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Television: let the game b Part 2 New and exciting, television was here – with euphoria reaching almost fever-pitch, capturing the imagination of an entertainment-starved nation. T his amazing new electronic medium – television – made an immense impact on society in the late fifties. Today, with dozens of TV channels, it’s hard to imagine the incredible anticipation and excitement of television at the time. TV performers became huge stars and technicians were respected as the people householders could rely on, to keep every home ‘on air’. After WW2 Astor, like AWA, sent technicians overseas, visiting top manufacturers to absorb their knowledge and experience, then commenced building experimental receivers. During 1949, Astor sent their televisions to be paraded in halls in capital cities and main provincial towns around Australia. Before TV started, Ron Blaskett, a ventriloquist with his 14  Silicon Chip wooden doll Gerry Gee, was asked to perform in Channel 9 closed circuit demonstrations at Melbourne’s Royal Agricultural Shows. Similar demonstrations were made at the Sydney show. As 1956 progressed, anticipation was so frenetic, people were purchasing Astor receivers as early as June 1956, to watch test broadcasts and the test pattern. The price of a good console was about the same as a second-hand car. An Astor, for example, was 250 pounds (with the 1956 average annual wage about £1100) plus 25 pounds for ‘installation’ and another 25 pounds for the antenna to be fixed on the roof. Many consumers believed the controls were for technicians only, so they endured a poor picture until help arrived. siliconchip.com.au : At left: the Govenor of Victoria, Sir Dallas Brooks, makes the grand entrance to the GTV9 Studio, Melbourne, to officially open the fourmonth-old station on January 19, 1957. Below: Astor’s 1956 television range. Manufacturers (wrongly) believed that the 17-inch models would be the most popular but as it turned out, Australian TV viewers wanted bigger! begin Part 2 – By Kevin Poulter GTV9 used ventriloquist Ron Blaskett and his sidekick Gerry Gee to introduce consumers to television. siliconchip.com.au July 2006  15 Just as much items of furniture as TV sets, these three Astor sets from the late 1950s show the style of the day. They called the larger cabinetstyle sets either “consoles” or “consolettes” – the one on the left was merely described as “special”. Friends you didn’t know you had . . . Any household that purchased a TV suddenly became popular with long-lost friends and neighbours. Television antennas were installed on the chimney or inside the roof, often according to whether the owner wanted neighbours to know a TV was installed or not. Some householders installed an outside TV antenna only, just to ‘keep up with the Joneses’. Others installed the antenna inside the roof to keep the house-proud mother happy or even to avoid paying the government radio and TV licence fee. The dreaded “RI’s”, or Radio Inspectors could legally enter homes but to people who could barely afford the set, the risk was relatively low. Stories circulated of owners being ‘nicked’ after detection by special vans that could locate noise from oscillators in the TV. It was a long time before this universally-disliked tax system (ostensibly to pay for the government-owned ABC) was abolished. Melbourne embraced television more than any other state, probably due to the climate, interest in theatre and lack of club activity. Certainly contributing factors were that no theatres or shops were allowed to open on Sundays and hotels had to close at 6pm. TV ownership at the time as a percentage of population was Sydney 1% and Melbourne 5%. TCN9 Sydney, though, transmitted the Pelaco Golf Tournament – the first live telecast of a sporting event and the Victorian Cricket Association sold the rights to televise the cricket to the ABC – for 25 pounds! Big investments The electronic manufacturers were certain of the future of television and invested heavily. More shots from the opening night at GTV Channel 9, Melbourne. At left is the camera boom with seated cameraman, made especially for high shots. Note the dress of the cameraman and grip: suits and ties, what! The team is Geoff Hiscock, Ron Davis on camera and Tom O’Donohue. Above right is the then Governor of Victoria, Sir Dallas Brooks, taking a peek through camera 1, with cameraman Ernie Carroll driving! 