January 1: A day for firsts

Television.AU wishes everyone a Happy New Year!

For this New Year’s Day the Classic TV Guides section welcomes some new additions — because it has been a long time since the last update to that section.

Being the first day of the year the common theme for the listings added today are all ‘first day’ listings for various channels around Australia.

• 5 November 1956 — Sydney Opening Night for ABN2, the first television station to launch from the Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC). The event is hosted by Michael Charlton and includes speeches by Prime Minister Robert Menzies, ABC Chairman Sir Richard Boyer and Postmaster-General Mr CW Davidson.
• 5 September 1959 — Adelaide First day for Adelaide’s first TV station NWS9. The first TV station to be owned by budding media tycoon Rupert Murdoch, NWS is linked to Murdoch’s Adelaide newspaper The News — hence the call-sign ‘NWS’.
• 16 October 1959 — Perth Perth’s first TV station, TVW7. A venture of West Australian Newspapers (WAN), TVW7 held a commercial TV monopoly in Perth for six years, giving it a dominance in the marketplace that continues to this day.
• 11 March 1960 — Adelaide Adelaide’s ABC station ABS2 is opened.

• 7 May 1960 — Perth Perth’s ABC station ABW2 is opened.
• 12 June 1965 — Perth Official opening of Perth’s second commercial TV station, STW9.
• 30 June 1985 — Adelaide First Day SBS in Adelaide
• 30 (and 31) March 1989 — Canberra Aggregation comes to Canberra, marked with the arrival of two new commercial channels — Prime (CBN34) and WIN (WIN31) — in competition with the existing local commercial channel, Capital (CTC7).

And here are some other ‘first’ listings already existing in the Classic TV Guides archive:

• 4 November 1956 — Melbourne First Day HSV7
• 19 November 1956 — Melbourne First Day ABV2
• 19 January 1957 — Melbourne First Day GTV9
• 24 October 1959 — Adelaide First Day ADS7
• 2 November 1959 — Brisbane First Day ABQ2
• 23 May 1960 — Hobart First Day TVT6
• 4 June 1960 — Hobart First Day ABT2
• 19 August 1961 — Sydney First Four Corners
• 9 December 1961 — Victoria First Day GLV10 Gippsland

• 23 December 1961 — Victoria First Day GMV6 Shepparton, BCV8 Bendigo
• 17 March 1962 — New South Wales First Day CBN8 Orange
• 18 March 1962 — New South Wales First Day WIN4 Wollongong
• 26 May 1962 — Tasmania First Day TNT9 Launceston
• 2 June 1962 — Canberra First Day CTC7
• 18 December 1962 — Canberra First Day ABC3
• 29 April 1963 — Victoria First Day ABEV1 Bendigo
• 1 August 1964 — Victoria First Day ATV0
• 7 September 1964 — Victoria First Day AMV4 Albury
• 5 April 1965 — Sydney First Day TEN10
• 1 July 1965 — Brisbane First Day TVQ0

• 26 July 1965 — Adelaide First Day SAS10
• 15 June 1967 — Melbourne First colour production
• 14 March 1972 — Melbourne First episode Number 96
• 20 March 1972 — Brisbane First one-hour news bulletin
• 19 October 1974 — Melbourne First colour program transmission
• 8 November 1974 — Melbourne First episode Countdown
• 28 February 1975 — Melbourne First official colour transmission
• 15 November 1976 — Melbourne/Sydney First episode The Sullivans
• 20 January 1980 — Melbourne First Day ATV10
• 24 October 1980 — Melbourne First Day SBS
• 14 October 1983 — Canberra First Day SBS in Canberra
• 30 June 1985 — Brisbane First Day SBS in Brisbane
• 16 March 1986 — Western Australia First Day SBS in Perth
• 27 December 1987 — Adelaide First Day SAS7, ADS10
• 20 May 1988 — Western Australia First Day NEW10 Perth
• 10 September 1988 — Brisbane First Day TVQ10
• 27 March 1998 — Darwin First Day Seven Darwin

There are now more than 300 listings online now at Classic TV Guides.