Channel 0-10 Network?
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Also does anybody have memories of the ABC going on strike back in the late 80s/early 90s? My memories of it are sketchy at best but just remember as a kid wanting to tune in to the kids fodder and it was basically a blue caption card with tone. I don’t remember exactly what the caption card said but due to to industrial action programs will not be seen until further notice.
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They did. Multiple times. Sometimes it was only certain programs affected (e.g. no news bulletins going to air) but other times all programming was replaced with test patterns.
I do recall one time I think it was a journalists’ strike or something, and instead of getting the regular 7.00 news there was just a test pattern with a message scrolling that the news was affected by industrial action.
In Victoria particularly during the '70s there were occasions when all TV stations were impacted by industrial action, leading to reduced transmission hours or programming. Sometimes it was just commercial stations impacted, probably depending on which union was striking or thereabouts. (Other states probably had similar disruptions as well but they seemed to be not uncommon in Victoria at the time)
Or if there were strikes in the power industry, TV stations forced to cut down their hours to save on power.
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Here is one from 1991 of both the 7pm news and 7.30 report - both were presented from Sydney:
Here is also a bulletin from 1993, presented from Adelaide by Phillip Martin (SA News Editor):
And one from 2006, presented from Brisbane by Fiona Crawford (QLD News Editor), at the end their is a slide advising that the 7.30 report is not airing that night:
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I remember on radio they took a feed from the BBC during the 90s. Did they ever do that on TV as well?
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I don’t think they would’ve, since BBC would’ve been off air for most of the time that ABC was on air during the day. Plus they may not have had rights to certain TV shows.
However, since the news bulletins above had a focus on world news, it’s likely they relied heavily on sources like BBC for those reports.
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And the power workers unions as well. Strangely when NSW faced similar issues in the 1970s and early 1980s, TV stations and radio stations were exempt from the restrictions. I wonder why Victoria was different?
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just different government.
Radio stations were usually exempt from power restrictions, though. I guess as that’s an emergency service and a lot of people had battery powered radios, but the use of electric-powered radios was apparently limited to certain hours/times. Although I do remember one time when i was little, and we had no TV in the mornings and mum put on the stereo for the radio and me being super honest said that wasn’t allowed, and she just said Meh, what are they gonna do?!? Who knew she was such a rebel!?!?
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I came across this in The Age dated 2 June 1961. It seems that the restrictions were so bad that no TV was allowed at all and radio stations were only allowed to broadcast news bulletins. 3AW boasting that they were able to stay on the air full time due to them having generators.
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rage did not air in Victoria in the first few months on air due to some industrial dispute, they showed a test card with the notice.
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Appreciate the input. The one that stood out was basically the blue caption card similar to when ITV in the UK went on strike back in 1979
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The Comedy Company’s “Nothing Going on Around Here” Sketch.
YouTube: TV Australia
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Does anyone know what this was?
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I found this on the web, including a reference to the 1994 winner.
I also found a highlight in TelevisionAU’s TV Week archives:
Wednesday: Russell Crowe hosts the special Nescafe Big Break (7.30pm, Ten), profiling the eight young Australians being awarded $20,000 grants to pursue their talent and ambitions.
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On June 2, 2001, The ABBA Tribute Show went to air live on the Nine Network, and was presented by Richard Wilkins. It featured a Red Faces-type segment with judges Getaway’s Ben Dark (as Benny), Fox FM’s Tracy Bartham (as Anni-Frid) and the late celebrity chef Bernard King (as Bjornard), (before the segment, Bartham noticed 658 x 3 = 1,974 the year the Swedish group won the Eurovision Song Contest, and her favourite song was Dancing Queen”. The segment began with Act 1 with belly dancer Kimberly Kavanagh performing “Money Money Money”, Act 2 were two girls Brianna and Sue as AB performing “Mamma Mia” (thought they work for Volvo, but they work for Mitsubishi!) and Act 3 a couple Holly and Mike as SPUNK performing “Does Your Mother Know”, then the good news is that with the most scores, SPUNK won! They have won passes to see the premiere of the Australian Production of “Mamma Mia: The Musical” at Melbourne’s Crown Casino, 2nd and 3rd place acts recieve a collection on ABBA’s albums. It was a big night with the lead up to Nine’s airing of ABBA: The Movie in 1977.
Here was SPUNK’s performance:
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I think that it was in the show’s final season that they shifted the show from its long-running 8:30pm timeslot to the later 9:30pm timeslot; that IMO accelerated the show’s axing.
Similar case with Blue Heelers, when a shortened 2006 season (which was its last) aired in the lower-rating Saturday night timeslot, which meant going head to head with Ten’s AFL coverage and The Bill on the ABC; John Wood was critical of the move at the time. But despite BH’s final season not doing well in the ratings, Wood won the Gold Logie that year.
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All Saints (and Blue Heelers) never really recovered when they had to go ‘edgier’ to try and keep an audience.
All Saints’ shift in the final season with MRU felt like an attempt to try and copy Rush that had launched on Ten and Rescue Special Ops on Nine kind of did it better.
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