16  Silicon Chip siliconchip.com.au Wireless Data Networks Long Range Antennas 900 MHz 2.4 GHz 3.5 GHz A giant STC Commander 3-in-one. This all-valve monster, which includes a full-screen Polaroid filter, is probably the only one in captivity. Inspired by the scale of US manufacturers, Astor’s parent company, Electronic Industries, purchased 25 acres of land in Clayton (Vic) to build an electronics city, at a cost of 4.5 million pounds. Electronic Industries’ CEO Sir Arthur Warner’s grand vision was a massive cluster of suppliers and research facilities close by, like modern car manufacturers. His assemblage of Astor/Electronic Industries factories grew huge, with internal roads and communications networks. Soon they were joined by Gainsborough furniture (makers of fine home furniture, radiogram and TV cabinets) and PYE Telecommunications, relegated to the distant south-eastern corner of the electronics city. However, no other related brands or suppliers ever came to fill the remaining farm countryside. AWA erected a new 92,000 square-foot factory at Rydalmere, near Parramatta in Sydney’s west and the first production was 17-inch picture tubes. At the same time, AWA’s Radiola No 1 factory at the inner-western Sydney suburb of Ashfield (where the famous Radiola and Radiolettes were made from 1931) was quickly transformed into an automated carousel moving-conveyor productionline facility. The factory handled the large, heavy “Deep Image” television chassis, which were all hand-wired at that time. Chassis, tuners speakers and cabinets came together assembled and tested with AWA’s own purpose-built on-site transmitter and rolled along the conveyors to the warehouse. Brands like Astor, Admiral, Healing and others were also highly in motion. Astor’s cathode ray tubes were manufactured in 1956 by Anodeon, in nearby Huntingdale (Victoria). 5.8 GHz Omidirectional Sector + Mobile Hills distributes smartBridges outside wireless network point to point & multipoint products. airPoint - 2.4GHz Nexus - 5.8GHz Discover more: Phone: +61 2 9717 5275 Email: rolf.roelfsema<at>hills.com.au www.wireless.hillsantenna.com.au or with side-mount speakers, speakers in front on one side, or both sides of the tube and many quality furniture variations. Economy televisions were tabletop models with cabinets not much larger than the picture tube, with or without long legs. The first AWA television receivers were the 200 series, commencing with model 201T. ‘T’ denoted a 17-inch 70° picture tube table model, with a 23-valve deluxe chassis. These sets rolled off the production line pre-broadcasting, in July 1956, at a retail price of 209 guineas. Shortly after, the model 202c console version was produced, priced at 229 guineas. As televisions first appeared in stores, large crowds, often Built to last Early TVs were well-built (like a tank), as manufacturers hadn’t devised cost-cutting cheaper production techniques like printed circuit boards. The most common wiring was across tag-strips. Superb cabinets were made by furniture companies, with beautiful quality, gloss wood finishes to match furniture in even the finest homes. A single chassis would be the basis of a large range of sets – on legs, upright consoles with a large speaker below, siliconchip.com.au Telecine technicians controlling the quality of film converted to video. July 2006  17 The Siemens transmitter room at GTV9 at opening night. The meters at top show that the transmitter is operating – with all those fingers perilously close to the HT! The meter at left, by the way, reads output power as 10kW. These days GTV9 is licensed for just a tad more power! three to four deep or more, gathered to watch through the store windows at night. This became entertainment for many, like the Harrisons, a typical Aussie family. Every Friday night, the children were excited to go to town, to watch test broadcasts of ‘tele’ from the street. People bought deck-chairs and applauded – even the commercials. Some stores installed speakers under their veranda, so the crowd could hear the television too. Stores went the extra mile, with free in-home demonstrations, even loaning a television set or two for weeks, while the householder decided. In 1956, the Harrison family purchased a Ferris TV, a budget model with a compact metal case finished in iridescent blue, just the size of the screen. Rabbit-ears on top gave excellent metro reception. They weren’t the only ears – Mickey Mouse ears were worn by thousands of excited children during the Mickey Mouse Club. Just 11 days after TCN9 Sydney, GTV9 made Melbourne’s first live transmission on September 27, 1956, hosted by Geoff Corke and broadcast from the staff kitchen at the Mt. Dandenong transmitter. Prolonged Olympic Games negotiations finally reached agreement in November 1956, at the last minute. Channels 2, 7 and 9 televised the Olympics but only at sold-out events. Videotape recorders were a long way off, so broadcasting was live, plus a vast number of 16mm cameras filming, for replay later. Sydneysiders and overseas audiences only saw delayed footage, from 16mm film. Television transmitters for Melbourne were installed in a group on Mt. Dandenong, 35km from the city, with GTV9 employing a Siemens transmitter and PYE cameras. ATN Sydney built a 500-foot mast at Gore Hill. Their 72-foot aerial array and most studio equipment was Marconi of UK, supplied by AWA. Two 3-inch copper lines fed the two halves of the antenna, under a few pounds of pressure, to keep out moisture. 