Mal Walden: 50 years of broadcasting

Melbourne’s The Age Green Guide has presented a special feature on Network Ten newsreader Mal Walden just prior to his 50th anniversary in broadcasting, which is reached on Monday.

Born in the UK, Walden came to Australia with his family in the 1950s.  His first taste of the media came in 1961 when he won a secret sound contest on local radio station 3YB in Warrnambool.  Upon touring the station when collecting his prize a young Walden decided to pursue a career in broadcasting. 

He started at 3YB and then went south to Tasmania, to Launceston radio station 7EX and television station TNT9.  He then returned to the mainland to Melbourne radio station 3DB, working alongside David Johnston and Brian Naylor – a trio that would work together for a decade, at 3DB and then at HSV7, before becoming friendly rivals with each working at opposition TV stations in the 1980s.  Naylor made the switch from HSV7 to GTV9 in 1978, Johnston took a break from television news before returning to front Eyewitness News on the newly-launched ATV10 in 1980, and Walden took over from Naylor as chief newsreader at HSV7.

Starting at HSV7 in the early ‘70s, Walden hosted the game show Jeopardy before beginning a journalism cadetship.  But it was in 1974 that he got his big break as the first television journalist to arrive in Darwin after the city had been devastated by Cyclone Tracy on Christmas Eve.

Replacing Naylor at the news desk in 1978, Walden presented Seven National News for nine years before he was sacked by the station’s new Sydney-based management.  A tearful farewell at the close of his final Seven news bulletin was followed by the channel getting its lowest ever news ratings, and his subsequent appointment to Ten’s Eyewitness News, working with former colleague David Johnston, saw that bulletin reach some of its highest ever ratings figures.  

Walden had various roles at Ten, first presenting human-interest stories in the news segment Mal’s Melbourne, before reading the news next to Johnston and newcomer Tracey Curro in 1988, and then reading the weekend bulletins.

When Johnston moved back to Seven at the end of 1995, Walden was the natural successor to read Ten’s 5.00pm bulletin – first alongside Jennifer Hansen and now Helen Kapalos.

He has also presented special events for Ten, including the Young Achiever Awards and ATV10’s 30th anniversary special in 1994, and wrote the book From The Word GO! – Forty Years of Ten Melbourne in 2003.

Earlier this year Walden was part of Ten’s major news revamp which saw him move from the 5.00pm news hour to front the new Ten Evening News bulletin at 6.30pm.  Although the bulletin was soon wound up, Walden’s ratings performance was better than that of his interstate counterparts.  He is now back at the 5.00pm news desk four nights a week.

Walden’s widespread appeal comes not just from his newsreading authority but also his ability to show a lighter side to the news.  His cheeky on-air comment that a story about disgraced air hostess Lisa Robertson was ‘a waste of time’, his stumbles over the pronunciation of the word ‘phenomenon’ and the occasional ad-libbed weather report are some of his lighter moments that have endeared him to viewers.

The full Green Guide article can be found here.

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Ten takes on the News giants

For many years Network Ten’s news offering has been dismissed as a poorer cousin to the brash, high-profile Seven and Nine news portfolios.  While Seven and Nine throw money into resources and promotion, each of them keen to get an edge over the other while almost mimicking each other, Ten has kept a somewhat more modest profile – largely due to staying out of the traditional 6-7pm news hour, keeping a lower profile in the competitive breakfast timeslot, and reducing its weekend news output largely to ‘national’ Sydney-based bulletins.  And, when a major news story would be breaking or there is an election to cover, chances are it would be Seven, Nine or ABC that would pull all stops to cover it live, while Ten maintained its long-held mantra of providing an alternative option for viewers.

There have been exceptions to the rule, of course.  It was Ten News that first broke the news to Australians of the September 11 attacks in the US and, like its rivals, maintained a level of continuous news coverage in the days that followed.  The network maintained its serious Sunday morning Meet The Press interview program despite it sitting awkwardly amongst children’s programs and Video Hits, and while Nine replaced the serious Sunday with the more casual Weekend Today and Seven expanded its chummy Sunrise to the timeslot.  Ten has also maintained its 10.30pm Late News while both Seven and Nine abandoned their late night news programs.  And while the 5.00pm bulletin was avoiding the prime-time battle, it gradually built up its audience to the point where it dominated that hour, despite the high-profile late-afternoon game show battles between Seven and Nine, and both networks launching their own 4.30pm national news bulletins.

