Most of TV3’s main frequencies were VHF. VHF spectrum had been allocated for the third service early on - UHF had nothing to do with their financial difficulties (that was an excused dolled out by TVNZ to explain the demise of MTV).
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A bit late, sure, but it’s been 20 years since C4 launched (October 3rd).
Personally, I only remember the brief time between the launch of Four and C4’s eventual death for The Edge TV when it was simply a music jukebox channel. Kiwi music TV has never been the same.
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I don’t think C4 quite fits that bill - go back to the 90’s with Max, Cry and Juice. But then, I never really liked the first iteration of C4.
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A One News special presentation from December 23 2001 - Sir Peter Blake’s memorial service which was held on a Sunday morning at Auckland Domain.
Always remembered that they got Richard and Judy to front this.
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One Network News - Death of Princess Diana, 31 August 1997
This is the One Network News 6pm bulletin from the night Princess Diana died fronted by Tom Bradley and Alison Mau - just saw it tonight for the first time since the day itself.
I think weekend bulletins were still half an hour at that point but this extended out to 90 minutes to weave a documentary and clips ‘off the satellite’. I can vaguely remember watching it going out at the time. If it were now it would be rolling coverage but a different time and NZ probably wasn’t as plugged in globally as we are now.
There’s a few seconds missing at the start - my recollection was it opened with that montage and no opener but I’m going back 26 years! And I’m not sure if they had dropped in some extra news coverage before 6pm.
The news was broken earlier in the day, not sure if this is the first clip or not:
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@OnAir As a television expert I was shocked to learn that, as at New Year’s Day 2024, The Radio Vault has disappeared and its YouTube channel was closed down. But I would like to gratefully acknowledge and thank the team from The Radio Vault for all their hard work in recent times.
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I’d be interested in knowing why they closed their channel.
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Has been discussed a bit in the radio thread - they’ve got history doing this sort of stuff.
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In August 1988 TVXTRA became New Zealand’s pioneer in ‘narrowcasting’ television service.
Initially targeted towards hotels and hospitality businesses, the service offered its subscribers 6.5 hours of content per week, including sport, music and racing. Despite managing to attract about 350 hotels, pubs and clubs nationwide, TVXTRA’s goal of reaching 500 subscribers by April 1989 was not achieved.
TVXTRA was a collaboration between TVNZ and National Leisure, a subsidiary of Lion Nathan (now Lion). The production of the programmes was handled by Communicado (now Screentime NZ), an independent production company that also produced That’s Fairly Interesting for TVNZ at the time.
The narrowcasting system involved the use of coded signals broadcast on Network Two (now TVNZ 2). Subscribers were required to have decoders attached to their VCRs, set to record automatically overnight while Network Two was off air. The recorded content could then be played at any convenient time in the subscribers’ businesses. Those without decoders would only see a scrambled signal, which would display a significant amount of interference.
From Monday to Thursday viewers could expect two hours of sporting coverage, focused on rugby and league games on Mondays and Tuesdays respectively, plus a two-hour music show on Wednesdays and a half hour racing programme on Thursdays. The sports programmes featured a variety of sports, with a particular focus on rugby and league. The racing show, also available to TAB outlets, offered previews and tips designed to be aired repeatedly throughout the day.
Leading the sports programmes were Greg Clark and Belinda Todd, with Todd also hosting the Wednesday music show called Rheineck Rock. TVNZ sports presenter Phillip Leishman and racing writer Mike Dillon served as hosts for the Thursday racing show, titled Inside Running.
According to Julian Bond, a spokesperson for Lion Nathan during that time, the introduction of a narrowcasting service aimed to bring televised entertainment to New Zealanders in various establishments such as clubs, hotels, motels and hospitals. The goal was to utilise the expected deregulation of broadcasting. Although initially an informal partnership, TVNZ and National Leisure intended to form a formal joint venture, known as TVXTRA Corporation Limited, in the future.
Moreover, Bond clarified that the service was not solely for Lion hotels but was initially offered to strategically located hotels. This led to subscribers from Dominion Breweries outlets as well as numerous independent hotels and private clubs.
Unfortunately, TVXTRA ceased to exist in April 1989 due to the withdrawal of TVNZ and Lion Nathan from the venture.
Newspaper advertisement courtesy of The Press (Christchurch), digitised by Papers Past in conjunction with Christchurch City Libraries. No copyright infringement intended.
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Nice wee article there, Paddy. A rather fascinating bit of NZ telly history there.
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This image of the Goodnight Kiwi accidentally breaking one of the control room TV monitors with the handle of the broom is what you see when TV1 or TV2 was experiencing technical problems back in the mid-1980’s.
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Those were the days.
From February 1980, it was Television New Zealand
GOODBYE SPTV
South Pacific Television (SPTV) came to an end on the evening of Friday 15 February 1980 as it aired its final programme, The Goodbye Show, which lasted for two hours.
