Sports Broadcasting History

Of the 17 living at that time, 11 are still with us (Bradman in 2001, Benaud and Morris in 2015, Jarman in 2020, Craig in 2014 and Brown in 2008 are the ones who’ve passed on), and we’ve since had another 7 test skippers all of whom are still living (Gilchrist, Ponting, Smith, Clarke, Watson, Paine, Cummins)

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Freeman’s post-match interview moments after winning Gold Medal

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Who remembers when channel NINE’s cricket coverage wouldn’t be shown in full into the local market if the game wasn’t a sell out?

Also, live crosses to random horse races during the cricket coverage?

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i do remember the horse races as well too

That wasn’t a Nine decision. It was in the rights agreement that they couldn’t broadcast live against the gate.

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Didn’t know that side of it.
Cool. Thanks.

Missing parts of the cricket because the news had to be on at 6pm.

Yes, the horse race interruptions on Saturdays. Was it Sydney races or both Sydney and Melbourne? Pretty sure it was every race too.

We never had that problem in WA at least with Test Matches since they were usually done by 3pm here.

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It was an incentive to get a big antenna to pick up cricket from a regional station that wasn’t impacted by the black out.

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Yep… back in the 90s dad use to get on the roof and reposition the aerial to WIN Bendigo which were broadcasting the Melbourne matches. GTV9 would have endless repeats of I Dream of Jeanie (or children’s content) until they were allowed to broadcast live into the Melbourne metro area.

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Usually the Sydney and Melbourne daily double with the occasional feature race thrown in to interrupt domestic one dayers during spring and autumn if they had the rights.

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Still happens today with the FTA cricket coverage except, the LIVE cricket coverage gets bumped to the secondary channel.

Not always. If the game is basically over then overflow say 10 mins past 6 then it would most likely get left on the main channel.

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i knew city poeple who got aurora just for cricket to bypass these issues

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There were a few pubs in Melbourne and Geelong that had big VHF/UHF antennas to receive WIN Ballarat via Lookout Hill to receive their cricket coverage from the MCG. The Lara Hotel still has that antenna setup (now obsolete with Fox having all cricket rights). Either that or Aurora/VAST satellite to receive GWN, WIN WA, Imparja and SCTV Seven Central. I used to watch AFL footy live (of matches that were delayed or not shown at all on Seven in Victoria) via this satellite at an inner-city pub.

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Yeah, there’s still a few pubs around town that have Ballarat aerials (the Grovedale, the Petrel in Geelong West, the Clarendon on Latrobe Tce) although I dare say they’re well disused now.

I also remember pubs having games via satellite, usually the game from Perth via GWN from memory. As a kid I saw one once with the old man and just presumed Prime had rebranded without my knowledge, I never knew there was a WA equivalent.

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The Breakfast Creek Hotel in Brisbane still had a legacy Band 3 antenna pointed a Lismore until quite recently. There were some other options for out of area cricket depending on what part of Brisban you were in, but a NSW station was a good option.

Later, Prime Gold Coast was popular for AFL fans in Brisbane. I set up an antenna for that for a friend who had moved from Victoria.

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Much prefer this simpler “Nine Sports” logo from the 1980s.

Given they simplified their news branding to ‘Nine News’, I think they should have done the same with sport and moved away from the unnecessarily long “Nine’s Wide World Of Sports”.

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Yeah, no risk of a Gabba game being turned off when your TV came from south of the border. I presume the GC UHF relays of QTQ followed their metro cousin and switched off after the first two hours as well?

Channel 0 Toowoomba would have also been a good one I’m guessing, especially after aggregation when it became a WIN/Nine affiliate. I’ve watched the cricket on that station in Victoria on more than one occasion, but that kind of DX reception is a different story.

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Time for another random year of Rugby League TV Games, and this time I’m looking at the last year pre-major expansion in 1994. Format is basically the same as it has been for since the start of the decade with the commercial channel doing Friday Night (after Burke’s Backyard) and Sunday Night (after the News) and the ABC covering a live game on Saturday Afternoon, plus a handful of games involving Newcastle, Brisbane and Gold Coast being beamed into their markets at varying times (I think Newcastle had their games shown on Monday Night at times, and the Qld games were an hour’s highlights replacing the 2nd hour of Sports Sunday). This year the finals were all on 9 with an hour’s highlights on the ABC. I’m only putting up the regular season in this list, with irregular venues stated.

