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1970-1979

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Number 96 shocked a nation with its casual glimpses of nudity and captivated viewers with a broad mix of melodrama and comedy

The Seventies was a radical period and this was also reflected on the nation’s TV screens.  Leading the way in Australian TV’s loss of innocence were racy soap opera dramas Number 96 and The Box and the comedy-drama Alvin Purple.  Also during the decade, Australian TV finally burst into colour, several years after its overseas counterparts — and a Sunday night tradition was born with the launch of the legendary music show Countdown.

Mary Hardy

1970:

  • Following the departure of Graham Kennedy from GTV9, In Melbourne Tonight continues with a different host each night — Ugly Dave Gray, Stuart Wagstaff, Jimmy Hannan and Bert Newton.
  • April 13: The Long Arm is the 0-10 Network’s first attempt at series drama.  It lasted three months.
  • June 1: The Seven Network launches a new daytime quiz show, Temptation, hosted by Tony Barber.
  • July 9:  The official opening of the microwave link between the east and west coasts of Australia, allowing the transmission of telecommunications and television program material across the country. The launch program is a one-hour special Project Australia — featuring segments contributed from various Australian cities.
  • October 10: The launch of HSV7’s Saturday night variety show Penthouse Club, hosted by Michael Williamson and Mary Hardy, featuring a mixture of variety, comedy, harness racing coverage and, from 1972, the weekly Tattslotto draw. It runs until 1979 after changing its name briefly to Saturday Night Live.
  • October 21: In Melbourne Tonight celebrates its 3000th episode.
  • TV Week Gold Logie Winners: Barry Crocker (Sound Of Music, Nine) and Maggie Tabberer (Maggie, Seven) and a special Gold Logie also awarded to Apollo 11 crew

Paul Cronin, Matlock Police

1971:

  • New TV stations: VEW8 Kalgoorlie (18 June), ABD6 Darwin (13 August), ITQ8 Mt Isa (11 September), NTD8 Darwin (11 November).
  • January 4: The highly-acclaimed American children’s series Sesame Street begins on ABC.
  • February 25Matlock Police, a new weekly police drama from Crawford Productions, starts a five year run on 0-10.
  • March 24: GTV9 axes Tonight With Stuart Wagstaff and The Ugly Dave Gray Show — the two remaining spin-offs from the former In Melbourne Tonight.
  • April 24:Young Talent Time starts an 18-year run on the 0-10 Network.
  • June 28: Bob and Dolly Dyer’s Pick-A-Box signs off for the last time, ending a 14-year run on television. The program is replaced the following week by The Great Temptation, a prime-time version of afternoon quiz show Temptation.
  • Hey Hey It’s Saturday

    October 9: Hey Hey It’s Saturday begins as a Saturday morning cartoon show on GTV9, initially hosted by Daryl Somers and VFL footballer Peter McKenna, who was later replaced by Ossie Ostrich.

  • November 15: Two years after resigning from In Melbourne Tonight, Graham Kennedy makes a return to TV with the first of two comedy specials. The second special airs in early 1972.
  • November 22A Current Affair with Mike Willesee premieres on Nine, initially screening weeknights at 9.30pm before shifting to the 7pm timeslot two months later.
  • TV Week Gold Logie Winners: Gerard Kennedy (Division 4, Nine) and Maggie Tabberer (Maggie, Seven). A special Gold Logie is also awarded to Bob Dyer and his wife Dolly in recognition of their 14 years of presenting quiz show Pick-A-Box.

1972:

  • February 15: The Government announces that all Australian TV stations will convert to colour on 1 March 1975.  The transition is expected to cost the ABC around $46 million and the commercial sector $70 million — although some stations had already installed colour-compatible equipment.
  • March: The 0-10 Network screens the first episode of the ground breaking evening series Number 96, which created much controversy over its sex and nude scenes.
  • March 20: Brisbane’s BTQ7 claims to launch Australia’s first one-hour news bulletin with The Big News.
  • May 29: ATN7 launches Sydney’s first one-hour news bulletin, Seven National News Hour
  • September 19: The Graham Kennedy Show begins on Nine.
  • TV Week Gold Logie Winner: Gerard Kennedy (Division 4, Nine)

Abigail, Number 96

1973:

  • Number 96 becomes the most popular program on Australian TV.
  • February 5: The Mike Walsh Show, a live daytime variety show from the studios of TEN10, starts a four-year run on 0-10 before switching to Nine in 1977.
  • February: Garry Meadows hosts 0-10’s The Price Is Right, a daytime game show that was so popular a separate prime time edition was also launched.
  • February 14: ABC’s Certain Women begins as a six-part mini-series before being renewed as an ongoing series to run for four years.
  • June 11: Nine launches No Man’s Land, the all-female current affairs program.
  • TV Week Gold Logie Winner: Tony Barber (Great Temptation, Seven)

George Mallaby and Barrie Barkla, The Box.

