Tracy Grimshaw’s 30 years at Nine

A Current Affair last night presented a tribute to host Tracy Grimshaw to commemorate her 30 years at the Nine Network.

Starting at Nine as a reporter for National Nine News in Melbourne, Grimshaw later gained a national profile as a daytime newsreader and guest presenter on Graham Kennedy’s Coast To Coast.

In 1995, Grimshaw and actor David Reyne were an unlikely pairing for the revamped Midday as the show returned in a new format after a year hosted by Derryn Hinch.

The Midday experiment failed – with Kerri-Anne Kennerley replacing the pair, presenting a revamped variety format in 1996 – but Grimshaw then moved to the early morning Today, co-hosting for many years with Steve Liebmann and then Karl Stefanovic.

She left Today to take on hosting ACA in 2006.  While the story mix on ACA and its rival Today Tonight generally skew towards an almost identical lineup of lightweight topics such as grocery prices, diet fads and retail promotions, Grimshaw’s journalistic background has given ACA some point of difference in that she is allowed the occasional opportunity to interview certain newsmakers or people in the spotlight – winning a Walkley award for television interviewing in 2009, a year which saw her conduct a number of exclusive interviews on the program, including an interview with disgraced former footballer Matthew Johns after details of a group sex scandal had emerged.

The video of last night’s tribute can be found at the ACA website.

Dixie calls it a day

Perth television newsreader Dixie Marshall last night announced her resignation from the newsdesk at STW9 effective immediately:

“I have loved every moment of working for Channel Nine, but it’s now time to be brave and make a change.  After more than 25 years as both a reporter and newsreader, I’ve had enough of reading and reporting stories about tragedy - floods, fire, earthquakes and violence.

“I’m making a strategic career decision to move into another phase, which will allow me to participate in the changes happening within our state and city.  It’s a fantastic time to be a West Australian, with so much entrepreneurial spirit on show, and I want to be part of that and make a contribution.”

PerthNow reports that Marshall is believed to be headed for a role in public relations, despite earlier suggestions that she had accepted a job at Tourism Western Australia.

With a background in newspaper and radio journalism, Marshall joined the STW9 newsroom in 1984 and later moved to Melbourne to join the Seven Network.  At Seven she became the first female sports reporter on television, contributing to VFL/AFL coverage, Seven Nightly News, Olympic Games reports and co-hosting Sportsworld with Bruce McAvaney.

Returning to Perth in the early ‘90s, Marshall re-joined STW9 as a senior reporter and weekend newsreader.  In 2003, she began presenting the channel’s weeknight 6.00pm bulletin, first with Sonia Vinci – making them the first all-female newsreading team in Australia – and more recently alongside Perth television veteran Greg Pearce.

Last night’s bulletin ended with a tribute presented by Pearce and sports presenter Michael Thompson with a flower bouquet handed over by weather presenter Angela Tsun.

It is not yet known if Marshall will be replaced at the newsdesk, with Pearce to read the news solo in the interim.

Source: PerthNow, NineMSN

Rob Kelvin calls it a day

Adelaide newsreader Rob Kelvin has announced that he will be retiring from the Nine News desk at the end of the year.

His retirement comes after taking several months’ leave this year – “a fair sort of dress rehearsal for retirement,” he told AdelaideNow.

Kelvin had worked in radio in the 1970s, including radio station 4AY Townsville, 3SH Swan Hill, 7HT Hobart and Adelaide's 5KA and 5AD, before joining NWS9 in Adelaide in 1979 as a sports presenter.

He moved into newsreading in 1983.  And it was in 1987 that he was paired up with Adelaide newsreading veteran Kevin Crease.  It was a partnership that continued for twenty years before Kelvin had to deliver the news that his long-time colleague had died from cancer in 2007.

News director Tony Agars says that despite retirement, Kelvin may still have a presence at NWS9:

"Rob now reads through until the end of the year.  After that it's not the end for us. Rob is quite keen and I'm certainly very keen to have Rob with us for a while yet. We're talking about some projects now that Rob can get his teeth into and certainly I reckon you'll see Rob reading news as we've got holidays and things like that coming up."

As well as reading the news, Kelvin has reported from the Commonwealth Games for the Nine Network, in Brisbane in 1982 and Auckland in 1990.  He also hosted NWS9’s 25th anniversary celebration event in 1984.

Kelvin now looks forward to spending more time with wife Anna and son Jesse and not having a life dictated by deadlines:

"No deadlines, that's the amazing thing about retirement.  Once upon a time, I had a wrist watch that had six alarms on it and they were different things that I would have to do at different times during the day and it would go off for all these different things. And I haven't missed a deadline that I'm aware of in 32 years."

