Nine Perth and Adelaide get their dots back

For the first time in over two years, the Nine Network now has a uniform logo (pictured, right) across the five major capital cities.

When Nine re-instated its famous ‘dots’ to its logo in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Darwin in 2008, the Perth and Adelaide stations, owned by regional broadcaster WIN, opted to stay with the former logo – no dots (pictured, below left).

This arrangement, also affecting WIN’s regional Nine Network affiliates covering NSW, ACT, Victoria, Queensland,  Tasmania and Western Australia, had meant that the WIN-owned stations had to adapt any marketing material from the Nine Network to suit their own branding – no doubt a time intensive exercise for no discernable benefit to the viewer.

Local viewers also had to endure sometimes unattractive and intrusive on-screen logos, sometimes very crudely, covering up the Nine logo from the east coast.

But even though Nine has its dots back on STW9 Perth and NWS9 Adelaide, the regional WIN network (pictured, below right) has not made any change so far.

R.I.P. Video Cassette Recorder

Freeview, the free-to-air networks’ digital platform, is to unveil a new advertising campaign declaring that “the VCR is dead” as new technologies such as personal video recorders (PVRs) are being adopted by households in growing numbers.

The Australian reports that around 100,000 digital tuners are being sold every month – as Australia converts from analogue to digital television – and that households are also upgrading their old VCRs to digital recorders such as PVRs to manage their viewing.

VCRs, while they were celebrated in the ‘70s (pictured) shortly after the advent of colour TV, have limited functionality and compatibility in recording digital signals, as they generally only have analogue tuners installed and rely on a digital tuner being plugged in via AV input.  Sophisticated PVR devices such as Topfield, TiVo or Foxtel’s IQ are packed with features to allow complete flexibility in viewing habits, and often in high-definition formats.

It is estimated that as many as 50 per cent of households may already have PVR devices – a figure that’s on par with digital TV penetration, currently around 61 per cent nationally.

Bert Newton to host the Logies

TV Week is expected to announce Bert Newton as the host of this year’s TV Week Logie Awards.

The TV legend, a four-time Gold Logie winner and inductee into the Logie Awards’ Hall of Fame, has hosted the awards a record-breaking 18 times already – the last time he hosted the awards was in 1993 (pictured) but has returned on several occasions to hand out the Gold Logie and also co-hosted in 2006 as part of the celebration of 50 years of television. 

His talent to adlib alongside the best – and possibly worst – in the business, both from Australia and overseas, have earned him some of the most defining moments in Australian TV history.  In 1973, Newton had to cope with the rather emotional, and occasionally mumbling, overseas guest Michael Cole dropping the word ‘shit’ while accepting an award.  A few years later, in 1979, an innocent wisecrack from Newton almost led to blows from boxing legend Muhammad Ali.

The decision to appoint Newton as the Logies host comes after former Big Brother host Gretel Killeen received criticism for her hosting of last year’s event and in previous years before then the awards had relied on multiple co-hosts rather than a single presenter. 

Previous hosts and co-hosts of the event include Eddie McGuire, Ray Martin, Andrew Denton, Shaun Micallef, Andrew O’Keefe, Rove McManus, Fifi Box, Dave Hughes, Hamish Blake, Andy Lee, Adam Hills, Lisa McCune, George Parker, Wendy Harmer, Daryl Somers, Mark Mitchell, Don Lane, Mike Willesee, Michael Parkinson, Greg Evans, Andrew Daddo and Noni Hazlehurst.

The 2010 TV Week Logie Awards are to be held on 2 May at Melbourne’s Crown Casino and will be telecast on the Nine Network.

Source: TV Tonight

The series they tried to ban in Australia!

With today marking the 38th anniversary of ‘the night Australian TV lost its virginity’ and the release of the third DVD of Number 96, here’s a brief look at how the Americans adapted Australia’s hit show of the ‘70s for their own market.

America’s network giant NBC approached Network Ten early in 1980 to enter into discussions over acquiring the concept for the US market.  The deal also needed the approval of Bill Harmon, co-producer of the original Number 96, as his company Cash-Harmon Productions jointly owned the rights with Network Ten.  Harmon helped complete the deal with NBC in mid-1980.