ROUND 1
FNF: Easts vs St.George
SAT: Brisbane vs Parramatta
SUN: Manly vs Canterbury (9), Souths vs Newcastle (NBN)

ROUND 2
FNF: Gold Coast vs Brisbane (Carrara, this weekend 9 was also covering the IndyCars on the Gold Coast)
SAT: Norths vs Easts
SUN: St.George vs Penrith (9), Newcastle vs Wests (NBN)

ROUND 3
FNF: Brisbane vs St.George
SAT: Manly vs Wests
SUN: Souths vs Canterbury (9), Canberra vs Newcastle (NBN but using Canberra based callers)

ROUND 4
FNF: Easts vs Brisbane
SAT: St.George vs Balmain
SUN: Norths vs Penrith (9), Newcastle vs Manly (NBN)
MON: Canterbury vs Canberra (Easter Monday)

ROUND 5
FNF: Parramatta vs St.George
SAT: Canterbury vs Newcastle
SUN: Brisbane vs Penrith

ROUND 6
FNF: Penrith vs Balmain (WACA)
SAT: Brisbane vs Norths
SUN: Manly vs Souths (9), Newcastle vs Cronulla (NBN)

ROUND 7
FNF: St.George vs Norths
SAT: Balmain vs Brisbane (Princes Park Melbourne)
SUN: Canberra vs Manly (9), Newcastle vs Illawarra (NBN), Gold Coast vs Easts (9 Queensland)

ROUND 8
FNF: Souths vs Balmain (SCG)
SAT: Penrith vs Manly
SUN: Norths vs Newcastle (9), Brisbane vs Cronulla (9 Queensland)

ROUND 9
FNF: Country vs City (Newcastle)
SAT: Cronulla vs Norths
SUN: St.George vs Canterbury (9, SFS), Manly vs Brisbane (9 Queensland), Balmain vs Newcastle (NBN)

ROUND 10
FNF: Norths vs Manly
SAT: Canberra vs St.George
SUN: Penrith vs Illawarra (9), Newcastle vs Parramatta (NBN), Brisbane vs Wests (9 Queensland)

ROUND 11 (SPLIT ROUND)
FNF: Parramatta vs Cronulla [Week 1], Illawarra vs Brisbane [Week 2]
SAT: Wests vs Norths [W1], St.George vs Souths [W2]
SUN: Gold Coast vs Newcastle [W1], Canterbury vs Penrith [W2, Concord Oval]
MON POST W1: State of Origin 1 (SFS)
WED POST W2: Brisbane vs Wigan, World Club Challenge

ROUND 12 (SPLIT ROUND)
FNF: Easts vs Souths [W1], Brisbane vs Canterbury [W2]
SAT: Manly vs Parramatta [W1], Penrith vs Canberra [W2]
SUN: Cronulla vs Gold Coast [W1], Newcastle vs St.George [W2]
WED W1: State of Origin 2 (MCG)
MON W2: Norths vs Illawarra (Queen’s Birthday)

ROUND 13 (SPLIT ROUND)
FNF: Souths vs Penrith [W1], St.George vs Cronulla [W2]
SAT: Newcastle vs Easts [W1]. Balmain vs Illawarra [W2, Princes Park]
SUN: Parramatta vs Wests [W1], Canterbury vs Norths [W2, 9, Concord], Canberra vs Brisbane [W2. 9 Queensland]
MON W1: State of Origin 3 (Lang Park)

ROUND 14
FNF: Brisbane vs Souths
SAT: Norths vs Canberra
SUN: Penrith vs Newcastle
WED: Australia vs France Test Match (Parramatta)

ROUND 15
FNF: St.George vs Wests (Adelaide Oval)
SAT: Souths vs Norths
SUN: Newcastle vs Brisbane

ROUND 16
FNF: Canterbury vs Manly
SAT: Canberra vs Cronulla
SUN: Newcastle vs Souths (9), Parramatta vs Brisbane (9 Queensland)

ROUND 17
FNF: Easts vs Norths (WACA)
SAT: Cronulla vs Canterbury
SUN: Manly vs Illawarra (9), Wests vs Newcastle (NBN), Brisbane vs Gold Coast (9 Queensland)

ROUND 18
FNF: Newcastle vs Canberra
SAT: St.George vs Brisbane
SUN: Canterbury vs Souths (9, Concord), Gold Coast vs Balmain (9 Queensland)

ROUND 19
FNF: Canberra vs Canterbury
SAT: Penrith vs Norths
SUN: Souths vs Illawarra (9), Manly vs Newcastle (NBN), Brisbane vs Easts (9 Queensland)

ROUND 20
FNF: Illawarra vs Canberra
SAT: Manly vs Cronulla
SUN: Penrith vs Brisbane (9), Newcastle vs Canterbury (NBN), Gold Coast vs Norths (9 Queensland)

ROUND 21
FNF: Norths vs Brisbane
SAT: Canterbury vs Illawarra
SUN: Souths vs Manly (9), Gold Coast vs St.George (9 Queensland)

ROUND 22
FNF: Illawarra vs Newcastle
SAT: Wests vs Canterbury
SUN: Manly vs Canberra (9), Brisbane vs Balmain (9 Queensland)

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