Kelvin will present his last Nine News bulletin on New Year’s Eve and Kate Collins and Michael Smyth, who both read the news over Kelvin’s recent absence, will front Nine News in Adelaide from 3 January.

Source: AdelaideNow, NWS9

Brian Naylor to enter Logies’ Hall of Fame

Former Melbourne television personality Brian Naylor is to be posthumously inducted into the TV Week Logie Awards’ Hall of Fame at next month’s awards presentation.

TV Tonight reports that TV Week is set to announce Naylor’s award tomorrow.

This is the fourth time that a Hall of Fame Logie has been awarded posthumously – photographer Neil Davis (1986), actor and performer Maurie Fields (1996) and Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin (2007) also received posthumous recognition with entry into the TV Week Logie Awards’ Hall of Fame.

Naylor, a former radio presenter on 3AK and 3DB, made the transition to television in the late 1950s as host of children’s variety program Swallow’s Juniors (later re-named Brian And The Juniors), which had made the move from 3DB to HSV7.

He later moved into the newsroom at HSV7, hosting the current affairs program This Week and reading news bulletins before being appointed to the role of chief newsreader for the Melbourne edition of Seven National News in 1970.  Naylor’s popularity with audiences in Melbourne and across regional Victoria led to him being signed up by rival GTV9 in 1978.  Nine had endured several years of poor ratings for its evening news and even bringing veteran newsreader Eric Pearce out of retirement had failed to lift its fortunes – but signing up Naylor was a major coup and the audience followed Naylor across to Nine.  National Nine News would continue to dominate the ratings during Naylor’s 20-years as newsreader, fending off fierce rival Ten’s one-hour news and a resurgent Seven in the late 1980s and early ‘90s.

Naylor also gained a national profile as presenter of the annual Carols By Candlelight for ten years, before the role was taken over by Ray Martin, and produced and hosted documentaries for the Nine Network.

In February last year Naylor and his wife Moiree were among the 173 killed by the Black Saturday bushfires.

Last month, the short-list of nominations for the Logies’ Hall of Fame was leaked to the media for the first time in the awards’ 27-year history.  Among others on the short list were Naylor’s long-time Sydney counterpart Brian Henderson, two-time TV Week Gold Logie winner Maggie Tabberer, Dateline host George Negus, SBS sporting commentator Les Murray, sports presenter Ken Sutcliffe, former newsreader Ian Ross, Home And Away stalwart Ray Meagher and former Network Ten drama Prisoner.

The TV Week Logie Awards will be held at Melbourne’s Crown Casino on Sunday 2 May and telecast on the Nine Network.

Source: TV Tonight

Ian Ross signs off for the last time

Sydney newsreader Ian Ross has tonight presented his last news bulletin, ending a career spanning over 50 years.

Starting his career in radio at Sydney stations 2GB, 2SM and regional station 2MW, Ross made the move to television, to Sydney’s TCN9, in 1965.  He then went to the United Kingdom for two years at news agency UPITN.  Upon returning to Australia in 1974, Ross returned to Nine – and would stay at Nine for the next 38 years.

For many years, “Roscoe”, as he was nicknamed, gained a national profile as the newsreader on Nine’s breakfast show, Today, before going into semi-retirement.

In December 2003, the Seven Network scored a coup by signing up Ross to replace Ross Symonds and Ann Sanders as the chief newsreader for Seven News in Sydney.  Ross’ arrival at Seven came a year after the ever-popular Brian Henderson had retired from rival National Nine News after forty years, and it marked a significant change in Sydney’s news viewing habits, as Seven News, forever the runner-up in Sydney’s fierce TV news battle, had become the city’s top-rating news service.

The dominance of Seven News in Sydney, coupled with the increasing popularity of breakfast program Sunrise, saw the Seven Network finally challenge the Nine Network’s long held standing as Australia’s most popular news source.  Seven News now convincingly wins over Nine News, Sunrise wins over Today, Today Tonight wins over A Current Affair, Weekend Sunrise claimed victory over Nine’s long-running Sunday program last year, and Sunday Night has taken a lot of the shine off 60 Minutes.

In retiring from Seven News, Ian Ross hands over the nightly bulletin to weekend newsreader and Sunday Night co-host Chris Bath.

