Hugh Cornish, pioneer and veteran of Queensland television, has died at age 90.

From an early career in radio, at Brisbane stations 4IP and 4BH, he went on to become the first person to appear on Queensland television on the night QTQ9 commenced transmission on 16 August 1959.

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From on-air duties as an announcer and news presenter, he also wrote a weekly column in the Brisbane edition of TV Week and went on to host local telethons, variety show Brisbane Tonight, panel show Funny You Should Ask and talent quest Stairway To The Stars. He also worked his way up in management at QTQ9 to become general manager in the early 1980s and led the Nine Network‘s deal to acquire commercial television rights to the XII Commonwealth Games in Brisbane.

In 1985, shortly after the takeover of QTQ9 by Alan Bond, Cornish resigned and moved to a management role at the Seven Network.

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He later made an on-camera return to TV in 1989 as a weekend newsreader at Ten News in Brisbane.

In 2001 he was awarded a Centenary Medal for “for many years service to the media and to persons who are brain damaged”.

In 2013 he was invited back to QTQ’s Mount Coot-tha studios, where he launched TV in Queensland, to switch off the station’s analogue signal.

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Source: Brisbane Times, Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. TV Week, 12 September 1981. Sydney Morning Herald, 9 May 1985. On-Air: 25 Years Of TV In Queensland, Christopher Beck, 1984.