Victoria’s television stations are forced to be restricted to only two hours of programming between 6 and 8pm in a bid to stem widespread power usage across the state following a snap strike called by power workers in the Latrobe Valley.
The restriction forced HSV7 to postpone the final episode of its major mini-series A Town Like Alice to the following Sunday. ABC shifted Nationwide and The Inventors from their usual later timeslots to air in the two-hour timeframe.
GTV9, being the only 24-hour channel in Melbourne, was able to resume transmission at midnight as the 24-hour strike was lifted.
Source: The Age, 22 July 1981
| ABV2 | HSV7 | GTV9 | ATV10 | SBS0/28 | |
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| 6PM | 6pm The Inventors | 6pm The Muppet Show 6.30 Seven National News. Mal Walden |
6pm News 6.05 The Young Doctors 6.30 National Nine News. Brian Naylor |
6pm Eyewitness News. Jana Wendt, Rod McNeil | 6.27pm News Headlines 6.30 Soccer: Philips Soccer League. Les Murray |
| 7PM | 7pm ABC News. Geoff Raymond 7.30 Nationwide. Peter Couchman |
7pm Willesee At Seven. Mike Willesee 7.30 The Australians. Peter Luck |
7pm Sale Of The Century. Tony Barber, Victoria Nicolls 7.30 Superquiz. Bert Newton, Patti Newton 7.55 News |
7pm The Restless Years 7.30 MASH |
7.30 World News. George Donikian |
| 8PM | 8pm Close | 8pm Close | 8pm Close | 8pm Close | 8pm Close |
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| 12AM | 12am Movie: Our Miss Fred [IMDB] | ||||
| 1AM | 1.50 Movie: Brothers-In-Law (B&W) [IMDB] | ||||
| 2AM | |||||
| 3AM | 3.50 Movie: Strange Homecoming [IMDB] | ||||
| 4AM | |||||
| 5AM | 5.10 Danger Man (B&W) (Continues to 6am) |