Source: Seven News, DanNews, Sydney Morning Herald

Bruce Paige and Extra to go from Nine

Brisbane’s QTQ9 – only months away from celebrating its 50th anniversary – has made two announcements today about two of its long-timers.

The late-afternoon magazine program Extra is being wound up next week after a marathon 18 years on-air.  The program launched back in 1992 when the Nine Network launched ‘Extra’ programs in each capital city as the lead-in to National Nine News.  The Sydney Extra, Melbourne Extra and Adelaide Extra programs were all fairly short lived.  Perth Extra managed to hang on a few years longer, but Brisbane Extra – the name since shortened to just Extra – has continued in the 5.30pm timeslot despite the constant changing of Nine’s 5.30pm programming in the other capital cities.  The axe comes despite Extra maintaining a strong following in Brisbane and out-rating Seven’s Deal Or No Deal.  The final episode of Extra goes to air Friday 26 June on QTQ9.  Replacing Extra in the 5.30pm timeslot will be the quiz show Hot Seat which currently occupies that timeslot in the other capital cities.

Meanwhile, QTQ9’s long-serving newsreader Bruce Paige has announced that he is quitting the Nine News desk, finishing up in the not-too-distant future.  Starting his career in the 1960s at Maryborough radio station 4MB, Paige then went to local TV station SEQ8 before joining ABC in 1971, staying for 14 years.  He then moved to QTQ9 in 1985 before going to TVQ10.  Following a newsreading stint at North Queensland-based QTV (now Southern Cross Ten) in the early ‘90s, Paige returned to Brisbane to QTQ9.

Bruce Paige’s resignation from QTQ9 comes only months after his former Nine News partner Heather Foord (pictured, with Paige) announced that she was leaving the news bulletin to move to the now-axed Extra program.

Source: news.com.au, news.com.au, Wikipedia, NineMSN

John Sorell

Former National Nine News chief John Sorell has died at Melbourne’s Alfred Hospital. The 72-year-old had suffered a heart attack on Friday.

A dual Walkley Award winner with a long history as a print journalist – working at newspapers including The Mercury, The Age, The Herald and Sunday Observer – Sorell went on to lead the GTV9 newsroom from 1975 at a time that the station’s evening news bulletin was being soundly beaten by Seven.

It was Sorell who, during 1978, made a successful bid to poach top-rating Seven newsreader Brian Naylor. Naylor joined National Nine News early in 1979 and went on to lead the news ratings until his retirement in 1998.

Sorell retired from Nine in 2003, leaving while the channel’s news was still in front in the ratings.

Just two months ago, Sorell wrote a tribute in the Herald Sun to Brian Naylor who died with wife Moiree in the tragic bushfires that devastated parts of Victoria.

Source: Herald Sun, The Age, TV Tonight

WIN’s ten years out west

It is now ten years since regional network WIN spread to Western Australia.  The station was originally due to launch on Friday 26 March 1999 but at the last minute decided to begin broadcasting a day earlier to broadcast news bulletins with particular attention to Cyclone Vance that had swept across the state just days before.

WIN paid around $36 million for the licence to operate a statewide television service in competition with long-time incumbent Golden West Network (GWN), followed by around $14 million in setup costs – compared to the $70 million that Prime Television paid to gain control of GWN from Kerry Stokes.

Despite some confusion over possible network affiliations in the early days of planning, WIN did launch with affiliation to both Nine and Ten networks.  So while WA viewers could see programs such as Hey Hey It’s Saturday, Friends, The Footy Show, Getaway, Water Rats, Sunday, A Current Affair, Today and 60 Minutes from the Nine Network on WIN, they could also see Neighbours and imported programs such as The X Files, Melrose Place, The Oprah Winfrey Show, The Simpsons, NYPD Blue and The Nanny from Network Ten.

WIN’s West Australian Opening Night schedule: 26 March 1999: (not taking into account the last minute change to broadcast some programming the previous day) 5.30pm Ten News, 6.30 A Current Affair, 7pm WIN Television Western Australia Official Launch, 7.30 Friends, 8pm The Nanny, 8.30 Movie: Casino, 11.40 Nightline, 12.10 Swimming: Australian Championship, 1.40am Rugby: Melbourne Storm vs Canterbury, 3.50 The Late Show, 4.50 Outer Bounds, 5am Wild West Cowboys Of Moo Mesa, 5.30 Zorro. Source: The West Australian, 26 March 1999.

WIN launched in Western Australia with coverage of approximately 85 per cent of the state’s regional population through terrestrial transmitters, on both VHF and UHF, as well as satellite transmission via the Optus B3 satellite.

