Dedicated to Hec Lindsay (the art director that created the TV0 logo in 1983, we have very few details on Hec unfortunately: let us know at the Lost TVQ Facebook page, if you do have any information at all) and David Jull TVQ's first face, (1944-2011)
This
post is a journey. A long journey. It starts in the early 1960’s less than
three years after television was introduced to QLD, and culminates in the
lead-up to Expo 88. Welcome to the conclusion: for now, of what we started on
September 10 2013. We moved up the dial then, now it’s time to see how it was
shaken up, at the very beginning of the 50th year for TVQ and the
national 50th celebrations… On behalf of this site, and Lost TVQ on
Facebook: this is Shaking Up The Dial.
The Twitter hashtag for this post is #tendemonium.
This site often asks the hard questions. Now here's one that could have titanic shifts in the Australian media, and could possibly spark a rash of changes throughout the television industry. What would happen if the Ten situation got worse, and what is the remedy? It's this question that is now simply a case of Ten-demonium... It's the Ten-demonium that could see the Ten we all know head towards another 1990-style situation: when the network underwent costcuts but couldn't prevent it going into recievership. But it is a tale that has taken many turns, especially as Ten's demographics keep changing, all while their bread and butter for so many years, the youth: are increasingly turning to the internet first. This Is...
Around 4 months ago, I posed a question to Network Ten on this blog, just days after the announcement of Ten's 2012 upfronts, and the announcement of "Breakfast" (Ten's much vaunted return to adult-focused breakfast television) concerning the future of Toasted TV. I have not been alone in asking these questions, of what Ten is doing with Toasted TV, once the Breakfast launch happens.
"Capture the minds of children, and you'll have the adults forever"
I don't know who said that, or who made it so well known. But it is a poignent statement right now. Ten announced, at their launch on Wednesday night, their plan to shake up the breakfast market with a return to the adult breakfast genre, that Ten abandoned in late 1992, when the original Good Morning Australia ended (and the GMA title was given to a mid-morning program originally entitled "The Morning Show" with Bert Newton, that started that year, and ended in 2005) and Ten's reliance on the younger audience began. But, let's go with a brief history of this move by Ten, which began in early 1993 before we talk about the future.