When the box came to Tassie
The arrival of television changed Tasmania forever, writes A. Mark Thomas
TODAY is the 60th anniversary of television in Tasmania. Back in 1960 — on May 23, then a Monday night — TVT6, or Channel 6 as some people still call it, started with a test pattern at 7pm, followed by the official opening by Tasmanian Governor Lord Rowallan and a news bulletin read by news editor Gordon Leed.
TVT6 also sent out a greeting to the ABC, which began broadcasting two weeks later. The rest of the night saw American programming in
Dennis the Menace, I Love Lucy, Maverick and The Eddie Cantor Show.
Over the next 34 years, TVT6 ruled the commercial airwaves, before the Southern Cross Network (now 7 Tasmania) entered the market in 1994.
I joined TasTV, as it was known in 1994, sitting alongside the great Tom Payne and sharing the sports segment of the news bulletin with my friend Colin McNiff.
I had first ventured as a print journalist onto television with Peter Sharp on World of Sport, where legendary names like Peter Hudson, Mel Arnold, John Noble, Bob Cheek and Bob Whitehouse ruled the roost.
TasTV used to make multiple live television programs weekly — Tasmania Today with Wendy Kennedy, Cartoon Company, Good Sports and the nightly news.
The station was famous for its live outside broadcasts, including the Sydney-Hobart Yacht Race, the Hobart Cup, the Launceston Cup and the annual Sports Champion Awards, as well as spectaculars of the time like the Miss Tasmania Quest, Miss Australia and Rock Eisteddfod.
While the Logies remain an annual event for the Australian industry, when there were state-based awards, TVT6 won a number of TV Week Logie awards, for presenters including Graeme Smith, Trevor Sutton, Bert Taylor, Tom Payne, Ron Christie and Robyn Martin.
It’s hard to fathom that for nearly four decades, Tasmanian viewers had two choices on the “box” in the living room — TVT6/TasTV and the ABC.
When one turns on a household smart TV today, there are more than 50 choices when you include radio channels you can hear, without even looking at cable television and streaming options.
What I most remember of my own short, five-year career in the industry was how much fun it was to “make television” — whether it was cutting stories, reading sport on the nightly news or later as the weekend news producer.
The live broadcasts of the Sydney-Hobart had finished when I started, but I still got to follow the winning boats down the Derwent, including the then-record finish by Morning Glory and the 50th race, won by Bob Clifford’s Tasmania, in 1994. Heady stuff indeed.
And the newsrooms were jumping — both for TasTV and Southern Cross — to employ that overused phrase “back in the day”, with literally dozens of people, journalists, camera operators, editors and directors putting the news to air each night.
Those numbers have dwindled across the board in media today, but the news, whether it be on television, in print, online or on social media, remains critical to our lives. Only last week, the MEAA conducted the 2020 Tasmanian Media Awards – where the Best News Story was won by Meander Valley Gazette journalist Sharon Webb on the Westbury prison debate. And the Keith Welsh Award for Contribution to Journalism went to the ABC’s camera operator Peter Curtis.
The first shows the importance of regional news to Tasmanians, by Ms Webb to her local community and beyond. The second recognises a career of more than 30 years, which spans Moscow, the Middle East, Washington and Tasmania, as well as mentoring hundreds of journalists and fellow camera operators.
Living through the COVID19 crisis with the rest of Tasmania, the country and the world, news is proving its worth every day, even as advertising revenues have taken a massive hit.
We watch and listen to the Premier live about COVID-19, we marvel or despair at what is happening around the world and bless our lucky stars that we live where we do, in “Fortress Tasmania”.
Sixty years ago, more than 350 people gathered to celebrate the first night of Tasmanian television at Wrest Point. There was a planned celebration tonight for the milestone — cancelled like so many other events because of the pandemic.
One day we will celebrate it. Because television, like all media, is important for our everyday lives — to inform us and to entertain us.
SIXTY YEARS AGO, MORE THAN 350 PEOPLE GATHERED TO CELEBRATE THE FIRST NIGHT OF TASMANIAN TELEVISION AT WREST POINT.