The final day of a golden anniversary spectacular.
Hey did you know, hey did you know: It’s TVQ’s 50th anniversary of news you know…
Do you recall, the moment of it all when TVQ returned in 2011 to 6:30, with Des opening the news you see: but yet it only lasted until April 3.
The rampaging changes to 10’s news afterward, ultimately lost the station Bill McDonald and Max Futcher. Both to Seven they went by far: misusing Bill, yet made Max a star.
The return of the Eyewitness News brand didn’t go so well, we all agree (even sticking Lachlan Kennedy next to Georgie).
But as the news world changed all around them, 10 simply stood still, with their ratings starting to sag: as Seven and Nine went local a hour ahead of them to impress.
The pressure grew more as the decade went through, a rebrand to 10 News First (after the second receivership) is still pooh poohed, Covid came and a decision was outright made: centralize post-haste. So, Brisbane’s got a mothballed studio, a near empty newsroom (too embarrassing to show on what live crosses it has) and news anchored from Sydney… that has ultimately almost killed the product entirely… with no real commitment to it’s community.
Tonight is the grand finale, of a very special event. Let's give a look for the final time in this event: the ground rules.
The ground rules in “The City with A Golden Anniversary” event are as follows:
-Local packaged stories count as marks: Those produced in Brisbane with a national angle do not count.
-If it was sourced overnight in Brisbane (replacing the “Live Cross”) by either a news crew or a pool, it will be marked once if it is a voiced over piece, and marked twice if a full story has resulted from it. We call this specific number each night, the "Ray Robinson Number".
-Local sports stories count regardless of whether the sports reporter shows their face.
-And, a encouragement for 10 to return their bulletin home to Queensland. Weather will count in this Content Survey Live event.
In addition, all marks will be totalled, and local stories, sport and voiced over content will be compared with the Great Local News Study results of 2019 at the end of the week.
As well: For the first time ever for a Content Survey Live series entry: our paper surveys will also be available to peruse.
Let us begin the final night, of a very special Content Survey Live event...
We open up tonight's news with a live report from a Acacia Ridge stabbing, followed by a live run down Caxton Street (counted as a sports story), a two point overnight story concerning a incident in Park Ridge, Olympic tenders kicking off and a story about liver research at RBWH.
Meanwhile the sports segment consisted of pieces on the Titans Magic Round, a wrap of Womens SOO 1 and a v/o'd piece for Lions/Suns games.
A awkwardly shoehorned promo for Panyiri at Musgrave Park by a talent who will be spending his weekend in Sydney during the pre 6pm wrap.
The score:
Three local stories (one being a live report)
Four local sports stories (inc. one live cross in the 5pm window)
Local weather, 5:23 and pre-6pm (with awkward plug)
One two point overnight story: giving us a Ray Robinson Number of 2.
The final tally:
The key comparison of this entire event is on the metrics of this same time in 2019 (pre-pandemic and pre-centralization in September 2020).
That event produced over a 5-day period the following:
-24 local stories (average of 4.8 stories per night: the full 7 day figure dragged it down to 3.5 stories per night),
-Two sports reporters showing their face.
-14 live crosses (a average of 2.8 per night, the full 7 day figure was close to 2.1)
-17 v/o'd reports (a average of 3.4 per night: the full 7 day figure was 2.5)
This week,
TVQ in Brisbane produced:
18 full local stories (down by 6 on 2019, with a 5 day average of 3.6 per night, just above the 7 day figure of 2019)
One sports reporter showing their face (50% reduction from 2019)
16 local sports reports (14 in the sports window, two in the 5pm window (a metric not reported in 2019)
8 local live crosses (a average of 1.6 per night: well below 2019)
7 V/O'd reports (a average of 1.4 per night: significantly below 2019)
The Ray Robinson Number concerning overnight news: 8 stories sourced overnight or from pools.
The poor V/O and Live Cross performance is all due to one factor: 10's news being shoehorned into Sydney: meaning stories that ran earlier have no same night follow-up, with the three biggest examples being tonight's piece at Acacia Ridge, and the Totai Kefu break-in verdict on Monday, which ultimately got reported on Tuesday, and most critically: a fire at Dutton Park at 2:50pm on Tuesday... didn't even get reported on 10's 5pm Brisbane news service until Wednesday.
A news service that once proclaimed it was 24hrs ahead of the rest, is now on some occasions 24hrs behind on news.
The need is simple. Investment in resources, and a return to what worked well even before the pandemic: local news that can follow up, not a local window that may well be offering stale news.
We said those exact same comments, or a variation of them concerning only one other market: Adelaide in 2021 and 2022, and yet today: it has standalone news presentation, much like Melbourne and Perth.
No wonder people are switching off Sandra, to the point 10's Brisbane news is now regularly rating half what it did five years ago.
Brisbane's decline is much worse than Adelaide's in our eyes, quite simply: because there are far more ratings boxes in Brisbane and regional Queensland than there are in Adelaide.
And if 10 has no interest in revitalizing interest in their news serving both the third largest metropolitan market and largest single regional market in the country... surely, another Canberra decree may well force change.
A Flood of Memories: 1974 revisited:
(thanks to some Brisbane Telegraph and Sunday Sun microfiche over at SLQ)
(a reminder, if you are seeing this and have come via a time machine and you have originated in 1974, please go back and vote tomorrow in the double dissolution federal election*)
*Message doesn’t apply to 2024 readers who decide to play stowaway.