NBC debuted Number 96 on 10 December 1980, following an advertising blitz that saw the show launched during “96 Week” – with the series debuting over three nights before settling into a weekly Friday night timeslot.  Leading storylines in the opening episodes included no less than five seductions, a robbery, a fight, a blackout and an earthquake.

But NBC, with America’s strict censorship laws, could not dare to bare as much flesh or uncover such seedy storylines as its Australian original.  So the series that saw Australian television ‘lose its virginity’ was a lot more subdued in the US, although it did try to stretch the boundaries with regards to casual discussion of sex, but instead put the emphasis on comedy rather than titillation.

It also seems that the American producers, while envying the show’s earlier success in Australia, weren’t too impressed with the Australian original.  “All we have taken from their series is the title.  We got the basic idea from them.  We’re not enchanted with the Australian version.  We felt it was badly written and badly acted.  Their show had broad jokes like we did here 15 years ago.  They had very heavy characters.  What sold their show was full-frontal nudity,” producer Bob Ellison told TV Week at the time of the US series’ launch.

The US adaptation was set in an apartment block at 96 Pacific Way, West Hollywood, and included a cast of around 18 actors, though most of them were largely unknown to viewers.  Ellen Travolta, John’s sister,, played the co-proprietor of the local bar and grill.  Other characters in the series included a beautiful would-be concert pianist who decided that playing the field is the cure for a boring marriage; a retired naval commander who keeps a keen eye on the happenings at 96 through a pair of binoculars; a middle-aged widow who loses far too many inhibitions when she moves into the building; a psychologist with a secret greater than anything his patients, or neighbours, could imagine; a newly-married football hero who gains the amorous attention of his next door neighbour; and a love-sick policeman who won’t leave his British girlfriend’s apartment.

However, despite the larger-than-life storylines and award-winning producers and writers – Ellison and writer David Lloyd had won awards for their work on The Mary Tyler Moore Show – Number 96 was a spectacular bomb in the US.  Viewers didn’t take to the comedic adventures of the swinging tenants of the apartment block, and the series was ripped from NBC’s schedule in January 1981 – just as TV Week in was informing Australians about the show’s debut.

Number 96 was not to be the only hit Australian series to be re-worked for the American market.  Prisoner was re-invented as Dangerous Women in the US, largely recycling many of the opening characters and storylines from the Australian original.  In more recent times, the top-rating comedy Kath And Kim was adapted for NBC, with less than pleasing results.

Source: TV Week, 10 January 1981.  TV Guide (US), 6 December 1980.

C31 seeking dollars for digital

While the Community TV sector was successful (finally!) in gaining access to Digital Television, now comes the hard part where they have to now make the actual transition.

So while Melbourne’s C31 acknowledges that it received a donation from the Federal Government to help facilitate its move to digital, they claim it is not enough, so is calling on the wider community to get behind their community TV station and become a subscriber via their website.

Subscriptions for community media are nothing unusual – radio stations have lived on subscriptions for years and C31 in its early days also ran on subscriber funds but these days rely predominantly on program sponsors. 

C31 is offering a three-tiered subscription structure – offering subscriptions of $31, $75 or $100 for one year – where members will receive quarterly updates on the station’s activities and programs as well as the knowledge that they are helping C31 make the long-awaited move to digital transmission which should give the station a clearer reception across Melbourne and increase the station’s potential audience as more viewers switch to digital televisions and tuners.

While C31 is preparing to upgrade to digital, its Sydney counterpart, TVS, is already up and running with a digital signal on UHF 29 (digital channel 44).

And it’s not only the community stations getting government assistance, regional commercial network WIN is also putting its hand out for government money to assist in its digital transition in regional areas of South Australia and Western Australia.  The network, owned by Bermuda-based billionaire Bruce Gordon (pictured), is currently faced with the task of upgrading transmission facilities in both states – amounting to over 200 transmission sites – as it races to meet the analogue shutdown dates set down by the Government.

In Western Australia, WIN’s regional network covers the entire state, outside of Perth, via satellite and terrestrial transmission with a mix of Nine and Ten network programming.  WIN’s regional South Australian operation comprises SES8 Mt Gambier and RTS5A Riverland, with both stations broadcasting the Seven Network on their primary service and a relay of the Ten Network on a secondary signal. 

