On This Day

That was much later on in the 1968 bushfires.

1 Like

19 March 2007: the final two episodes of Love My Way are broadcast on Showtime channel on Foxtel, ending its three-season run.

1 Like

20 March 1970: Bert Newton hosts the TV Week Logie Awards from the Southern Cross Hotel, Melbourne. Barry Crocker (Barry Crocker’s The Sound Of Music) and Maggie Tabberer (Maggie) won the Gold Logies for Most Popular Male and Female Personality, and a special Gold Logie was awarded to the Apollo 11 team for “providing TV’s greatest moment” with the moon landing.

20 March 1972: BTQ7, Brisbane, launches what it claims to be Australia’s first one-hour news service, The Big News.

btq7_bignews

20 March 1989: The Seven Network revamps its early afternoons with The Bert Newton Show (12pm) and soapie The Power, The Passion (1pm) to go up against Midday on Nine. It is an ill-fated venture, with TPTP eventually left to play out its remaining episodes in a late night timeslot, with the Newton show quietly wound up at the end of the year.

BTQ7_bertnewton

6 Likes

I remember recording both, watching when I got home from school and not being particularly impressed with either show.

1 Like

I don’t remember ever recording them but I watched The Power The Passion during the next school holidays. I don’t have any particular memory of it except that I thought it was odd seeing Jane Clifton all glammed up with big hair and earrings, etc, when I was more accustomed to seeing her as glum Prisoner inmate Margo Gaffney :grin:

I recorded it for the first couple of weeks but I quickly lost interest.

22 March 1987: After 28 years and 1355 episodes, World Of Sport finally comes to an end. A victim of the Fairfax-led purge of HSV7 following its recent takeover of the station. The Melbourne-based Newsworld, newsreader Mal Walden, current affairs show Day By Day and the familiar “Hello Melbourne” jingle would soon fall to a similar fate, as HSV7 (apart from the evening news) becomes almost a relay station of ATN7.

If you wanted to judge yesterday’s final show by modern standards of television presentation, it was an appalling three hours of mushy nostalgia, boring interviews and insufferable commercial breaks all thrown together in a format which was old hat 15 years ago

But ‘WOS’ could never be dismissed like any other bad TV show. For more than a quarter of a century Victorians happily ignored its glaring and often embarrassing faults to make it a top-rating show.

6 Likes

22 March 1965: TVQ0 Brisbane begins test transmissions ahead of its official launch in July

Source: TV Week

7 Likes

26 March 1999: WIN Television officially opens in regional WA as a joint Nine-Ten affiliate, and operating from the NEW10 studios in Perth. Although, it was reported that the station had been broadcasting news bulletins the day before with coverage around the recent Cyclone Vance that had swept over the state.

Friday 26 March 1999 (not taking into account the last minute change to broadcast some programming the previous day)

5.30pm Ten News
6.30 A Current Affair
7pm WIN Television Western Australia Official Launch
7.30 Friends
8pm The Nanny
8.30 Movie: Casino
11.40 Nightline
12.10 Swimming: Australian Championship
1.40am Rugby: Melbourne Storm vs Canterbury
3.50 The Late Show
4.50 Outer Bounds
5am Wild West Cowboys Of Moo Mesa
5.30 Zorro


26 March 2009: Network Ten launches its first multi-channel, One HD, a 24-hour sports channel in High Definition. After the half-hour introduction to the channel, the first sports coverage in Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth is the opening round AFL clash between Richmond and Carlton from the MCG. The Swimming Australia SKINS event was the first sports coverage in Sydney and Brisbane from 8.00pm.

YouTube: TTSWOWPS

10 Likes

27 March 1998: Seven Darwin, Darwin’s second commercial TV station, is officially opened. The new station, call-sign TND34, is operated by Telecasters North Queensland (i.e. Ten Queensland) from Townsville.

7darwin_launch

Source: NT News

8 Likes

28 March 1971: All four networks cover an interview with Prince Philip in Adelaide. The Prince is touring Australia to commemorate the golden jubilee celebration of the Royal Australian Air Force. Reporters representing each network in the interview are Robert Moore (ABC), Bruce Webster (Seven), Tim Hewat (Nine) and Geoff Raymond (0-10).

In Melbourne, Seven and Nine both follow up the interview with a simulcast screening of the special Now Or Never, a documentary focusing on conservation, narrated by Prince Philip.