We arrive now, just twelve or so hours away from the 1974 Australian federal election (which was also shoehorned in with a federal referendum that ultimately failed (likely because it gave voters too much to chew over in the ballot box). Although the last of the hustings doesn’t make the front page: a very familiar headline leads: albeit this time in Victoria, where the town of Shepparton was being heavily affected by it’s own 1974 flood disaster.
(Telegraph front page 17/5/1974)
But, a interesting twist now: we feature the very first election print advert for a specific Liberal candidate destined to go places. That candidate… is none other than TVQ’s David Jull.
But, the road ahead on Jull’s first election day (for the then outer Brisbane federal seat of Bowman, more notable today for Con Sciacca and Andrew Laming being MP’s), would be a baptism of fire: although losing in May ’74 (to a entrenched Labor MP, Len Keogh), however by the time of the election caused by the dismissal of the Whitlam government 18 months later: Jull won that seat, and would retain it until 1983: with one key standout: at every federal election between 1974 and 1983, it was always a contest between Jull and Keogh in Bowman: ultimately witnessing Len finally regain the seat in 1983 (with Jull shifting to Fadden on the northern Gold Coast in 1984 and ultimately sitting in that seat until retirement in 2007, prior to passing away in 2011.)
Len would fight one more election, in 1984 before retiring (due to a change of direction by Labor at the preselection stage for the 1987 federal election: this time to Con Sciacca) before a shock political comeback: becoming the chairman (i.e. mayor) of Redlands Shire in 1991, serving a term, before hanging up his hat for good.
Len Keogh would pass away on October 10 2007, at the age of 76… a mere 21 days after his electoral rival for so many years in David Jull, said his final words at Parliament House in Canberra as the federal member for Fadden.
Federal Election day is tomorrow, in 1974. But in this series it’s merely a page that separates a celebration… from competition.
The fourth week of Content Survey Live: Season Mode kicks off on Monday: with a top of the table clash between Melbourne and Adelaide: the only two undefeated cities this year.
One has to win… at the scalp of the other with huge ramifications for the final standings in two weeks time, while Thursday and Friday’s clash starts in the east, and ends in the west: Sydney and Perth, especially important for Sydney: as it marks it’s final match in the competition this year: thanks to drawing a week 5 bye.
The fourth week of Content Survey Live: Season Mode kicks off on Monday: with a top of the table clash between Melbourne and Adelaide: the only two undefeated cities this year.
One has to win… at the scalp of the other with huge ramifications for the final standings in two weeks time, while Thursday and Friday’s clash starts in the east, and ends in the west: Sydney and Perth, especially important for Sydney: as it marks it’s final match in the competition this year: thanks to drawing a week 5 bye.
And, because of all the Brisbane, we had to get through this week: it’s fitting that they’ve got a bye next week… set to be the only points earned this year throughout the competition that is Season Mode.
But, as we finish: it's time for some thanks: especially as we've done a significant lookback this week at a fifty year journey.
A big thanks to those who paved the way, for Brisbane's news on 10: Des McWilliam and John O'Loan, who set the course from a newsroom in the CBD that ultimately (with Des's vision, overseeing the news long term) evolve into one that could easily challenge both 7/9 in this city within a decade.
To Kay McGrath: who proved many times over her career, that the hardest stories you report on aren't necessarily always the ones you get remembered for.
To Paul Bongiorno: whose sheer ability to report news (after doing some weather on the side), saw the fledgling news service win four TV journalism Walkleys in the eighties, all with Bonj's name on them before a role in Canberra beckoned.
To the one's we've lost in the last decade that helped shape the sporting picture for a station: Rebecca Wilson, Billy J Smith, Rob Readings (and it was Rob's rise to the weeknight desk in 1988 that inspired another to follow suit, and is still with us: Bill McDonald).
And, of course: we can't talk about legacy, without the big recruit from the BOM in 1985 in Ray Wilkie: who passed away twelve months ago tomorrow (eighteen months shy of a century on this earth): to lots of accolades from many...
We close with the line we've used all week.
Hey did you know, hey did you know: It’s TVQ’s 50th anniversary of news you know…
A reminder: if you enjoyed this, follow us on Patreon (and perhaps become one of our patrons: helping us build our way to a dynamic future), or our socials: on X, Bluesky, and Mastodon, as well as our official Facebook page.
But, as we finish: it's time for some thanks: especially as we've done a significant lookback this week at a fifty year journey.
A big thanks to those who paved the way, for Brisbane's news on 10: Des McWilliam and John O'Loan, who set the course from a newsroom in the CBD that ultimately (with Des's vision, overseeing the news long term) evolve into one that could easily challenge both 7/9 in this city within a decade.
To Kay McGrath: who proved many times over her career, that the hardest stories you report on aren't necessarily always the ones you get remembered for.
To Paul Bongiorno: whose sheer ability to report news (after doing some weather on the side), saw the fledgling news service win four TV journalism Walkleys in the eighties, all with Bonj's name on them before a role in Canberra beckoned.
To the one's we've lost in the last decade that helped shape the sporting picture for a station: Rebecca Wilson, Billy J Smith, Rob Readings (and it was Rob's rise to the weeknight desk in 1988 that inspired another to follow suit, and is still with us: Bill McDonald).
And, of course: we can't talk about legacy, without the big recruit from the BOM in 1985 in Ray Wilkie: who passed away twelve months ago tomorrow (eighteen months shy of a century on this earth): to lots of accolades from many...
We close with the line we've used all week.
Hey did you know, hey did you know: It’s TVQ’s 50th anniversary of news you know…
A reminder: if you enjoyed this, follow us on Patreon (and perhaps become one of our patrons: helping us build our way to a dynamic future), or our socials: on X, Bluesky, and Mastodon, as well as our official Facebook page.
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