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Thread: History of Australian Television

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    Junior Member ericdog's Avatar
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    Thumbs up History of Australian Television

    For those that are interested, I have found a great site on the history of Australian Television:



    It is very interesting to click on each decade and see how TV evolved (year by year) in Australia, right from its inception, with the first transmissions in 1956, colour TV in 1974 (hey I remember that - do you?), right through to the start of digital transmissions in 2000, and beyond..

    You can even follow Graham Kennedy's "movements" with IMT and Blankety Blanks.

    Enjoy.

    It's a shame there isn't a site as good for Australian Radio... There are some sites on Radio, but not in the detail of the TVAU site.
    I'm just a little dog...



Look Here ->
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    i remember when tv started.

    the old man bought 1 it was a healing 19", i think it was 720 pounds, that was over a years wages, he got it on the never never from waltons, they called at the door in those days.

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    Here is some more history


    There is a very long thread over at Mediaspy..

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    Junior Member ericdog's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by mango View Post
    i remember when tv started.
    Well, I remember when I was a little pup, we got colour TV in 1975.... We used to have a huge old kriesler B&W TV (it even had a "wired" remote control), and I recall the truck pulling up with the new Thorn colour TV.. We all thought it was marvellous - and it had a UHF tuner in it, not that there was any UHF TV stations back then, but still..

    Oh, those were the days!

    Mango, speaking of waltons, I bought my first VCR from there - it was a betamax unit.. Shame that beta didnt take off, as it had better picture quality than VHS (larger head drum, faster tape speed etc).. The only advantage that VHS machines had (at the time) was that the tape was withdrawn back into the cassette when rewinding/fast forwarding, whereas beta didn't, so it led to tape stretch..
    I'm just a little dog...

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    For any Perth people, this is the 18 minute video that Seven used to show to station tour groups.

    It explains programming, the equipment they used to use, the OB van etc.


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    Around May/June of 1956 channel 9 sydney commenced broadcasting their test pattern so you could get your antenna set up correctly. Remember that no FSM can show anything unless you have a signal to lock in on.
    Now if I remember correctly, they only broadcast very late afternoon/early evening untill it was pointed out that made it difficult to install an antenna in the dark.
    Even if it was installed in daylight, they had to return after the TV channel commenced transmission.
    Of an evening channel 9 used to run old Cinesound newsreels and I used to go pinch a fruit box to sit on from the greengrocer down from John Gailey's Radio store in Katoomba street, Katoomba.
    The TV would have been a 17 inch AWA or an Astor on 4 spindly legs.
    Somed nights the extension speaker wouldnt work but who cared, it was TELEVISION !!!
    Katoomba in the middle of winter is not the greatest place to be sitting on a fruit box in the street watching reruns of years old newsreels.
    Anybody who had a TV between Sept 1956 and 1958 had more 'friends' than dust on the furniture.
    In February 1958 I started work and on the strength of that we bought our first TV, a Pope-Motorola Transportable 14 inch TV.
    At that time the word 'Transportable' meant it had a handle and although it weighed a ton, it was possible to carry it with both hands, from room to room.
    It was in a metal case and with a pair of rabbit ears.
    It cost some 400 pounds ($800) and when you think the average male wage was about 4 pound a day ($8) it was a very expensive purchase. The deposit for HP must have been between 5 and 10%.
    I always credited HG Palmer (similar to the Harvey Norman of today) with opening the market with agressive advertising and a very low deposit of a few pounds,certanly no more than 5 pounds ($10).
    Instead of hire purchase, it was an' Agreement to Buy' which meant the goods were yours from day one.
    Once one company started, the others had to join in or loose their share of the market.
    Electronics Australia had a series that dealt with the early days of radio and how the events unfolded on Australia getting TV and the why's and the wheres' and the who's that allowed Bruce Gingal to say,'Welcome to Television'.
    One part of the article covered 'what to do when a loss of sound occured', simple, just hold up a card with 'We Apoligise for the Loss of Sound, Service will resume shortly'.
    However it was decided that the card reading, 'We Apoligise for the Loss of Picture, Service will resume shortly' might prove to be rather stupid if there is no picture to show it.
    Ahhh well, it was a good idea at the time.
    When Colour started, it was estimated that a colour TV would require a minimun of 4 service calls a year based on overseas experience.TV's were going to have the equivelent of a 'Plug & Play' component cards to reduce the turn around time of repairs.Another good idea at the time.
    Remember how many companies set up and subsequently disapeared, to handle this forecast manna from heaven ??
    Its been an interesting 53 years and who knows what the next 53 will bring??