WIN also owns Nine Network stations NWS9 Adelaide and STW9 Perth.

Source: C31, AdelaideNow

1990: February 24-March 2

‘Stay out of my life!’
While actress Simone Buchanan (pictured) is often portraying the unlucky-in-love tales of the elder daughter Debbie in Hey Dad, she says her real-life romances have been less than comical.  Even though she is in a happy relationship at present, Buchanan’s past has been tainted with a number of unhappy romances – including one which ended with threats of violence.  The popularity of the show has also led to some unwanted attention from fans – a persistent fan in London kept sending her letters and expensive gifts and promised to visit her in Australia.  “In the end I did write and tell him that he had to stop wasting his money on me,” she said.  Another incident saw Buchanan come home to find graffiti all over the walls in her new house, and one night she awoke to find guys standing outside her bedroom window yelling things at her.  Meanwhile, the actress denies any rumours that she is leaving the sitcom (“like the rest of the cast, my contract expires in October and at this point I haven’t made any decision to leave or stay”) but would like to do more film work, following acclaim for her role in the movie Shame.

‘They treated me like …!’
Aussie actor Peter Phelps has walked away from the hit US series Baywatch.  “It was my decision to leave at the end of this season,” Phelps told TV Week.  “Before Christmas a few of the cast – including me – weren’t happy about the way the scripts were going.  I expressed my dismay about everything – which I guess is not what you’re supposed to do in Hollywood when you’ve got a job everybody else wants.  Instead of using my suggestions, they changed the format to emphasise on the action-adventure stuff and they brought in a new character.  He wasn’t supposed to replace me, but I’ve hardly worked on the show since.  To them (TV executives), you’re just a product and they treat you like crap.” A star in Australia following roles in popular soaps The Restless Years and Sons And Daughters, Phelps (pictured, with Baywatch co-star Shawn Wetherly) admits that if he “had shut up and didn’t complain, I’d probably be there as long as the series runs, getting paid a lot to pop in every so often to do my Australian novelty act, and driving a Porsche and owning a house.”  Instead, Phelps is returning to Australia to star in a feature film, Back Street General.  Baywatch debuts in Australia on Network Ten in March.

Rebecca’s rockin’ role
Former Zoo Family and The Flying Doctors star Rebecca Gibney is negotiating a role for an upcoming sitcom being produced for the Nine Network.  Producer Alan Bateman says the new series, Rhythm And Blues, is “a lovely piece about a rock ‘n roll singer from the Seventies who’s only ever had one hit.  His career is diminishing when, to his astonishment, he discovers he has a family.”  Production for the new series is set to begin in March. 

Briefly…
Network Ten’s Good Morning Australia (with Mike Gibson and Kerri-Anne Kennerley, pictured) has entered its tenth year and is celebrating its milestone on air. Producer Gail Jarvis says “in some ways it’s more a celebration of Kerri-Anne Kennerley’s involvement with the show.  She has been with the show for eight years now.  That’s a lot of live television and we’ll look back at what she has contributed over the years.”

TV Week columnist John Laws wants to make it clear that he doesn’t expect to “turn Melbourne on its ears” in networking his Sydney radio show to bottom-rating station, 3AK.  “Someone said that the station needed help, so I’m giving it for free as a favour to a friend – that’s what friends are for,” he says.  Although Laws has admitted that he would prefer to have the entire three-hour program broadcast in Melbourne, instead of only the one hour, from 9.00am to 10.00am weekdays.

British showbusiness couple John Alderton and Pauline Collins have been announced as special guests at the 1990 TV Week Logie Awards, to be held at the Hyatt On Collins in Melbourne and hosted by Network Ten’s Mark Mitchell.

