Vale: Billy J. Smith

This is indeed one post it feels like I am simply writing too soon. When we all heard the news on Wednesday afternoon, that we lost Billy J. Smith, from complications after a severe fall, at the age of 73, I naturally was shocked, as was many people.

This post is simply a celebration of someone who lived their life to the fullest, along with the ride, he all took us on as the sidecar to the motorcycle of his life, a life in the spotlight.

They Said We Wouldn't Make It: 2019 in a nutshell

Welcome to the gateway, to QLD television’s sixtieth. Kuttsywood’s Couch in 2019, will be a cornucopia of wonder, including a major piece being shifted out of 2018, due to the feeling that it would be stronger as a look back this year. But first, let us entertain you with a major announcement, right off the bat and has been promoted since Christmas, and it concerns one post that has been alive and well for 10 years straight in 2019.

The future of Kuttsy’s Pitch.

After 10 years of posts, and three spinoffs to date, Kuttsy’s Pitch as a yearly mainline concept will be rested after 2019’s Pitch Weekend. This has been a tough decision, but it means, the spinoffs can be focused better, and not come out yearly too: after all: Radio and Fare Pitch were received well (because they were spinoffs far removed from the television focus of the mainline series), along with Kuttsy’s Pitch X in 2018: but if the spinoff series is to continue beyond 2019 with some complexity (e.g. get a spinoff post out every two years or so): the TV focused series will have to be rested. The TV landscape has changed dramatically since Kuttsy’s Pitch’s birth in 2009. Perhaps a break, is better than working to the bone.

But before we send Kuttsy’s Pitch in it’s current form, into the grave: let me give you a introduction to what will be the game changer.

Lock in this date:  August 10, 2019. That will be the date (and incidentally, six days out from QLD TV’s sixtieth and six weeks after the tenth anniversary of Extra’s demise), the final (for the time being) Kuttsy’s Pitch in it’s classic form will come onto Kuttsywood’s Couch.

Some highlights:

-The Lost Doug Murray Melbourne Cup Tip for 2010.

-Ten News First… at coming last.

-A historic first: running from Anzac Day to May 22, we will be undertaking a four week local news study: where each network’s QLD evening news service (that is, not just 7/9, but 2/7/9/10) will be studied for 7 days each, and have monitored, items such as local stories, and live crosses: to see who really is the local news king: perfect for news promos or just plain old evaluation.

And finally -Our P.I.T.C.H tips, so you can continue to put the pressure on, after we aren’t around to do just that.

Kuttsy’s Pitch: Stand Up 4 The Northside.

The fourth spinoff, will be coming sometime in 2019.
What is “Stand Up 4 The Northside” you may ask? It’s a intensive look at the issues that will dominate talk at the 2020 LGA elections, along with a few issues that, in our minds should get a look in at the same time: and it’s building off the momentum that #bris3xit should have driven.

Another highlight from 2018, that will be pushed into 2019:

Sargent, Taylor, Carroll, Barton: The 6:30 War.

The renaming, of this post (better recognizing the fact that the compares (Haydn Sargent (Haydn Sargent’s Brisbane/The Sargent Report), Glenn Taylor (Today Tonight/State Affair), Andrew Carroll (Today Tonight/7:30 Report QLD/Carroll at 7) and John Barton (Today Tonight) helped shape the war for hearts and minds just as much as the content did) also allows us to expand the scope: that is, not have it at a dead end in April 1987, but push it out until Hinch’s arrival in 1989.

Main Line Evolution:

Our counter towards the “North Coast Connect” proposal, for a new rail line to the Sunshine Coast.
30 years after the completion of Main Line Electrification, between Caboolture and Rockhampton, and 21 years after the introduction of tilting trains on the Rockhampton-Brisbane route we ask whether it is now feasible to start planning for the future: a passenger-only rail line between Brisbane and Rockhampton that can achieve speeds of up to 140km/h average (cutting Brisbane-Rockhampton travel times down to just 4 hours and 30 minutes: inc. stops in major centres only (with the increased frequency (and better connections), compensating for the removal of Mt Larcom (bussed to Rockhampton), Miriam Vale (bussed to either Gladstone or Bundaberg), Howard (bussed to Maryborough West), Cooroy, Nambour and Landsborough (replaced by a Maroochydore long distance station), and potential shift of Moreton Bay’s QR Travel station to Petrie from Caboolture) which would not only push the potential of narrow gauge rail, but open up opportunities (with the right improvements north of Rockhampton, inc. possibly a Rockhampton rail bypass and electrification) to eventually run a daylight rail service from FNQ to Brisbane (that is, leaving Brisbane at sunrise, getting into Cairns at sunset, with a potential second benefit: development of a regional rail service for North Queensland.)

Network 2021: Northern Region bus network rebuild.

This entails, a critical rewrite and redesign of the bus network implemented with Moreton Bay Rail, alongside a wider scope: evolving the networks that have been existent for forty years or more, and adding more spokes to the Moreton Bay mobility wheel, just when it is needed, with USC at the Petrie Mill site becoming a wider reality.

