I saw sn episode of Studs on youtube and i was absolutely horrendous. 10 woukd of been better off screening Perfect Match Classics or Blind Date repeats. No wonder lost their way
I cant remember wss it before or after they had that equally terrible Level 23. Anyone recall? Didnt that get replaced by Happy Days or The Simpsons ?
Level 23 was in 1994. Battle of the Sexes was 1998.
They couldn’t show Perfect Match repeats because they dated very quickly. Even the fashions looked outrageoous 10 years later.
Studs was an attempt to show an American game/dating show in prime time. It failed.
Studs was probably also cheap as chips. Ten was still just coming out of receivership?
It was similar in Victoria with Southern Cross Network and later SCN, although they went through a lot of different changes/configurations until they finally ditched regional news entirely and just relayed Ten’s schedule unaltered.
Same happened in Nth NSW too, but even more quickly outside of the heritage NRTV licence area of Kempsey to the Tweed…
The Hunter, Taree/Port Macquarie and North West markets got the 5pm Sydney news from December 1992 and was pretty much aligned to the Sydney afternoon/early evening schedule from then on.
Sadly for Hinch and NRTV, the only Knights in shining armour people were coming home to where the news reports on the Knights on NBN.
What a “shame” indeed. 
NRTV never gave themselves a chance. They had the same news format as NBN - a composite bulletin. Given Ten air a 1 hour nightly bulletin NRTV could have screened that at 5pm followed by NRTV Evening News (half national stories and half local for each region) and follow with Hinch.
I dont think it would have worked for Neighbours to screen at 5 with NRTV News at 5:30 and Ten News at 6
Agree that 5.30 wouldn’t have worked. That was a big flop for Prime in 1996 which only lasted about 6 weeks i think?
The other issue with the NRTV News was that (unlike NBN) there were no local windows, and there was usually only one Newcastle item in the whole bulletin (with quite a few North Coast items). I recall Rebecca Skinner was their Newcastle reporter (former NBN News reporter too).
But I disagree that they should have aired the Sydney bulletin at 5pm as well, that would have just bled too many viewers for 6pm. I don’t think Australia was ready for continuous news back like we have now.
Given the 5pm scenario happened anyway, i think it would of happened regardless of the line-up thereafter
As an alternative Hinch could have been at 6pm with NRTV News at 6:30pm, but then when Hinch moved to 7pm, it would have been back to square one. Also Neighbours was by that time up against H&A.
Pre-aggregation NRTV screened NRTV News at 6pm and Ten Eyewitness News from 6:30 til 7:30pm. At the time one of the executive said it was too much news at once, so i accept your point could be valid about back to back news.
The only other option NRTV could have done was produce a half hour (or 45 minute) national bulletin with a half hour (or 15 minute bulletin) with local content.
Should’ve done a Prime and poach people from NBN…
That and the networks are cheap bastards, news is cheaper to produce than doing anything substantive. Or anything outside of Sydney or Melbourne.
Thing that was the saddest was that NRTV was produced really well and the standard was up there with NBN
I think Prime’s problem (in Newcastle) was two fold.
They promoted the Local News half hour too heavily, and rarely ever mentioned Seven Nightly News at 6.30.. it needed to be promoted as full hour of news as a genuine alternative.
They started watermarking too early (within a few weeks of first going to air back in 1992). This pissed off too many viewers who then didn’t give it a chance. They needed to build viewer loyalty and this didn’t help.
Three.
Murray Finlay was old and had limited knowledge of the new broadcast processes. I get why they did it, but it was sadly embarrassing to watch.
His delivery was very stilted and old style… Brett Lavaring, on the other hand, was a fantastic presenter, but an unknown in Newcastle (at the time).
Garry Blair was ok as well.
There was also a producer who read news updates as well? Terry Galloway I think (IIRC)?
Yep. He was original news director for Prime Newcastle. I had an interview with him in 1992. I liked him.
I have wondered what Murray had been doing all that time. Between leaving NBN to go try and start up things in PNG but i’ve heard stories suggesting that that venture fell over fairy quickly up there
An article from the ‘Adelaide Advertiser’ on the affiliation swap between ADS and SAS in Adelaide in December 1987.
That was NTN - NBN started PNG’s first television station but yes, it did fall over quickly. Murray was sent up there.
Radiohead’s point -
The standard may have been good but if the story selection isn’t on point for the Newcastle market, then you won’t last long. No one in Newcastle cares about someone dying on a back road up the coast - still very much relevant today, no one in Bathurst or Young or Tamworth gives a shit about some wino running amok on the M4 in Sydney. True then as it is today.
I can see why they did it - all the local news, faster, so on. But maybe they wanted to avoid promoting Sydney a lot?
I don’t think that was the problem. Everyone does it now, plus the biggest shit stain on the screen ain’t the watermark.
It’s like when a footy team gets a old battler to add name recognition (example: Cristiano Ronaldo going anywhere). A short term boost for minimal ongoing success. Brett was good, but I’d say Prime were impatient.