1974:

  • January 7: Seven launches variety show JC At 8.30. It lasted two weeks.
  • February 11: The Box, a new nightly series set to create the same controversy as Number 96, premieres on the 0-10 Network. It finishes the year as the second most popular program on Australian TV behind Number 96.
  • March 18: Grundy Productions launches its first drama series Class Of ‘74, a five-night-a-week school drama produced for Seven.  It becomes Class Of ‘75 the following year before being axed by the network.
  • October: Test colour transmissions commence across all networks.
  • November 8: Radio DJ Grant Goldman hosts the first edition of ABC’s Countdown.
  • December 31: The Nine Network and News Limited launch a 28-hour telethon to raise funds for the relief effort of Darwin after the city was wiped out by Cyclone Tracy.
  • TV Week Gold Logie Winners: Graham Kennedy (The Graham Kennedy Show, Nine) and Pat McDonald (Number 96, 0-10)

Colour TV begins

1975:

  • March 1: C-DAY. Television stations convert to full-time colour transmission.
  • Graham Kennedy is banned from appearing on live television after his infamous “crow call” and subsequent editorials on Nine’s Graham Kennedy Show.
  • May 12: Nine’s new variety show The Don Lane Show begins a successful eight year run.
  • TEN10 Sydney launches its first one-hour news service, Eyewitness Newshour.
  • September 5: Episode 839, the infamous ‘bomb-blast’ episode of Number 96 which wiped out four regular characters in a bid to reinstate the series’ former top rating position.
  • October 13:  News program Eleven AM, with Roger Climpson, debuts on ATN7 Sydney.
  • TV Week Gold Logie Winners: Ernie Sigley and Denise Drysdale (The Ernie Sigley Show, Nine).  First TV Week Logie Awards presentation telecast in colour.

The Sullivans

1976:

  • New TV station: RTS5A Riverland (26 November)
  • 0-10, in association with South Pacific Films and Paramount Pictures TV, produces a 26-episode children’s series The Lost Islands. The series had a modest following in Australia but sold well overseas.
  • July: ABC, Seven and Nine combine forces to provide Olympic Games coverage from Montreal. The opening and closing ceremonies are telecast live, with highlights packages screening each evening.
  • November: Grundy’s hospital drama The Young Doctors and Crawford Productions’ World War II drama The Sullivans begin on Nine.
  • November: Mike Walsh announces that he will be moving The Mike Walsh Show from the 0-10 Network to the Nine Network early in 1977. The Nine Network also announces it has signed up Paul Hogan who had previously appeared on the Seven Network.
  • TV Week Gold Logie Winners: Norman Gunston (The Norman Gunston Show, ABC) and Denise Drysdale (The Ernie Sigley Show, Nine).

Blankety Blanks

1977:

  • New TV Station: GTW11 Geraldton (21 January).
  • January 24: Graham Kennedy returns to television as host of 0-10’s evening game show Blankety Blanks, which became a ratings winner. The show continued for two years.
  • February 7: The Mike Walsh Show debuts on the Nine Network after four years on the 0-10 Network.
  • April: The Seven Network successfully bids for exclusive Australian rights to televise the 1980 Olympic Games from Moscow.  The network paid $1 million in the deal, outbidding rival offers from ABC and Nine.
  • April: Countdown celebrates its 100th episode.
  • April-May: Roots, the multi-million dollar US mini-series, airs on 0-10 and receives the highest ratings of the decade.
  • Seven televises the VFL Grand Final live to Melbourne for the first time.
  • The final episodes of Homicide, The Box, Number 96 and Bellbird go to air.
  • Hotel Story, a Crawford production for 0-10, begins production in Melbourne.  The series was axed before the first episode had even gone to air.
  • The Federal Government investigates a proposal to establish a domestic satellite system, enabling instant transmission of television and other communications across Australia and in particular to remote areas.
  • December: The Nine Network’s World Series Cricket launches in opposition to the traditional test cricket coverage on ABC.
  • TV Week Gold Logie Winners: Don Lane (The Don Lane Show, Nine) and Jeanne Little (The Mike Walsh Show, 0-10)