A salute to 60yrs of QLD TV:

A series throughout 2019, looking back at some of the best stuff relating to our industry from the microfiche archive, on our Facebook and Twitter presences, which will kick off on March 12: our 10th Twitterversery, with a literal throwback to the past almost every week.

The Diamond of Confidence:

Our 60yrs of TV logo, will be attached to the 6:30 War piece, when it is delivered, along with any other significant pieces that come up along the way this year: that have not been announced today.

And, finally: Expo Fever… is running behind schedule.

Lost TVQ: Expo Fever, will be out within two months. The post is at practical completion, bar a few minor touches, and will also include a passionate plea, about making what is rightly “our” Expo 88 audio-visual heritage accessible to all, and preserved before we lose it forever.

And did I say that was all?

Our symbolic project, in QLD’s 60th year of television will indeed be something that I have been vocal about for years. As far back as 2012, I have stated, that the TV Week Logies Hall of Fame deserves to be chosen by the people, along with removal of the immediate posthumous induction rule, that will likely see older women, and some early years legends get ignored in favor of more  recent programs. That thought eventually tied in with the astounding lack of women enshrined in TV Week's hall: which is still a club of three women: Ruth Cracknell, Noni Hazelhurst and Kerri-anne Kennerley: with only Noni and KAK living long enough to continue basking in it’s glow.

I want to change the world, and I want TV Week and the industry to stand up and listen.

Thus, in 2019: the same weekend as the Logies, we will announce a people’s Hall of Fame class, of 2019. Four women, four men inducted as part of the “People’s Australian Television Hall of Fame” and it will be decided by the people, not by a industry that is rapidly losing sight of the past.

The “People’s Australian Television Hall of Fame” will be the one huge legacy we will hope to take out of Queensland TV’s sixtieth year. And, we want our fellow TV reporting sites (e.g. TV Tonight and BlackboxTV) to support the concept, so we can work in concert, to bring this concept to life.
And remember: The P.A.T.H.O.F success is a long one, and it will begin with one small step.

#PATHoF

The 11th annual Kuttsywood's Couch guide to DST delays.

Welcome, to the 11th edition of this sites's annual DST guide.

This year, we are dealing with another major big switch: the "Great Summer Sporting Switch of 2018", which will see cricket and tennis, switch positions on the dial, and see Ten struggle to sell a summer sans sport to a dwindling audience: which incidentally, has plenty of ideas on how to increase it, in the latter part of Kuttsy's Pitch X: the first mainline post in three years to gain traction faster than the spinoff series: probably because everybody is sick of politics after the machinations in Canberra lately. So, here we go.

Kuttsy's Pitch: #Bris3xit

The current municipal debt, shouldered by the Brisbane City Council (just a tidy sum of $1,803,877,465) which would average out to $1495 (courtesy of the BCC budget speech in 2018) for every man, woman and child in the current BCC area in the 2018/19 financial year.

Reason: the investment in the last ten years in toll road projects (whose tolls didn’t recoup the fanciful figures that were predicted early on) to try to unchain the centre of Brisbane’s traffic issues, along with laying the groundwork for another inner city transport project: Brisbane Metro bus tunnels when outer suburbs needed the investment more.

Meanwhile, in the outer suburbs: councils who have become landed gentry due to rapid urban sprawl and council area changes in the last twenty years, are now struggling, to maintain their position, as their local council interactions and the like makes the front page: just ask anyone in Ipswich or Logan, and for that matter: Moreton Bay, as these growth areas are now beginning to forge their own identities, away from the commuter city identity that has risen since the late 1990s.

Thus, it is now time for Kuttsy’s Pitch to look at the possibility of a “BrisExit”: the transformation of the current bloated BCC authority to a much leaner model (along with delivering devolved authority): beginning with the development of five new 21st century strategies which can become acts of parliament, that can be utilized together to deliver a “BrisExit” model, that appeals to all. After all, it’s a natural move to aim for politics: based on the success of Kuttsy’s Pitch’s looks into public transport fares in December 2014, and into the state of 4BC/4BH in October 2017.

Kuttsy's Pitch X

Welcome, to a landmark edition, as part of the second Pitch Weekend (after the surprising success of an unplanned Pitch Weekend #1 in 2017), that marks the tenth mainline edition, of Kuttsy’s Pitch. I’ve had many people say to me, this concept is dead, over the last few years: as the memories of Extra’s demise fade further into the horizon. Kuttsy’s Pitch has as such become the master of reinvention, and this year’s edition, and for that matter the third spinoff, due this weekend, are the shining lights of all this reinvention since 2014’s gamble on counting content and creating a pre-election spinoff: and are hoping to return to the halcyon days of 2012/13, when the mainline series was hitting it’s peak. And it all begins, with a reference to the format this year: imagine if this was a play, and each act was followed by a short intermission… and it begins with the changes Seven made in Brisbane, just weeks before the Commonwealth Games.

