correct.
Next was ATN7 in December, then GTV9 in January 1957, to complete Stage One of the rollout of television.
3 Likes
Surprised GTV9 was the last.
GTV had been doing test transmissions since September and (like 2 and 7) covered the Olympics in November, and I think was more focussed on (officially) starting properly rather than rushing to be first. GTV9 was also seen as being the underdog of the Melbourne channels, being up against HSV7 that was owned by the powerful Herald and Weekly Times, and ABV2 with the resources of the ABC behind it. So it knew it had to work hard to overcome that perception, which it clearly did.
And as Gerald Stone wrote in one of his books, “television started first in Sydney, but it started best in Melbourne”, which I think spoke largely towards GTV9.
4 Likes
19/11/2003 Guy Sebastian is crowned the first winner of Australian Idol, beating Shannon Noll in the finale.
2 Likes
22 November 1971: A Current Affair premieres on TCN9 and GTV9. The show is hosted by former Four Corners compere Mike Willesee who had been dismissed from the ABC a few months prior for breaking his contract by appearing on radio 3AW. Willesee had been recognised by the Television Society of Australia as one of the best in the field of current affairs presentation in the week leading up to the debut of his new show.
The Age television writer John Pinkney described A Current Affair as “fairy floss” and an “uneasy hybrid of Channel Nine and ABC styles”. He declares: “No viewer will rupture his intellect watching Mike Willesee’s meringue-light magazine series”.
The show would run until 1978, with various presenters, with Willesee returning to Nine in 1984 to present current affairs. The ACA name was resurrected when Jana Wendt took the chair in 1988.
3 Likes
Coincidentally (or not, perhaps?) it was 5 years to the day later, 22 November 1976, when he launched Willesee At Seven on Seven.
4 Likes
Seems odd now that they’d test these shows out over summer. Interesting to read reports from the time playing up the rivalry between Willesee At Seven and ACA with both hosts declaring confidence in their product. A little shocking that Willesee would go on to reign supreme given ACA had been around for that long. I guess the News Centre Nine debacle did a lot of damage and it took Nine a while to recover from that. The news had only been moved back to 6.30pm from 6pm with ACA moving to 7pm on Nine a couple of weeks before this challenge.
Makes you wonder if Seven in 2022 has considered re-entering the current affairs arena with a big name host now that Tracy is leaving.
4 Likes
GTV9 dragged the legendary Eric Pearce out of retirement and resurrected National Nine News in June 1976 to try and recover from NC9 and even doing that still failed. Seven had built up a massive news following in Melbourne and it took Nine having to poach Brian Naylor, which didn’t happen until 1978, to really recover.
3 Likes
I think it’s only a matter of time until we see Seven return to current affairs. Channel 9 returned the ACA name in 1988, could we see the Today Tonight name return?
27 November 1992: Jana Wendt presents A Current Affair for the final time.
27 November 1998: Brian Naylor’s twenty year tenure as chief news presenter for the Melbourne edition of National Nine News comes to an end when he retires.
27 November 2009: Ian Ross signs off from Seven News for the final time having been the face of the Sydney bulletin for six years during a broadcasting career that spanned five decades.
5 Likes
27 November 1965: STV8 launches in Mildura. It was meant to open a week earlier but had to postpone at the last minute. Rival station ABMV4 therefore beat it to launch earlier in the week.
27 November 1998: The final episode of Midday With Kerri-Anne, ending Kerri-Anne Kennerley’s three year tenure as host and a daytime format that dated back to 1973.
27 November 2010: Hey Hey It’s Saturday presents the last of its 2010 reunion series, followed by the special Lights Camera Party! Television City Celebrates, commemorating GTV Nine’s exit from its heritage studios at 22 Bendigo Street, Richmond.
7 Likes
29/11/2002 Brian Henderson presents his final bulletin for National Nine News: Sydney
Video Credit: sirmechie on YouTube
5 Likes
30 November 1963: Coverage of the federal election marked the launch of the coaxial cable link between stations TCN9 and GTV9. The cable had been completed a year earlier but Nine had entered into a two-year full-time lease of capacity on the link to allow the instant sharing of programs and news between the two channels.
Nine’s election coverage, which was relayed to NBN3, WIN4 and GLV10, was also bolstered with a £70,000 computer, developed by the Royal Melbourne Institute Of Technology and one of only two such computers in Australia, to calculate voting statistics and trends.
The new coaxial cable link would also give Nine a competitive advantage ahead of the pending arrival of the third commercial network.
3 Likes
30 November 2012 Breakfast, 10’s failed morning show experiment aired for the final time
2 Likes
4 Likes
On this day 7 December when Pearl Harbour got attacked, their was TV coverage of the reaction of the attack although very limited, this represented the first time television interrupted program for a major news event.
5 Likes
9 December 1961: Australia’s first country TV station, GLV10 in Traralgon, is officially opened. Part of GLV10’s opening night included a relay of ABC’s election night coverage.
Source: TV Week
Source: TV Times
3 Likes