18  Silicon Chip Marconi orthicon camera tube. A sensor (top right) enclosed a tiny ball, which fell into a one-way tube if inverted in transit. This resulted in a return to the factory, as dust would show in the image. Over the years before official broadcasts, various Governments had pushed their ideology, from Labor decreeing television was to be all government-owned, to the Liberals reversing that to allow commercial television as well. By transmission time, the government was still fully in charge of all transmitters, through the “PMG” (Post Master General’s Department). This meant commercial TV stations mixed and converged their studio’s output into a large cable – the final feed leaving the station. From this point on, the PMG had absolute control, including getting the signal to the transmitters and towers. In the event of signal loss or quality problems after this exit point, the station engineer would telephone the PMG It all looks rather primitive by today’s standards . . . but at the time it was state-of-the-art! Do you recognise a rather young “King” of Television? Graham Kennedy was later to become one of the best-known faces on Australian TV. siliconchip.com.au engineer to report “all was well their end and could they please get back on air soon”. Australian TV stations lacked production experience, so they copied overseas ideas, telecasting live shows identical to stage presentations, or broadcasting overseas programs. TCN-9 transmitted just three hours each night in 1956, trying entertainment like Frank Ifield yodelling and other stage-style presentations. Their three 15-minute music shows could not compete with American drama and ceased within three months. “We may not be the first, but we are the best” TV stations who revelled in the one-upmanship of being first to start regular transmissions were soon torpedoed when Channel Nine Melbourne officially started in January 1957. GTV9 was immediately the envy of other networks with an enormous one million pounds worth of facilities, unofficially titled ‘Studio City’. As well as being the high-profile leader of Electronic Industries, Sir Arthur Warner was chairman of GTV9. He explained his decision to delay until they were the best. ‘It would be crazy and the stupidest thing to put on low grade programs in the early stages. This is a new adventure for the Australian public, and it wouldn’t be good to open with a colossal number of hours.’ The strategy paid off, as soon GTV9 was filming ratings-leading productions. Channel GTV9 Melbourne commenced official programs on January 19, 1957. Terry Dear was the presenter, with the Governor, Sir Dallas Brooks, making a grand entrance into the massive studio in his black limousine, led by motorcycle police. In front of an audience of 400 people, he declared the station open. Viewers far and wide reported excellent picture definition and sound from the channel 9 opening broadcast, including Bairnsdale, 280 kilometres from Melbourne and other distant locations, like Ararat, Mansfield, Yea, Bendigo, Traralgon and Ballarat. Channel Nine had an imposing camera boom, for rising above scenes, shooting with the cameraman seated – just like in the movies. Not to be left out, Seven went to great lengths to produce a devious but similar effect in a liveshow. Their stills photographer photographed a singer during rehearsals with arms outstretched, from a high angle. In the live performance, as the performer opened arms, a second camera faded to the photo enlargement of an overhead view! ATN-7 built their television complex at Epping in Sydney, with a main studio soon proclaimed as the biggest in the country. “In Sydney Tonight” started in the first week of transmission, with ex-radio host, Keith Walshe. Keith’s quick wit and the polished production soon made the show a ratings leader. On May 6, 1957, Norm Spencer launched “In Melbourne Tonight”, hosted by a young Graham Kennedy. Graham had a ‘naughty boy’ reputation on radio and attracted the housewife set. Overwhelming demand results in rationing. After the launch of television transmissions, the industry had difficulty in meeting consumer demand. Dealers were obliged to start an allocation system, which led to an influx of imported receivers but many imports ceased after local production began to cope with supply. siliconchip.com.au Marconi MkIV camera, used from the late 60s to 70s. This one still works – after an hour or so to warm up. Stations were known to leave cameras on all night to avoid warm up and stabilisation. Television was an expensive item, yet John Williamson, a television serviceman at the time, remembers clusters of television antennas were initially more prevalent in low-income worker’s areas. Families, who were already paying off many items, added new television sets to their hire-purchase. Government legislation required households to have a