AFL teams were out during a segment on Today Tonight with Leigh Matthews who would coach Brisbane the following year.
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Interestingly this backing track was used about 10 years later in the “thanks for watching 7” idents
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I recognise that track from this gem which I’m sure would have cost them more than just a few dollars to make:
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A fantastic promo using popular journalists from Sky News UK, CNN and NBC
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One of Seven’s best and most memorable promos for sure.
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and Sharyn Ghidella for that matter. Her move to BTQ (along with that of John Schluter’s) saw them overtake their rivals at QTQ for the first time in two decades.
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I remember hearing in late 2006 early 2007 that Sharyn had indicated that she would like to return to Queensland, however Nine had nothing for her at the time. Bruce Paige and Heather Foord on weeknights and Melissa Downes on weekends.
And then Tracey Challenor decided to take a break from television in Feb 2007 (16 years and counting lol), which worked in Sharyn’s favour.
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1997 Prime Newsbreak.
(cant quite date it yet)
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News updates from January 2001 and August 2001:
And a Today Tonight promo from January 2001:
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Together with Peter Ford, Melissa Downes also presented the very short-lived “Local Edition” at 5pm (one hour long) across Queensland from BTQ7. What an expensive failure that was. She moved to QTQ9 soon after.
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I would like to think by that time “Extra” on QTQ9 (which, IIRC, was 1/2 hour) was well established in the Queensland market.
That helped to feed the masses of viewers into the high-rating Nine News bulletin which remained that way until 2007, with Extra eventually ending in 2009.
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Nine’s current news bulletin still has echos of Extra with may of the consumer stories similar to those that used to run at 5.30pm.
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and Rick Burnett was a much loved presenter of Brisbane’s Extra (yes at 5.30pm) with a very strong reporting team 
It was a very brave experiment of Seven Brisbane to go against Nine with a similar but longer program in the afternoons. Brisbane’s Ten News was rating well too ‘first at five’.
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yes I totally agree, for example, the recent ‘seniors’ reports’ by Bruce Paige really have an old ‘Extra’ feel about them.
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I also recall Melissa Downes presenting on weekends in 2004 as well, before moving to the main 6:00pm bulletin in 2006 where she first started out on weekends, then was promoted to weeknights in 2009.
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Also, all the reports about how to save money or get some service for free are right out of the Extra play book.
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“Seven PM” rated rather poorly against Sale of the Century in Brisbane, moved timeslots and was rebadged “PM Magazine”, if I recall correctly 5.30 - despite the lovely and very talented Janne Rayner and Nev Roberts at the helm. This BTQ-7 show had a very cheap (and American) feel about it with HEAVY reliance on Seven’s CNN and NBC satellite news feeds.
Classic Chuck Hobler as the voice-over at the intro - RIP Chuck
I think ATN-7s Press Your Luck with Ian Turpie replaced “PM Magazine” at 5.30 in Brisbane.
RIP Ian
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Gawd I love the original theme of ATN7’s 11AM - it later was used for Network 10’s “Bellamy”, I think that gritty show was Grundy’s very first production of a police drama.
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Here is a full TVW news bulletin from May 27 1990 presented by Yvette Mooney and Jeff Newman.
If this doesn’t embed correctly then jump to 1:48:26 in the video which is where the news starts.
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