TV At 60: TCN9, Australia’s first channel

tcn9_1956After decades of experiments and government investigation, television was finally to come to fruition in 1956.

The government had determined that television shall take the form of a two-tier system, similar to radio, where there would be a government-owned service (operated by ABC) plus commercial services. Television was initially to be introduced in Sydney and Melbourne, with other cities to follow.

The first step towards establishing commercial services came in April 1955 with the licencing of four stations — two each in Sydney and Melbourne. The four successful applicants were Television Corporation (Sydney), Amalgamated Television Services (Sydney), General Television Corporation (Melbourne) and the Herald and Weekly Times (Melbourne).

Television Corporation was a venture of Frank Packer, owner of Australian Consolidated Press, publisher of newspaper The Daily Telegraph and magazine The Australian Women’s Weekly. Other shareholders in Television Corporation included Philips Electrical Industries, Tivoli Theatres, radio stations 2SM and 2KY, Diocese of Sydney, Associated Newspapers (UK) and the Church of England Property Trust.

Two months after its licence was awarded, Television Corporation was informed that it would be broadcasting on Channel 9 — creating the call-sign TCN9. (The ‘N’ stands for New South Wales)

The new station was constructing two studios, including one featuring a “permanent demonstration kitchen set”, in a building adjacent to its transmission tower on Artarmon Road, Willoughby.

By July 1956, TCN9 had commenced test pattern transmission to be followed from August with documentary films. Among the first film features to go to air were Tropical Paradise, a travelogue on Hayman Island, and The Boy Who Was Always Reading, a dramatic presentation on road safety.

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TCN9 in July also announced that it would commence regular transmissions from Sunday 16 September. The new station was initially planning to broadcast for fourteen-and-a-half hours a week for its first six weeks, before extending to 24 hours a week.

As the big day approached, television and radio retailers and clubs across Sydney were organising “TV parties” — with The Daily Telegraph helpfully publishing a list of all the planned gatherings to ensure that as many people as possible witnessed the opening night.

One of the largest TV parties was to be at the Hotel Charles in Fairy Meadow, near Wollongong. The venue had purchased two 24-inch TV sets and were expecting crowds of anywhere between 500 and 1000.

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On the eve of TV’s opening night, Frank Packer issued a statement to welcome the new channel but warned viewers that there may be some teething problems: “If tonight’s program goes smoothly it will be a great achievement for the staff of TCN. We will do our best to make tonight’s opening a memorable occasion. If there are any slips, we hope the public will remember that it is the “first night” of an entirely new show in an entirely new medium in Australia. Our staff have got a newspaper background. We know more about producing newspapers than we do about television. Therefore we hope the viewers will be tolerant and patient with us.”

“We have received many messages of congratulation and good wishes from TV and newspaper people in the United States and Britain. We are pleased and proud to be pioneering TV in Australia with Australians and for Australians.”

TCN’s opening night broadcast kicked off with a station identification announcement from John Godson: “This is television station TCN Channel 9, owned and operated by Television Corporation, 168 Castlereagh Street, Sydney. Transmitting on 195 to 202 megacycles per second from Artarmon Road, Willoughby, with an effective radiated power of 100,000 watts, vision, and 20,000 watts, sound.”

brucegyngellFollowing Godson’s introduction, Bruce Gyngell (pictured), a former ABC radio announcer, became the first presenter to be seen on screen with those famous words: “Good evening, and welcome to television.” Gyngell introduced the first program, a half-hour documentary This Is Television.

After the documentary the station presented highlights or previews of some of its upcoming big-ticket programs, including the new shows The Johnny O’Connor Show, What’s My Line? and Accent On Strings and imported programs The Patti Page Show, I Love Lucy, Douglas Fairbanks Presents and Father Knows Best.

The 15-minute program The Air Force Show was presented on what was the final day of Air Force Week and featured an interview with Air Vice-Marshall A L Walters.

The night concluded with a ten-minute film of dance performances from the previous Friday night’s opening at the Tivoli Theatre in Sydney.