Kuttsywood’s Couch’s TENfor10: The 10 biggest QLD TV/Radio stories of our first 10 years.

Welcome, to a post that is celebrating a milestone. 2018, marks Kuttsywood’s Couch’s 10th birthday, and we found it fitting: that we’d visit a formula, this site has made successful twice (first in August 2009 (and still is this site’s highest viewed post) and again in May 2013 as part of digital switchover), lengthy lists: although, this time: it isn’t a top 50 marathon, instead this post is a simple top ten, that has taken over twelve months to collate, and nearly 120hrs of constant finetuning, to get to this point, upload, for all to see and look back on. Sit back, fasten the ol’ seatbelt, as we begin this trip down memory lane, as we go all out… as we look back at the last ten years that we have been around, with the stories of our own home town, both on the box and on radio, while also looking to the future.

Project Ether: Ten years on... and many happy returns.

Transmission… coordinates, 27.4698° S, 153.0251° E: Brisbane Australia, logging into the ride of your life. Hope someone out there can find us, in the cosmos beyond. 3742-4756-6782. CONTACT.

Welcome to Project Ether… A brand new day, a brand new era: at the dawn of Kuttsywood’s Couch’s tenth birthday. The child born of TV Tonight, and one Brett Debritz’s blog is hitting the tin milestone, with many great initiatives, in the year to come. The first of these, has already launched. You are seeing it right now.

Chermside's Crossroads

As you are reading this, Westfield Chermside is inching towards becoming the largest Westfield-owned shopping centre in Australia, in the heart of a increasingly densified suburb. Yet, it’s public transport network is inadequate: part of a greater Brisbane problem. There is a solution, and it doesn’t just include enforcing a network rework. It includes delivering the Chermside “bus solution” envisaged when Chermside Shopping Centre was a fifth of the size, and was promised a decade ago, that would allow for the removal of the existing interchange, for another stage of work at Chermside.

Kuttsy's Radio Pitch

The social media hashtag for this post is #kRpitch.

Kuttsy’s Pitch. A series so enigmatic that it has lasted nearly a decade. Nine editions on television, and a surprisingly popular variant in late 2014: on the broken QLD public transport fare system. But to come back for spin-off #2, it took one decision by a newly merged Macquarie/Fairfax radio network to gut 4BC from almost every shift being done in BNE, to just one/two in April 2015 (along with the afternoon shift moving to Sydney recently, as well as a constant fear that drive may be networked next, leaving no local content outside hourly news for 4BC) and the move to entirely source Magic882 (the old 4BH) playlist and all, from Melbourne in early November 2015 (which flopped hard, even after utilizing 2CH in Sydney: which was waiting to be sold off), eventually leading to the highly tipped conversion of 4BH/3EE to the Talking Lifestyle format (relayed in full from 2UE) in early 2017. The 4BC move however, was the impetus for what you see before you. This is Kuttsy’s Radio Pitch.

Kuttsy's Pitch IX: Ether Road

It’s back for the ninth time. You feel it coming, around 5:30 at night. A hard earned win deserves the best sort of criticism, and the best sort of criticism is from Kuttsy’s Pitch, a long deep pitch…

Wait, how did the VB ad somehow get into this… Welcome to Kuttsy’s Pitch IX: Ether Road. Right now, we are counting down the days until the Ether rebirth of Kuttsywood’s Couch, but there is still issues at hand that can make Seven and for that matter: the industry sweat.

The 10th annual Kuttsywood’s Couch guide to Daylight Saving delays in Queensland.

“Daylight Saving. The great divider, between Queensland and "down south".”

Opening words of our first ever DST guide, October 2008.

Happy 10th birthday, to a institution on this site: and thanks to the DST Update series on Kuttsywood’s Couchcushion from 2011-15, as well as the 2012 Vision post on the subject (on the 20th anniversary of the 1992 QLD DST referendum) our most written about subject. This year deals with the last remains of The Big Switch: Southern Cross losing Northern NSW, for the only WIN Bruce Gordon got this year in the television game of chess. The evolution of this guide, has seen so much happen: Who would have thought in 2008, that in 2017 we’d have no programming involving a home viewer vote, leading into summer? It simply doesn’t have the X-Factor anymore, it simply Danced it’s way off the networks dartboard, like a Idol Big Brother. And of course, we are leading into the Commonwealth Games just under 200 days away. But we have this reminder, that the whole reason why early April was chosen for the Commonwealth Games: so the DST question (either QLD having to adopt it for 2017-18, or eastern states shortening theirs) wouldn’t need to be raised: when it should have been.
Let us begin with the guide for 2017/18.

Vale: Melody Iliffe.

Some sad news to report: Melody Welsh, later Melody Iliffe, left this world, on September 21, 2017. Below, we have this reading from the late Bruce Mansfield (clip from 3AW's Youtube Channel), of a Henry Scott Holland poem: "Death Is Nothing At All" (originally written upon the passing of King Edward VII in 1910) that this site will use, whenever a big name departs us from this life, and heads to the next, along with our tribute.