John Laws says…
”When it comes to sport, it’s hard to beat the Nine team, even though their Commonwealth Games coverage came in for plenty of stick, especially in the commentators and “delayed telecast” area.  Nine has now unveiled its “stump cam” cricket camera.  It had to happen, I suppose – a tiny camera inserted into the stumps to give a worm’s-eye view of the action.  There’s no doubt it’s a clever innovation, providing a completely new perspective on the game.  But, for me, it’s a major disappointment that Nine and the Australian Cricket Board have agreed NOT to use “stump cam” for disputed or controversial decisions…”

Program Highlights (February 24-March 2):
Saturday:  Nine’s Wide World Of Sports returns for the new year, filling four hours of Saturday afternoons with coverage of various sports and interviews with sporting identities.  SBS’s international current affairs program Dateline returns for a new year, hosted by Paul Murphy.
Sunday:  HSV7 crosses to Canberra for the AFL Fosters Cup: Hawthorn versus Sydney Swans.  GTV9 crosses to the Sydney Cricket Ground for the second final of the Benson and Hedges World Series.  Meanwhile, ABC’s arts program, Sunday Afternoon, features the Bolshoi Ballet and an episode of The Growing Pains Of Adrian Mole.  Sunday night movies are Spaceballs (HSV7), Heartbreak Ridge (GTV9) and Throw Momma From The Train (ATV10).  ABC presents Esso Night At The Opera, featuring the Australian Opera’s production of La Boheme.
Monday:  Rebecca Gilling, Ed Devereaux, Nikki Coghill and Richard Roxburgh star in the telemovie The Saint In Australia (HSV7).
Tuesday:  The third final of the Benson and Hedges World Series is on GTV9 from 2.20pm, live from the Sydney Cricket Ground.
Thursday:  ABC’s Creative Spirits this week features choreographer Graeme Murphy rehearsing Daphnis and Chloe with Kim Walker and Paul Mercurio.

Source: TV Week (Victoria edition), incorporating TV Times and TV Guide. 
24 February 1990. Southdown Press. 

1990: February 17-23

Cover: Johnny Depp, Dannii Minogue

Fast lane to death
After 20 years in the industry, journalist John Budd recalls the last 18 months have been a nightmare.  “When the industry collapsed it left a lot of people without jobs,” he says.  Facing unemployment following the axing of Network Ten’s Public Eye current affairs program, Budd landed a job at ABC’s Four Corners – and after three months’ gruelling research, his first report, Amphetamines: The Quiet Achiever Of The Drug Trade, is ready to go to air this week.  Dubbed the “fast-lane drug of the Eighties”, amphetamines are set to become the big issue of the Nineties, he told TV Week.  “They’re very much a yuppie drug, socially acceptable and mix nicely with alcohol to create a euphoric state of confidence, well-being and hyped-up vigilance.”  Budd interviewed 30 reformed drug users and dealers and also worked with Victoria Police “who are alarmed at the rapid pace of this quiet achiever of the drug trade.”

Keyte’s flying high
”It all happened fairly quickly,” is how HSV7 newsreader Jennifer Keyte (pictured) describes her rise to national stardom as the news presenter on Steve Vizard’s new national variety show, Tonight Live.  “I had seen Steve around the station last year and we used to have make-up room chats.  He made me laugh so much.  The make-up girls hated him because they couldn’t get my lips done.  I guess we established a rapport then.”  As well as her booming TV profile, Keyte also has other matters to attend to – a mid-year wedding to Melbourne nightclub owner Brett Kochner.

“I had to beat the animal that controlled me…”
Actor Tony Bonner, best known from TV series Skippy The Bush Kangaroo, Cop Shop and Skyways, is looking relaxed and healthier than ever.  Currently in Los Angeles following good reviews for his work in the Tom Selleck movie Quigley Down Under, Bonner recalls the day only three months ago when he walked into a Melbourne clinic for help in overcoming alcohol problems.  “I came to a proverbial crossroad in life and there were three options – the first was to become a down-and-out lost soul; the second was to be committed to an insane asylum; and the third was to die.  So the option to take was simply to beat the animal that controlled me – alcohol.”  Bonner feels his career is now on a new direction and, since the Quigley movie, is meeting heads of drama at two US networks keen to cast him in telemovies and is also discussing offers with Disney studio Hollywood Pictures.