The dual affiliation status of WIN was not unique in Australia but it did lead to some bold moves both on and off screen.  First, WIN set up its WA headquarters at the studios of Perth’s NEW10 apparently as a snub towards the company’s traditional affiliate partner the Nine Network.  The move was rumoured to be in response to some hostilities between WIN owner Bruce Gordon and Sunraysia Television, owner of STW9 Perth. 

At the time of its launch, WIN also elected to relay Perth’s Ten News across Western Australia as at the time it was Perth’s second-highest rating news service behind Seven Nightly News.  WIN also chose Ten News because it featured former GWN presenter Christine Morrissey (pictured, with Ten News colleague Greg Pearce), which WIN hoped would give it some advantage in the regional market.  WIN decided to screen Ten News on delay at 5.30pm, leading into A Current Affair from Nine at 6.30pm.  GWN, meanwhile, had cancelled its one-hour Bunbury-based news hour and replaced it with Golden West News at 5.30pm followed by a relay of Seven Nightly News and Today Tonight from Perth. 

In 2007, WIN Corporation finally gained control of STW9 Perth after a lengthy battle with Sunraysia.  Following the takeover, WIN then moved its regional WA operations from NEW10’s studios to STW9, and replaced the relay of Ten News with National Nine News from Perth.  WIN has also since launched a regional news service, with reporters based around the state, to compete with incumbent GWN News.

Queensland's 50 years of news

The year 2009 marks a number of significant anniversaries for Australian television.  One of them is the fiftieth anniversary of TV in Queensland - as Brisbane channels QTQ9, BTQ7 and ABQ2 all begun transmission during the second half of 1959.

QTQ9 was the first station to air in the Sunshine State, opening on 16 August 1959 and broadcasting from studios on top of Brisbane's Mount Coot-tha, which would become home to the city's three commercial TV stations. 

The first person to appear on screen on QTQ was Hugh Cornish, who went on to become a presenter and newsreader for the new station, later moving on to become the general manager.

Later newsreaders at QTQ9 included former ABC newsreader Don Seccombe - who would lead QTQ9's news through the '60s, '70s and early '80s - Brian Cahill, Paul Griffin, Mike London, Rob Readings and Bruce Paige.  Melody Iliffe was possibly Australia's first female television newsreader, working alongside Seccombe for several years in the mid-1960s before female newsreaders became the norm on television, and led the way for others including Robin Parkin, Jillian Whiting, Heather Foord and Melissa Downes.

Throughout the 1970s to early-‘80s, QTQ9’s news was the only commercial television bulletin from Brisbane to be relayed through regional Queensland’s various local broadcasters*.  And since aggregation arrived in regional Queensland in 1990, QTQ9's news has again been beamed statewide through affiliate broadcaster WIN.  As well as the major 6.00pm bulletin QTQ9 also produces the only local news service for the Gold Coast and in Brisbane presents the long-running news magazine program Extra, which began back in 1992.

This Saturday night, as well as covering the Queensland election, QTQ9 will present a tribute to 50 years of television news - highlighting some of Queensland's people and events that have made headlines locally and around the world: bushfires, floods, cyclones, murders, Royal tours, the Fitzgerald inquiry, the controversial Joh Bjelke-Petersen, former fish-and-chip shop owner Pauline Hanson, beauty student Schapelle Corby, and many more...

50 Years Of Nine For News.  Saturday 21 March, 6.30pm.  QTQ9 Brisbane/WIN Queensland.

YouTube: aussiebeachut

* Acknowledgement to aussiebeachut for clarification on QTQ9’s news being relayed to regional Queensland.

Brian Naylor

Former Melbourne television identity Brian Naylor (pictured) and his wife Moiree have been found dead after the horrific bushfires that have ravaged Victoria over the weekend. 

The couple's bodies were found tonight after they were reported unaccounted for after a blaze tore through the rural town of Kinglake. 

More than eighty have been reported dead from fires burning around the state.

Naylor, 78, started in radio presenting commercials for his then employer, a paper mill in Melbourne, and then landed an announcing role at radio station 3DB. 

With the advent of television in Melbourne, Naylor made the move from 3DB to its new sister station HSV7 as host of its children's variety program Swallow's Juniors (later Brian And The Juniors). 

In 1970, Naylor joined the news team at HSV7 which was then struggling to topple rival GTV9 in the news ratings race.  By the mid-1970s, Seven National News with Naylor at the helm was winning the ratings - at the expense of Nine which had even lured former newsreading legend Eric Pearce out of retirement to try to claw back viewers from Seven.