licence for their television, so the PMG figures give a reasonable indicator of sets sold. In the first month of regular broadcasting, 10,000 sets were licensed. By February 1957, Victoria had 8,000 licences and NSW 4,000. This initial boom in Victoria was attributed to interest in the Olympic Games but as 1957 progressed, Melbourne July 2006  19 The top show for adults was ‘I Love Lucy’ and for children, ‘The Mickey Mouse Club’. Along with their own brand, AWA produced Westinghouse badged receivers in their factory. Re-badging was common in television, like electronics manufacturers today. Large stores including Maples and Myers also sold house re-badged brands, like the ‘Maple Leaf’, manufactured by Astor. The power of advertising. A Camera Control unit for the Marconi on previous page. continued to lead television receiver sales. Bob Dyer’s quiz show “Pick a Box” started on ATN-7 and was simulcast on radio. A big “Pick a Box” winner was Barry Jones, who later became a federal member of parliament and Labor Science Minister. Barry Jones not only answered questions in considerable extra detail, he argued with some of the show’s answers – and usually won. During 1957, GTV-9 connected Melbourne with Sydney for the first time, via five mountain-top microwave links in an exercise called ‘Operation Kangaroo’. Australian content included ‘The Happy Show’ with Happy Hammond, broadcast from the Myer store window, though an OB van in the basement. Five hundred people watched the first show from the street. Then every evening at 5.30, crowds gathered for the show, made under the brilliant illumination of three banks of arc-lighting. Strong lighting was needed to compensate for the relatively low sensitivity of television cameras and white shirts were avoided, due to the image blooming and smearing of the camera tubes. Titles and drawings were filmed from flip-cards. Cameramen were dressed in suits or dust-coats and communicated to the director through throat microphones, headphones and hand signals. In April 1957, the Tarax Drinks Managing Director wrote to channel 9 to advise their sponsorship of the Tarax Happy Show had been so successful, they were continuing their sponsorship at a higher level and immediately allocating one hundred thousand pounds for plant and equipment to cope with increased sales. AWA models included the 17-inch 203T and the first This DIY TV design was described in the May, June and July 1957 issues of “Radio, TV and Hobbies”. 20  Silicon Chip siliconchip.com.au a ‘matter of life and death’ to the consumer, servicemen could work 15 hours, 7 days! They butcher on Sunday, we fix properly on Monday Inside a Marconi MkIV camera. Note the large blower and cathode ray tube for the camerman’s viewfinder. 21-inch 90° tube models, the 204T table, 205C console lowboy and 206C console with doors. These also featured the deluxe chassis, but with 24 valves. Additional 5AS4 rectifiers (two in parallel) handled the extra load. Later, in November 1957, AWA’s standard 17-valve chassis was introduced, the 209C 17-inch followed by the 21-inch 212C in December. The television industry originally predicted 17-inch receivers would dominate demand – the best compromise between screen size, clarity and cost. In fact, 21-inch models quickly became top sellers, as the 625-line transmission system gave excellent picture definition, without obtrusive raster lines being evident. Soon giant 23-inch sets were also available. Department stores established in-store radio and TV service departments. In addition to offering best service to customers, people with sets needing repair would pass the furniture and store’s products on display, potentially attracting more sales. Two things concerned the public about television ownership – the high purchase price and fears the expensive picture tube would fail. This was not helped by early guesstimates that picture tubes only lasted about three years. Invariably, as servicemen arrived at a home for a TV repair, they were met by a worried owner, sure the problem was the tube. This was capitalised on, with companies offering service contracts or insurance. Unfortunately, the need for TV service also attracted ‘cowboys’ and unscrupulous operators. Of course, tube life was far better than this, including cases of sets still performing well beyond 15 years. Thomas Tubes’ Melbourne manager said the emission life was largely determined by the number of sweeps of the cathodes by the spray gun operator. RCA Raytheon and Sylvania seemed to be particularly generous. Large service companies began, with ‘radio controlled’ service. Separate sections handled antennas, workshop pick-up and delivery plus spare parts feeder vans. Technicians started from home and averaged eight calls per eight hour day (more with overtime), finishing at home around 5-10pm. Once a week the technicians would visit their base for restock and technical updates. In the early years when a TV