But, as time progressed, it became apparent that Ten was perhaps tiring of having the lesser of the three commercial networks’ news profiles and the impact of not having a News presence at 6.00pm.  The network was seeing its viewing numbers drop dramatically at 6.00pm after Ten News has signed off, while Seven and Nine’s 6.00pm bulletins continued to sit at the top of the nightly ratings reports, with The Simpsons and Neighbours – while they might have represented a sound viewing alternative in the 6.00pm hour many years ago – clearly no longer attracting the numbers they once did.  There were reports in 2009 that Ten was considering the idea of expanding the 5.00pm bulletin to 90 minutes – thirty years after it led the way as a network with the one-hour newscast as opposed to the traditional half-hour format.

Then, last year, Ten announced its bold move.  The network was bumping The Simpsons and Neighbours from their long-held timeslots to its new digital channel, Eleven.  This one-hour gap in the schedule was now going to be filled by two additional news programs – one national and one local – to sit between Ten News and The 7PM Project.  Ten also announced plans to reinstate state-based weekend news bulletins at 6.00pm.  It marks the first major shake-up of commercial television news coverage since Ten moved its evening bulletin to 5.00pm almost twenty years ago.

In implementing this expanded news profile, Ten – a network not often known for lavish spending – was investing big money, reported to be $20 million, in infrastructure and hiring new staff, most notably the signing up of veteran journalist and presenter George Negus.  With a journalistic background dating back to This Day Tonight and the founding days of 60 Minutes and Foreign Correspondent, and more recently as host of SBS’ Dateline, Negus presents a credible identity.  His more recent appearances as a weekly commentator on The 7PM Project have also endeared him to the network and its viewers.  Ten’s new venture also gained credibility with the signing of former ABC journalist Chris Masters as a consultant to the network.

With the expenditure and high-profile signings, it was clear that this news revamp was going to be far more than just splashing a coat of paint on the news desk or changing the logo on the network’s car fleet – this was going to be a serious shake-up of the evening news and giving viewers a decent alternative to the lookalike news and current affairs programs of Seven and Nine.  For the first time in over twenty years, Ten was now gearing up to take on its two commercial rivals – who have cosily had the 6.00pm hour all to themselves for too long – in a big way. 

So, after months of waiting and speculation – some of the latter prompted by James Packer’s surprise investment in the Ten Network with media discussing his rumoured plans to tear down the news revamp – Ten’s ‘news evolution’ finally comes to fruition tomorrow (Monday) evening. 

Essentially, the ‘First at Five’ Ten News remains intact but there are some changes in personnel and production.  The Adelaide newscast now moves back to being produced entirely from Adelaide – after being largely based at Ten’s Melbourne studio for several years – and follows the return of the Perth newscast to the Perth-based studios in 2008.

The Adelaide 5.00pm bulletin is now being fronted by Belinda Heggen, replacing George Donikian and Rebecca Morse, while the Perth bulletin is now read by former ABC journalist Craig Smart, replacing Narelda Jacobs.  Donikian now replaces Mal Walden at the Melbourne 5.00pm newsdesk, sitting alongside Helen Kapalos.  The significance of the Greek heritage of both Donikian and Kapalos (pictured) in presenting the news together in the largest Greek city outside of Greece has not gone unnoticed. ”It's not just revolutionary, this is the first in the world,” Donikian told Melbourne-based Greek newspaper Neos Kosmos.

Walden, Morse and Jacobs now move to presenting the new 6.30pm Evening News in their respective capital cities – providing a local news-based alternative to the tabloid offerings from Seven and Nine in that timeslot.

Former Late News presenter Sandra Sully (pictured) will be reading the Sydney-based Evening News bulletin, and Brisbane newsreader Bill McDonald will be presenting Brisbane’s Evening News as well as co-anchoring the local 5.00pm bulletin with Georgie Lewis.

Bill Woods and Deborah Knight will continue to present the 5.00pm Ten News in Sydney.

The 6.00pm timeslot now becomes home to 6PM With George Negus – a national program offering an in-depth analysis of the news.  As well as being hosted by the experienced and popular Negus, 6PM also boasts a strong line-up of journalists including Hugh Riminton, formerly of the Nine Network and CNN, and Hamish Macdonald, an Australian journalist formerly working in the United Kingdom and also a former correspondent for the Al Jazeera English channel.

With Ten’s new intentions, and the recent arrival of ABC News 24 as Australia’s first free-to-air dedicated news channel, if Seven and Nine are panicking at the prospect of the intense competition they are not showing any signs of it.  It appears to be ‘business as usual’ for the two top-rating networks, with little changing in their portfolio of news and current affairs programs.

According to Seven’s Melbourne newsreader Peter Mitchell: “Nothing changes for us," he told the Herald Sun.  "We know what we've got to do. We've always prided ourselves on being local." – a swipe at 6PM’s national focus.

