TV turns 50 in Tasmania

TVT6_openingnight_2 Monday 23 May 1960 marked the official opening of Tasmania’s first TV station, TVT6 in Hobart – the culmination of over a decade of planning which started when the station was formed in 1950 in a board room at Hobart radio station 7HO.

The launch of TVT6 meant that every Australian state now had at least one television station – marking the completion of the second stage of the introduction of television in Australia.

The station’s opening night schedule started with a test pattern at 7.00pm followed by the Official Opening by Tasmanian governor Lord Rowallan (pictured) at 7.30pm and a news bulletin read by news editor Gordon Leed.

The Mercury newspaper documented part of Lord Rowallan’s speech on the night:

“I ask you not to be afraid of this new medium, but use it aright.  Do not abuse it, but use it with discrimination and you will find that it will have an interest not only for yourselves in broadening your lives in the Commonwealth and in geography, but it will be productive of a continuous stimulus to your children to learn more and understand more of the great world outside.”

“Good luck to the station.  May it have an excellent future from your own point of view as well as the point of view of the people of Tasmania, who are going to enjoy many hours of viewing and listening.”

American programs made up the rest of the opening night’s line-upDennis The Menace at 8.00pm, I Love Lucy at 8.30pm, Maverick at 9.00pm, and The Eddie Cantor Comedy Theatre at 10.00pm completed the night’s programs.

TVT6_openingnight The opening night’s proceedings were based at TVT6’s headquarters in the suburb of New Town and were viewed by thousands of viewers around Hobart and surrounding areas, often with large groups of people viewing through shop windows on a cold Hobart winter night.  More than 350 guests, including prominent Tasmanian government and business identities (including Lady Rowallan, pictured) and representatives of mainland television stations HSV7, GTV9 and NWS9, were in attendance at a special reception at Wrest Point Hotel and viewed the event on TV screens positioned around the hotel’s spacious dining rooms.

TVT6 also sent out a greeting to its counterparts at ABC, which was due to open its Hobart station – ABT2 – in two weeks’ time.  The station also acknowledged the assistance of existing television stations on the mainland – in particular Perth television station TVW7 which had commenced transmission only seven months earlier.

TVT6 also received messages of congratulations and best wishes from overseas stars including Lucille Ball, Raymond Burr (who, as Perry Mason, said “I promise never to lose a case in Hobart.  Much success in your new endeavour.”) and Perry Como.

TVT6_1960

TVT6_1965

tvt6_1970s

TVT6_1994

TVT6 continued as Hobart and Southern Tasmania’s only commercial TV station for over 30 years – and it would be another 25 years before Hobart got a third television station, SBS, in 1986.  TVT6 also increased its signal through Southern Tasmania with the installation of translator stations TVT8 (Bicheno, Queenstown/Zeehan, Strahan) and TVT10 (Rosebery).

During the 1980s TVT6 had fallen under common ownership with the Northern Tasmanian station, TNT9, and both stations were branded on-air as TAS TV, and for several years maintained a standard schedule across both channels, covering most of the entire State.  In 1988, TNT9 was sold off to Tricom Corporation, the company which later formed the Southern Cross Network, leading to TNT9 splitting from the TAS TV partnership.

TVT6 also won a number of TV Week Logie awards – when State-based categories were included – for its presenters and programs, including Graeme Smith, Trevor Sutton, Bert Taylor, Tom Payne, Ron Christie, Robyn Martin, KTV and Tasmania Today.

On 30 April 1994, TVT6 (TAS TV) and TNT9 (Southern Cross Network) took part in the statewide aggregation of their respective signals – giving Tasmanian viewers a choice of two commercial channels for the first time.  TAS TV, which had ties to Victorian regional network VIC TV, became an affiliate of the Nine Network, while Southern Cross struck up joint affiliation to both Seven and Ten networks.

In October 1994, TAS TV and VIC TV were sold to NSW-based regional network WIN Corporation, which already owned Nine Network regional affiliates in New South Wales, Queensland and the Australian Capital Territory.  As a result the TAS TV and VIC TV identities were replaced with the WIN branding.

win_1989 WIN_2008_2

WIN and Southern Cross Television later became joint venture owners in the Tasmanian-based digital channel, TDT, which commenced transmission on 1 January 2004.

WIN still has an amount of local production based in Hobart, specifically the nightly WIN News, read by Anna McMahon, a Tasmanian who worked in her early career at TAS TV and for many years on the mainland for the Ten and Nine networks and recently returned to Tasmania to join WIN.

Source: The Mercury, 23 May 1960 and 24 May 1960.  Australian Television Information Archive, Australian TV Archive.

Permanent link to this article: https://televisionau.com/2010/05/tv-turns-50-in-tasmania.html

4 comments

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    • Lee on 23 February 2019 at 10:47 AM
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    Hi, My father, Peter Schulze was instrumental in setting up the translator station at Queenstown (TAS) on Mt Owen. I have a photo of him holding the initial aerial on top of Mt Owen, and I also have the box/signal finder/translator that he used to find the signal (it is also in the photo) I believe it was in the early 1960’s, but would like the exact date. Any idea? Thank you

    • Peter Duncan on 14 April 2020 at 2:55 AM
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    Hi Lee, I worked at TVT6 in the 60’s (my first job) and reckon the translator must have been put in around late 1966 early 1967.
    I remember we took a Landrover as far up the mountain as possible and then walked following something like a JCB carrying a stripped out car body.
    This car body was used to put the battery powered translator in, I don’t remember your father but he must have been one of the team.
    From memory it was Gordon Bell TVT’s assistant engineer after Bill Morrison that was there organising the install.

    Those were the days of Rock n Roll!!!
    All the best,
    Peter Duncan

    • Shannon Gaunt on 25 April 2020 at 8:51 PM
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    Hi all,

    My grandfather is Bert Taylor, from “Taylor’s Tasmania” and later “Taylor’s Australia”. What a great character, very charismatic and always a showman. Loved to tell a story and could tell one better than most. I guess that’s why Mark Nicholls wanted him on board to do the series of doco’s
    He was awarded 5 TV Week Logies over the years the show was aired. He is probably the most awarded, unknown TV personality of all time…I did say probably. Definately helped put Tassie TV and Tassie on the map.
    He passed away some time ago now. Miss him dearly, but still remember moments in time spent with him and my family.
    R.I.P Herbert Ivan Taylor. Love ya Pa!
    Thank you!
    Shannon Gaunt.

    1. That’s a wonderful tribute to your grandfather, Shannon. Thank you for sharing 🙂

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