Briefly… 
Former Perfect Match host Cameron Daddo (pictured) has just finished a long run in the stage production Big River but already has two other projects in planning – one is to join veteran Leo McKern to play the legendary roles of Dad and Dave in the $6.3 million feature film On Our Selection, and the other is a potential lead role in the Grundy Television production of Bony, based on the 1972 series of the same name.

Singer Kate Ceberano, having just completed a cameo role in the film Till There Was You, is now in negotiation for a guest appearance in the new Nine Network series Family And Friends.

Home And Away star Dannii Minogue admits to being nervous over public reaction to her new single, Love And Kisses, and the $50,000 video to promote it – but is determined to silence critics that she is cashing in on the success of her older sister Kylie.   “A lot of people thought I’d copy Kylie and have a sound exactly like hers.  But that’s just not the sort of stuff I do.  This is more my style – but yes, it’s good to be different.” 

John Laws says…
”By any standards, Steve Vizard’s opening show was a crushing disappointment.  The second night was not much better.  The third showed a slender improvement.  Much has been expected of Vizard because of his fine work with Fast Forward.  If anyone could hold a Tonight show together it should be him.  Yet on debut night Vizard was flailing around like a beached whale within seconds of the studio audience’s contrived hysteria being stilled.  Vizard, I’m sure, does have the talent to put on a better show.  It’ll take time to get it right.  I hope Seven has the cash and the patience.” 

Lawrie Masterson’s Sound Off
”Steve Vizard has established Tonight Live as an energetic, cheeky show which goes just far enough – but not too far – to sit nicely in its adults-only timeslot.  Many of the lines have induced a good laugh, some of the music has been top class and somehow – just somehow – a touch of serious news has been shoved in without upsetting the applecart.  But what’s most infectious from where I sit is that the host himself appears to be enjoying it all enormously.  And when he’s having a good time, so am I.”

Program Highlights (February 17-23):
Saturday:  Hey Hey It’s Saturday returns for a new year with Daryl Somers, Denise Drysdale, Ossie Ostrich, John Blackman, Red Symons and Wilbur Wilde.  ABC presents the ABC Sports Award Of The Year, live from the Australian Institute of Sport, Canberra.
Sunday:  Sunday night movies are Someone To Watch Over Me (GTV9) and The Man From Snowy River II (ATV10).  HSV7 presents the first instalment of mini-series Small Sacrifices.
Tuesday:  GTV9 crosses to the SCG for the Benson and Hedges World Series: Australia versus Pakistan.  Coverage starts at 2.20pm and, after breaking for National Nine News, A Current Affair and Sale Of The Century, continues through to 10.30pm.
Wednesday:  David Stratton and Margaret Pomeranz return for a new series of The Movie Show on SBS. 
Thursday:  SBS launches a new series, Viva World Cup, hosted by Les Murray and Andy Paschalidis in the lead-up to the 1990 World Cup, including reports on the venues, personalities and the final 24 teams.

Source: TV Week (Victoria edition), incorporating TV Times and TV Guide.
17 February 1990. Southdown Press.

Prime News goes less local

Regional network Prime Television is set to wind back its local news production with news that its various local bulletins, covering parts of NSW and North East Victoria, are to be centralised to the network’s main programming hub in Canberra.

From 1 July, production will begin to be phased out from local studios, in towns such as Wagga Wagga, Orange, Tamworth and Albury, to be taken over by centralised facilities in Canberra.  Reporters will still be based in each local area, just that the half-hour bulletins will be compiled from the national capital.

The move is expected to cost at least one full-time position from each local Prime station.

It is not known how the cuts will affect the local news coverage of Prime’s Western Australian outlet, GWN, which currently provides a statewide half-hour news bulletin each weeknight from studios in Bunbury.

For many of the affected areas, Prime’s move from the local studios will effectively mark the end of local television production – as rival operators such as NBN, WIN and Southern Cross Ten already have centralised facilities for the provision of local news.

Source: Daily Advertiser, TV Tonight

South Australia next to go digital

Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Senator Stephen Conroy has announced that Regional South Australia and Broken Hill will be the second region in Australia to switch off analogue television transmission.

In a media release issued today, the affected areas will lose analogue television transmissions on 15 December 2010, two weeks before the original deadline of 31 December 2010.

The transition will affect local transmissions of ABC, SBS, Southern Cross GTS/BKN and WIN.