receiver breakdown was siliconchip.com.au Generally extreme hours were only offered by the crooks in the trade, like the one listed in the yellow pages under every alphabetical letter. Their itemised accounts for a workshop repair were deceptive, like ‘adjustment of horizontal drive’, a five second job – for fifteen pounds! The crook was featured prominently in the ‘reveal all’ Truth newspaper, lived in Melbourne’s most expensive suburb, Toorak, sent his kids to the best schools and ran his own debt collection agency. He even had the front to appear on an ABV2 interview and wondered what all the fuss was about. An employee said he was a capable technician but he would assign an apprentice or slower person work on the repair for a long time. When it was evident they would not get anywhere, he would take over and find the fault quite quickly – but the customer would be billed for the total time. He had the greatest assemblage of test equipment ever seen in one place. It completely covered one wall from bench height to the ceiling. This myriad of red indicators and blinking numbers could be seen by customers through the shop front window. Very impressive – but not used, especially when no staff were there late at night. Independent radio repairmen in 1956 without retailer connections were at a disadvantage by not having many television sets, installations and faults to learn on. 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South Guildford email sales<at>elan.com.au www.elan.com.au Western Australia 6055 July 2006  21 For programming with tight deadlines, like news and sports, it was not uncommon for 16mm film to be sent to telecine still damp from processing! Given no inexpensive recording options, most entertainment was broadcast live, ‘warts and all’, with memorable moments, due to no editing possibilities. These include Rover the dog starring on In Melbourne Tonight, doing what a dog needs to do – a puddle on the floor – plus performers occasionally exclaiming adjectives not in more genteel vocabularies. 1959 was a big year “We’re testing it now Mr. Jones. Looks like you need a new picture tube.” A topical cartoon from the August 1959 issue of Radio, TV and Hobbies – itself from an earlier edition of “Radio Electronics.” Unfortunately this was often too close to the truth . . . ranties and insurance policies meant that any service was closely tied to the retailer for quite a while. Occasionally there were disputes between a TV technician and the antenna installer/repairer, whether a snowy picture was due to an antenna fault or the receiver (two-storey building and no portable on hand). This was a good reason for always using folded dipoles, rather than the open ended fan type, so a feeder continuity reading was possible. Service technician John Williamson recalls receiving a service call to a rural area with no house numbers. Armed with a description of the house, he travelled the dirt road until he saw a farmhouse. Nobody was home, but the door was unlocked – not unusual in those days –- so he soon found the TV. Sure enough, it had faults, which John fixed and then proceeded down the road. To his consternation, a little further down there was a house that better fitted the description. He had repaired the wrong TV! There was no option but to repair the right one and wonder what the lucky neighbour thought of the set mysteriously fixing itself. Video tape recording Ampex USA was the leading force in VTRs and in 1955 began to see usable images on recorders. The challenge was to fit massively greater information on tape than sound. On November 30th 1956, Ampex made the first American video recorder, an impressive recorder with four (quad) spinning heads, rotating at 14,400 rpm. Thirty-two passes of the heads composed one picture frame. Still, Australian television was not to have access to video recorders until 1959, so our only recording option was ‘telerecording’, using a kinescope. This involved simply pointing a 16mm film camera at a monitor – which explains why some historical footage is low quality. 16mm film was the only alternative. This was expensive and delayed the broadcast but was top quality. With news and overseas programming only on 16mm film, TV stations had state-of-the-art 16mm projection telecines, 16mm cameras (field and studio) and even in-house movie film processing labs. 22  Silicon Chip New South Wales began to lead in TV ownership, overtaking Victoria’s early 2 to 1 lead. Now NSW boasted 350,536 licences, compared to Victoria’s 301,138. Tasmania trailed with just 87 licences. QTQ9 Brisbane began test transmissions but Darwin had to wait many more years for TV. ATN-7 was the first Australian station with a videotape recorder. The Ampex recorder was a huge quadruplex reelto-reel unit with massive 2-inch tapes – so bulky, each tape case included a carry handle! Due to their expense, tapes were wiped and re-used, until too many drop-outs appeared, so many classic TV moments were lost. Other stations purchased recorders soon after, at a jawdropping thirty thousand pounds each! The quality was very good at the time, so the quad format was in use until the late 70’s. As labour-saving appliances flooded the market, industry grew, and cars had little ignition suppression, television reception suffered. Government technical investigations suggested the common herringbone pattern on Ch 2 was attributed to ‘a transmission frequency variance from the 36 meg frequency used in Australian sets’. The Control Board also recommended a new set of intermediate frequencies. Since television began, Australians have wanted a higher local content. 