Melody Iliffe: A pioneer, who blazed a trail for women in television.
Melody Welsh's road to success, began as a production assistant, within the Jim Iliffe-hosted Channel Niner's, in the early 1960's. A major change in her career, would beckon in 1964: being brought in, not just as Australia's first female television newsreader, but to form the first example of a male-female news presenting duo in Australia: sitting alongside Don Seccombe, to read Nine's 6pm news in Brisbane. It was a natural ratings success, and led to a unique Logie being awarded for her newsreading, at the 1965 Logie Awards, in Melbourne: at St Kilda's Palais De Danse, which stated: "Acknowledged Ability, in A Man's Domain". The newsreading career continued on and off, (while eventually marrying Jim Iliffe (becoming Melody Iliffe) and raising a family) until the dawn of the 1980s, with one notable pairing being part of the QTQ weekend newsteam, alongside Ron Markland...

Youtube: FLEMISHDOG
...before stepping away from the newsdesk: just as a new generation of women was stepping up in Brisbane's TV newsrooms: in particular: Kay McGrath, and Robin Parkin (who'd come across to Nine in the late eighties) across the hill at TVQ-0, Donna Meiklejohn (who went from the ABC doing QLD pieces for Nationwide, to Seven, eventually reading the 6pm news with Frank Warrick and Nev Roberts as part of a shortlived three person anchoring combination in 1987, followed by a run as Seven's US correspondent) along with Brisbane-bred Jo Pearson, in Melbourne for ATV-10, bringing the station to the very top of the news ratings.

However, it felt like for a long time, that Melody hadn't disappeared, completely from the TV screen. For the best part of the 1980s, Melody would be the spruiker for Brisbane-based electrical chain Chandlers, as it progressed towards becoming a national chain: with Iliffe selling everything from Bissell brooms:

 to the predecessor to the Commodore 64: the VIC-20:

 even VCR's and stereo systems to a Queensland moving towards the future at a breakneck pace.

Youtube: various Melody Iliffe Chandlers ads, from FLEMISHDOG, retrooldcommercials and pugsley2005. Print ad, Sept 11. 1988, Sunday Mail microfiche at SLQ

Melody and Jim stayed out of the spotlight (except for a few appearances here and there, much like another TV husband/wife pairing, from the early years of TV in Australia: Bob and Dolly Dyer, who: in their twilight years, purposely kept a low profile), in the 1990s, as the Iliffe family was about to expand to a third generation. And then, in June 2005, Jim passed away at 83, after complications from a fall, with Melody becoming the patriarch of the Iliffe family, and would honor both Jim Iliffe and her own combined legacies on the occasion of QTQ's fiftieth birthday in 2009.
Melody leaves behind, three children: Chris, Ingrid and David, and eight grandchildren: Kayla, Dominic, Hannah, Katie, Genevieve, Ryan, James and Benjamin: all destined to take the Iliffe family name well into the 21st century, a family name, for so many years was a household word in Queensland.

Melody Iliffe: May your legacy live forever, in that next room.

Moreton Bay Rail... Reality

So, it’s finally happened: Moreton Bay Rail, has finally got it’s start date: after a century of waiting, two years of construction and a signalling fault that delayed the opening by four months, Queensland’s answer to Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs Railway in terms of mythology is finally completed. Opening  on October 4, it will dramatically change the face of travel on Brisbane’s northside. But how will you survive, and how will you evolve with a modern network. This is what this post is all about. Let us begin, with a motivator for everyone.

Kuttsywood's Couch's 9th annual guide to Daylight Saving delays on FTA in Queensland

Welcome, to the ninth installment of this site's iconic DST guide. This year's guide has been prepared in August, for a mid-September posting, due to issues concerning "The Big Switch" that occurred in July this year, where WIN and Southern Cross traded network partners as well as the addition of HD simulcasts of main channels. This now means that the 9/10 sections will be 50% more complicated, especially as Northern NSW didn't make any changes... as yet: but we will now be referring to SC10 on the Gold Coast by it's former name, NRTV in this and future guides.

Kuttsy's Pitch VIII: #BringRickTo7

Welcome to “the tradition”. Eight years on, and Kuttsy’s Pitch is not dead. It is alive, well, and still giving our take on the industry’s biggest question: “What to do with that Brisbane market?”. Before we start, this year, we’d like to take another pat on the back. Kuttsy’s Pitch’s breakdown of Seven on the Gold Coast (and how little it cared about it, back in 2015) in November last year has achieved one thing: Seven finally returning to the GC (as much as they want to dodge the Melissa Downes question: you can’t hide from your past) with a seven day news service, in early July. So, that makes that three (four if the 7 day news service is listed separately) correct predictions from Kuttsy’s Pitch in it’s eight year history, compared to zero pilots commissioned for a Brisbane (not GC)-specific 5:30 solution by Seven, since Extra’s end in June 2009.

The Big Switch.

Social media hashtag is #thebigswitch.