Nine’s Brisbane news director Lee Anderson, talking to the Courier Mail, questions Ten’s ability to cover the big local stories on the back of its stilted response to coverage of the Queensland flood crisis: "When Brisbane faced its biggest natural disaster Ten obviously found it difficult to cover the emergency effectively, so I hope for them this will mean their network bosses start to take local operation seriously."

Seven’s Brisbane news director Rob Raschke was a little more flippant in his comments, labelling Negus as ‘a worthy successor to Homer Simpson’. 

“And, like Homer, his focus won't be on Queensland,” Raschke told the Courier Mail.

It appears that Ten’s rivals are quick to criticise the national focus of 6PM while failing to acknowledge Ten’s local approach at 5.00pm and 6.30pm against their own national programs.

But Ten and Negus (pictured with Melbourne newsreader Walden) have no illusions that the new line-up will be an instant hit with viewers.  News viewing habits are well-entrenched and rarely turnaround to a new competitor in an instant.  But the network has shown with The 7PM Project that it has the ability to be patient and to persevere with a new venture even if it doesn’t pay immediate dividends.

Ten News, 6PM With George Negus, Evening News, The 7PM Project.  Weeknights, from 5.00pm, starting 24 January.  Network Ten, Southern Cross Ten, Tasmanian Digital Television, Darwin Digital Television, Ten Mildura, Ten West.

Source: Herald Sun, Courier Mail, The Age, Neos Kosmos.

Mal Walden back at 6.30

After twenty three years, newsreader Mal Walden (pictured) is heading back to the 6.30 timeslot as the presenter of Ten News’ new Melbourne-based news bulletin to launch next year.

Walden, with over 40 years in Melbourne television, is a firm favourite with Melbourne viewers – never more evident than back in 1987 when a tearful Walden announced to viewers of Seven National News that he had just been sacked by the station’s new management.  Ratings for Seven National News plummeted to zeros and ones after Walden’s dismissal and when he arrived in a minor role at Eyewitness News a month later, ratings for that bulletin hit record highs.  He has been part of Ten’s Melbourne news team ever since, taking over the role of chief newsreader from David Johnston when he left Ten to go to Seven at the end of 1995.

Replacing Walden’s spot in the traditional 5.00pm bulletin is George Donikian (pictured), probably still best known to many as the original SBS newsreader and now the principal newsreader for Adelaide’s Ten News, which is currently based in the Melbourne studio.  Donikian has been the relief newsreader for Walden for some years now and has also read the Saturday evening Ten News bulletins during the AFL season.

A major component of Network Ten’s ratings push for 2011 is its expanded news coverage which will comprise the usual 5.00pm news hour in each city, followed by a national 6.00pm news-based program (with a presenter yet to be announced) and then a locally-based news in each state at 6.30pm leading into The 7PM Project.

Network Ten has been rolling out its announcements for its newsreader appointments for each city as its 2011 launch has been working around the country: 

TVQ10 Brisbane: 5.00pm Bill McDonald and Georgie Lewis; 6.30pm Bill McDonald

TEN10 Sydney: 5.00pm Bill Woods and Deborah Knight; 6.30pm Sandra Sully (pictured)

ATV10 Melbourne: 5.00pm George Donikian and Helen Kapalos; 6.30pm Mal Walden

ADS10 Adelaide: 5.00pm Belinda Heggen; 6.30pm Rebecca Morse

NEW10 Perth: 5.00pm and 6.30pm – Narelda Jacobs

Having Walden reading Ten’s 6.30pm bulletin will certainly give the new bulletin a well-needed kick-start in the ratings in Melbourne as it establishes itself up against the well-entrenched national shows on offer by Seven and Nine in that timeslot.

This expanded news coverage in the early evenings will see Ten’s early evening stalwarts The Simpsons and Neighbours moved to the new digital channel 11 when it launches in the new year.

And just to show that Mal Walden likes to read the news at 6.30, here is a newsbreak from Seven National News back in 1984 where he reminded us no less than four times in the space of one minute that the news is indeed at 6.30pm:

Network Ten is certainly generating a lot of media buzz with its 2011 announcements – as well as the expanded news portfolio and the launch of digital channel 11 the network is also preparing to launch a new reality series, The Renovators, and a new prison drama as well as local versions of overseas shows Undercover Boss, Don’t Stop Believing and Class Of.  Popular shows from this year including Talkin’ ‘bout Your Generation, Modern Family and MasterChef are also set to continue in 2011 and the new Melbourne-based drama Offspring has been given the green light for a second series.  The network certainly looks to be putting on a more aggressive front against Seven and Nine than in previous years, confidently setting some new agendas and taking some bold risks rather than being held back by conservatism.