Introduced by Peter Sinclair, The Goodbye Show was a nostalgic and emotional retrospective of SPTV’s most beloved programmes, both local and international. The special paid tribute to the diverse range of entertainment that SPTV provided over the years, including sport, news, current affairs, dramas, comedies and light entertainment.
The Goodbye Show showcased memorable clips from popular international shows such as Dad’s Army, Welcome Back Kotter, Upstairs Downstairs, Shabby Tiger, Starsky & Hutch, The Love Boat and The Hellstrom Chronicle. It also featured well-known local productions like Sing, A Week of It, Radio Waves, Lost and Found, Perspective, Hunter’s Gold and Telethon 1975 and 1979.
In addition to honouring the programmes, The Goodbye Show also celebrated the talented personalities who graced SPTV’s screens over the years. This included Doug Armstrong, Tracy Barr, Tom Bradley, Neil Collins, Terence Cooper, Andrew Hawthorn, George Henare, Ernie Leonard, Ray Columbus, Philip Sherry, David McPhail and Jon Gadsby. Sadly, some of whom (including Peter Sinclair as host) are no longer with us.
HELLO TVNZ
Television New Zealand (TVNZ) debuted on Saturday 16 February 1980 and introduced a revamped two-channel system.
TV One, under the direction of TVNZ, launched at 10am with Tucker’s Turf Talk, a racing preview programme presented by Glyn Tucker. Shortly after, at noon, the new TV2 began its programming with the iconic US soap, Search for Tomorrow.
TV One and TV2’s rebranding under TVNZ aimed to provide us as New Zealanders with an improved viewing experience such as regional news, special interest programmes in primetime, a clear choice of programmes and much more.
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By my reckoning this clip aired at about 3:30pm NZ time*. I suspect it was indeed the first one, at least announcing her death (don’t know if there would have been any newsflashes about the crash earlier in the day).
*I can show my working if anyone’s interested!
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A full One News bulletin from January 2010:
Read by Greg Boyed and Miriama Kamo, with Andrew Saville and Karen Olsen. Look for a live cross with Anderson Cooper (!!!) around 9 minutes in.
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Just went to TVNZ+ and noticed that clips from Issues and Give Us a Clue were shown in the groundbreaking 1994 film, Once Were Warriors.
In fact, both shows were New Zealand-made and screened on TV3 (now Three) during 1993.
Geoff Steven, a programme commissioner for TV3 at the time, was credited at the end of that film and the film itself had a ‘world television premiere’ in April 1996.
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3 News update from 2000 with the legendary Darren McDonald:
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This month in history
@OnAir @NuStraya @LiamP One of Lotto’s original co-hosts, Ann Wilson, left the show in May 1988, according to Phil Prosser, marketing manager for the NZ Lotteries Commission (now Lotto NZ) at the time.
She had decided to further her showbiz career and joined the Australian production of The Rocky Horror Show at the end of that month.
Later that year, the late Kerry Smith (better known to fans of the hit TVNZ drama from the 80s, Gloss, as Magda McGrath) joined Doug Harvey as co-host of the live Lotto draw. By the time Lotto moved to Wellington in 1992, actress Marise Wipani took over the reins (in 1990, in fact).
Sadly, after a distinguished career in television and radio, Kerry died in 2011.
All photos: Supplied.
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A couple of TV3 memorbilia photos on the Fairfax Archives May Auction:
Kiri Kea talks to Deputy Prime Minister Helen Clark for E.B.S.
Moana Maniapoto-Jackson has joined TV3’s E.B.S. show Saturday Mornings
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@TV4 Kiri Kea hosted a weekly segment called Kiri Kea’s Chatz, in which the puppet kea (puppeteered and voiced by Katie Brockie) talks to a variety of local and overseas guests about their childhood. That segment was featured in the Sunday edition of the Early Bird Show (EBS).
Moana initially joined the EBS team in early 1991 along with Phil Keoghan, formerly of 3.45 Live! (which was axed by TVNZ a year earlier). They co-hosted the Hot Summer Music Show and, later, TVFM as part of the Saturday edition of EBS before Ya Hoo came along in April that year.
While EBS was aimed at a much younger audience with an earlier 7-9am slot on weekend mornings, Ya Hoo was shown at a later time (9-11am) on Saturday mornings and featured a mix of games, guests, competitions and live music, plus such shows as Hey Vern, It’s Ernest!, Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future and many more - all of which were catered for an older audience, i.e. 10-14 year olds.
By mid-1991, the axing of Shakedown (or Coca-Cola Shakedown due to sponsorship) led to the reintroduction of the TVFM brand. This revived show was a live, late-night music programme that showcased adult rock, phone-in requests, competitions and outside studio links. Initially named TVFM Rocks, it later became Coca-Cola TVFM or Coca-Cola TVFM Rocks (again, due to sponsorship). This show went to air live on Saturday nights. Following it was a chart-oriented format, initially known as TVFM Countdown, which later transformed into Coca-Cola TVFM Talk-Free Zone or Coca-Cola TVFM Hits. This two-hour show screened in a 9-11am slot on Sunday mornings.
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