The Beginning

On September 5, 1959 NWS9 became the first commercial television station to go to air in South Australia and so began a saga for a station and a medium which has captured the hearts and minds of South Australians ever since.

Fifty years ago we were peering through the windows of electrical retailers hoping to get a glimpse of this new fan dangled thing called television. It was black and white of course, but that didn't matter - it was new and exciting.

In September 1959 a simple square box would change the way South Australian's see the world - forever. History was being made right before our very eyes - in our very own lounge rooms.

"I wish the station every success and I wish you listeners, good viewing." That's how Premier Thomas Playford opened NWS9 at 7pm on September the fifth, 1959. It was a much anticipated event with work beginning on the Tynte Street studios beginning 10 months earlier. And atop Mount Lofty, the monster transmission tower was slowly rising 505 feet into the air. This was entirely new technology and many of the first on-air performers like the late and great Kevin Crease were recruited from local radio stations. Creasey came from 5DN and Lionel Williams moved over from 5KA. They didn't know it but they would become legends in local television and help Channel Nine become a dominant force in the entertainment industry. As Lionel reminisced the last time we spoke to him about those halcyon years, their early radio experience more than paid off.

Lionel Williams: It was home grown product. That's where we cut our teeth and I suppose learnt to handle an audience."

Bill Davies, First General manager: "Everybody who joined this company was a stranger to television. Most of us came out of radio or out of newspapers."

The print connection was not surprising given the licence for NWS Nine had been bought by the brash young proprietor of the Adelaide News, Rupert Murdoch. He had a lot riding on his investment in this new medium, as did newly appointed General Manager, Bill Davies.

But as Bill told us previously, the race to be the first on-air had a massive set-back when fire destroyed the station's brand new studio just 9 weeks before the launch date!

Bill Davies, first General manager: "It was a dreadful fire alright. We didn't know what had happened until four o'clock in the morning and when we got in here we saw the floor which last night looked beautiful had lovely big slices across it where the hoses had dragged right through it. Like the marks of an angry serpent going through."

Despite the disaster, Channel Nine staff were determined to be the first on air. While they salvaged what they could, the deadline led to another 'first'. A Qantas Super Constellation aircraft made a non-stop flight from London carrying a three-ton payload of technical equipment for the new station. But the property storage area, the small news studio and this, the main presentation studio or Studio One were disaster areas.

Bill Davies: "We couldn't use the studio until the floor was relaid again. So where did we go? To the ladies dressing room!"

As they say 'the show must go on' and it did. Soon, a flurry of programs was in full swing from the likes of The Channel Niners to Adelaide Tonight. A new era of entertainment was born.