In 1978, after two decades at Seven, Naylor was subject of one of the biggest coups in television when he accepted an offer to join GTV9, starting early in 1979 and eventually the viewers followed with National Nine News dominating through much of the 1980s and 1990s.

Ironically, it was Brian Naylor who presented an edition of National Nine News live on location from the streets of Cockatoo which had been destroyed in the horrific Ash Wednesday fires of 1983.

For many years, Naylor's signature sign-off from the news was "May your news be good news and goodnight."

Naylor also presented Melbourne's Carols By Candlelight for ten years and in 1988 he was voted Victorian Father of the Year.

At the end of 1998, Naylor retired from television, ending a forty-year career.  A clip of Naylor's final news bulletin is featured at TV Australia.

Last year, Naylor lost son Matthew, 41, in an ultralight plane crash near their Kinglake property.

Source: Sky News, TV Tonight, TV Times
YouTube: aussiebeachut

1979: January 20-26

That was the year that was!
For Mike Walsh (pictured), the king of daytime TV, 1978 earned him an even greater following and more accolades including a Gold Sammy for best male TV personality and the award for best light entertainment series. Highlights for The Mike Walsh Show during the year included guest appearances by Peter Ustinov, Derek Nimmo and English comedian Jimmy Edwards. "Looking back, 1978 was a most successful year for us and we will have an even bigger and better line-up this year, especially on the international scene."

Young Doctors on the go!
Two of the stars of the Nine Network's The Young Doctors are set to leave the popular series with one of them rumoured to be signed up for the Seven Network's new series Skyways. Sydney-based Bartholomew John (pictured), who plays Dr Chris Piper, is about to depart the series for a visit to the US before settling in Melbourne but is not about to confirm his future plans: "All I can say is that I have a star role in a new series and that I am going to live in Melbourne." Meanwhile, fellow The Young Doctors star Tony Alvarez is set to finish in the series next month with plans to embark on a music career. And another The Young Doctors star, Joanne Samuel, who was written out of the series late last year, is also heading to Skyways which is due to begin production in March.

Blockbuster movies in TV line-up
TV Times columnist Noel Risby previews some of the big movie titles headed for TV in the new year. The Nine Network is set to feature the Australian movie Caddie, starring Helen Morse, Jack Thompson and Jacki Weaver, the 1970 classic Love Story and other titles including The French Connection, The Three Musketeers, Harold And Maude and Harry And Tonto. Some of the movies coming up on Seven will be Australian titles Petersen and Storm Boy (pictured) and imported titles Great Expectations, Mandingo and the 1977 remake of King Kong. The 0-10 Network promises the Academy Award winning Dog Day Afternoon, action-packed titles Mr Majestyk and Dirty Harry, musical Mame and controversial - though most likely to be heavily edited - titles Last Tango In Paris and Deliverance. The network also promises Woody Allen's Everything You Wanted To Know About Sex But Were Afraid To Ask.

End of the news for Eric
The tears flowed at the studios of GTV9 as veteran newsreader Eric Pearce (pictured) made his final farewell from the newsroom. It was actually the second time Pearce has retired from reading news - the first was in 1972 but he was then lured back to Nine in 1976 in an attempt to stop viewers switching over to rival Seven National News with Brian Naylor who, ironically, has now been signed up to replace Pearce at Nine. Naylor admitted being nervous at starting afresh at Nine after many years at Seven but has been having regular off-air runs in the five months since he left Seven National News: "I think when we settle in, we will have a very strong team." Pearce, 74, is now preparing for a somewhat less strenuous role as director of community affairs for the channel.

Briefly...
An ATV0 news team had a lucky escape when a light plane in which they were travelling crash-landed. Reporter Malcolm Gray, cameraman Clive Banfield and the pilot of the chartered plane were shaken but not injured and the news story they were working on still managed to get to air that night.

Philip Brady is said to be staying at GTV9 despite rumours of him accepting a very generous offer to join ATV0's Peter Couchman Tonight.

Former The Young Doctors star Cornelia Frances has been snapped up for a guest role in the Seven Network's Cop Shop.

Viewpoint: Letters to the Editor:
"After watching Steve Raymond's show for a few weeks, I have found it the most informative, entertaining show on Australian TV. His interviews are extremely interesting and he does not have the same old guests and panels as on The Mike Walsh Show week after week." T. Barnett, NSW.

"Why did they stop making Chopper Squad? My family and friends thoroughly enjoyed the series, and to me it showed a great deal of realism." A. Gosen, QLD.