The Adelaide metropolitan market and remote regions of South Australia are scheduled to shut down analogue transmissions by the end of 2013.

In the latest Digital Tracker survey, released by the Government last week, 61 per cent of Australian households have now converted to digital television – up from 56 per cent in the previous quarter.  This figure includes 79 per cent of households in the Mildura/Sunraysia district (scheduled to lose analogue transmission in four months’ time) and 64 per cent of homes in the Regional South Australia/Broken Hill region.

For viewers in regional Australia that may lose access to terrestrial TV broadcasts in the transition to digital, as digital signals may not reach the same distances as analogue, the Government announced in January that those areas will be able to receive digital television via satellite in time for when the analogue transmissions are to be shut down in their respective areas.

Source: DCBDE, DCBDE, Digital Ready

Logies Hall of Fame names leaked

The Australian’s media columnist Amanda Meade has leaked an “unauthorised” list of names being considered for this year’s TV Week Logie Awards’ Hall of Fame.

Normally the award is nominated and voted in private by an industry panel, with the winner announced prior to the awards ceremony.

According to Meade the following names are on the short list:

Brian Henderson, host of ‘60s pop music show Bandstand and a newsreader for TCN9, Sydney, for almost forty years, retiring in 2002.

Brian Naylor (pictured), host of children’s talent show Brian And The Juniors before becoming newsreader for HSV7 and later GTV9 before retiring in 1998.  Hosted Nine’s Carols By Candlelight for ten years.  Was tragically killed last year in the Black Saturday bushfires.

Les Murray, one of the founding presenters at SBS and has led the network’s World Cup soccer coverage since it first telecast the event in 1986.

George Negus (pictured, in 1981), former This Day Tonight journalist who became a household name as one of the founding reporters on 60 Minutes in 1979.  Later hosted Today, Foreign Correspondent and George Negus Tonight and is currently host of Dateline and contributor to The 7PM Project.

Ken Sutcliffe, sports presenter who got his big break being hand-picked by Graham Kennedy to co-host his new late night show, Graham Kennedy’s News Show, in 1988.  Continues to present the sports report for Nine News in Sydney and various Wide World Of Sports telecasts.

Maggie Tabberer (pictured, in 1970), former fashion model turned publishing identity and TV personality.  A two-time TV Week Gold Logie winner (1970, 1971) and more recently a presenter on pay-TV.

Ian Ross, long-time journalist and newsreader for National Nine News in Sydney and, for several years, for Today nationally.  Came out of a brief retirement to front Seven News in Sydney, and led the 6.00pm timeslot for the next six years at the expense of traditional rival Nine.  Retired from Seven at the end of last year.

Ray Meagher, veteran actor and the only founding cast member of Home And Away to still be on the series, 22 years on.

Prisoner (pictured), the Grundy Productions drama series that broke new ground when it launched in 1979 with a predominantly female cast and without the usual gloss of prime-time soap operas.  The series ran for eight years, sold well overseas and won a swag of TV Week Logie awards.  As testament to its long-standing popularity, all 692 episodes of the show have been released on DVD – the largest such DVD release in Australia, if not worldwide.

One name that this blog might suggest would be worthy of a Hall of Fame award is Western Australian TV personality Jeff Newman (pictured).  Newman recently retired from TVW7, Perth, after over 40 years of service, including an outstanding commitment to TVW7’s annual Telethon.  Although Newman is not well known outside of Western Australia, his commitment and service to the television industry in WA is a fantastic achievement.

Previous winners of the TV Week Logie Awards’ Hall of Fame have included Graham Kennedy, Bert Newton, Mike Walsh, Don Lane, Mike Willesee, Bryan Brown, Jack Thompson, James Davern, Charles ‘Bud’ Tingwell, Ruth Cracknell, Maurie Fields, Sam Chisholm, Bruce Gyngell, Johnny Young, Bill Collins and Steve Irwin.  Three programs have also been entered into the Hall of Fame – 4 Corners, Neighbours and Play School.

Expect TV Week to announce this year’s inductee to the Hall of Fame prior to this year’s Logies telecast, scheduled for 2 May.

Source: The Australian