The Programs

Right from day one Channel Nine was determined to be the first and the best. It was the first commercial station on air in South Australia in 1959 and through dogged determination it was the first to produce a raft of programs that would become a vital part of daily life.

Victoria was wowed by the TV images three years earlier, when television cameras captured the drama and excitement of the 1956 Melbourne Olympics. When it was SA's turn crowds flocked to watch programs through the shop windows of stores like Ernsmiths. We embraced the magic of 'the box' with gusto and not long after the first test transmission in September 1958, an ambitious line-up of programs were being beamed out from Channel Nine's Tynte Street studios - a lot of them becoming household names…

Variety was to be a winner and it helped launch a stable of personalities that became the 'human face' of Channel Nine. We became very good at very 'live' and unpredictable television.

Lady Joan McInnes-Hardy, Presenter: "We had an enormous amount of fun. I don't think we thought it was something that was going to take off and be a monster in 50 year's time - I think we just had a great time. We lived for the day and I think we got away with a HUGE amount. You would never get away with what the boys particularly, Ernie, Kevin and all of those guys - you'd never get away with that now. "

Adelaide Tonight opened on the 17th of October 1959 - a bold move given the station was only a month old. A proud Rupert Murdoch was in the audience keen to prove that his venture into the new television medium was justified. Adelaide Tonight became a favourite stamping ground for the likes of Lionel Williams, Kevin Crease, Ernie Sigley, Roger Cardwell, Hal Turner and Ian Fairweather. The stars of shows like Adelaide Tonight became the human face of Channel Nine.

Lady Joan McInnes-Hardy: "I don't think we ever saw ourselves as celebrities or anything like that because, in fact I'm not even sure the word had been invented. We really just had fun and we were out there with the people doing lots of things in the community as shows like Adelaide Tonight were going to air. It was going into the lounge room in those very early days when nothing had come into the lounge rooms before 1959. People would come up to you in the street and say 'oh, hello, I know you - you come into my lounge room every night'. I'd say I hope you were fully clothed when I popped by!"

Adelaide Tonight was variety with a capital 'V'. From the smooth sophistication of a 23 year old Uni student by the name of Kamahl to slapstick old vaudeville skits from the comedy genius of Gerry Gibson.

Buoyed by the success of Adelaide Tonight, the shows just kept on coming. The Country and Western Hour was a huge success - syndicated around the country. Hosted first by Roger Cardwell then Reg Lindsay, the Country and Western Hour clocked up 10 years and a couple of Logies to boot. Even I got a gernsey with the Wesley Three.

Kids shows were big too. Remember the Channel Niners and Bobo the Clown? Played by Hal Turner, Bobo was huge - so much so, his appearances in country South Australia were events in themselves. They reckon a visit to Port Lincoln in the early sixties drew a crowd three times bigger than the one that turned out to welcome Queen Elizabeth the Second!

Channel Nine's kids programs included Here's Humphrey - the funny old fun-loving bear has been gracing our screens for four decades - and these days includes a face familiar to Postcards viewers. For the older kids there was the Curiosity Show. For 18 years Professor Rob Morrison and Doctor Deane Hutton spiked kids interest in science by doing simple science experiments on camera.

In South Australian TV terms the studio at Channel Nine is hallowed ground. Thousands of hours of local entertainment went out and helped shape us in more ways that we know.