GTV9 sells off Hollywood-on-the-Yarra

The address of 22 Bendigo Street, Richmond, has been one of Australian TV’s most famous and iconic addresses. 

The century-old building has for more than 50 years been home to GTV9 – a channel that began test broadcasts, covering the Melbourne Olympic Games, in 1956 before launching proper operation early in 1957.

The building was initially a piano factory when it was built in 1908 and was later converted to a Heinz factory in the 1930s before it became home to one of Melbourne’s first two commercial TV stations.

Governor Sir Dallas Brookes (pictured) was chauffeur-driven into the studios, live-to-air, before officially opening GTV9 on 19 January 1957.  Less than four months later the channel launched its new nightly variety show, In Melbourne Tonight, featuring a young radio announcer, Graham Kennedy.  Two years later Kennedy would be joined by a former HSV7 rival, Bert Newton, and the pair became an unbeatable double act.

With daytime productions, including quiz shows and children’s programs, and IMT’s nightly cavalcade of singers, dancers and performers, the building that was known as Television City became Melbourne’s own “Hollywood on the Yarra”.  In 1964 the channel expanded the premises to include a new state-of-the-art studio, Studio 9, specifically for IMT.  The new studio opened up the possibilities of large-scale variety performances and productions – hopefully to fend off competition from newcomer ATV0 which had launched from modern studios in suburban Nunawading in the same year.

Kennedy resigned from IMT at the end of 1969, but the legacy of IMT saw decades of variety and tonight shows from the same studio – including The Ernie Sigley Show, The Graham Kennedy Show, The Don Lane Show, New Faces, Tonight With Bert Newton, Hey Hey It’s Saturday, The Footy Show and, to bring the list to full circle, a ‘90s revival of In Melbourne Tonight. 

Radio DJ Mike Walsh hosted a 1960s version of the breakfast program, Today, while Eric Pearce read the evening Television City News from GTV9 before handing over to Brian Naylor at the end of 1978, who in turn handed over to Peter Hitchener twenty years later.

Game show Family Feud moved its production from TVW7 Perth to GTV9 in the late-‘70s.  Host Tony Barber then moved on to Sale Of The Century (pictured, with hostess Victoria Nicolls) from the same studios in 1980, continuing for over 20 years and more recently revived as Temptation.  Daryl Somers hosted a revival of Blankety Blanks in 1985, and, a decade later, Tim Ferguson hosted Don’t Forget Your Toothbrush.  Other game shows from the studios included Supermarket Sweep, Crossfire and two versions of The Price Is Right.  Eddie McGuire hosted Who Wants To Be A Millionaire and it’s current spin-off, Hot Seat.  In 2006, twenty years after he was suddenly axed from Nine, Bert Newton was back at Studio 9 hosting a game show, Bert’s Family Feud. 

Also to come out of 22 Bendigo Street were dramas including Emergency (one of the first TV dramas ever made in Melbourne), Hunter, Division 4, The Sullivans, Starting Out, The Flying Doctors, All The Way and Chances.

A young comedian called Rove McManus came to GTV9 to present a late-night comedy show for ten weeks in 1999.  Former D Generation cast member Mick Molloy also had a stab at a weekly show in the same year.  Neither show would see in the new millennium, though McManus took his act across to rival Network Ten.

Not content with just being “Television City”, 22 Bendigo Street was also home to radio station 3AK for nearly 30 years – after GTV9 bought the station in the early ‘60s – with its ‘Good Guys’ and ‘No Wrinklys’ pop music line-ups in the 1960s and the more relaxed ‘Beautiful Music’ in the ‘70s and early ‘80s.

Two years ago the building was expected to be sold for $10 million but the sale was aborted amidst the global financial crisis.  This week it was announced that the three-hectare site occupied by GTV9 has been bought by developers Lend Lease, with plans to redevelop the site into residential complex expected to be worth $400 million.

GTV9 is expected to move over the next 12 months to smaller, high-tech premises in the inner-city Docklands precinct, mirroring similar moves by rival HSV7, to the Docklands, almost a decade ago, and ATV10, to inner suburban South Yarra in the early ‘90s .  Larger studio productions are expected to be outsourced to the nearby Central City Studios.

Source: SMH, The Age, Lend Lease, City of Yarra, Australian TV Archive

1979: April 28-May 4

Hogan’s Heroines
Delvene Delaney’s absence from The Paul Hogan Show this year has led to a lucky break for two female beauties from vastly different backgrounds.  Karen Pini, from Western Australia, rose to fame as a runner-up in the Miss World contest of 1976 and later appeared as a nude centrefold in the first edition of Australian Playboy magazine.  Pini is now pursuing an acting career with The Paul Hogan Show as well as a role in The Young Doctors.  Sue McIntosh had worked in television in the United Kingdom, as an actress and presenter, before coming to Australia where (as Sue Donovan) she became best known as the host of ABC’s Adventure Island as well as appearances in The Graham Kennedy Show, The Don Lane Show and The Mike Walsh Show, as well as hosting GTV9’s You Me And Education.

