28 July 1984: Network Ten begins its coverage of the Los Angeles Olympics. The Opening Ceremony, broadcast here on a Sunday morning, rated a 56 in Sydney and 59 in Melbourne. Daily coverage then consisted of live coverage from 12 midnight-4pm with highlights from 9.30pm to midnight (AEST) although these hours varied slightly on weekends.
In Perth, where there was no Channel Ten, Ten’s coverage was split between TVW7 and STW9. The Opening Ceremony and first week of the Games was broadcast on Seven, with the second week and Closing Ceremony on Nine.
Was there really no TEN in Perth even by 1984? That just seems kind of crazy to me. How were 10 programs broadcast in Perth before TEN has a presence in the city.
Network Ten shows were often split between Channels 7 and 9 on a case by case basis, though that inevitably meant some Ten shows missed out appearing in Perth, or would be delayed by a long time.
Despite the 7/9 split, in most cases it was 7 that got the Ten shows. This was possibly related to TVW7, while not affiliated to Ten, having ties to Ten through owning SAS10 in Adelaide. Also, STW9 was a Nine network member so it may have had less scope for slotting in Network Ten shows. Just speculation on my part.
29 July 1981: The wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer dominates the day on TV, with live coverage on ABC and almost every commercial station in Australia.
Despite the networks basically carrying the same BBC vision but using their own commentators, ratings for the night showed that viewers easily preferred the Nine Network’s coverage, with Melbourne’s GTV9 scoring a rating of 34 points in the prime time of 8-8.30pm, followed by ABV2 (20 per cent), HSV7 (15 per cent), ATV10 (10 per cent) and 0/28 coming last with zero per cent. An hour-and-a-half later, GTV9 was still in front on 31 per cent, followed by ABV2 (17 per cent), ATV10 (15 per cent), HSV7 (13 per cent) and 0/28 (one per cent).
In Sydney, TCN9’s prime-time coverage peaked at a score of 41 per cent, followed by ABN2 (16 per cent), TEN10 (14 per cent), ATN7 (11 per cent) and 0/28 (one per cent).
1 August 1964: Melbourne’s new TV station, ATV0, is officially opened. The first city in Australia to gain a third commercial station and the first station in what is now Network Ten.
I believe the building is heritage listed but I think that only covers the main building. All the other fixtures around it, e.g. the outdoor sets used by Neighbours, I gather will be turfed out and whatever other land remains will be sold off. A bit sad, really. Given the building’s intrinsic and physical links to iconic productions like Prisoner and Neighbours it would have been nice to see it turned into some sort of TV museum, like was also proposed (but never happened AFAIK) at 22 Bendigo Street, Richmond.
It was recently stated (in a few articles) that Fremantle’s lease runs out towards the end of the year. I’m thinking NEP still holds ownership of the site and studios. But not 100% sure on that one.
2 August 1964: ATV0 presents its first news bulletin – ATV News Report – with news director Brian Wright.
Barry McQueen went on to become the station’s regular newsreader.
ATV0 initiated a 45-minute bulletin format, weeknights at 6.15, putting it 15 minutes ahead of Seven and Nine’s bulletins. On weekends, it was a 15-minute bulletin at 5.45pm, also ahead of Seven and Nine.
YouTube: Australian Television Archive
The 45-minute format lasted only until November, when it cut back to a half-hour bulletin at 6.30pm. Then from January it went down to just having 5-minute news reports at various timeslots during the evening. One wonders if it might have had to alter its plans as the big news story on the launch day of the 5-minute news was the death of Sir Winston Churchill.
At some stage during 1966 they reinstated a 15-minute bulletin on weeknights (6.45pm) to supplement the short news updates, and then re-launched a full 30-minute bulletin (6.00pm) in September 1967.
11 August 1977: The 1218th and final episode of Number 96 screens on TEN10, Sydney. The final episode ended with a curtain call of past and present actors. At the time, Number 96 set the record for the longest running Australian soap, a record it held until The Young Doctors overtook it in June 1982.
It was still to be another 4 months before the final episode aired in Melbourne, due to ATV0 cutting the show down to one episode a week while TEN10 maintained it at twice a week.
13 August 1976: The sex-comedy series Alvin Purple, a TV spin-off of the popular movies, was scheduled to debut on ABN2, but was pulled at the last minute by management. Some edits were suggested but ultimately none were made when the show made a belated debut the following week.
13 August 1984: The Closing Ceremony of The Games Of The XXIII Olympiad is broadcast live on Network Ten, and STW9 in Perth. In the case of Perth, the coverage includes a special edition of Network Ten’s Good Morning Australia which was not normally broadcast in Perth at the time. (It was eventually picked up by TVW7 until Ten began there in 1988)
