I worked with Mat Thompson many years ago at Hawkesbury Radio. He was a great talent then and now.
1 Like
On this day 25 March 1954 , RCA began producing colour televisions sets in the US (before even B and W TV had started in Australia).
1 Like
25 March 1966: New TV Station — SES8, Mount Gambier, South Australia.
25 March 1977: Bert Newton hosts the 19th annual TV Week Logie Awards from the Southern Cross Hotel, Melbourne. International guests included film star Burt Lancaster, actors Susan Seaforth and Bill Hayes from Days Of Our Lives and British actors Robin Nedwell and Geoffrey Davies.
YouTube: Mike Strika
25 March 1991: Network Ten presents a two-hour Eyewitness News special, War In The Gulf.
25 March 1997: Nine screens a delayed telecast of the 69th Academy Awards from the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. Hosted by Billy Crystal.
25 March 2002: Nine screens a delayed telecast of the 74th Academy Awards from the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles. Hosted by Whoopi Goldberg.
25 March 2005: ABC debuts its new interview series Talking Heads, hosted by Peter Thompson.
25 March 2009: Comedian Lawrence Leung debuts his new series Lawrence Leung’s Choose Your Own Adventure on ABC.
2 Likes
That was a rare ATV0 station ID they played
1 Like
26 March 1991: Nine has a delayed telecast of the 63rd Academy Awards from the Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles. Hosted by Billy Crystal.
26 March 1995: Nine‘s live coverage of the Australian 500cc Grand Prix is hosted by Darrell Eastlake, Barry Sheene, Alan Jones and Ken Sutcliffe, joined by former 500cc Grand Prix rider Kevin Magee.
26 March 1996: Nine has a delayed telecast of the 68th Academy Awards from the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Los Angeles. Hosted by Whoopi Goldberg.
26 March 1999: WIN expands into regional Western Australia as the second local commercial TV broadcaster, up against former monopoly broadcaster GWN.
26 March 2001: Nine has a delayed telecast of the 73rd Academy Awards from the Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles. Hosted by Steve Martin.
26 March 2006: Nine‘s coverage of the XVIII Commonwealth Games from Melbourne comes to an end with the Closing Ceremony. Telecast hosted by Ray Martin.
26 March 2009: Network Ten launches its new multi-channel, One HD, presenting an all-sports format
YouTube: IdentsDotTv
26 March 2009: ABC debuts two-part documentary Bombora: The Story Of Australian Surfing.
3 Likes
27 March 1984: The Seven Network airs the debut of the two-part mini-series Eureka Stockade, starring Bryan Brown, Bill Hunter, Carol Burns, Tom Burlinson and Penelope Stewart. Produced by Crawford Productions, Eureka Stockade recreated the 1850s rebellion by Ballarat gold miners against the colonial forces from the United Kingdom.
27 March 1988: The debut of ABC‘s Touch The Sun, a series of six telemovies for children produced by the Australian Children’s Television Foundation.
27 March 1990: Nine has a delayed telecast of the 62nd Academy Awards from the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Los Angeles. Hosted by Billy Crystal.
27 March 1998: New TV Station — Seven Darwin.
27 March 2000: Nine has a delayed telecast of the 72nd Academy Awards from the Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles. Hosted by Billy Crystal.
27 March 2001: The debut of Nine‘s new sketch comedy series Russell Gilbert Was Here!, featuring Russell Gilbert with supporting cast including Tony Rickards, Paul Calleja, Paula Gardner, Marty Sheargold, Kate Gorman, Andrew Maj, Stephen Kearney, Ray Matson and Angela Stapleton.
27 March 2006: The debut of Nine‘s afternoon children’s series The Shak.
3 Likes
March 28 of 2002: For the first time since September 26 of 1987, an AFL Match is not televised on Seven. With the match between Richmond and Collingwood from the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Victoria being broadcasted on Nine instead. This was the beginning of the 2002-2006 TV Rights also involving 10 and Foxtel.
March 28 of 2018: Nine is announced as the exclusive broadcaster of the Australian Open Tennis for the first time ever having taken over the TV rights from Seven who has shown the event since 1973. This deal was to begin in 2020 but was brought forward by one year.
28 March 1966: Melbourne’s GTV9 presents a special featuring Welsh pop singer Tom Jones, filmed during his recent Australian visit. Later, In Melbourne Tonight includes a guest appearance by visiting stars from the UK series Coronation Street. This is up against the final episode of ATV0’s variety show The Ray Taylor Show. The program began in August 1964 as a Saturday night program but failed to gain a significant audience with numerous timeslot and producer changes.
28 March 1971: All networks host an interview with Prince Philip, Duke Of Edinburgh, direct from 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). 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: Radio personality Tedd Bull and former STW9 presenter Jenny Seaton host the new morning chat show The Late Late Breakfast Show for TVW7, Perth.
28 March 1990: ABC presents the first episode of World War II mini-series Come In Spinner, starring Lisa Harrow, Kerry Armstrong and Rebecca Gibney.
28 March 1995: David Letterman hosts the 67th Academy Awards in Nine‘s delayed telecast from the Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles.