1959 was no exception, with one writer lamenting stations were following the easy advertising dollar ‘by using packaged-shows of second-rate American films, instead of the hard-won Australian variety show.’ Game shows like the BP Show were huge. Often based on American concepts, viewers were dismayed to hear in 1959 that the American Senate Committee found ‘fixers seduced and coached innocent quiz contestants’. Australia held its head high, with top quality productions like Shell Presents, broadcasting new live plays every week. GTV9 continued to lead with the most popular live shows. Generally the only programs still surviving since 1956 were comedy dramas, with Maverick the most popular western by far. In 1959, drama peaked at 49.5% of viewing time, with variety and talent just 9.3% and children’s also a low 11.2%. Any popularity list should include Father Knows Best, I Love Lucy, Beaver, Bilco (all American) and Graham Kennedy’s In Melbourne Tonight. Teens were excited by the Johnny O’Keefe-produced Six O’clock Rock. 1960 – still do-it-yourself In the 20s to the 40s, people were encouraged to make and repair radio receivers. Despite the infinitely greater complexity and high-voltage dangers of television, books like ‘Australian Television Yearbook’ showed how anyone could fix faults. There wasn’t a circuit in sight but statesiliconchip.com.au ments like ‘90 percent of faults are the valve’, encouraged the amateur sleuth. High-voltage warnings were included, easily overlooked by an enthusiastic amateur. You want fries with that? In 1957, mains voltages in some suburbs and rural areas fluctuated between a low 160 to 200 volts at night, particularly in winter, reaching highs of 255-260 volts. This was due to fewer electricity supply transformers, switching stations and regulators. Excessive voltage caused faults like EHT arc-over, EHT socket and valve breakdown, oversized pictures and numerous component failures. Under-voltage opened up a can of worms. Customers would call with faults like a small picture. Often this was too-easily solved by changing the mains tap on the set to a lower one, not advisable, as it fried the set when the mains supply later rose and/or missed the true problem. In fact, the fault may have been just the vertical oscillator plate resistor going high after the set had been on a while – especially if the TV remained on from children’s viewing time. Changing the transformer tap resulted in up to 100 volts more B+ HT, plus nearly 8 volts on filaments and higher EHT voltages. This preceded an estimated 60 percent decrease in component life, with capacitors and valves greatly exceeding their limits. One owner changed his TV to the 200 volt tap, then was notified by supply authorities his mains supply was upgraded to 240 volts. On returning the tap to 240 volts, the receiver lost horizontal hold, so he reverted to 200 volts. siliconchip.com.au Within two weeks, the picture tube had given up – expensive, the right voltage only needed a simple adjustment of the horizontal hold. Servicemen were faced with the dilemma of solving voltage problems outside the design criteria of equipment. Even a VTVM powered by the mains would introduce its own error, showing approximately double the actual voltage drop. John Williamson again: “I was called to look at a set which had five valves replaced in four weeks under a service contract, now expired. After changing the mains tap from the (incorrect) 210 volt setting, the true faults like a shorted capacitor across the stabiliser coil and other troubles were fixed and the TV gave reliable viewing.” Valves mainly suffered after a time on a low mains tap setting. When reset correctly, faults appeared in most areas of the set. However in the interests of longevity and fewer service-calls, the correct move was to the right mains tap. Problems may not exhibit fully (or at all) when the serviceman arrived, so John Williamson called his Variac (variable mains unit with output meter) the technician’s best friend. Television was becoming a must-have and technology was SC adding more features each year. NEXT MONTH: Australian Television comes of age and valve technology reaches its peak. Credits and references are shown at: www.aaa1.biz/sc.html July 2006  23