Quest winner to study in US
Marilyn Meier, the 14-year-old viewers’ choice in ABC’s Quest ‘78 talent series, has decided to follow her dream and study in the US.  The young performer is to study with four or five months tuition with Bela Siki, Professor of Music at the University of Washington. Ms Meier will also attend a six-week summer school at the Banff School of Fine Arts in Canada after winning a $1000 scholarship to the school. 

Tanya’s back to bridge the gap
Tanya Halesworth (pictured), one of ABC’s first female TV presenters in the ‘50s and later host of the Nine Network’s all-female current affairs program No Man’s Land, is returning to the national broadcaster to host Sunday Spectrum, a two-and-a-half hour arts and entertainment program featuring documentaries, concerts and local material.  The first edition of Sunday Spectrum will also include an interview with ACTU president Bob Hawke, who will be the first in a series of interviews with well-known Australians to discuss the books that have had the most influence on their lives.  Sunday Spectrum starts on ABC in mid-May.

Dr Susan’s prescription for living
Judy Lynne, Dr Susan Richards in The Young Doctors, is making a 30-minute pilot for what she hopes will be picked up for a 26-episode series.  The new program, Live Life, looks at various leisure activities and to inspire people to make more active use of their spare time.  The pilot, which is being made with the support of the Nine Network, is the result of twelve months’ research and planning.  The network is to decide in May if the pilot will be expanded into a series.

Briefly…
Olga Davis, one of the hosts of ATV0’s Grecian Scene, has just returned from Greece where she was gathering material and interviewing Greek performers.  The program, which screens every Saturday on ATV0, is also shown in Greece and in some Arab countries.

Actor Terry Donovan, who has been touring Australia to promote the movie The Money Makers, has signed up to replace George Mallaby in Cop Shop.  Donovan will start work on the series later in the year.

Even though Number 96 ended production over a year ago, Pat McDonald is still finding it hard to shake off the Dorrie Evans (pictured) persona she portrayed for over five years: “I did realise at the time that it would take a long time for people to forget her completely, but I didn’t think she would still be alive in people’s minds to the extent that she is today.  I’m constantly amazed by it.  I have a feeling I will have to play a few very dramatic, completely different roles on TV before people will let me move on.”

Viewpoint: Letters to the Editor:
”I’m glad The Goodies are back on ABC.  It’s a really good show; the three stars are brilliant comedians and writers, the show is always hilarious and it’s on at a reasonable time.” S. Carrington, NSW.

“In episode four of Anna Karenina on ABC, Count Vronsky’s horse fell at the last jump of a steeplechase.  Was the mare he was riding really destroyed?”  A. Moores, NSW.  (Editor’s reply: “nyet”)

“I and many others think Doctor Who is about as thrilling as the tenth rerun of Days Of Our Lives.  This is typical of British shows, especially on ABC.” D. Johns, QLD.

What’s On (April 28-May 4):
Weekend sport includes the finals of the World Tournament Hockey, live from Perth, and the 1979 Australian Sports Sedans, from Sydney’s Oran Park, live on ABC.  ABC and HSV7 have Saturday night replays of highlights from the day’s VFL matches.  On Sunday afternoon, Melbourne and Richmond clash in the Commodore Cup, live from Moorabbin, on HSV7.

Singer Denis Walter (pictured) is a guest star on this week’s Young Talent Time (ATV0, Saturday).  Later in the evening, Lucky Starr, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Terry Donovan, Cheetah and Dave Allenby are some of the guest stars on HSV7’s Saturday Night Live.

The first batch of multicultural programs compiled by the Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) are shown on ABC over three hours on Sunday morning.

In this week’s Marque: 100 Years Of Motoring (ABC, Thursday), Peter Wherrett looks at the Mini and the front-engine, front-wheel-drive cars that it has since inspired.  Then he compares GM’s Corvair with the early Volkswagens.

HSV7 launches a new weekly children’s show, Stax, promising a new approach to television where children, aged 7 to 13, provide the ideas for the show and present them.  The program is produced for HSV7 by Bob Weis and new company Open Channel.

Sunday night movies: Breakout (HSV7), Paper Tiger (GTV9), Airport 1975 (ATV0).

Source: TV Times (Melbourne edition), 28 April 1979.  ABC/ACP

Rosemary Margan signs off after 42 years

For 42 years, Rosemary Margan has been a consistent, if not understated, voice on Melbourne radio and television - presenting weather forecasts and commercials and was also a long-standing presenter at TV Week Logie Awards nights in the 1970s. But now, just short of her 70th birthday, the gentle voice of Rosemary is being retired from the airwaves with her final live-to-air appearance on radio 3AW.

A former water-ski champion, Rosemary's television career began at GTV9 in 1965 presenting the nightly weather forecast - causing a storm of her own when one night she appeared on-air in a fur coat which was removed to reveal her wearing no more than a bikini. A decade later, Rosemary was presenting a live-to-air commercial on The Graham Kennedy Show when her spiel was interrupted by Graham's suspect "crow call" which created headlines and got him banned from appearing on live television.

For almost 20 years, Rosemary has been the voice of live-to-air commercials on Neil Mitchell's morning program on 3AW.

(Pictured: Rosemary Margan, guest Edward Woodward and host Bert Newton at the 1975 TV Week Logie Awards. Picture: TV WEEK)