I suppose it informed the viewer that they had selected the correct Teletext page, and explained why they weren’t seeing subtitles/CCs. What did the commercial channels show on that page when the program currently playing did not have CCs?
It was always just blank if the program was not captioned.
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A small question regarding the Freeview pre-launch ad. At one point you could download the song from the ad on their website, but due to the Wayback Machine’s limited abilities I cannot find it. The description of this hilarious parody is where I first discovered it:
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I want to post this in the TV History section given its general nature. I guess this is the closest thread since the original TV history thread was closed last year.
The hashtag unforgettableaustv is currently trending on Twitter with people posting their memories of Australian TV. It was all sparked by this article on The Guardian website this morning.
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Some odd choices listed there.
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Clearly, apart from Molly’s death in A Country Practice, TV didn’t exist before 2000
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I just found it odd to see “Anita and Drazic’s break-up on Heartbreak High”. 
Admittedly, I didn’t watch Heartbreak High much beyond season 1 but I’m sure I have never heard anyone suggest it should be in a list of “the unforgettable moments of Australian TV history”.
Maggie Doyle being killed.
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Not specifically a question about TV history, but I can’t find a more appropriate thread: In solus markets (and perhaps even two station markets with a third JV channel), how often, if ever, would you see promos for programs on another network (eg. in the Spencer Gulf/Broken Hill SCA solus market, would you ever see Nine Network programming promoted on Seven, or vice versa)? Is the Nightly News (now on 7TWO) ever promoted on the Nine or Ten suite of channels?
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In the spencer gulf/broken hill it’s all dirty feed and they don’t do promos for 7 on 10 or 9 etc. Same with the other SCA markets like central or Tas. I’ve heard that back in the days of clean feed different promos would slip through but I doubt it happens much now.
Maybe Win and Prime do it differently, I’m not sure
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Question about analog TV sound systems.
Australia adopted the A2 Stereo system which is an analog system that is backwards compatible with mono receivers, whereas NZ and the UK used a digital system called Nicam.
Why didn’t Australia adopt Nicam?
When and what was the roll out of A2 Stereo like? I recall all metro stations having it by the 1990s but regionals were hit and miss. I recall after aggregation the VHF heritage station remained mono. While new UHF stations (presumably with brand new transmitters) were stereo.
Australia adopted stereo much earlier than the UK and NZ. 1986 versus 1991 is light years in terms of technological progress. NICAM receivers also cost an absolute arseload in the beginning, whereas A2 stereo was not that much more complex than what’s in a standard stereo FM radio receiver.
Also, my gauge of the UK television market (not sure about NZ) is that they were always much more likely to purchase high-end equipment than Australians. Even back in the 1990s they had widescreen CRTs proliferating in homes. I am guessing that kind of thing stems from them being couch potatoes, what with the shit weather up there and all.
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The Zweikanalton stereo sound system was first broadcast in late 1984 by the Nine network. The biggest advantage was that it was backward compatible. By the next year the other commercial networks had started to introduce the system. This was recorded from QTQ that I believe started broadcasting at about the same time as the southern cities. There was a bit of a “fanfare” about the new feature and I think that in many instances networks “enhanced” the stereo separation and added false stereo to programs and idents.
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Not all regional VHF incumbents remained in mono but a lot did. Sometimes it was for technical reasons that they couldn’t upgrade to stereo. I remember reading somewhere that Prime Orange (CBN8) couldn’t use stereo because of an interference issue but their Central Western Slopes (Dubbo, CBN6) transmitter was able to. I know that CTC7 Canberra (Ten Capital) didn’t do stereo transmission where as the others did. Regional SA and WA didn’t even bother with stereo at all as far as I know.
Since the digital switchover, all TV transmissions are in stereo. Even the tiny transmitters.
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Prime was in stereo from the commencement of aggregation in Newcastle in 1992.
NBN didn’t start with stereo until later that year, NRTV was possibly 1993 before they did the same.
I remember on an FM radio, NBN’s audio was 91.75 for the left channel, and 92.0 for the right (as it was on VHF 3).
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Dunno what the rationale for NZ using Nicam was, but it took a long time for roll-out to be implemented across TVNZ’s channels. I think Southland didn’t get it until the 2000’s.
EDIT: Some interesting insight into the rollout (in NZ and Singapore) https://web.archive.org/web/20180120023427/https://www.axino-tech.co.nz/about.html.
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Anyone knows the closedown sequence of WIN Riverina/Central West #myfriend ? I found that these feed were not 24 hours until 1992!
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I haven’t seen it, but I do know WIN were on air 24/7 in only Wollongong and Canberra from the commencement of aggregation in March 1989 continuously.
Prime and Capital were also on air 24/7 in both cities as well for a little while, not sure when they reverted back to closedowns.
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Does anyone have any screenshots of the ABC NEWS 24 idents?
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