So, July 1 is approaching. The biggest affiliation shuffle in Australian history, is about to take place, with Southern Cross moving from Ten Network programming, in three aggregated markets (along with three joint ventures that previously carried Ten), to Nine Network programming and Win moving from Nine Network programming in three aggregated markets + some others to Ten Network programming. This is simply, a switch of programming, not channels, but will come with it’s own problems which we will get into, in a bit. However, the Southern Cross/Win change for QLD, at least, isn’t the first time a “shuffle” has happened.

The 2016 Relaunch Spectacular

2016. And with the belated arrival of a new year, we kick off the year soon, with Kuttsy’s Radio Pitch: our look on who could and should shape 4BC once the “Duplicate 2GB” experiment is seen as more failure for a station that has seen too much of it in the last decade.  It indeed is the second spin-off to the Kuttsy’s Pitch brand, but will indeed share the charm that made Kuttsy’s Pitch VII: Unlucky7 so noteworthy.

Kuttsy's Pitch VII: Unlucky7

OFFICIAL SOCIAL MEDIA HASHTAGS: #kpitchVII, #itstimeVII

“Ladies and gentleman, well may we say God Save the Queen: because nothing will save 7 News Brisbane in 2015. #itstimeVII #kpitchVII #1in21” Posted to Twitter upon BTQ losing 2015. 21-1, 25/7/15

Kuttsy’s Pitch VII: what many have claimed is, “Unlucky7” has finally arrived. The 438 days since Kuttsy’s Pitch VI have been remarkable. Seven comprehensively losing 2015: with numbers not seen since Bruce Paige was still dominant in the mid 00’s, ratings figures for the 6-7 hour last seen when Local Edition lead into 6pm in 2000, prior to The Chase’s arrival: only for the new gameshow to face a uphill battle, and most critically: the axing of a news director (with Ross Dagan in September 2014, yes, Kiwi readers, Seven Sharp outlasted Dagan at 7, with Neil Warren installed as a replacement) in Brisbane as well as the installation of a new national head of news/public affairs (taking advantage of Neil Mooney’s retirement) over the top of Rob Raschke (who fell on his sword in late October): former Today Tonight producer Craig McPherson on July 28, before starting officially on October 28.

But, yet, we are here again for the 7^th time, in the mainline series (with the spinoff Pitch series (kicked off with the highly successful Kuttsy’s Fare Pitch): returning in early 2016, this time with one option that stood out from the rest: Kuttsy’s Radio Pitch (4BC as a 25-54 talk station). But this year we are reminded of the reason why the 11^th of November is so symbolic.

Kuttsywood's Couch's 8th annual guide to Daylight Saving delays on FTA in Queensland

Welcome, to the eighth installment of this site's iconic DST guide. As I mentioned earlier this year, the DST Update series has been given a honorable retirement. After all, here it is again:

 "... because of a lack of content to fill it, especially as ratings last year ended with very little first run content to warrant weekly updates: as well as the changes concerning NRL and V8’s, not to mention Queensland’s slowly inching towards the reality that within a year or so live streaming of content online from the southern states will be part and parcel of life: however the DST guide will return in 2015 as well as the long held tradition of horse tipping on Melbourne Cup Day will remain in memory of Doug Murray..."

The bolded/underlined text is one prediction this site has been proud to say we got correct, not due to Netflix, Stan or Presto: but due to Seven announcing it's intentions to live stream all it's channels online from December 1. As for the Doug Murray horse tip, it will be part of Kuttsywood's Couchcushion's new series, that is a tribute to the not so golden ideas of the last 60 years, that would have never ever appeared on David Lyle's Golden Years of Television: simply put... "The Not So Golden Years of Television". There's a new edition each week, and we have ideas until Feburary... at the moment, and there should be a new one up shortly, and we have found the perfect thing to match that very racing tip, along with one clip matching up with Kuttsy's Pitch VII: Unlucky7 on November 11. Now on with the guide with a slight addition at the end:

#Shout2015: a year in preview.

This post looking towards 2015 begins with a throwback 25 years. January 1 1990, kicked off with a new promo for Nine in Brisbane, that would become very useless within days. 

The “Shout” launch with Jermaine Jackson, filmed in Cairns featured the man who led Nine’s Brisbane news service back from the wilderness, Bruce Paige… who was soon revealed to be off contract, and after a legal wrangle, was off to Ten Brisbane, to read their rebooted news. Eventually, Paige was dropped by Ten, after the network went into receivership, along with 52 other positions in Brisbane.
So we kick off the celebration of the “Lifestyles of The Rich and Vocal”, with a preview of the year to come.

Kuttsy's Fare Pitch

The social media hashtags are #offtherails and #kFpitch.

Welcome to something people would have never ever expected. A Kuttsy’s Pitch spin-off: with all the trimmings that has made the concept so great for six years, in being brutally honest about Seven’s woes both at 5:30 and eventually at 6pm. But: there have been some near misses about a spinoff. The GC2018 broadcast piece of two years ago, almost became Kuttsy’s Pitch 4, along with a “Kuttsy’s Pitch 3.5” based on the “Love You Brisbane” campaign, which never made it to full realisation. But the one thing that writing the transport-based sequel to the GC2018 broadcast piece along with a couple of trips to Sydney earlier this year taught me is that QLD’s public transport fares are way too high, especially for distance based travel, compared to the southern states.

