Yes, I think 4 was switched off prematurely then had to be switched on again when some viewers in the Milton-Ulladulla area complained about loss of TV reception (as their local Little Forest relay wasn’t on air yet).
WIN used to have a little “4” along the top right edge of screen to differentiate the VHF signal (not on the UHF channel).
@TelevisionAU you are correct as you can see from the 25 February 1980 TV guide on your own site. Nine and most regional NSW stations aired it at 9;25pm whilst CBN6/CWN8/MTN9 screened a little later. Link available below. From memory, early draws were hosted by Johnny Tapp - most well known for being on Nines Racing coverages in the rest of Australia.
I believe Alex Wileman didnt host Lotto until early 1990s.
ATV 0/10 Melbourne published a 4 page ad in the Melbourne ‘Age’ newspaper on January 17, 1980, three days out from it’s change from Channel 0 to Channel 10. 10 was launched at 2pm on 20th (which was a Sunday).
The final page also covers GLV’s change from 10 to 8, which occurred on the 17th.
wasn’t sure of the best thread - mods please move if there’s a better one
Came across this on YT, a fascinating trip down memory lane for a few minutes, a reminder of what we were all once watching (note: US data and unsure of metrics):
NBC’s ownership in the 80s and 90s was crazy and then vanishing in the 2000s.
ABC disappeared in the late 90s/early 2000s before a strong return after 90s successes in the mid-2000s.
CBS remained a steady force across decades, but became dominant from the 2000s, especially CSI and NCIS was a killer (even still today in a FTA sence), even when it had some big rivals coming up against it, especially comedies and cable.
And then came streaming, with a bang just pre-COVID.
It was a regular soap opera set in Santa Barbara, California. Like many other American daytime soaps it centred around a rich family, the Capwells. What was funny about it was some of the ridiculous storylines.
That’s interesting, I imagine she would have been in the minority as I imagine more Melbourne TV antennas would have better suited to the higher channels (7, 9) than the lower channels (0, 2) and that the lower ones were more susceptible to interference.
Most likely the higher frequency of channel 10 made it struggle to diffract over Olinda. ATV-0 was often quite good at bending its signal over the hills.
There’s good reasons why they put UHF translators in at Selby, Upwey, and Upper Ferntree Gully in the mid-1980s.
Monbulk was another location that was notorious for tricky TV reception. It later got its own translator (late 1990s???)
One of the newspaper reports at the time IIRC said that some of these residents could not get the higher frequencies at all, so could only get 0 and 2. So the change to 10 removed any commercial channel option, pending those UHF translators. I guess losing those viewers would have been offset by gains made by the conversion to 10 elsewhere