On This Day

19 August 1961: Four Corners debuts on ABN2, Sydney. The first episode was broadcast in Melbourne (and presumably other cities) the following week.

Source: TV Times

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20/8/2012 Seven News relaunches it’s graphics, barely 18 months after the previous graphics update. If I remember correctly, some viewers accused them of copying Nine’s graphics which they had launched in January the same year.

That same evening, a new set was unveiled in Melbourne, which was a replica of what Sydney had at the time. It doesn’t help to boost its news ratings as Nine News was way in front.

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30 August 1980: ATV10’s seventh annual Deafness Appeal Telethon runs from 8am to midnight, breaking only for Eyewitness News and Young Talent Time. The telethon raised a total of $415,036, more than double the previous year’s total, though still way less than the much more prominent Good Friday Appeal would raise (1980: $1,819,662)

The telethon included live crosses to celebrity interviews in London and Los Angeles.

https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=_OZUAAAAIBAJ&sjid=i5IDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6663%2C6107907

https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=qe5UAAAAIBAJ&sjid=npIDAAAAIBAJ&pg=1475%2C49040

EDIT: I’m reminded that Sydney’s ATN7 by coincidence also had its telethon for the Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children on the same day, starting at 6.30pm and going through to 6.00pm Sunday. That appeal raised $1,389,617. The Sydney telethon also apparently had guest stars from Channels Nine and Ten.

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5 September 1959: Adelaide’s first TV station, NWS9, is officially opened. It was Rupert Murdoch’s first TV station and the call-sign derived from the name of his newspaper, The News. Hume Broadcasters (radio 5DN) was also a major shareholder in the channel.

5 September 1975: The night the bomb went off at Number 96. In an attempt to arrest a slide in ratings, writers formed a cliffhanger to have a bomb go off at the close of the Friday night episode, with the list of casualties not to be known until the following Monday. Four characters were killed off.

YouTube: Australian Television Archive

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7 September 1963: RTQ7 is officially opened in Rockhampton

7 September 1964: AMV4 is officially opened in Albury

7 September 1966: FNQ10 is officially opened in Cairns

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FNQ10 started out on a power of 10kw ERP on a tower adjacent to their studios limiting their coverage to the Cairns urban area before moving to Mt Bellenden-Ker in the early 1970’s. I do believe that Mt Bellenden-Ker is the highest high power site in Australia.

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Correct, the initial transmitter which was on a PMG/ABC tower was only intended to be temporary while looking for a more suitable permanent location. The initial temporary tower really just limited coverage to Cairns and, supposedly, down to Innisfail - though I am not sure how effective it was at the latter.

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10 September 1988: Brisbane’s TVQ0 becomes TVQ10 just after midnight.

How to tune your TV set to Channel Ten Brisbane

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Make sure you come across to Ten for the Olympics

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At the same time, DDQ10 (Vision TV) in Darling Downs changed the opposite direction to DDQ0.

How to tune your set to Toowoomba's newest TV station

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YouTube: Australian TV Fan

TVQ’s change of frequency would not affect its relay channels on the Gold Coast.

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How long did the name Vision TV last for before changing to Star Television?

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Don’t know, I believe it was sometime in 1990 ahead of aggregation on 31 December.

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14 September 1975: This Is Your Life premieres on ATN 7 with Mike Willesee as host. American and British versions of the show had been in production for nearly two decades but the show had always been considered too expensive to produce in Australia. An executive associated with the American show is brought out to guide production. This Is Your Life is an instant hit and would become Sydney’s top rating show within weeks.

14 September 2015: After airing the British version of the format for many years as part of the daytime line up, The Chase Australia debuts at 5pm as the new lead in to Seven News.

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15 September 1965: ATV0 launches the new Crawford production, Showcase, billed as Australia’s richest talent quest. The series aired across the Independent Television System (0-10), except in Adelaide where it aired on NWS9. The series was also sold to TVT6 Hobart, CTC7 Canberra and STW9 Perth. It won a TV Week Logie Award in 1966 for Most Outstanding Contribution to Development of Talent. Showcase continued until 1970 but later returned in 1973-74 on the Nine Network, then back on 0-10 in 1978.

15 September 1977: ATV0 screens the National Survival Test, which aired on TEN10 Sydney a couple of months earlier. The special was aimed at making Australians more aware of some of the basic facts that will help them survive various dangers including accidents and disasters. The National Survival Test won a TV Week Logie Award in 1978 for Most Outstanding Contribution to Community Service.

On the same night, GTV9 aired a special to commemorate 21 years of Australian television, hosted by Bert Newton, followed later by an episode of ’60s variety show The BP Super Show.

15 September 1981: On the eve of TCN9’s 25th birthday, Nine screens the special The Way It Was, looking at the big news stories of the previous quarter century. The program was hosted by Nine’s Sydney newsreader Brian Henderson and Melbourne newsreader Brian Naylor.

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15 September 2000: Opening Ceremony of the Sydney 2000 Olympics on 7 nationally which was watched by 6 million and still the most watched television event in Australia of all time

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That’s a record that is likely never going to be beaten.

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The Opening Ceremony (6.5 million) isn’t the most watched event in Australia. It was outrated by the Closing ceremony (6.64 million).

And also, the funeral and the wedding of Princess Dianna rated higher than both.

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yeah but they were on 4 channels at once :wink:

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16 September 1956: The date regarded as the birthday of Australian television with the opening of TCN9, Sydney. For the first six weeks, the station was actually still in test transmission mode, with only around 3 hours of programming each night. The channel was officially opened on 27 October, about a week before its Melbourne sister station HSV7 was officially opened.

image

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Sadly, the original footage of Bruce Gyngell’s famous announcement was not preserved.

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I think a program such as The National Survival Test will still be relevant today.

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