The DST Source’s 2014 Daylight Saving Delay Guide

Welcome to the English version of the 2014 DST guide, with delays available in 11 languages (not fifteen, as previously mentioned, due to huge unforeseen translation issues for four character-based languages), beginning with the English version today on this site, and over at Kuttsywood’s Couchcushion soon with a surprise pick. This effort is our tribute to the upcoming G20 meeting in Brisbane, and a link will be available via our twitter feed for any national embassies who request it for their G20 contingents.

Kuttsy's Pitch VI: The Big Time

The social media hashtag is #kpitchVI.

Welcome to the sixth edition, of a tradition. Five years ago this month, Seven last won a week at 5:30 at night in SEQ: (Kuttsy’s Pitch ignores any claim by Seven that this drought was broken in late May this year due to the poor ratings performance both before and after Million Dollar Minute had repeatedly tried to give away their top prize), and most critically, today being 5000 days since the end of Seven’s only major attempt to try and steal Extra’s audience with a original local product in late 2000: Local Edition. Accordingly, this post is published 5000 days to the minute the final episode of LE finished: not August 20, like in past years.

Are we there yet? GC 2018 Commonwealth Games transport.

Is SEQ headed #offtherails in four years? This piece explains how a Public Transport disaster during the Commonwealth Games in 2018 can be averted, along with some future solutions as part of a greater legacy.

In 2012, this site had a remarkably successful piece, on how difficult the task will be on awarding host broadcasting rights for the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, in 2018. And it got me thinking for the best part of two years: What else is needed? Obviously, as we are officially on the road to 2018 as of today’s handover ceremony: surely, it’s time to start thinking about how we are literally going to get there…

Shaking Up The Dial

The hashtag is #shakingupthedial

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 50^th year for TVQ and the national 50^th celebrations… On behalf of this site, and Lost TVQ on Facebook: this is Shaking Up The Dial.

2014, goes big time on Kuttsywood's Couch

As we look forward to a new year, we will reveal to you now our secret.

Since September, I have been using a hashtag on Twitter, #5000project.

Now it’s time to unveil it: the project, that has been 5000 days in the making.

Kuttsywood's Couch's 6th annual guide to Daylight Saving delays on FTA in Queensland

Welcome to the sixth edition of the DST guide, which has had many great moments in it's lifetime, including the surge of people who checked out this guide, along with the DST updates over at Kuttsywood's Couchcushion, throughout last year, which will be returning next week. There will be no hashtag this year... or is there? However, we will open up proceedings for this year with some long term warnings, for events concerning the digital restack in the coming months.

Moving Up The Dial

Dedicated to Mike Lattin, former publicist, and station manager at TVQ who passed away in July 2012, and Peter Clark, TVQ helicopter pilot, who passed away in a tragic helicopter accident on Mt Coot-tha in August 1998.

Welcome to a fantastic look, at the last 25 years of TVQ being on Channel 10. As we move towards the fiftieth birthday of TVQ-0/10 in July 2015, this is the first part of a two-part series. As with all tales, it has a magnificent beginning: just as the media landscape in Australia was changing.

Kuttsy's Pitch V: The Pitch To The Future

The hashtag is #kpitchV

The hypothetical "Pitch From The Past", will be out shortly. It is designed to be read and compared with this post as a companion: thus references to it in this post will be retained.

Welcome to the the future. A future many people five years ago wasn’t even expecting. This is the fifth edition of a enigmatic series. This is a pitch to the future, This is Kuttsy’s Pitch V.

After looking back on what could have been our past if events turned out different, we are reminded of our reality. Brisbane Extra, in June next year will have been gone for five years. Seven in that time have gone through a generational change at 6pm, much like Nine did in the wake of the Extra axe, but one thing still plagues them. Bruce Paige, helping spearhead Nine’s revival, much like a quarter of a century ago. But we ask these questions so you, the viewer don’t have to.

50 Great QLD TV Moments: in Analogue

This post has been nearly six months in the making. Today we celebrate the end of a analogue era: one that has been full of it's ups and downs, and technological changes. This is simply...

This countdown, has been widely sourced: and is a look back down memory lane, for those who can remember the change to colour, or QLD's Commonwealth Games win just two years ago. This is a countdown that is as historic as it is lengthy. This will easily be the longest post you've ever read on this site, but it has to be long to do it justice.
We now begin the countdown, at #50: when how we got interstate and international news in QLD changed forever, with one major event, 35 years ago.

The end of a analogue era: TVQ-0/10

We now come to a special piece, commemorating the history of a station that was left out of the fiftieth run of history pieces, back in 2009. Fittingly, as we move into one switch, there is a very important anniversary coming up in September: that means a lot to not just Brisbane viewers, but 10 in general. Sit back, and relive the history of what TVQ-0 was when it launched: the third player in a wheel...