"The Bill Peach special about China (ABC) is just the sort of TV program the communists love to see produced about a communist country. It presents the Chinese people as one big happy family. The multitude of refugees from China and South Vietnam who have risked their lives to escape communist tyranny are eloquent witnesses to what conditions are really like in communist countries. Let us have TV programs that tell the whole truth about communist nations." W. Maguire, QLD.

What's On (January 20-26):
More cricket during the week with the Sheffield Shield and the 3rd One-Day International on ABC and World Series Cricket on GTV9.

On Sunday afternoon, ATV0 presents a three-hour live broadcast from Torquay Beach hosted by Ray Burgess. Included in the telecast is coverage of surfing events and the final of the Miss Victorian Beach Girl Quest.

ATV0's The Restless Years is back for the new year, screening Tuesday and Wednesday nights at 7.30pm.

Later on Wednesday night, HSV7 presents an Australian TV adaptation of the play Kid Stakes. Set in 1937, it's the first story in the Ray Lawler trilogy. The second story, Other Times set in 1945, appears on Friday night. The third play, Summer Of The Seventeenth Doll, will appear next week.

Friday (26 January) is Australia Day but, like the previous year, there isn't much Australian content to be found on TV. In mid-morning, ATV0 screens the 1954 black and white movie King Of The Coral Sea, starring Rod Taylor, Chips Rafferty and Charles 'Bud' Tingwell, followed by re-runs of 1960s children's series Barrier Reef and The Rovers. The only Australian programming found on the commercial channels in the afternoon is Skippy The Bush Kangaroo on GTV9 and a 1935 movie, Heritage, on ATV0. Even ABC isn't making any concerted effort for Australia's national day apart from the ten-minute Australia Day message from the Governor-General Sir Zelman Cowen followed by a re-run episode of the documentary series Wild Australia.

Sunday night movies are repeats of All The Fine Young Cannibals (HSV7) and Battle Of Neretva (ATV0). GTV9 has World Series Cricket through to 10.30pm while ABC presents the first of a six-part New Zealand historical drama, The Governor, which tells the story of former South Australia governor Sir George Grey who became an influential figure in the European settlement of New Zealand in the nineteenth century.

Source: TV Times (Melbourne edition), 20 January 1979. ABC/ACP

Summer Temptation could be its last

Reports today that Nine's long-running quiz show Temptation is well and truly finished with the show's host Ed Phillips not having his contract renewed by the network.

Beginning in 2005, Temptation was a rework of the long-running Sale Of The Century which ran from 1980 to 2001.  Sale, of course, was itself a rework of the 1970s Great Temptation that ran on the Seven Network from 1970 to 1975 with Tony Barber and Barbie Rogers (pictured).

Towards the end of 2007, Temptation's future appeared to be in doubt when Nine cut it back to four nights a week to accommodate a revival of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire on Monday nights.  Temptation was then 'rested' in favour of the US sitcom Two And A Half Men which has given Nine strong ratings in the 7.00pm timeslot.

Nine did eventually put Temptation back into production earlier this year but the batch of episodes were never put to air, instead the network continued to push the Two And A Half Men bandwagon.  With the non-ratings season starting this weekend, Nine has decided to begin to air those remaining Temptation episodes.

A summer showing of Temptation could have given Nine an indication of whether the format is worth continuing into 2009, but instead they've decided to let the show fade out and bid farewell to Phillips.  Viewers will be reluctant to give the show any support over summer now, knowing that it won't be back in the longer term.

Temptation co-host Livinia Nixon appears to be staying on board at Nine as weather presenter on Melbourne's Nine News.

Curiously, Phillips has been let go from Nine just as other news comes out that the network is piloting a new 5.30pm show to lead-in to Nine News, with no presenter formally appointed.  Network identities Karl Stefanovic (Today) and Leila McKinnon will host the pilot of the new show but the network has said that if the show is given the green light then new hosts would be appointed.

Source: news.com.au, news.com.au

Imparja news signing off

Imparja Television, Australia's last independently-owned regional TV operator, is reported to be closing down its regional news and current affairs unit.

ABC reports that the Alice Springs-based, indigenous-owned broadcaster is closing its local news operations in a round of cost cutting.   Already seven jobs are believed to have been cut with more to follow.

The cutbacks follow the station's recent move into a multi-million dollar complex in Alice Springs and its failed bid to purchase the Nine Network's Darwin station NTD8.  Curiously, the bid to purchase NTD had to include a commitment to maintaining local news and staffing levels in the top end capital.

