Regional TV History (pre-aggregation)

Any posters from radio threads will notice the 4AY sign in the background.I remember when they had this logo

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Probably because the Steelers were playing, may not have been shown if they weren’t (and they didn’t get a lot of Sydney/Brisbane TV games in that era)

The Steelers weren’t playing the in the game advertised above (it was Bulldogs vs Dragons, 11 years before the Steelers merged with them as St George-Illawarra).

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JULY 29 1988

They played St.George the next week

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Yes, and the Canterbury vs St George game was also shown on the WIN 59 UHF channel (as per the ad I posted above)… so they didn’t just show the Steelers games on the UHF channel in prime time, I think it was all Friday night games that year.

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I’ve been reading Michael Thurlow’s book on regional television history. If you have not read this book, this is a must read. I managed to get access to this through work. If you’ve got the dough, or have access to Springer Nature, get your hands on it.

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Springer do have significant discounts from time to time, that’s how i bought my copy

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I got access to it through work, but I think I’ll eventually get a hard copy of the book. Loading it onto the Kindle was a pain though.

Michael has done a sterling job. Really well researched. And really puts all the Control Board/ABT/ABA annual reports into context.

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Same, I got mine for what wouldn’t have been much more than the cost to print

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A partial bulletin from News Centre Six (GMV6, Shepparton) with Geoff Valance and Tracey Curro, who later went to QTQ9, then ATV10, 60 Minutes and Beyond 2000, and others…

https://archive.org/details/news-centre-6-partial-gmv-6-1986

Source: https://archive.org/details/@flemishdog2

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Good find!

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Also includes a story about a petition by local residents to campaign for the extension of SBS television to the Goulburn Valley.

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and it took 14 years for that to come true!

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Fri 31 March 1989 - the day aggregation started in southern NSW - momentous enough for even the ‘Newcastle Herald’ to print a piece on it in it’s Friday Weekly TV liftout.

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Vic Aggregation was brought forward to Dec 31st 1991, I think due to a March 1990 election promise.

I didn’t know anyone who needed a Down Converter. The vast majority of TVs were VHF/UHF, and many people had VCRs too. It was really just the odd B&W portable (often as 2nd TV) which couldn’t, in the main.

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Though from my viewings of VIC regional newspapers when last in Melbourne, it was only Albury that got all 3 networks from 1st Jan 1992… It appeared to be only VIC TV that was available in all of the major regional Victorian centres from 1st January, and Prime was only broadcast outside of Albury from 1 March 1992. SCN was delayed into Ballarat by a few weeks as well, so only went to air there around 21st Jan 1992.

My recollection was that the timing was brought forward to ensure all Victorians could watch the Olympic Games that year.

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