The end of a analogue era: BTQ-7

Welcome to a updated version of the 2009 BTQ 50th post, to commemorate the end of analogue television in Brisbane on 28/5/13. It includes a extension to the present day, along with some major inclusions, mainly revolving around Seven's "21 yrs of Hell" at 5:30.

The end of a analogue era: QTQ-9

Welcome to a updated version, of the 2009 QTQ 50th post, to commemorate the end of analogue television in Brisbane on 28/5/13. It includes a extension to the present day, along with some other updates, to reflect modern events.

Ten-demonium

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...

Five Years On: A preview of Kuttsywood's Couch in 2013

Everything has new beginnings. Five years ago on January 1 2008, this site began. Today, 80 posts, 16,000 views later, on the 29th of December 2012, this site will enjoy a new beginning to kick off our 5th birthday celebrations which will stretch throughout 2013. This "new beginning" is evidenced by the major redo of how this site looks, and feels. This new beginning is looking forward to a era where television in Brisbane is digital-only: an era which is only 150 days away.

The 2012 Vision-Part 3: Simply The Best-A Broncos dynasty

The official Twitter hashtag for this post is #2012visionBBD (Brisbane Broncos Dynasty).

This post is dedicated to John Miller, ex. 4BC, State Affair, 4BK, who passed away on   September 7, after a fall at his home two weeks earlier. He was 59. He will be missed by the Brisbane community both in television and radio circles.

Welcome, to the grand finale, of the 2012 Vision, on NRL Grand Final day 2012. As we look forward to the Melbourne Storm and Canterbury (two teams who have made history as the two clubs who took the quickest time to win a inaugural premiership after being admitted into the top flight of rugby league in Australia: Melbourne won their first premiership after two seasons in the NRL in 1999, and Canterbury won their first premiership after three seasons in the (then) NSWRFL in 1938) going out on the grand stage at Stadium Australia, and trying to etch their names in rugby league history, there are probably many Brisbane Broncos fans, who are remembering this year, due to one match, that sparked a dynasty. It was 20 years ago this weekend: that the Brisbane Broncos won their first premiership, in the Sydney competition (as it was then).

Kuttsywood's Couch's 5th annual guide to Daylight Saving delays on FTA in Queensland

Welcome to a post that in it's five years of existence, has evolved to become a tradition and is well loved by all readers. This post also kicks off our 5th birthday celebrations, albiet two months early as part of our Super Weekend: tomorrow being the final part of the 2012 Vision: Simply The Best, a Broncos Dynasty. To help out with keeping the spirit of the first 2012 Vision post, on daylight saving this year alive, we will adopt a hashtag that is designed to be a wakeup call. #embraceDST is the unifying force, to get Queensland to join it's southern state counterparts: in not switching public holidays, but in switching our clocks ahead 1 hour. Earlier this year, I went to Miami, in the US, a city around the same distance from the equator as Bundaberg, yet they are on the same timezone all year round, as New York and Washington DC. DST means that the "Cruise Capital Of The World" isn't hampered by timezones during peak tourist season, like our tourism industry is. We begin this years guide: with a quick wrap of each channel's fixed offerings, although the floating offerings will be on the DST Updates starting next week.

Kuttsy's Pitch 4: Beyond "20 Years of Hell"

The Twitter hashtag for this post is #kpitch4
You have seen the teasers on Twitter since June... and it is now here: the tradition is back for it's 4th instalment. Welcome to Kuttsy's Pitch 4: Beyond "20 Years of Hell". It was on the previous instalment of Kuttsy's Pitch, in 2011, I coined the phrase "20 years of hell", in direct reference to 7's long term issues at half past five in south east Queensland outside weekends. It in-turn inspired, the post "20 years of hell at half past five", a definitive history of Extra, intertwined with 7's various moves in the preceding two decades. But this instalment, is designed to help give "20 Years of Hell" a definitive end.
These ideas are only theoretical.

The race begins: GC 2018 Comm Games broadcast rights.

UPDATE 19/8/14: Seven has just been announced the winner of the GC 2018 host rights fight. If you have been directed here by Google after hearing about it tonight: visit this post's sequel, it gives a great look at transport requirements for 2018.

Normally, I'd save a countdown, for the "DST Update" over at the "Couchcushion", but this seems apt. We are now 2077 days away from the event that will elevate the Gold Coast's stature to becoming Australia's "sixth city", the 2018 Commonwealth Games. I'm posting this, as a sort of "form guide" for the upcoming dogfight for the broadcast rights (along with the needs for the technical backbone), as it will likely be a major bidding war, for what will be, the first Commonwealth Games on Australian soil, since digital switchover in 2013. The first runner up to the mark: subscription television.

The 2012 Vision: Part 2- South Bank Parklands

The official Twitter hashtag for this post is #2012visionSBP
Welcome, to part two of the 2012 Vision, the first part being Daylight Saving, this second part is talking about the official opening and evolution, of South Bank Parklands, on this day, June 20, back in 1992.