Earlier this year Imparja made significant changes to its schedule by aligning itself with the Nine Network line-up, adding the Nine Network 'dots' to its logo and scrapping programs sourced from Network Ten.  The station also cancelled its nightly half-hour locally-produced news bulletin, in favour of a relay of National Nine News from Brisbane, and aligned its schedule to Eastern Standard Time instead of Central Standard Time.  Local news was to be provided only via one-minute updates during the evenings and a new weekly program Footprints.

Imparja was launched in 1988 with a commitment to producing and promoting Aboriginal culture.  With the cutbacks to its local news coverage the station's only indigenous-based production now is a weekly children's program although Imparja does provide facilities and transmission capacity to the indigenous broadcaster NITV. 

Now for around 430,000 viewers located in remote and outback Australia the only local news coverage on television can be found on bite-sized news updates on Southern Cross Seven Central, produced from a newsroom in Canberra, and the news service of the fledgling NITV whose broadcast coverage is limited.

The cancellation of local news by Imparja follows some other regional broadcasters going down a similar path, with Prime and Southern Cross Ten in much of their eastern states coverage areas providing limited news coverage that barely fulfils the guidelines set down by the broadcasting authority.  In contrast, regional networks WIN, NBN, GWN and Southern Cross Television provide more substantial local news coverage with full-scale evening bulletins across their respective regions.

Source: ABC

1978: November 11-17

A little bit of what John fancies
Although he's been an actor since the age of 11, John Meillon (pictured, with Stuart Wagstaff) has never been a walk-on, say-a-few-words, walk-off-again actor... a bit player. But that will change with a role in Bit Part, one of the series of plays featured in ABC's Stuart Wagstaff's World Playhouse. "This play is quite funny really. It's a sort of joke in the industry, 'Hello, you're finally playing a bit part'," he told TV Times. The veteran actor had declined offers for bit parts in the past, instead choosing the maintain a certain level in the roles he's accepted: "If you want to - with all due respect - be in things like The Restless Years, The Young Doctors and those Crawford things, if you want to do that, well, there is work. But to me the quality work has always been with ABC. My maxim has always been quality over quantity."

More of Parkinson's lore!
British TV interviewer Michael Parkinson is due to come to Australia in early 1979 to record a series of shows for ABC. Parkinson's Saturday night series has been a British favourite for seven years and has been screening on ABC since earlier this year. It's also been revealed that Parkinson was offered the chance to host the Nine Network's upcoming current affairs program 60 Minutes but declined as it meant permanently relocating to Australia.

Happy Dave is here to stay
British comedian Dave Allenby (pictured) first came to Australia in 1970 to compere the Beach Boys concert tour. The sunshine and opportunities for future work was enough to lure him back permanently. Now settled with his family in Australia, Allenby is also settled in as host of the 0-10 Network's new game show Perfect Match, where husband and wife contestants are asked questions about each other: "The format is just right. It's relaxed and I can crack gags and ad-lib as much as I like."

Briefly:
The cast of Cop Shop celebrated the show's 100th episode with a special lunch courtesy of the Seven Network, while Nine's The Young Doctors has just taped its 500th episode.

An album of Irish songs released by The Saturday Show's John MacNally (pictured with co-star Suzanne Steele) has sold more than 120,000 copies, with a single due to be released in time for Christmas and a second album next year.

A five-part documentary series China - The Human Face has been made by Film Australia, breaking the long-standing ban on Western film crews entering the nation. The documentary is expected to screen early in 1979.

Viewpoint: Letters to the Editor:
"I hope that ABC can sell The Truckies overseas. People should understand that Australian truckies' long hauls are not like those in smaller countries. I have been married to a truckie for over 27 years and we all wait to see who the next program will remind us of." B. Longhurst, NSW.

"Why doesn't ABC screen some Elvis Presley movies? When Elvis died only capital city stations showed his movies. But country people who simply receive ABC would like to see his movies too." E. Eames, QLD.

What's On (November 11-17):
11 November is Remembrance Day, and HSV7 takes time out for two minutes silence at 11.00am, while GTV9 presents a special to commemorate the 60th anniversary of Remembrance Day.

On Saturday, ATV0 presents the last day's events of the VRC Melbourne Cup Carnival.

Australian series Glenview High returns to HSV7 on Saturday night for screening over the summer months.

GTV9 launches a summer mid-evening edition of National Nine News, screening weeknights at 9.30pm and read by Peter Hitchener.