Among the various TV parties, at the Hotel Charles in Corrimal a crowd of around 700 had gathered to view the first programs. Hotel licencee Arthur Johnson gave what was possibly the first market research of TCN’s programming, indicating that viewers were already discerning what they liked or didn’t like. “All of the programs went down well, except the quiz show. We could tell easily that this was not successful, because patrons began drinking faster during it.”

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One of the hotel patrons, a Mr Russo from Rose Bay, seemed to concur with the general opinion. “My pick of the programs was I Love Lucy,” he told The Daily Telegraph. “The Air Force Show wasn’t bad either. But that quiz show was too long drawn out and most of the audience was, like me, a bit restive, during it.”

For the remainder of the week TCN9 presented around three hours of programming each night, starting with a six-minute religious segment, Give Us This Day, and then a 15-minute news bulletin presented by Chuck Faulkner. Prime Minister Robert Menzies became the first politician to appear on Australian television on TCN9’s second news bulletin, presented on the Tuesday evening, being shown arriving at Mascot Airport after a visit to Egypt.

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Other local programs launched during that first week included quiz show Name That Tune and a women’s program, The Home Show.

Early programs were produced from a temporary studio constructed in a church hall in Surry Hills as construction at Willoughby was not quite complete.

Although 16 September is recognised as the opening day of television in Australia and the commencement of daily broadcasts, TCN was actually not officially opened until 27 October, when it expanded its broadcast hours and started launching some of its major overseas programs in tandem with its Melbourne sister station, HSV7, which was to open in early November. Some of the programs to launch during this time included Our Miss Brooks, Rin Tin Tin, Robin Hood, Four Star Playhouse, The Mickey Mouse Club, Disneyland and Hopalong Cassidy.

When Packer purchased Melbourne channel GTV9 in 1960 it led the way to form Australia’s first commercial television network by pairing up TCN and GTV. The National Television Network, as it was originally known in 1962, later became the Nine Network.

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Source: Broadcasting And Television, 27 January 1956, 23 March 1956, 13 July 1956, 24 August 1956, 7 September 1956, 21 September 1956. The Daily Telegraph, 15 September 1956, 17 September 1956, 18 September 1956, 19 September 1956. The Sunday Telegraph, 16 September 1956.

 

 

 

Permanent link to this article: https://televisionau.com/2016/09/tv-at-60-tcn9-australias-first-channel.html

20 comments

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    • Steven Wood on 16 September 2016 at 6:15 PM
    • Reply

    Happy 60th Birthday, TCN9! And Happy Diamond Anniversary, Australian Television! Great achievement and lots of great memories over the years.

    • Andrew M on 16 September 2016 at 7:13 PM
    • Reply

    Happy Birthday Channel Nine for being sixty

  1. Remarkable honesty by Sir Frank, so seldom heard now. Perhaps the ABS should have gone down the same road before the recent census debacle.

  2. Happy 60th TCN !
    Also amazing to note the places that TCN9 was received – From Newcastle down to Nowra and way out west as well.
    Does anyone remember the old days when people chased TV reception from Sydney or Melbourne in lost of regional areas for lack of alternatives ?

    • Andrew M on 17 September 2016 at 7:47 PM
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    Yes even though NBN was six years away they had to rely on sydney channels they still did right up to aggregation

    • Michael on 15 April 2017 at 1:25 PM
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    Does anyone know who designed the purpose built studio facility at Willoughby?

  3. Great achievement. I have lots of happy memories of my years at TCN in the sixties – working in the office and record library. Would love to hear from anyone in that time especially telecine and master control. Television gave quality programs then with Bruce Gyngell at the helm. I left in 1968 to move to Tasmania and hated leaving such a great atmosphere and good friends, naming three-Ron Manton, Ken Stratton and Barbara Bush.

    1. Hi Caroline thank you for your comments they’ve been lovely to read.

      Have you also seen the TCN Channel 9 tribute website: http://www.tcnchannel9.com/

      1. Andrew B.
        I subscribed today but have not got an reply email yet. Am new to the Internet -have I done right thing.
        Caroline B.