Against The Wind

1978:

  • March 20: ATV0 launches its one-hour news service, Eyewitness News with Bruce Mansfield.
  • Against The Wind, the first major mini-series produced for Australian commercial television, is screened on Seven.
  • August:  ABC televises the 1978 Commonwealth Games from Edmonton, Canada.  The opening and closing ceremonies are televised live, with event highlights each day.
  • 64% of Melbourne and 70% of Sydney households now own colour TV sets, giving Australia one of the fastest changeovers to colour in the world.
  • September:  The Federal Government gives the go-ahead for the launch of a multicultural television service, to be operated by the Special Broadcasting Service (SBS), with the expectation of the new channel operating in Sydney and Melbourne by 1980.
  • October:  ATV0 makes a request to the Federal Government for permission to change its broadcast frequency to Channel 10.
  • November 7:  The 0-10 Network televises the Melbourne Cup to a national audience for the first time.  The telecast is regarded as one of the largest national sports telecasts mounted to date.
  • TV Week Gold Logie Winner:  Graham Kennedy (Blankety Blanks, 0-10)

Prisoner

1979:

  • February 8:  The Government approves the application for ATV0 to convert its transmission to the Channel 10 frequency.
  • February 11:  Nine’s new weekly current affairs program 60 Minutes, based on a successful US show of the same name, has a lack lustre beginning but soon rises to become one of Australia’s highest rating programs.
  • February 27:  Grundy Productions’ new prime time series Prisoner starts a successful run on 0-10.  It enjoys a large following both in Australia and overseas, particularly in the United Kingdom and parts of the United States.
  • April 29:  The Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) screens the first of a series of multicultural programs on ABC on Sunday mornings.
  • July 1:  Commercial television stations now required to screen ‘C’ classified programming, aimed solely at children aged 6 to 13, every weekday between 4pm and 5pm. Early ‘C’ classified programs include Simon Townsend’s Wonder World (0-10), Stax (Seven) and Shirl’s Neighbourhood (Seven) and re-classified existing shows The Curiosity Show and Skippy The Bush Kangaroo (both from Nine). Commercial stations are also required to screen a minimum of 30 minutes each weekday, prior to 4.00pm, of programming aimed at pre-school viewers.
  • Muhammad Ali and Gold Logie winner Bert Newton

    November:  Rupert Murdoch takes control of TEN10 Sydney and his bid to takeover the Ansett transport company, which owns ATV0 Melbourne, sparks a review into media ownership by the Australian Broadcasting Tribunal.

  • TV Week Gold Logie Winner:  Bert Newton (The Don Lane Show and New Faces, Nine)

Permanent link to this article: https://televisionau.com/timeline/1970-1979

120 comments

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    • Shane Egan on 7 February 2013 at 7:27 PM
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    Does anyone remember 1970’s TV game show “One in a Million”?
    Produced at Mt Gravatt, Brisbane.
    Jack Thompson did a guest appearance.

    • Kevin on 12 February 2013 at 4:28 PM
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    I’m looking for a TV show which featured a father and his two children (a teenage girl and a slightly younger boy) traveling around the South Pacific on a yacht visiting various islands and sorting out local problems before moving onto another island and another adventure. I’m pretty sure it was an Australian show.

      • Alan on 21 May 2013 at 11:59 AM
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      Seaspray

        • David Armstrong on 11 June 2013 at 9:34 PM
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        I think the show your looking for was called The Rovers.

      • Andy Dent on 19 February 2016 at 11:46 AM
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      Adventures of the Seaspray

      http://www.classicaustraliantv.com/AdvSeaspray.htm

      Youtube video of the credits (made a huge impression on me)
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8FPbagf7Zk

    • Sonya on 23 March 2013 at 8:58 PM
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    Hi, can anyone help me with a picture of Jill zilm? A tv presenter of a 70’s show junior jury?

  1. Hi the telethones in 1969 1970 + the lady with the piano alllll the children singers and son Walter Nock, = Betty Nock.

    • Barb on 19 August 2013 at 5:12 PM
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    I used to watch a cooking show in the late 60’s or earlier 70’s. The cook was an Italian lady cooking Italian food. Does anyone remember this show?

