[Maddison Dwyer]

Black and white TV days​

I saw this post on the 'Australia Remember When' Facebook page and I just had to share it with you all.

Remember when you would fall asleep in front of the telly and wake up to the test pattern with the annoying white noise? The kids these days wouldn't believe it! TV now runs 24/7 now but there was a time when TV stations would switch their transmission signal on at 9 o'clock in the morning and the first program would commence much later in the day. The 'Australia Remember When' Facebook page even did some research into TV scheduling back in the 1960s and here's what they found:
'Looking at the line up for Channel 9 on 12th February 1960 (the days of black and white TV), it shows; 9.30am Test Pattern, Music and at 1pm 'Thursday At One'. Bert Newton, Laurel Young, Lesley Webster.'

No breakfast TV?! Can you believe it 'Programs then continued throughout the day until 11.30pm for the 'Epilogue' and finally 11.35pm; Close. Yes, they switched the transmitter off!'

Who remembers black and white TV and the transmitter being turned on and off?! It's seems like a lifetime ago nowadays, eh?

Black and white TV. Image source: Australia Remember When.

 

[Dennis]

I can remember in the UK watching for about 8 hrs. the coronation and the festivities after of Qheen Elizabeth on a 9 inch black and white tv.

 

[Richard12]

Yes I remember this clearly. The picture brought back many memories especially when you then turned the tv off. You would then stay and watch it quickly decrease into a point that slowly disappeared and you waited until it was totally gone. In our minds, the tv was not out until that was gone.

 

[Benny's Light]

Black and white TV days​

I saw this post on the 'Australia Remember When' Facebook page and I just had to share it with you all.

Remember when you would fall asleep in front of the telly and wake up to the test pattern with the annoying white noise? The kids these days wouldn't believe it! TV now runs 24/7 now but there was a time when TV stations would switch their transmission signal on at 9 o'clock in the morning and the first program would commence much later in the day. The 'Australia Remember When' Facebook page even did some research into TV scheduling back in the 1960s and here's what they found:
'Looking at the line up for Channel 9 on 12th February 1960 (the days of black and white TV), it shows; 9.30am Test Pattern, Music and at 1pm 'Thursday At One'. Bert Newton, Laurel Young, Lesley Webster.'

No breakfast TV?! Can you believe it 'Programs then continued throughout the day until 11.30pm for the 'Epilogue' and finally 11.35pm; Close. Yes, they switched the transmitter off!'

Who remembers black and white TV and the transmitter being turned on and off?! It's seems like a lifetime ago nowadays, eh?

View attachment 15952

Black and white TV. Image source: Australia Remember When.

 

[Benny's Light]

I remember the test patten. I also remember at the end of the night when the station closed ending in the national anthem - "God Save the Queen". Long time ago. We were the first in our street to have a colour television, a big teak 26 inch HMV TV with two speakers either side - a real furniture piece. The neighbours used to come in to watch the colour text patten for the experience of colour, it was a big deal. Children today would not believe what life was like back in the sixties and seventies, a simpler time when not everything was on tap in an instant.

 

[kerrikennel]

One of my earliest memories is waking during the night, and watching the milko with his horse and cart delivering milk in the wee hours.

 

[HappyPam]

Post war Britain and I was 9 yrs old. There was ONE TV in the entire street, and we all collected there to watch BBC news - in black and white!

 

[Jethrotull]

Loved watching the Micky Mouse club.. in black and white..

 

[maree12]

Black and white TV days​

I saw this post on the 'Australia Remember When' Facebook page and I just had to share it with you all.

Remember when you would fall asleep in front of the telly and wake up to the test pattern with the annoying white noise? The kids these days wouldn't believe it! TV now runs 24/7 now but there was a time when TV stations would switch their transmission signal on at 9 o'clock in the morning and the first program would commence much later in the day. The 'Australia Remember When' Facebook page even did some research into TV scheduling back in the 1960s and here's what they found:
'Looking at the line up for Channel 9 on 12th February 1960 (the days of black and white TV), it shows; 9.30am Test Pattern, Music and at 1pm 'Thursday At One'. Bert Newton, Laurel Young, Lesley Webster.'

No breakfast TV?! Can you believe it 'Programs then continued throughout the day until 11.30pm for the 'Epilogue' and finally 11.35pm; Close. Yes, they switched the transmitter off!'

Who remembers black and white TV and the transmitter being turned on and off?! It's seems like a lifetime ago nowadays, eh?

View attachment 15952

Black and white TV. Image source: Australia Remember When.

 

[maree12]

Certainly I remember Black & White TV, but we did not ever have the experience of colour, so we did not think it was really deprivation. As a kid we would not have been allowed to stay up late enough to see the test pattern come on, nor were we allowed to watch morning TV, we had to get to school! I think the programs were a lot better back then, none of these rubbish filler "reality TV"" or home makeover programs, there were REAL programs, series that were on a particular night every week precisely at 7.30, 8.30, or earlier, The full hour of NEWS ran from 6-7pm, it was not padded out with football or some other sport. Footy was shown live on Saturday and not shoved in our faces every night of the week. Sure nature programs are so much better now, as are live performance shows, like Australia's Got talent (maybe the replacement for CH 9 New Faces) wherein we can enjoy the colourful costumes, but since, a lot of the time, I am cooking, washing up whatever, I only listen to the TV, so the luxury of colour does not make any difference to me.

 

[RTS]

We saw TV once a year when we visited the city from the country and had dinner at my aunt's.
I was fifteen before transmission towers were installed and everyone got a TV.
It was another few years before colour.

 

[Wandiwa]

Another bit of trivia: Up to the mid 1980's all of Perth's street lights use to turn off at twenty past one in the morning.

 

[MotherGoose]

The best thing about black and white TV days was the complete absence of "reality" shows.

 

[Gsr]

I remember black and white tv. One neighbour in our little country area rented one, it would have been in the early 60s so a few years after tv became a thing. We gathered once a week, usually a Saturday night at their house to watch it, the rent was paid by feeding two shilling pieces into the side of the tv, everyone contributed on the night. If the money ran out the tv stopped so there was a mad scramble to find a two shilling to restart it. We all watched til the end of the night and the test patterns came on, then all the sleeping children were carried to the car by parents and off home we went. Children were carried inside and put to bed. The programs were all family friendly back then, none of the lifestyle crap shows they have on now, they were shows that people could and did enjoy watching. We could not afford a tv ourselves until the late 60s, then it was paid off over a couple of years as a lot of people did back then. I remember taking turns to run around with the aerial til we found the best spot to get the clearest reception, this was a regular thing as a good spot one day did not stay the same the next day.