The Price Is Right returns: the Brisbane impact.

If you are reading this now, Seven is definitely looking to change the 5-6 lineup nationwide.


Seven is seriously looking at the Price Is Right to air in the 5pm slot to aid Deal or No Deal. Due to this move, Seven QLD will likely have Today Tonight at 4:30, in lieu of 4:30 news, and most critically, a big thumb in the nose to hopes for a fresh breath of air at 5:30 in the south-east corner of QLD. But we can stand up Queensland and make our intentions known. Viewers in Queensland are sick of Deal, and viewers in Brisbane are sick of Seven lying to us like they have done for over a decade, on local content outside weekends. Hell, even your promos are lying to us. Seven, you may like to claim that "Brisbane is our city", but the viewers of this city, of this state, want to see that statement backed up with action on increasing the amount of local content produced in this state. It has been nearly three long years since the Extra axing, and twelve long years since Local Edition's demise. I hope we all can stand up and tell Seven what we really think.

The 2012 Vision: Part 1, Daylight Saving

(Rewritten on 5/4/12)
The official hashtag is #2012visionDST
Welcome to the first installment, of a series entitled the "2012 Vision", celebrating the 20th anniversary of QLD's sole referendum on daylight saving, a subject that this site holds dear to the heart.

20 years of hell at half past five...

Rick Burnett, first host of Brisbane Extra.

"Hello, and welcome to Brisbane Extra. Each weekday at this time, we will be giving you a closer look at life in Brisbane, the things that annoy us, or make us smile."
Rick Burnett intro, on the very first edition of Brisbane Extra in February 1992.

From this small beginning in 1992, this is a tale of Seven's...

I wonder, how people will commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Extra premiere this year. I'm choosing to mark it, with a post, looking at it from a angle one never thought of. The angle, I'm talking about, is from the problems rival channels have had in that slot since 1992: those people who sat stunned, as Extra outrated their news lead-ins (or in the case of one, their news, that had only just moved to 5pm), to the chagrin of interstate news bosses and programmers alike. It's also, a story of how Extra's success, led to the introduction of Gold Coast local news at 5:30 on Nine, and how it survived. It's a flashback, Seven won't bother running on a Sunday night, as it's full of too many bad memories... for this is a tale, of twenty years of Extra, from the other side of Mt Coot-tha, through the eyes of the network, who suffered the most.

The 2012 Vision: the explanation...

Happy new year, and welcome to our 4th birthday, at Kuttsywood's Couch. The gift? The return of a regular longform blogging series, for the first time in two years, starting in February, called: "The 2012 Vision". What is "The 2012 Vision", you may ask: read on, to see the upcoming highlights (our preview reel if you will) for the beginning of 2012...

The Toasted Question: 4 months on.

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.

The five factors 7 needs, to own the GC.

Around this time two years ago, I came up with the original Kuttsy's Pitch, and mentioned the need for local news on the Gold Coast for Seven of being utmost. Just weeks later, 7 unveiled their new Surfers Paradise facilities, including bringing up the top brass from Sydney, and making one of those famous "Seven commitments" to viewers, about launching a Seven News service for the Gold Coast... eventually.

Kuttsywood's Couch's 4th annual guide to Daylight Saving FTA delays in QLD

The fourth annual edition of the DST guide is here. It has been a proud tradition here since 2008, to let the viewers know of the delays they will recieve, during the six months of DST each year, as it should be our duty, until things change, and DST is reintroduced, statewide. But this year we have a little "helper". While this place generally lists events that have fixed dates, and fixed times, there have been times where rapid information is needed. Kuttsywood's Couchcushion will fill the gap, with a weekly DST update beginning Sunday October 2 (e.g. to, offer more detailed information, along with the 5:30 ratings segment, being rebooted in January next year.) It's this page's commitment to keeping QLD informed of the various delays, over the last four years, that is a key reason, why Daylight Saving, is still after nearly 20 years (the 20th anniversary of the last referendum on daylight saving in QLD, occuring on Wednesday February 22 2012), Queensland's talking point.

Kuttsy's Pitch 3: a news revolution.

People thought, the cue was in the rack, after the second Kuttsy’s Pitch, in August last year. In, what’s become an annual tradition here, along with the DST guide, due in late September, Kuttsy’s Pitch, is an a long form experiment, where I delve into the problems of Seven, and their 5:30 pain in QLD, and try and “reinvent the wheel” by developing a wide ranging solution which could work in real life. 

Note: these ideas are only theoretical.

Ten in 2012: The Toasted question...

"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.

The state of childrens television in 2011.

Childrens television: a popular subject on this blog, especially as the most popular post in the history of this blog, was one on Brisbane's childrens TV history, and how it launched so many careers, published in September 2009. But I come here today, to explain what has gotten me to write this. Commercial childrens programming should be benefiting from the changes in technology, that have improved news, sport and drama: then why is it, that only one commercial network these days is investing in kids TV, that is educational, entertaining, and is not a gameshow?