    • Nicole on 28 September 2013 at 9:13 PM
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    is there any footage of ridgey didge? not sure exact spelling but it was a kids tv show? would love to see it 🙂

    • Louise on 25 October 2013 at 5:45 AM
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    Has anyone got a pic of flappers mate brindley the cat from earlybirds show ???

    • Neil Forbes on 23 January 2014 at 11:55 PM
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    I’m not entirely sure but I think Newcastle’s Station NBN may have the rightful claim to be the first with an hour-long TV new bulletin in NSW, possible all Australia. Veteran anchorman Murray Finlay was still there at the time but a young newcomer, Ray Dineen was starting to “find his feet”.

    1. Hi Neil

      Hence my statement that “BTQ7 claims Australia’s first one hour news service”. It’s their claim, not mine.

      Although my understanding, which may or may not be correct, is that NBN’s one-hour news format launched in April 1972, so if that is the case then BTQ7 may have beaten them to it by a month.

    • Neil Forbes on 24 January 2014 at 1:29 AM
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    In that case, Station BTQ-Brisbane can claim for Queensland. I know NBN beat TEN-Sydney with the hour-long format… hah, fancy that, a regional station beating out a metropolitan station!!! By the way, I DON’T mention the channel numbers, they are TOTALLY unimportant!. I refer only to the STATIONS as it is they who provide the content. The channel is nothing more than a 7 Mhz-wide chunk of spectrum space in the VHF and UHF bands for the digital system(the analogue system had 7 Mhz-wide VHF and 8 Mhz-wide UHF channels), and as such, the channel is singularly unimportant. More so in the analogue days of turret tuners(channel-changing knobs) where you’d switch through several unoccupied channels to get to the station you wanted.

    • Andrew on 24 January 2014 at 2:09 PM
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    first colour television in my family was back in 1977 two years after when colour was introduced

      • stephen on 7 February 2016 at 11:08 AM
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      We had a colour tv from 1973, full colour programming went on air in 1969 in the uk

    • Andrew on 24 January 2014 at 2:26 PM
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    April 1972, NBN expanded its nightly news service to one hour, becoming the first television station in Australia to have a one hour news bulletin.

    1. So BTQ7’s claim (March) is right

    • Andrew on 24 January 2014 at 3:08 PM
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    yes Andrew you are correct about BTQ channel seven first hourly news in Australia

    • Andrew on 24 January 2014 at 3:21 PM
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    Neil you may find its first in Australia not by state the first hour news that BTQ 7 has established

    • Andrew on 24 January 2014 at 4:53 PM
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    anyone remember a show called The Yellow House I think it was shown around the mid to late seventies

    • Neil Forbes on 25 January 2014 at 12:14 AM
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    Just a slight correction there, Andrew. NBN’s weeknight(Monday to Friday) bulletins were extended, the Saturday bulletin has only been extended to one hour in the past month or so. The Sunday night bulletin remains at 30 minutes. Station BTQ-Brisbane may have beaten NBN by a month but NBN can claim to be the first REGIONAL station to extend its bulletin to one hour. As stated elsewhere, NBN is now the ONLY regional station still producing its own nightly news bulletin, ALL the others now cheat and plug in to the metropolitan station feeds. This is a disgraceful situation and it CANNOT be excused by arguments about cost.

    • andrew on 25 January 2014 at 11:35 AM
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    can I point out Neil this site is about history of television no offence but I think we should keep it that way not to intimidate other television stations

    • andrew on 26 January 2014 at 5:07 PM
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    and further more its by law that stations have to use their channel numbers not their call signs

      • Neil Forbes on 10 February 2014 at 10:59 AM
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      I humbly disagree about it being law that they use channel numbers INSTEAD of call-signs, otherwise why would call-signs be issued in the first place?

