You knew this thread was coming…
To kick things off, ATN-7’s analog sign-off when Sydney went digital:
To compare, here is the original:
An early 1989 sign-off from HSV7 Melbourne.
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Here’s HSV7’s fairly epic analogue shutdown with 57 years of TV squeezed into about 5 minutes 
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ATN7 Signoff from 2/2/1987
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ATN7’s 1983 sign-off, featuring Debbie’s controversial cartoons.
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This one was the best of all our analogue sign-offs.
Shame Nine and Ten, or the ABC, SBS and the regionals didn’t mark it better.
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GWN’s signoff from 1992. Brings back some great memories
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ABC TV sign-off in the 1980s
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LOL at the copyright warning nowadays!
I know of only two stations that mention copyright in their sign-offs and ons - GWN and CTC-7 Canberra.
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Sign on for 9-8 Television.
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here is one for TVT6 Hobart
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Obviously used before TVT6 was rebranded TasTV South.
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ABC Qld 1982 - at the time the channel started at 8am with Sesame Street. Opening included a readout of62 transmitters in QLD and NT.
A few years later “10 studio stations, 75 transmitter stations, 62 satellite earth stations and 119 regional translators”
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In Victoria, it was slightly different in the early 1980s. They’d play Advance Australia Fair, then go to a still image with the ABC logo (probably with “ABC Colour” on it), and then read out the Victorian stations.
Memory is a bit vague, but I heard this sequence so often, most of it has stuck!
Channel 1 Albury, Bendigo and Eildon
Channel 2 Warrnambool, Swan Hill (and others I can’t recall. Melbourne didn’t get a mention AFAIK!)
Channel 3 Ballarat, Shepparton and Casterton
Channel 4 Gippsland, Mildura and Portland/Heywood
Channel 5A Alexandra, Colac and Hamilton
Channel 8 Cobden
Channel 9 Nhill and Corryong/Khancoban
Channel 11 Cann River
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How did the main metro stations start their day (obliviously before 24 hr broadcasting)? Hearing a song on 4KQ a couple of weekends ago reminded me of the BTQ 7 sign on that used the following as a backing track. That was one of the rare times when BTQ and QTQ spelled out their call signs. TVQ didn’t make any announcement and just got started with a station ident. Seve mentioned something about Mt Coot-tha and SEQ. QTQ mentioned 100,000 watts of power .
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Audio recording of the station openings for Brisbane TV stations in 1974. Imagination required for the vision unfortunately. Starts with QTQ and its ERP 100,000 watts of vision and 10,000 watts of sound. TVQ didn’t have any special announcement - they went straight from slide to a station ident - in this case for the Six Million Dollar Man.
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Wasn’t sure where to put this one, feel free to move.
What have been your favourite or most memorable TV news reporter sign offs of all time?
The most iconic one for me would be…
“Peter Harvey, Canbrrrrra!” (which for a long time was about the only one that didn’t have a National Nine News brand attached to it).
And there’s
“Geoff Parry… Ssssssseven News”
I but think my favourite one is from the late 90s from Sydney sports reporter Charles Christian … “Charles Christian, National Nine News!”
Also that I don’t think he EVER appeared on screen in any of his reports. If you haven’t heard it before, it’s just before the 20 min mark in Zampakid’s video below.
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A couple of examples from DDQ10/DDQ0…
From 1986, as 10-4-5a (using a version of the Hello News package; from the clips on YouTube, the station was the only one in Australia that used the package for its intended use-other stations (metro Sevens/TNT9) used it for imaging):
From 1988, as Vision TV (station switched to DDQ0 in September of that year, as part of the TVQ frequency swap):
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ABQ 2 close 1984
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TVW7 sign-off from their “We’re With You” days. Courtesy steve rutherford.
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