28 March 1983: TVW7 debuts its new morning show The Late Late Breakfast Show, hosted by Tedd Bull and Jenny Seaton.

4 Likes

30 March 1989: At midnight tonight (technically, 31 March), aggregation comes to Canberra and Wollongong, with Prime launching in both markets, WIN launching in Canberra, and Capital launching in Wollongong. It’s the first stage of the government’s policy of aggregation of regional television markets.

prime1988win_1989ctc7_0004

Even on its last day before aggregation, Ten affiliate Capital is still showing Midday With Ray Martin and Days Of Our Lives from Nine. It’s unclear if it was a seamless transition for viewers watching DOOL going from Capital on the 30th to WIN on the 31st, although it’s possible both WIN and Capital were relaying the show direct from Nine anyway rather than playing off tape. I’m sure there would have been complaints from fans if they’d had to suffer any skip in episodes :stuck_out_tongue:

3 Likes

Had a lot of trouble deciding which channel to record and which to watch that night. I ended up channel surfing through all three. I was most excited for Capital because the pre publicity for their news was impressive. The Illawarra was getting their very own news window in a bulletin that covered national and international news. They came on air with the least fanfare, however.

3 Likes

31 March 1962: The TV Week Logie Awards are held at the Chevron Hotel, Melbourne. Tommy Hanlon Jnr and Lorrae Desmond win the Gold Logies – with Desmond being the first female, and the first ABC personality, to win a Gold Logie.

A half-hour telecast of the awards is broadcast live on ABV2, with the coverage delayed into other states.

logies_1962

31 March 1989: The first day of aggregation in Canberra and Wollongong. Prime presents one-hour episodes of daily soaps The Power, The Passion and Home And Away to introduce them to Canberra/Wollongong viewers, and later presents a one-hour opening night special. Prime Local News and WIN Nightly News makes their debuts in Canberra. The WIN bulletin is quite a train wreck!

YouTube: Tasmanian Life

4 Likes

**7 April 2012 ** Brett Kirk’s weird Saturday arvo footy intro prior to Essendon vs Port Adelaide which has gone viral online

8 Likes
3 Likes

12 April 1997: Former Melbourne newsreader Sir Eric Pearce dies at the age of 92. From a career in radio he became one of Melbourne’s first TV presenters when HSV7 opened in November 1956, but less than a year later he moved over to GTV9 to read the news on and off for around 20 years, and continued to work as Director of Community Affairs at Nine for many years after. He was knighted in 1979.

7 Likes

13 April 1970: ATV0 debuts its first drama series, an in-house production (Ansett Television Films) titled The Long Arm. A police drama that appeared to have an impressive cast of regulars and guest performers but it was ultimately short-lived.

YouTube: tvaustralia1

13 April 1980: ABC’s Countdown presents the first TV Week Rock Music Awards, live from the Comedy Theatre in Melbourne. The awards are the successor to the former TV Week King Of Pop Awards that last appeared in 1978.

Source: TV Week

13 April 1987: HSV7 relaunches Seven National News as a one-hour bulletin and at the new time of 6.00, introducing newsreader Greg Pearce formerly from STW9 in Perth, as replacement for Mal Walden. Followed by Terry Willesee Tonight, replacing the former local current affairs show Day By Day. From the same day, Victorian regional stations all changed their national news relay from HSV7 to GTV9, as National Nine News was now the only half-hour commercial news from Melbourne.

Source: The Sun News-Pictorial

13 April 1994: A Country Practice begins its new series on Ten, having ended a 12-year run on Seven late in 1993. It was short-lived at Ten and following poor ratings in its Wednesday 7.30 timeslot, played out most of its remaining episodes on Saturday afternoons.

6 Likes

2012 The Voice premiered on Nine for the first time and on the same night, Nine relaunched with flying ribbons similar to their 2002-06 look and the second package featuring the “ Welcome Home ” slogan

2018 End of the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games with the Closing Ceremony panned by on-air hosts Johanna Griggs and Basil Zempilas live on air at the Ceremony’s conclusion.

5 Likes

15 April 1960: HSV7 presents its first full-day telethon for the Royal Children’s Hospital Good Friday Appeal. The channel had only made brief segments as contributions to the appeal in previous years, although in 1958 it had no scheduled airtime at all for the Appeal.

The 1960 telethon ran from 7am to midnight, although it did break for news and some evening programming.

7am Royal Children’s Hospital Good Friday Appeal
6.15pm The Mickey Mouse Club
6.45 News. Geoff Raymond
7pm Bonanza
8pm Royal Children’s Hospital Good Friday Appeal
9pm The Lineup
10pm The Lawless Years
10.30 Royal Children’s Hospital Good Friday Appeal
12am Close

The addition of the all-day telethon gave the Appeal a huge boost to its final tally — £236,089 5s 7d ($472,178) — beating the previous record set in 1956 by £49,122.

4 Likes