    • Neil Forbes on 29 January 2014 at 2:54 PM
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    Be it analogue or digital, a channel has NO physical presence, it employs no-one, pays no bills, earns no revenue, occupies no amount of real-estate. A station can be found in a large metropolitan or mid-sized regional city, occupying a sizeable chunk of real-estate in one of the suburbs, with manicured lawns, a spacious parking lot for the employees’ cars, and will have a huge(impersonate Darrell Eastlake here!) transmitter tower next to the main building, holding the studios and offices, or will have a microwave dish on its roof to beam the signal to a transmitter site on a nearby mountain(example, NBN-Newcastle is in Mosbri Crescent, a gully down behind Newcastle East Primary School(or, as I remember it, Newcastle Junior Boys High when I attended, 1968-1970), beaming signal to Mount Sugarloaf for transmission to Lower Hunter area, which included Maitland and Cessnock. A station might be just down the street from your home, not so a channel. Channels are ethereal. They are no more than the carrier frequencies on which the stations transmit their signal to you, the viewer. Remember your old black & white or first colour TV? If you lived in a regional area and served by one commercial station and the ABC, Taree, for instance where ABTN was on Ch.1 and ECN on Ch.8? Turn the knob two clicks, grainy pics from NBN, then two more, grainy pics from ABHN which would later be moved from 5 to 5A, then static hash on 6 & 7 before hitting clear signal from ECN, carrying NEN-Tamworth. Oh, the joys of turret tuners! And what happened to ECN-Taree?, Went broke! The studio is now a warehouse and the transmitter is now little more than a translator for NEN-Tamworth in the Prime network.

    • andrew on 29 January 2014 at 3:32 PM
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    NEN9 Tamworth/Upper Namoi commenced transmissions on 10 April 1965, with a relay in Armidale (NEN1, later NEN10) on 15 July 1966. ECN8 Taree/Manning River began on 27 May 1966.

    During 1968–69, ECN8 who at the time were facing financial difficulties approached NBN3 Newcastle to take the station over but the proposal was rejected by the Australian Broadcasting Control Board. An approach was also made to NRN11 Coffs Harbour but an agreement could not be reached. Finally, ECN approached NEN with an agreement for ECN to carry a relay broadcast of NEN’s programming from the end of March 1969. In November 1971, ECN merged with NEN, but continued to use the callsign ECN into the mid 1980s.

    During the 1970s and early 1980s NEN9 was a member of the Great Eastland Television partnership with NRN11 Coffs Harbour and DDQ/SDQ 10-4-5a Toowoomba, Queensland, sharing programming and advertising. From 1981 until 1989 the station branded itself 9-8 Television, referencing the channel numbers of both their Tamworth and Taree broadcasts.

    Prime Television purchased the station in 1989, rebranding the station Prime Television and aligning it with the Seven Network, similarly to CBN in southern New South Wales, whilst changing ECN’s call sign to NEN. At the commencement of Northern NSW market Aggregation on 31 December 1991, Prime Television became the Northern NSW affiliate of the Seven Network, in competition with NRTV (now Southern Cross Ten) and NBN.

    • andrew on 29 January 2014 at 3:54 PM
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    oh how much I love Australian television history

    • andrew on 29 January 2014 at 11:18 PM
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    Other meanings

    Commonly, the term “television channel” is used to refer to either a terrestrial television station or its cable/satellite counterpart (both outlined below). Sometimes, especially outside the U.S. and in the context of cable/satellite television, it is used instead of the term television network, which otherwise (in its technical use above) describes a group of geographically-distributed television stations that share affiliation/ownership and some or all of their programming with one another.

    This terminology may be muddled somewhat in other jurisdictions, for instance Europe, where terrestrial channels are commonly mapped from physical channels to common numerical positions (i.e. BBC One does not broadcast on any particular “channel 1” but is nonetheless mapped to the “1” input on most British television sets). On digital platforms, such (location) channels are usually arbitrary and changeable, due to virtual channels.

    • Neil Forbes on 30 January 2014 at 1:49 AM
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    While coming home from high school in 1969, aged 14 at the time, I remember walking along Newcastle’s Hunter Street, in the area known as Civic, there, in the Radio Rentals shop, on display in the window was a British TV set, showing no programme content, only a colour bar, yes it was a colour set. It had the brand-name Baird and station selection was by way of pull-out(or push-in) buttons labelled BBC-1, BBC-2 and ITV-1 to 9, 11 buttons in all. Below these were the knobs for volume, tone, brightness, contrast, colour and tint. Being a curious 14-year-old I went into the shop to take a bloody-good look at it, as you would. From memory it stood on legs and had a small speaker under the audio/video controls. The station selector knobs would’ve performed three tasks, select station, fine-tune signal, turn set on or off. Little did I know that I was looking at the fore-runner to button-tuning Australian sets of the late 1970s and early 1980s

