yes they had a microwave bearer link to the mainland. It’s mentioned in the newspaper supplement that was published for TNT9’s 25th anniversary in 1987.
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I had a teacher at TAFE who had done some work with the broadcasting there and there were a couple of hops for the microwave link, I think it went via Flinders Island. I had forgotten about the microwave links though.
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Even today, Microwave is still an important part of delivering content around the country
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This was from the 25th anniversary newspaper supplement from The Examiner for TNT9’s 25th anniversary
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Brilliant, thanks. I presume Perth had a similar arrangement in the 80’s before Aussat.
Here’s an article from 11th September 1984 in Rockhampton’s Morning Bulletin regarding RTQ7 acquiring a supplementary license and their plans for it. Obviously this never happened but interesting. Who was Kevin Parry though?
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Perth was linked to the east coast via microwave link from 1970
He was a businessman and a former owner of NBN
Replying to a post @WAtvVideos made in the now-closed “General TV History” thread in November 2017:
Could this be the video you’re referring to?
Also on that same YouTube channel, what appears to be a low quality, but clean & widescreen Ten Movie Opener from 2000:
…and a C7 Sports Ident:
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Google helped 
But I think a lot of regional channels were looking at acquiring a secondary licence - this was before aggregation was on the horizon although the prospect of aggregation just made them want secondary channels even more.
That RTQ7 logo looks familiar. That ribbon style was adopted by 7 in 2000.
TV ad for Austar Anywhere, the regional counterpart of Foxtel’s Download service:
I noticed that too. The background colours, even the 6.30 News sign behind the presenters seems to be inspired by the look Seven National News had. They had that look probably a year or two before the changeover when they were TVT6. The only noticeable changes to the news from the changeover at this point were basically the opening/closing titles and the Tas TV logo plastered over the TVT6 logo on the sign behind the presenters. Apart from those, the bulletin was the same as before. Same changes would have applied to the TNT9 bulletin as well.
Love the theme music for the Hobart bulletin, very 80’s-sounding music there. I think that was used for TVT’s news for some time before the changeover too. I think it was only used for Hobart’s bulletin. Tas TV’s Launceston bulletin I think continued using Seven Melbourne’s news theme from around that time.
Indeed it was. I’m pretty sure that the Hobart and Launceston stations continued to do their own bulletins after the name change. I’d imagine there would be quite a few complaints in the north to Tas TV if suddenly their news was done from Hobart, especially with only one story in this bulletin coming from Launceston.
Yes I’m wondering how they got the stories from Nine. Maybe it was for the Hobart station only? Or maybe considering it was an overseas story rather than a national one, perhaps they got the stories from Nine that way via an overseas source or bureau? Doesn’t really explain the Brian Naylor voiceover though.
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Yeah I didn’t really know either until I watched the 1985 bulletin. A few former Miss Tasmania Quest winners ended up working on-camera for TVT6 over the years including Sue Hickey (1979 winner), Robyn Martin (1977) and Jennifer Jones (1976). Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe Jennifer read the news on weekends at some stage in the late '70s. I know at least Sue and Robyn were weather girls at the Hobart station, and Jennifer and Robyn won state Logies over the years for their work.
Yeah I found that amusing too. To think Murph has gone on to do the weather himself for all of nearly 36 years so far!
I believe the weather forecasts in this bulletin were mostly forecasts for places within TVT’s viewing area, which explains the separate forecasts for the Upper and Lower Derwent Valley areas with their surrounding areas. Launceston was included in TVT’s weather like Hobart was included in TNT’s weather, not within the viewing area, but still important enough to bring to local viewers’ attention. For the first reason, if not both, the North West Coast was left out of the TVT forecasts.
I’m not sure how they went about it back then. I was thinking maybe the stations would record the start of each other’s bulletins and air each other’s lead story via their own bulletins and queue it in for broadcast after they had aired their own lead stories. Not sure how possible that would have been back then, even with the microwave link. If only we could see the Launceston bulletin from that day or a similar day just to compare the two.
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7 Tasmania (TNT9) marked their 58th anniversary by showing some highlights of the station’s history at the end of last night’s news bulletin.
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60 years of ABC TV Hobart
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Celebrating 60 years of ABC television broadcasting in Tasmania
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$5.5 million to establish National Centre of Excellence to preserve Australia’s audiovisual heritage
The Morrison Government has today announced $5.5 million over four years for the National Film and Sound Archive (NFSA) to support the digitisation of historic audiovisual material and creation of the National Centre for Excellence in Audiovisual Digitisation.
As Australia’s audiovisual archive, the NFSA has more three million items in its collection, including a significant number of film, tape and sound recordings in analogue formats, such as magnetic tape.
Minister for Communications, Cyber Safety and the Arts, the Hon Paul Fletcher MP, said the Centre for Excellence will be a hub for the digitisation of audiovisual heritage across Australia and will allow important historic artefacts to be preserved so they can be shared and enjoyed by new audiences eager to explore our cultural heritage.
“The NFSA has more than 400,000 audiovisual items within its collection in original analogue format – such as film, tape and sound recordings. Only 14 per cent of this material has been digitised, putting it at risk of deterioration and permanent loss,” Minister Fletcher said.
“Digitising this material is an investment in our cultural heritage and will preserve our national audiovisual history to entertain and inform future generations.
“The Government funding announced today will help address issues of material longevity, fragility and equipment maintenance, enabling the NFSA to digitise at-risk video five times faster – as well as doubling the digitisation rate of audio and film material.”
The funding will allow the NFSA to achieve the digitisation of all audio and video magnetic tape by 2025.
It will also support the modernisation of the NFSA’s existing digitisation technology and ongoing storage of the increasing volume of digitised material.
The equipment purchased with some of this funding will also enable the NFSA to assist the ABC and National Archives of Australia digitise their own at-risk material.
Examples of the material that will be digitised include:
- Iconic Australian TV programs such as Young Talent Time and A Country Practice.
- Decade’s worth of news and current affairs, representing all of Australia’s public and commercial broadcasters.
- Coverage of key sporting events such as the Melbourne Cup.
- Television and radio content produced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander media organisations such as the Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association (CAAMA) and Imparja TV.
- Awards ceremonies including the Logies, Astra Awards and Koori Music Awards.
- Thousands of hours of radio serials and broadcasts of significant historical events.
- Master tapes by many of our greatest musicians, as well as other unreleased and live performances.
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ABOUT MAGNETIC TAPE AND DEADLINE 2025
Magnetic tape is the now obsolete technology formerly used by the broadcast and music industries for the recording and storage of audiovisual productions (for example, radio and television programs and master recordings for music) during most of the second half of the 20th century. There are several tape formats that each require highly specialised playback equipment, for which spare parts are no longer available.
Content stored on magnetic tape is at risk due to three key factors: tape deterioration, obsolescence of equipment and loss of human expertise, as those who worked with these technologies approach retirement age.
Due to these factors there is consensus among audiovisual archives internationally that there is an imperative to digitise magnetic media before it is lost forever: Deadline 2025 .
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