Source: Media Spy
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1979: January 27-February 2

Stardom and the single man
TV Times talked to a cross-section of showbusiness bachelors about the pros and cons of single life while in the public eye. For Don Lane, currently in a relationship, there was a time when he would question if a girl was interested in Don Lane, the person, or Don Lane on TV. Actor Terry Donovan has had to combine his professional and social life with raising a son, Jason, but is enjoying being a bachelor. Ugly Dave Gray said it took some adjusting, after the end of his marriage to wife Gail, to getting out and being social again, but admits to being the marrying kind, and "I'd really like kids if I marry again." For Sherbet singer Daryl Braithwaite, being single has the benefit of not having any responsibility, but the downside is that he tends to be the only member of the group to come home alone after being away on tour. But he is reluctant to get involved in a serious relationship again, for a while at least.

TV greets the Year of the Child
All networks are planning locally produced or imported programs focused on the International Year Of The Child (IYC), and most channels are planning increased quality and quantity for children's programs:

ARVO (ABC): New series to launch in April. To go to air weekday afternoons 4.00pm-6.00pm, and will include children's entertainment, such as Sesame Street, and reports and interviews with children about their own IYC projects. ABC is currently looking for a host for the program who gets on well with children, and bunyips, as ARVO's co-host will be a bunyip called Alexander.

Twin Towers (ABC): A new six-part children's drama is in production, starring John Ewart, Tessa Mallos, Ray Meagher, Justine Saunders and Candy Williams. Storylines for the new series have been developed with contributions from children at a Sydney primary school.

Earth Patrol (ABC): New drama series to debut in June and will screen in combination with the Earth Patrol Club which will provide a forum for children's involvement in community and environmental issues. Many of the episodes for Earth Patrol will be filmed in Sydney and Queensland.

Mad Dog Gang (Nine): New Zealand-based series to be screened in March.

Falcon Island (Nine): A Perth-based children's drama about the search for a wrecked sailing ship off the coast of Western Australia.

The Gene Machine (Nine): Seven-part British series about how genes affect the lives of humans and animals.

A Gift Of Song: The Music For UNICEF Concert (0-10): The official launch concert for IYC that took place in New York on 10 January. Performers include the Bee Gees, Olivia Newton-John, Kris Kristofferson, John Denver, Earth Wind And Fire, Andy Gibb, Rod Stewart, ABBA and Rita Coolidge. To be screened in Australia possibly in February or March.

The Seven Network has also obtained local broadcast rights to a mammoth 20-hour telethon in aid of IYC which will be beamed direct from the United States over two days in June to more than 30 countries worldwide. Seven's telecast is expected to include an Australian component featuring local personalities from the Seven Network, and rival network identities will also be invited to appear.

New shows for '79
The four networks - ABC, Seven, Nine and 0-10 - all unveil some of the new and returning shows for the coming 1979 season.

ABC: New Australian-made drama with The Oracle (starring John Gregg, pictured), Patrol Boat, Twenty Good Years, Ride On Stranger and One Day Miller, a spin-off of the comedy series Tickled Pink. Another new drama, Golden Soak, based on the novel by Hammond Innes, a six-part series co-produced by ABC with British and German interests. Also to come this year are new episodes of British series Are You Being Served?, The Two Ronnies, Doctor Who, The Goodies and George And Mildred. Peter Wherrett presents a new ten-part series Marque: 100 Years Of Motoring tracing the history of the motor car industry and takes a peek at where it's headed. There's new episodes of Holiday With Bill Peach and Mastermind. And a new era in current affairs with Nationwide replacing the long-running This Day Tonight.

Seven: A new series of Father Dear Father In Australia will also be joined by Australian versions of UK favourites Love Thy Neighbour and Doctor In The House. There's new local drama this year with the Melbourne-based airport drama Skyways. Journalist Peter Luck (pictured) presents a new 16-part documentary series This Fabulous Century. New imported series include CHiPs, The Incredible Hulk, The Upchat Line, Return Of The Saint, The Professionals, The Unknown War and Lillie. A new mini-series, Centennial, traces the lives of seven generations of Americans living in the Colorado area and boasts the largest production budget ever for a TV series. Returning this year are overseas series The Sweeney, Quincy, Welcome Back Kotter, Good Times, The Muppet Show, Eight Is Enough, Mind Your Language and The Dick Emery Show. There will also be more locally-made specials featuring Norman Gunston, Julie Anthony and Malcolm Douglas.

Nine: The long-awaited current affairs program 60 Minutes (pictured) makes its debut while returning favourites include The Mike Walsh Show, The Don Lane Show, The Paul Hogan Show, The Sullivans and The Young Doctors. New overseas drama with Vega$, Buck Rogers In The 25th Century, The Source and mini-series The Immigrants. New US comedy series Taxi, WKRP In Cincinnati, Who's Watching The Kids and Mork And Mindy. Returning US series include The Love Boat, Happy Days, Fantasy Island, Laverne And Shirley, Charlie's Angels, Hawaii Five-0, Donny And Marie and Family.