    • Neil Forbes on 30 January 2014 at 2:12 AM
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    In the Australian TV system of the 1950s, we had 10 VHF channels, with obvious numbering, this was 1956/57. Soon after, it was realised that extra channels were needed to cover the demand for more spectrum space for futures stations, thus VHF ch.0, 5A and 11 were created and some first-generation Australian-built sets had to be adjusted by having new “front-ends” installed, which had these new 13-channel turret tuners. Second-generation sets would have 13-channel tuners as a matter of course. Metropolitan cities(state capitals in Eastern Australia) would have ABC services on VHF Band-1 channels(usually Ch.2) and commercial on VHF Band 3(from 5A upwards, usually 7 & 9). Regional areas had a mixed bag of allocations scattered across the three VHF bands(Band 1=Ch.0 to 2, Band 2=3 to 5[swallowing up the internationally recognised FM radio band, 88-108 Mhz] and Band 3=5A to 11). In some regional areas where a Sydneysider would associate a given channel with a commercial station, finds instead an ABC service, simply proves my point that it’s the station that counts and the channel is singularly unimportant, and doesn’t deserve a mention. It’s past time we gave our TV stations, metro and regional, PROPER identities, and get rid of the channel number references altogether!

    • andrew on 30 January 2014 at 10:51 AM
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    I don’t think that will happen in our lifetime neil

    • andrew on 30 January 2014 at 12:20 PM
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    Television Station

    A television station is a business, organisation or other enterprise, such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits (broadcasts) content over terrestrial television. A television transmission can occur via analog television signals or, more recently, via digital television signals. Broadcast television systems standards are set by the government, and these vary around the world. Television stations broadcasting over an analog system were typically limited to one television channel, but digital television enables broadcasting via subchannels as well. The term “television station” is normally applied to terrestrial television stations, and not to cable television or satellite television broadcasting.

    Television Channel

    A television channel is a physical or virtual channel over which a television station or television network is distributed. For example, in North America, “channel 2” refers to the broadcast or cable band of 54 to 60 MHz, with carrier frequencies of 55.25 MHz for NTSC analog video (VSB) and 59.75 MHz for analog audio (FM), or 55.31 MHz for digital ATSC (8VSB). Channels may be shared by many different television stations or cable-distributed channels depending on the location and service provider.

    Depending on the multinational bandplan for a given region, analog television channels are typically 6, 7, or 8 MHz in bandwidth, and therefore television channel frequencies vary as well. Channel numbering is also different. Digital television channels are the same for legacy reasons, however through multiplexing, each physical radio frequency (RF) channel can carry several digital subchannels. On satellites, each transponder normally carries one channel, however small, independent channels can be used on each transponder, with some loss of bandwidth due to the need for guard bands between unrelated transmissions. ISDB, used in Japan and Brazil, has a similar segmented mode.

    Channel separation on over-the-air channels is accomplished by skipping at least one channel between two analog stations’ frequency allocations. (There can be gaps between channels, where numbers are sequential, but frequencies are not contiguous, such as the skip from VHF low to high, and the jump to UHF.) On cable TV, it is possible to use adjacent channels only because they are all at the same power, something which could only be done over the air if the two stations were transmitted at the same power and height from the same location. For digital TV, selectivity is inherently better, therefore channels adjacent (either to analog or digital stations) can be used even in the same area.

    Other meanings

    Commonly, the term “television channel” is used to refer to either a terrestrial television station or its cable/satellite counterpart (both outlined below). Sometimes, especially outside the U.S. and in the context of cable/satellite television, it is used instead of the term television network, which otherwise (in its technical use above) describes a group of geographically-distributed television stations that share affiliation/ownership and some or all of their programming with one another.

    This terminology may be muddled somewhat in other jurisdictions, for instance Europe, where terrestrial channels are commonly mapped from physical channels to common numerical positions (i.e. BBC One does not broadcast on any particular “channel 1” but is nonetheless mapped to the “1” input on most British television sets). On digital platforms, such (location) channels are usually arbitrary and changeable, due to virtual channels.

    I hope this clear things up Neil

    1. And with that comment let’s end this topic of discussion

    • andrew on 6 February 2014 at 11:36 PM
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    when Muhammad Ali announces the gold logie he said 1978 not 1979

    1. Similar to what happens now, the 1979 Logies were for programs and personalities that appeared in 1978. Particularly in earlier years the Logies often referred to the year of airdate rather than the year of presentation. The Logie itself was possibly labelled “1978” even though it was presented in 1979.