28 March 1996: Comedians Julia Morris and Jimeoin are among the cast of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival Gala (Seven) from Her Majesty’s Theatre, Melbourne.
28 March 2010: The Australian Formula One Grand Prix from Albert Park, Melbourne, is live on Ten with a simulcast and extended telecast, including the post-race presentation, on One HD.
3 Likes
I didn’t realise how good it was before that rights deal, was every single VFL/AFL match broadcast by Seven until that point?
1 Like
During 1988-2001, Seven was the exclusive AFL broadcaster which featured all matches each round, the entire finals series and Grand Final as well as pre-season and certain awards ceremonies. During 1987, AFL/VFL was only shown on ABC TV.
1 Like
it was ABC in Victoria but Broadcom was the rights holder and they had on-sold coverage to some commercial stations in other states, e.g. TEN10 Sydney, SAS10 Adelaide, TVQ0 Brisbane.
My memory is failing me but I think Broadcom on-sold broadcast rights to ABC in regional NSW/ACT. I couldn’t tell what happened in regional areas in other states. It was a bit of a mish-mash arrangement IIRC which Seven was able to clean up for the following year.
2 Likes
Going by what I’ve seen, SBS in Sydney had the VFL in 1987.
1 Like
ah that could be it.
1 Like
Saturday 9 May 1987, SBS Sydney has the VFL match of the day. ABC showed highlights on a Sunday night. I have no recollection of the VFL being on SBS. But not everyone was able to watch SBS back then because we couldn’t. No UHF antenna.
Source: SMH
2 Likes
Did your family eventually get a UHF antenna?
1 Like
We did eventually upgrade to one of those combined VHF/UHF antennas and that one worked well for the local stuff.
2 Likes
29 March 1978: ABC debuts quiz show Mastermind, hosted by Huw Evans. Each week four contestants answer questions on general knowledge and specialist subjects. The winner at the end of the 17-week series will be named Mastermind of Australia, 1978, and be invited to appear on the BBC program of the same name.
29 March 1979: The latest Paul Hogan Show special investigates the strange Australian ritual of BYO barbeques, while Paul Hogan takes a look at World Series Bowls. Guest stars include The Little River Band, Karen Pini and Sue McIntosh.
29 March 1990: Network Ten presents a one-hour documentary, Teenage Sexuality: The Best Years Of Our Lives, hosted by Brad Robinson. Teenagers openly discuss their first sexual experiences and attitudes to contraception and promiscuity.
29 March 1996: Due to the upcoming weekend’s Victorian election coverage, Hey Hey It’s Saturday (Nine) makes another special Friday appearance.
29 March 2009: The Australian Formula One Grand Prix is telecast on Network Ten, live from Albert Park, Melbourne.
29 March 2010: TV chef Iain Hewitson debuts his new series, Huey’s Kitchen, airing weekday afternoons on Network Ten.
2 Likes
29 March 2015: the 2015 ICC ODI Cricket World Cup final between Australia and New Zealand is broadcast by Fox Sports and Nine, live from Melbourne Cricket Ground.
4 Likes
To accommodate that broadcast, Nine televised the Sunday afternoon NRL match between the Warriors and Broncos (played in Auckland) at midday.
I also remember back in 2006, Nine delayed a Sunday afternoon match between the Broncos and Eels (played in Brisbane) until 6:30pm, and two Friday night games, due to Commonwealth Games coverage.
In each case, those 2006 telecasts would’ve started after the full time siren sounded in real time.
1 Like
30 March 1982: Seven screens a delayed via satellite telecast of the 54th Academy Awards, held at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Los Angeles, and hosted by talk show host Johnny Carson.
30 March 1983: The final episode of soapie The Young Doctors airs on Nine, bringing the long-running series to an end after a record 1396 episodes.
30 March 1989: Nine presents a delayed telecast of the 61st Academy Awards from the Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles. In a departure from the usual format, the awards presentation did not have a host.
30 March 1989: At midnight tonight, the first stage of regional market aggregation launches, with Prime (Orange, Dubbo, Wagga Wagga) extending its coverage into Wollongong and Canberra, while Wollongong incumbent WIN extends into Canberra, and Canberra’s Capital Television expands into Wollongong — giving Wollongong and Canberra a choice of commercial channels for the first time. WIN and Capital would expand into Prime’s coverage areas in December, giving the combined area a choice of three commercial channels.
30 March 1993: Billy Crystal hosts the 65th Academy Awards in Nine’s delayed telecast from the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Los Angeles.
30 March 1994: Richard Stubbs hosts the ARIA Awards on Nine. Neil Mercer hosts the debut of current affairs show The Times on Seven.
30 March 1997: Bill Woods hosts the debut of Ten’s new motor racing series RPM.
30 March 2008: ABC debuts six-part drama series East Of Everything, starring Richard Roxburgh, Susie Porter, Tom Long, Gia Carides, Steve Bisley, Liana Cornell, Nick Tate and Craig Hall. The Seven Network launches a revival of the sports game show Gladiators, hosted by Tom Williams and Zoe Naylor.
2 Likes