0-10: New Australian drama with the Melbourne-based Prisoner (pictured) starring Val Lehman, Peta Toppano, Carol Burns, Fiona Spence, Kerry Armstrong, Elspeth Ballantyne, Colette Mann, Sheila Florance, Patsy King and Mary Ward. New US comedy with Flying High and Grandpa Goes To Washington. New US drama includes Dallas, The Eddie Capra Mysteries, The American Girls, The Paper Chase, Sword Of Justice and Roots: The Next Generations, the next chapter to Alex Haley's saga of his ancestors' early life in America. A three-part mini-series, Pearl, tells the events surrounding the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour in 1941. Returning US series include MASH, The Adventures Of Wonder Woman, Grizzly Adams, The Waltons, Project UFO, Alice and The Rockford Files.

Bush vet comes to town - again
Crawford Productions is to begin work later this year on a further thirteen one-hour episodes of drama Young Ramsay for the Seven Network. The series will again feature John Hargreaves as Peter Ramsay, the young city vet who goes bush. Co-star Serge Lazareff is also expected to return for the new episodes, though Barbara Llewellyn will not be returning. A replacement for Llewellyn has not yet been cast. It has been more than twelve months since the first series of Young Ramsay was shown in Melbourne.

The taming of a workaholic
In the five months since Brian Naylor resigned from Melbourne's Seven National News, there had been plenty of speculation as to who would replace him. However, none of that speculation seemed to include the former reporter that had been filling Naylor's position in the meantime, Mal Walden (pictured): "I must admit that all the newspaper reports at the time were very crushing for the ego. After all, I was doing the job at the time and it was embarrassing to be completely dismissed by the press. Even Pamela Graham, who was filling in my usual spot, got a mention. I just would have liked someone to acknowledge the fact that I was there." As it turned out, Walden was the one that management wanted for the role, although it did take a lot of convincing from station manager Ron Casey to get him to accept it. A former country radio announcer, Walden came to radio station 3DB in Melbourne in the late-1960s. Then in 1970, after a year-long hitch-hiking tour through Europe and Asia, Walden joined 3DB's sister TV station, HSV7, where he reported for the news, hosted the quiz show Jeopardy and filled in for David Johnston on the children's program This Week Has Seven Days. In 1974, Walden was the first reporter to arrive in Darwin after the city had been devastated by Cyclone Tracy on Christmas Day. "Naturally it is one of those jobs you never forget, but as a reporting job it wasn't hard. The news was everywhere. All you had to do was point a camera and put a microphone at someone's mouth and you had a story. The big problem was getting the stories out of Darwin. I'd spend hours trying to get the reels of film on some sort of plane to Melbourne."

To the rescue, with classics
ABC has purchased a package of more than 140 classic movies for screening on Saturday and Tuesday nights from next month. The package includes titles from three different sources, MGM, the Goldwyn estate and London Films. The first movie to be shown from the package will be Woman Of The Year, starring Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn, which will head a block of movies to be shown as the Spencer Tracy Festival. Geoff Daniels, head of ABC drama, explains the plan behind the purchase: "Our philosophy is that ABC can't afford first-run movies - no way we can ever be in that. We want to build up an audience who are interested in these type movies. It's worked successfully for BBC and there's no reason why it shouldn't work for us." The line-up of classic movies is part of a new-look evening line-up for ABC this year, following the axing of This Day Tonight, that will see comedy scheduled after the news at 7.30pm, followed by local or imported drama at 8.30pm and new current affairs program Nationwide at 9.30pm.

Briefly...
After guest roles in Matlock Police, Division Four and The Truckies, singer-turned-actress Leila Hayes is about to play the mother of the hero in the new ABC series Twenty Good Years.

Janise Beaumont, a former Sydney journalist and reporter for The Mike Walsh Show and later The Steve Raymond Show, is a new addition to The Don Lane Show's on-air line-up.

In the four months since arriving in Australia from New Zealand, actor Sam Neill has been signed for three movie roles and a three-month stint in The Sullivans starting in May.

Viewpoint: Letters to the Editor:
"The spate of televised tennis matches shows no sign of abatement, but, it must be admitted that the tennis does at least keep out the more idiotic serials and crime movies which have dominated the afternoon box." F. Rowley, NSW.

"Thank you ABC, from the bottom of my heart, for screening the TV movie Shimmering Light and the series Who Pays The Ferryman, the two most outstanding shows of the year." G. Papadopoulos, NSW.