        • Neil Forbes on 10 February 2014 at 11:04 AM
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        That’s likely the reason why the event is staged so early in the year(usually sometime in April). Though the TV Week King Of Pop Awards, packaged by Lewis/Young Productions, then Television House used to be staged much later in the year(around October or November) until their demise in the early 1980s

    • andrew on 8 February 2014 at 1:31 AM
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    like the 1979 countdown rock music awards held in April 1980

    • andrew on 10 February 2014 at 9:49 PM
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    last king of pop was 1978 then it became the countdown rock awards in 1980

      • Neil Forbes on 12 February 2014 at 2:15 PM
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      I actually thought the TV Week King Of Pop awards died off in 1982 or so, while the Countdown awards were run in opposition to them for a few years. The King Of Pop awards originated out of Station ATV-Melbourne, while the Countdown awards were made by “Auntie” ABC, out of Station ABV-Melbourne.

      1. The TV Week King Of Pop Awards appeared for the last time in 1978. The last couple of years were broadcast by the Nine Network. They were replaced by the TV Week-Countdown Rock Awards before Countdown branched off to its own awards presentation which ran until 1987.

    • Andrew M on 26 February 2014 at 6:00 PM
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    tomorrow or today 27th of February it be 35 years since Prisoner made its debut on Televison the series lasted until December 1986

    • Andrew on 27 February 2014 at 3:26 PM
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    Remember Harry Butler in the wild series and bill peaches Australia the ABC used to broadcast those great two series in the seventies I used to enjoy watching them

    • Andrew on 1 March 2014 at 1:41 PM
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    Happy C Day everyone well not actually an event but it was 39 years ago took me the next twelve months to see a colour television that was first experimented in 1968 and announced in 1972 televisions weren’t cheap in those days so many people would rent one as I did from 1974 until 1988

    • Andrew on 4 March 2014 at 8:43 PM
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    Who remembers a show back in the early seventies called the god fathers I thought the storylines were very strange the events that happened on the show

      • Mimi on 20 May 2014 at 12:55 PM
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      Loved this show. Maybe Anna Volska was the female actress?

    • Darrell Brown on 9 April 2014 at 5:03 PM
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    I’m looking for a copy be it video or cd of the 78 grand final between Lyon and nth can anyone help? If so call me on 0438 026 072

    • john on 12 April 2014 at 6:45 PM
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    Remembers the match of the day that directly came after Sounds Unlimited (later sounds) I am trying to find out what the theme music was

    • Danielle on 4 May 2014 at 5:34 PM
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    Does anyone remember or have copies of a Channel 9 weekly Friday night entertainment show of 1978 called ‘Thank God It’s Friday at the Zoo’ hosted by Ian MacRae. I was a dancer on the show and would really like to obtain copies. Thank you.

    1. Hi Danielle

      Obtaining footage from these programs is difficult. Networks and producers are often unable to make copies for reasons of copyright and also because many older shows no longer exist in any archive.

      There is some more information here.

    • Mimi on 20 May 2014 at 12:54 PM
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    Hi I’m trying to remember the name of a t.v . series where a Jewish girl marries anon Jewish boy against the family’s wishes ( I think she is pregnant?). The young man goes on to prove his worth to the in laws and has a csrsvan building business.
    I think they end up with two children but I think the boy (maybe Peter?) dies as a result of an accident.
    Not really long series. I think it might have been made in Melbourne but just a guess. Possibly Grundy.
    Any ideas out there?? Thanks

      • Timothy on 4 December 2016 at 11:57 AM
      • Reply

      I think it was called “20 Good Years” & starred Harold Hopkins.

    • Cathy on 6 January 2015 at 3:01 PM
    • Reply

    Hi – I am trying to locate some footage. No luck with NFSA but we had video recorders in 1978 so here’s hoping…

    December 21 1978
    ATV-0
    8:30
    Christmas Carols From Sydney Square – Direct telecast from Sydney Square, hosted by Steve Raymond. Artists performing Christmas Carols inc: The Seekers, Markeeta Littlewolf, Paul O’Gorman, David Gray, Little Pattie, Paul Maybury, Wendy Grose, Lorraine Silk, The German-Austrian Choir, Lynet Girls’ choir.

    Fingers crossed.

    • Michelle on 26 January 2015 at 5:40 PM
    • Reply

    I am looking for episodes of showcase from approx 1974 where Gordon Boyd was host. I was in an acrobatic group called flying alwyns. We won viewers choice and made it to finals. Would you have one of these episodes in archives?