On Thursday, GTV9 begins four days' coverage of the Australian Open Golf Championships, live from Sydney - with four hours of coverage on each of Thursday and Friday, but interrupted by The Mike Walsh Show and US soaps Days Of Our Lives and The Young And The Restless.

The Brisbane-based Orton's Old Time Music Hall, hosted by Paul Sharratt, begins on GTV9 on Friday night.

Sunday night movies are Love's Dark Ride (HSV7), My Father's House (GTV9) and Up The Sandbox (ATV0).

Source: TV Times (Melbourne edition), 11 November 1978. ABC/ACP

Mike Munro leaves Nine

A week is a long time in television, and Mike Munro has just announced his retirement after 30 years in television - most of those with the Nine Network.

Beginning as a copy boy with The Australian and The Daily Mirror newspapers in 1971, Munro joined Sydney's TEN10 Eyewitness News in 1978 but later went back to newspapers, working as a US correspondent for News Limited.

In 1982, Munro returned to Australia to Network Ten and two years later was signed up for the Nine Network's Willesee current affairs program, the predecessor to today's A Current Affair.

Two years after joining Willesee, Munro moved up to Nine's 60 Minutes where he combined serious current affairs stories with some well-known celebrity interviews including Barbra Streisand, Katharine Hepburn and Bette Midler. His interview with politician's wife Jan Murray created headlines when she revealed that she “did the business on the desk and left her knickers in the ashtray” at Parliament House.

The years of constant overseas travel took its toll and Munro decided to move to A Current Affair in 1993 initially as a reporter before taking over from Ray Martin as host in 1999. During this period he also took on a different role as host of Nine's This Is Your Life when it launched in 1995.

Munro then returned to 60 Minutes as an investigative reporter, while continuing to host This Is Your Life, and later reading National Nine News' afternoon edition and weekend edition in Sydney. He also narrated the factual program Missing Persons Unit, co-hosted a series of What A Year and last week launched his twelfth season hosting This Is Your Life.

Mike Munro will stay with Nine until the end of October, continuing to read the weekend National Nine News in Sydney up until then.

1978: January 7-13

Cover Story: TV's Sportsman of the Year
TV Times previews the presentation of the 1977 Sportsman Of The Year - to be screened on ABC on Saturday 7 January. Among the favourites to take out the title are Dennis Lillee (cricket), Bart Cummings (racing), Graham Marsh (golf), Evonne Cawley (tennis) and Rocky Mattioli (boxing).

Countdown spectacular for Adelaide:
ABC's Countdown is preparing a lavish outside broadcast to be presented from the Adelaide Festival of Arts in March. ABC claims it will be the biggest televised pop program ever made in Australia. Producer Rob Weekes told TV Times that the only name so far confirmed for the event is South Australian Premier Don Dunstan: "he'll be taking part, not performing". The special presentation is being regarded as the next stage in Countdown's "development as a major influence on Australian music."

My top 10 shows of 1977:
Columnist FC Kennedy reviews the year 1977, naming Countdown, The Mike Walsh Show, Four Corners and news coverage of the Granville train disaster as among TV's highlights, and with Australian TV drama at a low-point, it was a British series When The Boat Comes In that was his favourite of 1977.

Letters To The Editor:
"I would like to complain about the lack of suitable TV shows for 12-year-olds and others around this age. We are too old for Bugs Bunny and too young to understand or want to watch science fiction" - Michelle, NSW

"Come on Perth channels, how about some "new" programs over here before we get too far behind the East Coast. Channel 7 said they were waiting for colour to start before they'd show Boney. We have had colour for three years!" - D.S., WA

"I'd just like to thank those Channel 9 people in Sydney who brought the fabulous Star Trek back on to our TV sets. I hope we'll be able to see all 76 episodes." E.P., NSW

What's On:
Being summer, sport dominates much of the week's programming with Kerry Packer's innovative World Series Cricket on GTV9, Test Cricket on ABC and the Tasmanian Open Tennis on HSV7.

New soaps The Restless Years and Cop Shop both now settled into two one-hour episodes a week. For its summer break, Countdown presents a series of specials covering the top 100 records of 1977.

GTV9 presents a 'summer edition' of National Nine News each weeknight at 9.30pm, as well as the usual 6.30pm bulletin.

Sunday night movies are Alex In Wonderland (HSV7), Tony Rome (GTV9) and First To Fight (ATV0) with a re-run of the British mini-series Elizabeth R on ABV2.

Source: TV Times, 7 January 1978. ABC/ACP