What's On (January 27-February 2):
This weekend's This Week Has Seven Days includes a segment on orienteering, a tour of the galleries and museums of the City of Boston and a discussion on psychiatry with a doctor from the Royal Melbourne Hospital. In the arts and crafts segment, Shirley Shackleton demonstrates the Fairisle knitting pattern.

On Sunday, ABC presents the cricket Fifth Test from Adelaide, and GTV9 presents World Series Cricket from VFL Park in Melbourne. HSV7 presents coverage of the 1979 Superbowl between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Dallas Cowboys which was played 21 January. This is followed by a documentary covering the activity in Saint Peter's Square during the two-day wait for the announcement to be made and the coronation of Pope John Paul II.

ABC's 7.30pm line-up features a magazine program, Horse Talk, on Monday night with Heath Harris and Suzy Jarratt, while from Tuesday through to Friday is a repeat of the documentary series Australians At Large featuring Australians in far-removed parts of the world.

The Early Bird Show, Fat Cat And Friends and The Holiday Fun Show keep the kids amused in the early mornings, as well as the perennial Sesame Street and Play School. But with TV still basically in summer mode, afternoon TV is largely a sea of classic and black-and-white movies and sitcoms on HSV7 and ATV0 every weekday although ATV0 does include The Steve Raymond Show and GTV9 has more World Series Cricket.

Sunday night movies are repeats of The Chairman (GTV9) and Masquerade (ATV0). HSV7 presents Summer Of The Seventeenth Doll, the third part of the Ray Lawler trilogy featuring Bruce Myles, Peter Curtin, Carole Skinner, Sandy Gore, Christine Amor and David Downer. ABC presents a 50-minute special Australia Day concert featuring the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.

Source: TV Times (Melbourne edition), 27 January 1979. ABC/ACP

1978: October 14-20

Cover: Farrah Fawcett-Majors

Debbie's agony isn't over yet
Former Young Talent Time star Debbie Byrne might have had drug possession charges against her and her husband dismissed by a Melbourne magistrate, but the 21-year-old quickly realised that she was being tried all over again - by the public. "I feel as though I have to prove my innocence all over again," she told TV Times. "I'd done nothing wrong at all and yet there was my name in a newspaper story associated with drugs. And I know some people think there's no smoke without the fire." Byrne and her husband David were in temporary share house accommodation, a 23-roomed Edwardian mansion, when police found the drugs. "The magistrate was convinced that we knew nothing about the drugs when he dismissed the charges - and he was right. But I learned my lesson. I won't ever share a house again after this experience." Byrne is now busy working on a new musical comedy series being made in Sydney for ABC.

People come first
The 0-10 Network's Steve Raymond (pictured) has chosen to put the focus on people rather than events in his new afternoon show: "We are finding plenty of interesting people because we do our homework. We'll have well-researched interviews, quality entertainment with people like Julie Anthony and Marcia Hines, and a sense of fun. You can't hit people over the head with a verbal sledgehammer at 1.30 in the afternoon."

007 - Sorry wrong number!
New Zealand-born actor Noel Trevarthen was working in the United Kingdom when he was a fraction away from becoming the next James Bond, until Roger Moore agreed to lower his asking price, "it was something of a disappointment." The actor first came to Australia in 1969 for the drama series The Rovers, and apart from a brief stint back in the UK, has been in Australia ever since and is now settled in to the 0-10 Network series The Restless Years.

Invention must be a snoring success
The Inventors' panelist Diana Fisher is hoping that entrants in the show's anti-snoring competition will improve on her own method in dealing with a snoring spouse: "When Humphrey snored, a foot or an elbow went his way. I found a swift kick to turn him over worked." The competition, to run for five weeks, will endeavour to uncover the ultimate anti-snoring device with a continental quilt offered as first prize.

Briefly:
Sue Smithers (pictured), who replaced Deborah Coulls in The Restless Years, has now been written out of the series.

The Sullivans' Paul Cronin is sitting for a portrait to be entered for this year's Archibald Prize.

Melbourne's HSV7 have said that they may not seek a new co-host for Ernie Sigley on Penthouse '78 after the departure of Mary Hardy.

Viewpoint: Letters to the Editor:
"Congratulations to the ABC! I have just learnt that another series of The Saturday Show (pictured) will be produced in 1979 and the first series is expected also to be repeated next year." C. Isaac, TAS.

"The ultimate horror in commercials has arrived, and those of us who wouldn't watch Garry McDonald if they paid us have now to put up with him in TV commercials. If there was ever a commercial to turn me off the product it's one with Garry McDonald/Norman Gunston." E. James, NSW.

"Why do TV stations insist on showing copyright warnings and cautions at the end of a show (after we've all copied it) instead of at the beginning?" P. Cunningham, NSW.