        1. Hi Caroline. Check your spam or junk mail folder just in case the reply email ended up there.

        • Caroline B on 30 October 2017 at 2:15 PM
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        Andrew, do you know if Peter Cox, ex Telecine, sees this site. Want to know if he knows what happened to others there such as Ken Stratton, David McCulloch, Ron Manton, Ian Nance or Neville and Mirri Bull all in program cont in the sixties. I think Ken went to TV in wollongong and into his own media business.
        Am enjoying your newsletters – lovely memories

        1. Hi Caroline. Thank you for the message and kind words.

          I do not know if Peter Cox ex-TCN visits this site but if he sees your message I’m hoping he’ll send a reply.

          • MC from VTC on 10 January 2021 at 1:36 PM
          • Reply

          Peter Cox was in a senior engineering role at TCN in Artarmon in the early 2000s.
          Ian Nance (if it’s the same person, unusual name), was a director of some very memorable TV commercials in the mid-late 70s, but his career was side-tracked when he was involved in a very serious glider accident in the early 80s.
          They were both fabulous guys, Ian in particular, such a ‘fun’ person… I believe he made a significant recovery, but I’m not sure where he wound up.
          I’d love to say Hi if you run across them !

  4. Andrew B.
    Thanks. Not subscribing for now – too many hassles but will check this page for time being.
    Must add, Barbara Busch (right spelling) was married to Mac, cameraman at the ABC. Her maiden name was Sarkus. Believe Ken Stratton still in media according to google. These two showed me the ‘ropes’ as I had wanted to be a telecine operator and stayed back at night to learn. Sadly no such jobs for women when I joined TNT9 IN Launceston

    Caroline B.

  5. G’day Andrew,
    Interesting website you have, love the chat line. Shame more people don’t use it and thank you for the plug for my TCN website.
    I will forward Caroline’s info onto the people she mentioned.
    All best.
    Brian C. Morelli

    1. Hi Brian, lovely to get your message. Hope my page does TCN’s history some justice. Your TCN9 page is fantastic and some incredible history there.

    • Caroline B. on 9 February 2018 at 8:31 AM
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    Hi Brian- Your TCN9 site brings back memories especially photo of staff including Roy Phillis and our Bruce G. My first boss, Greg McTiernan not mentioned – he was accountant. Later I was under Les Free when I was record librarian. Were you in Outside Broadcasts {OB}. Another name in Telecine was Alan Smith, who had a love for Monaro cars.
    I,too; wish more people could see this site. Its a fantastic way to communicate and revive memories of a television era never, sadly, to be seen again. I sometimes relieved on the switchboard at night and saw the crowds flocking in to our ‘live. shows like Don Lane. Those days we closed transmission at midnight and reopened midday the next day after morning test pattern music, chosen by me.

      • Kay McLure on 21 January 2022 at 10:17 PM
      • Reply

      Hi Caroline

      Hope this message reaches you, I worked in the office with Greg McTiernan and RoyPhillis and then took over Masterlog it was a great time to work in television.
      Are you still living in Tasmania?
      Often wonder what has happened to many of the staff Warren and Sandy Berkery, I know that Helen Flanagan lives in Noosa.
      Would love to hear from any staff
      Kay

    • Caroline B. on 28 February 2018 at 8:11 PM
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    Sorry to learn on A Current Affair tonight of Cornelia Frances battle with cancer.All the best Cornelia and keep fighting. We miss you on our screens today, need programs like you starred in. You certainly deserve a Logie, really should be the Gold one.
    ‘Young Doctors and ‘Sons and Daughters’ should be rerun at a decent time not early mornings as happens to so many shows from the seventies.
    You are a true legend of our Aussie screens.
    Caroline B.

    • Fred Morton on 23 November 2020 at 11:27 PM
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    Any chance of making your site so one can enlarge the newsprint? It would be nice to be able to read the headlines from January 27th, 1956! (And yes, I tried increasing the size in my browser but all it does is make the print fuzzy).

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