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    You're showing your age there Gordon, Same story, different location.

    We used to walk to Liverpool and look at a 17 TV set that was left running in the window of Don Everetts electrical store, there was usually 4 or 5 people standing there watching, sort of like a drive in theatre for people without cars.

    We bought our 1st TV from Walton Sears in Liverpool, it was a 21" Park Lane which was Waltons own brand, It cost 125 pounds and took mum 6 years to pay it off.

    The 1st colour TV I bought was, and is , an AWA 17" portable made by Mitsubishi, It's over 30 years old and still works perfectly in the bedroom.

    Now we get digital TV from several satellites through an 80cm wok, but I still remember when Telstar was a technological communications wonder.

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    Blackduck,
    I remember Walton-Sears,my uncle worked briefly for them as a printer, something to do with their shop posters I guess.
    The 'Park Lane ' logo was a gold plated plastic, sylishly formed of course attatched to the cabinet from memory.

    I dont think they linked Sydney and Melbourne by microwave for the '56 Games did they, just flew the film up each day for the evening screening?
    I do remember when they did one of the first such links, the crew had to camp out on each relay point, one being around Kosciusco in winter and the link could only send one way at a time?
    Then the Sydney-Melbourne Co-ax, but even then, it had limited capability.
    After that was the Around the World Satelitte show, each country playing a part.

    An 80cm Wok is as good a description I have heard yet.
    Although not a 'marvel' I guess in the real sense is satelitte Radio direct to car/home yet to be made available here.

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    Blackduck,
    I remember Walton-Sears,my uncle worked briefly for them as a printer, something to do with their shop posters I guess.
    The 'Park Lane ' logo was a gold plated plastic, sylishly formed of course attatched to the cabinet from memory.

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    Quote Originally Posted by gordon_s1942 View Post
    Blackduck,
    I remember Walton-Sears,my uncle worked briefly for them as a printer, something to do with their shop posters I guess.
    The 'Park Lane ' logo was a gold plated plastic, sylishly formed of course attatched to the cabinet from memory.
    Walton Sears published an annual catalogue of their product range, It was a large glossy publication of several hundred pages, Very high quality.
    Your uncle may have been involved in this.

    They also had their own brand of cosmetics called "Lyric", they had housewives going to houses giving demonstrations of the product range and how to use it. sort of like the way "Tupperware" markets their product, the housewives got a commission on what they sold.

    The Sears name was from the American dep't store Sears Roebuck who were Walton partners until the late 1950's when Waltons bought them out.
    Last edited by BlackDuck; 16-02-09 at 06:53 PM. Reason: Add Lyric.

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    I think the sadest thing about the History of Australian Television is the lack of classic material being screened these days, ok there is some, mostly from the 80's onwards..........Hey we have UK Gold, and American TV shows from the 60's, 70's shown all over.

    What about our own classics series Homicide, Matlock Police, Solo 1, Division 4, Young Ramsey, Number 96, The Box, Class of '74 ...............that's just off the top of my head.

    I know some turn up on late night on WIN in WA, but what is wrong with an Australian Gold Channel, maybe one of the pay TV providers should have a word with Crawfords, they have a prety good archive of material, just sitting there.

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    I loved Waltons and that crappy TV add with the women making a "W" sign with thier fingers singing "waltons we're gunna win ya"

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    Quote Originally Posted by mudcrab View Post
    I think the sadest thing about the History of Australian Television is the lack of classic material being screened these days, ok there is some, mostly from the 80's onwards..........Hey we have UK Gold, and American TV shows from the 60's, 70's shown all over.

    What about our own classics series Homicide, Matlock Police, Solo 1, Division 4, Young Ramsey, Number 96, The Box, Class of '74 ...............that's just off the top of my head.

    I know some turn up on late night on WIN in WA, but what is wrong with an Australian Gold Channel, maybe one of the pay TV providers should have a word with Crawfords, they have a prety good archive of material, just sitting there.
    The trouble is mudcrab our "cultural cringe", we tend to think that if it's Australian made, then it's inferior to the American or English.

    The old shows you mention were, and still are, classics, but look at some of the newer shows that are being produced, City Homicide, Underbelly etc, we can only finance these if we can on sell them overseas.

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    Ah, the start of colour Tv and Aunty Jack on ABC TV

    Memories of the best years .............20 yo.(at the time)

    Had a good job, new kawasaki Z1 900 and thought I was king of the world.............gee wonder what went wrong there. LOL

    Gaz

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    Gordon, sitting on a fruit box in katoomba st would require you to have one ass-cheek 3x the size of the other.

    All Katoomba-ites seem to have one short leg for some reason.

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