What's On (October 14-20):
HSV7's summer tennis coverage starts off with the South Pacific Classic, live from Milton tennis courts, Brisbane, over both Saturday and Sunday afternoons.

On Monday night, HSV7 screens a live telecast of the selection and crowning of Miss Victoria for 1979, hosted by newsreader Mal Walden.

Featured in this week's The Paul Hogan Show on GTV9 is a sketch titled Seeds, a send-up of the mini-series Roots. Also featured is a sketch featuring the cast visiting a supermarket in the year 2000, a send-up of Starsky And Hutch and a sketch on energy conservation.

ATV0 presents a Thursday night documentary, Scream And You're Dead, aimed to warn women about sexual assault. Evidence for the program is the result of seven years' investigation by the Police Department of Western Australia. Later the same night, HSV7 presents a one-hour documentary, Birth, examining childbirth practices in western society. The special, narrated by Scottish-born psychiatrist Dr R D Laing, was produced in New Zealand and has been already screened to wide acclaim in the United Kingdom, United States and South Africa.

On Friday night, ATV0 presents a special edition of Peter Couchman Tonight marking the final appearance in Melbourne of Dame Edna Everage, recorded at the end of her recent Australian tour.

Sunday night movies are Three Days Of The Condor (HSV7), Night Flight From Moscow (GTV9) and The Black Windmill (ATV0) - though there are some movie epics scheduled through the week as well: El Cid (HSV7, Wednesday), The Sound Of Music (GTV9, Wednesday) and the television premiere of Cleopatra (GTV9, Friday).

Source: TV Times (Melbourne edition), 14 October 1978.  ABC/ACP

YouTube: Seven hit by Sydney cold-front!

Every city is parochial to some extent, but for some reason, Melburnians are just that little more precious about their city - especially if there are seen to be influences from Sydney.

This attitude to all things local was never more evident than the year 1987 - when the media shake-up not only saw all three Melbourne commercial channels change hands, but more horrifying was the thought that 'their' HSV7 had been taken over by a Sydney-based outfit.

Since it was licenced in 1955, HSV7 was owned by the Melbourne-based media giant Herald and Weekly Times (HWT) which published newspapers The Herald and The Sun (hence the call-sign HSV, the "V" stood for Victoria), and owned the once-dominant radio station 3DB.

For its first 30 years of broadcasting, HSV7 maintained a strong local presence in Melbourne. The other commercial channels GTV9 and ATV0/10 did too, but HSV7 would be less influenced by interstate factors and was heavily identified as being very much about Melbourne. Being the major broadcast partner in Australian Rules VFL was a major part of that local identity, but HSV also had strong links to Melbourne with locally-made shows such as World Of Sport, Video Village, The Happy Show, Homicide, Sunnyside Up, The Penthouse Club, the Royal Children's Hospital Good Friday Appeal and Seven National News which during the '70s was Melbourne's dominant news bulletin.

But changes to media laws in the mid-'80s sparked a flurry of activity among the industry. In 1986, Rupert Murdoch had made a successful bid to gain control of HWT, but in doing so had to relinquish the group's radio and television interests. 3DB ultimately ended up owned by the Australian Radio Network who re-labelled the station 3TT - and these days it is known as Mix 101.1.

HSV7 had been sold to the Fairfax group, a Sydney-based media empire that owned ATN7 and newspapers including The Sydney Morning Herald and Melbourne's The Age. The fact that HSV had been sold from its traditional newspaper owner to end up with a rival newspaper publisher must have been an indication that a major generational change was about to occur. And it did.

The three things that most closely linked HSV to the city of Melbourne - World Of Sport, Mal Walden and the station's 'Hello Melbourne' station identification - were all dumped mercilessly by the Fairfax management.

And it was no doubt convenient for Fairfax that HSV7, at the end of 1986 under its previous management, had lost the rights to VFL when it was outbid by production company Broadcom.

World Of Sport had launched in 1959 as a Saturday morning program, but later moved to Sundays, and by the time it had been axed in 1987, it was reportedly the longest running sports program on TV in the world. The program was never known for its sophistication or high production values, but it was a weekly habit for generations of Melburnians.

Mal Walden had been with HSV since the early '70s, having come across from 3DB. An early stint as a game show host on Jeopardy was followed by a cadetship in the newsroom which ultimately led to him being appointed chief newsreader in 1978 when longtime newsreader Brian Naylor moved across to GTV9. On the night of Friday 27 March 1987, Walden was told just minutes before going to air on Seven National News that the bulletin would be his last. A tearful Walden informed viewers at the end of the bulletin that he had been sacked.