    1. Hi Michelle, unfortunately we are not an archive of old shows. As much as we’d like to be.

      But please read this page for more information on the challenges in obtaining footage of old programs.

    • kat on 15 February 2015 at 1:07 PM
    • Reply

    i’m trying to remember the name of a TV show that was made in Brisbane in the 70s. It was a game show like It’s a knockout, I thought also hosted by Billy J Smith and Jackie MacDonald and it had the funniest, nonsense name I thought. I’m sure it was on in the late 70s or early 80s.

      • Fred on 16 May 2015 at 2:12 AM
      • Reply

      Mid 70s… Almost Anything Goes. There is a clip on YouTube.

    • andrew on 31 August 2015 at 10:37 AM
    • Reply

    theres a lot of andrews in this site hot damn

    • jenny on 6 September 2015 at 1:48 PM
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    Is there any chance that I could get copies of the programme “Mass For You at Home” Father Shane O’Connor ocarm saying mass. I know in the beginning he helped the production. Later he said mass.Is there anywhere i could obtain a copy of his mass.

    thanks

    jenny

    1. Hi Jenny. Chances are unlikely. Read here for more information.

  2. this is great help for my HSIE assignment :p

  3. Im trying to get some footage from the 70’s and early 80’s of telethons and from a country music show i think it was on a sunday afternoon early evening as my mom and dad sang on them at one time or another it was recorded in brisbane and i think the show was call Reg Lindsey country music show or something like that if anyone has any info to get me searching in the right direction i think my mom sang in a band called
    The Sunshine Band based in bribane and my mom also spoke highly of a friend of hers from those days and her name was Sylvia Delaney not sure on the spelling and info about this lady would be muchly appreciated as i would love for my children seeing their grandmother singing as non got to meet her before she passed thank you any help would change my life …..

    • Peter evans on 27 January 2016 at 6:23 PM
    • Reply

    A TV show set on Bondi beach Southern end about a hotel or backpackers and people that stayed there could of even been block of units set in 70 or 80 s.

    1. Hi Peter. There was a series called Breakers that pretty much fits that description but that was produced in the late 1990s

    • Jim Matthews on 5 February 2016 at 6:37 AM
    • Reply

    I am trying to obtain either still photographs or video of an interview I gave in early 1970. I was the first American Exchange student to Rockhampton arriving in Jan 1970. There was footage shot on arrival at the airport and a later in-studio interview for a noon program. If anyone remembers seeing this or has visual documentation, I would certainly appreciate it. My grandchildren would get a laugh at there Grandpa.

    • Maree on 15 February 2016 at 12:05 AM
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    Hi can anyone tell me the name of the pop music show on Channel 0. Late 70’s early 80′ similar to countdown thanks

    • John on 24 February 2016 at 2:19 AM
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    Hi

    I believe that Channel 7 disposed of tonnes of 16mm reels some time in the late 80s or early 90s when they built the new studios in Dorcas Street. Some of the footage may have been water damaged and some may have been archived however, with the economics of the time, I believe the easiest decision was made and a lot of valuable footage was lost.

    I am trying to track down information about this event.

    Can you help?

    My main interest is any vfl archival footage from the 60s up to the 80s.

    • stevie g on 6 March 2016 at 12:44 AM
    • Reply

    Hi, I have enjoyed reading the classiv tv guides, especially from the 70s when I was a kid. Unfortunately with shows like Cartoon Corner and the Super Flying Fun Show etc, the guides don’t list the cartoons that were shown. I have fond memories of these and was wondering if there is any where that lists the cartoons that were shown as part of Cartoon Corner, SFFS etc, and what years they were shown.

    1. Hi Steve. Thanks for the message and kind words. Unfortunately the cartoon titles included within shows like The Super Flying Fun Show are very rarely listed in the original guides. If the titles are ever shown in the original guide I usually include them when putting them here. But as I say it’s very rare to get that information in the first place.

    • Dave on 26 September 2016 at 12:30 PM
    • Reply

    Hi anyone remember cop shop in 1977 used to remember that show then through to the 80s would be good if Crawfords brought cop shop out on DVD some stage like division 4 & Bluey so on.

    • janine maher on 10 December 2016 at 6:09 PM
    • Reply

    Hi, trying to find any episodes of Bandstand that was hosted by Daryl Somers in the seventy`s . Also Sherbet music specials that were promoting the Howzat album that was filmed at Luna Park in Sydney, or any other Sherbet specials.

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