Someone should bring the helicopter opener back. Seven had it last, I think? And it was part of a production that re-invented Seven News
Channel change that occurred midnight Friday; the first part of the recording is on TVQ 0 before the change to TVQ 10.
Some of the ‘simple’ instructions that were broadcast plus some “come across” messages.
Becasue DDQ10 was swapping frequencies with TVQ0 there was no opportunity to have a simulcast period on both 0 and 10 so late at night the two stations ran tests on their respective new frequencies.
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You can really see his charm there. Serious but not too serious, and a bit cheeky.
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They always did like their helicopter openers at TVQ. Perhaps because they were the first Brisbane station with a helicopter in February 1978 according to this promo
This is the opener to the first 6pm Eyewitness News bulletin on TVQ 10 from 10 Sep 1988 with the newly painted helicopter.
A 1982 variant
1983
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I’ve likely said this before but even though the Sydney market has had plenty of legendary broadcasters on TV & radio over the years (some of whom are still on the air today), Brian Henderson was the city’s best ever TV newsreader. What more can you say?!
I wonder if this fairly significant milestone in Brisbane television will be even briefly mentioned on the news tomorrow night? Yeah, probably not.
Great clips as always though! 
Wow, they had a newsboat?! Wonder how often that was used before being decommissioned.
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I remember seeing this as I was staying with some rello’s who lived on top of hill in Toowoomba at the time & most times the techs at TVQ & DDQ managed to preform the night testing switch within 5 seconds of each other when they did the testing swap…It was interesting seeing DDQ’s signal drop & TVQ appear withing 5 seconds…Amazing co-operation between the two at the time
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And TVQ/DDQ put out these handy brochures to help people make the switch…
(full version on my website Come Across To Ten – Television.AU)
Olympics version:
DDQ / Vision TV:
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Does anyone know what the programs they aired for the test broadcast for Vision TV??
The TV listing I have for Vision TV that week ends with the close at midnight, no mention of the test programs to follow on Channel 0.
TV Week’s listings for TV0 had the following Channel 10 test programs in the days leading up to official changeover
Monday: The Benny Hill Show (1hr)
Tuesday: Rugby League, Brisbane v Manly (2hr)
Wednesday: World Expo 88 Opening Day (2hr)
Thursday: The Jesse Owens Story (TV Week states “test transmission until 5.00am”)
Friday: TV Week listed Japanese World Music Festival but this was later changed to the movie Helter Skelter (TV Week again states “test transmission until 5.00am”)
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Does that mean they kept the ‘10-4-5a’ branding right up until the switch to 0? Seems like it would have made sense to bring in the Vision TV branding ahead of time, as unlike TVO to Ten, the new name doesn’t depend on the channel number.
That said, Vision TV branding just seemed so strange, looks like something for a Christian television station, not a mainstream commercial channel. Though ‘10-4-5a’ wasn’t much better, especially when trying to sing it in a jingle.
The change to the Vision TV branding had already taken place ahead of the changeover to Channel 0 although that brochures implies that the name change accompanied the changeover.
I don’t know when the change happened but it had changed by May that year as IIRC there were live crosses to Vision TV at the Olympic Network Telethon that happened on 20 May.
The change to Vision TV was also necessary as the other 2 channels in “10-4-5a”, SDQ4 and DDQ5A were also getting ready to change to the UHF band to Channels 42 and 65 respectively.
There is a “DDQ Reunion” website that has some recollection of the conversion to Channel 0 DDQ Channel 10, 4, 5a
But 10-4-5a Loves You
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Hmm, that’s confusing then - I wonder how many people would read that and assume they’d already changed over because they were getting ‘Vision TV’ rather than ‘Channel 10’.
Perhaps it just meant they needed to change fewer words of the copy in turning it from the 0>10 document to the one for 10>0.
I wonder if they workshopped a few ‘0-42-65’ channel logos before settling on Vision TV…
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Actually, we used to have it in my country, #myfriends
Is it correct they went from 10 4 5a (1987) to Vision (1988) to Star (1989) to WIN (1990) in the lead up to aggregation? If so, lots of change in such a short period…
10-4-5a dated back to the 70s (where it was previously 10-4-5) and I’m not certain of the timing of the change to Star but essentially that was the sequence it went through.
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I used to visit friends near the Northern NSW/QLD border around Goondiwindi and at Tenterfield and I remember in May 1989 it was still Vision TV. My understanding is that it changed to WIN branding around Christmas Day in 1990 as it was announced on Christmas Eve 1990 that QTV had lost the Nine affiliation. So at some point between those two points it changed, possible on June 30 1989
Below is a QTV News report in relation to it
As well as a article on TelevisionAu.com
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I need to revise that article it was written 8 years ago and it’s not certain that DDQ hadn’t also changed to Star ahead of aggregation. I think someone later produced a YouTube clip that indicated DDQ had also become Star.
But from what i recall the change to WIN did not happen until aggregation day 30 December.
I remember that TV Week had been publishing Star Television listings in amongst the Northern NSW listings (eg NRTV, Prime Television and NBN) in 1990 - so from that I gather it changed sometime in the lead up to aggregation, but before WIN Television took control of the channels under the Star Television branding.
The best I have - reception not very good
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