While Seven National News had been rating behind its rivals National Nine News and Eyewitness News, it was nothing compared to the fallout that was to follow. When Seven National News was re-launched the following month as a one-hour format with newsreader Greg Pearce, recruited from Perth, ratings fell to virtually zero. The bulletin was soundly being beaten by a kids' cartoon series Inspector Gadget on ABC, and even by whatever multi-cultural offerings were being broadcast on SBS. The revamped bulletin also lost the support of the Victorian regional channels which up until that time had all carried Seven's news on relay from Melbourne, and in one fell swoop, all switched their nightly news relay to National Nine News.

When Walden was thrown a life-line by former Seven colleague David Johnston at ATV10, that station's Eyewitness News recorded a massive ratings spike as Walden was given a minor presenting role of a five-minute human interest segment Mal's Melbourne. Walden was later promoted to co-newsreader alongside Johnston and new recruit Tracey Curro in 1988. In 1995, he was appointed Ten's chief Melbourne newsreader when Johnston went back to Seven.

And in an industry where image is everything, the theme 'Hello Melbourne', while adapted from an American jingle, seemed to perfectly sum up HSV7's relationship to Melbourne. Launched by HSV in 1985, it was a catchy theme that struck a chord with viewers. Going into 1987, the theme was updated with a new animated logo sequence (pictured, above). Enter the Fairfax management, and suddenly the signature tune and the new station identifications were gone and the slogan 'Hello Melbourne' was demoted to being a mere caption on a generic Seven Network station identification that sucked out any enthusiasm for the brand. A few months later, even the 'Hello Melbourne' reference was cut from the station identifications.

Melbourne viewers had felt that HSV had simply left town in the wake of all that was happening. World Of Sport was replaced by Sydney's Sportsworld, a program that was no doubt more polished in presentation, but did not have the personality or tradition of World Of Sport, and being from Sydney, did not have the primary focus on Aussie Rules football The local current affairs program Day By Day was replaced by Terry Willesee Tonight fed down the line from Sydney, and the late-night news edition Newsworld was replaced by the Clive Robertson version which was adopted around the network. In the case of Newsworld, that was a change that seemed to bear some fruits as Robertson's laid-back and sarcastic style gave a new perspective in news presentation and would last for some years.

Though obviously relishing the opportunity to kick a rival when it's down, the Nine Network's 60 Minutes featured a story highlighting the mood surrounding the changes at HSV7 with reporter Jana Wendt chatting to apparently-typical Melburnians, as well as Mal Walden, Nine's Brian Naylor, Ten's David Johnston (co-incidentally a former colleague of Wendt's when she was a newsreader at Ten) and even Seven executive Phil Davis and new newsreader Greg Pearce.

The 60 Minutes report though did raise a certain point. Sure, HSV7 was now being run by Sydney interests, but its rivals Nine, Ten, and even 'aunty' ABC were being run and influenced by Sydney-based decision-making for years. And Melbourne's favourite son, Graham Kennedy, also gave a rather blunt assessment that Melbourne has to get with the times - television can not survive as a purely-local medium, it has to rely on a networked format to survive and if that meant losing some local jobs, so be it.

But barely a few months after the Fairfax-led upheaval at HSV, there was a change again, this time from Melbourne-born entrepreneur Christopher Skase buying up the Seven stations HSV7, ATN7 Sydney and BTQ7 Brisbane for $780 million. Skase was seen as the white knight to save HSV7 from its perilous state. Although Skase predicted the station's recovery would take some years, within months of his buying the network, the rights to VFL coverage had come back to Seven, the news was getting a revamp with the signing up of Eyewitness News presenter Jennifer Keyte and returning to its traditional half-hour format, and Melbourne radio broadcaster Derryn Hinch had signed on to present a nightly current affairs program.

Seven was coming back to Melbourne but it would be some time before the scars of the Fairfax era would heal, not helped either by the later Skase controversy that would follow in the early '90s.

YouTube: dtvone, shizermagizer, FrozenDoberman

More of Mal Walden's YouTube moments!

Network Ten's Melbourne newsreader Mal Walden is becoming something of a YouTube regular with some recent well ad-libbed spots on Ten News:




Plus a vintage clip from the vaults of Channel Seven from the early '80s:



YouTube videos: Moe, Autopenguin, Upweyguy

The Year That Was... #3: Telling it how it really is...

For over thirty years, Mal Walden has been a journalist and news presenter on Melbourne television - so he is perhaps justified to speak his mind when something just isn't right:



... referring to an earlier story in the news bulletin about former air hostess Lisa Robertson doing a sexy photo shoot for mens magazine Zoo, after being accused of having sex with actor Ralph Fiennes on a flight from Australia to India.

Mal's on-air swipe appeared on 10 April.

Thanks to bigdan for posting the clip to YouTube