
Interesting to note how low key the telecast was compared to OTT nature of coverage nowadays. As soon as the match is over, roll credits and end of the coverage. No mention of any sponsor or product placement, either. How times have changed!
HSV7’s coverage would have been relayed live to other states but Victorians were still restricted only to having night time replays of the Grand Final. There was the possibility of a live telecast to Victoria this particular year (via ABC and/or Seven) but GF ticket sales had been sluggish and failure to sell out all tickets would have even restricted the night time replays to highlights only. I’d need to research more but apparently there was also some industrial dispute that also prevented live broadcast of the match to Victoria that year.
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First live telecast of the GF into Melbourne on 7 apparently was the 77 Draw, and that was only after HSV had purchased the final tickets. They invested something like $250K for the rights as well, then invested the same amount for the replay the next week.
There wasn’t a lot of pre match chatter from what I recall of the GF telecasts up until 7 lost the rights in 2001. From about 1982 (when they first did all 3 grades on GF day) it was basically call one match, lead into another, then into the single pre match singer generally dressed poorly (Daryl Somers 1987 was the worst) and backed by either a choir or marching band (it wasn’t until 1993 when several indigenous artists took part), a quick preview of the teams, national anthem, then into the GF. It wasn’t until 1988 that you even got a lot of the post match after the medal ceremony, which was first held in 1977 (they just presented the cup until 1976). 1985 for example saw HSV do only one live post match interview with Kevin Sheedy, take the medal presentation, cover the lap of honour then roll the credits.
Once 10 got the rights in 2002, Fox Footy version 1 had the rights to the TAC Cup game which was played until about 2007 on GF Day (since moved to before the VFL GF which is the week before the AFL GF, hasn’t been a curtain raiser since 2008 when they had a couple of Under 16 National Championship games on) and they had to fill with something, so they filled with all the pre match crappy banter and filler material that they had so well rehearsed in during their Melbourne Cup and Bathurst telecasts.
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IIRC sport was one the only program type allowed in the very first colour test transmissions. It seems that there was a scramble to find suitable sports that could be broadcast. In Brisbane TVQ had tennis from down south. BTQ broadcast the first live Queensland originated colour program that was coverage of the 57th GPS (Great Public Schools) athletics meeting! Not particularly riveting stuff!