The article is divided into the following sections:

History The Beginning Programming Sports Victorian Football League Variety News References

History

The Beginning

From the moment in 1953 that Prime Minister Menzies announced that applications for the acquisition of television broadcasting licences in Australia were to be accepted, it was widely believed that the most interest in obtaining broadcast licences would originate from the newspaper publishers. Indeed, the first two commercial licences issued for the Melbourne metropolitan area in mid-1955 by the the Federal Government were backed by the newspapers - one went to General Television Limited (partly owned by the Argus newspaper), which started GTV and the other was granted to The Herald and Weekly Times Limited, owners of The Herald and The Sun News-Pictorial newspapers (hence the call sign HSV). Licence bids backed by the Australian Labor Party and a bizarrely-named fourth bidder in Mack's Happy Home Furniture missed out. The winning bidders visited the offices of the Australian Broadcasting Control Board and pulled numbers from a hat to determine which channel number each of the stations would broadcast on - GTV selected the number 9 and HSV selected 7.

After acquiring their licence to broadcast on April 18, 1955, HSV acquired studio space on Dorcas Street in South Melbourne (where they remained until HSV-7 moved to Melbourne's Docklands in the 2000s - HSV still maintains and uses the Dorcas Street complex). In preparing for HSV's impending commencement of transmission, HSV's senior staff were sent to WEWS TV in Cleveland, Ohio, USA to learn the basics of running a television station. July 16 1956 saw HSV succeed in sending a signal to its Mt Dandenong receiver and back to South Melbourne. An outside broadcast van was brought from England - it was to be HSV's only full OB van until colour television arrived in 1975.

During the 1950s/60s HSV operated a teletheatre on Johnston Street, Fitzroy. In 1957, HSV7 joined sister radio station 3DB and newspaper Sporting Globe in the annual Royal Childrens Hospital Good Friday Appeal.

Programming

Sports

HSV7's legendary sports programme World Of Sport began on Saturday afternoons in 1959, but soon moved to Sunday afternoons where it remained for 28 years. The programme was cancelled following the takeover of HSV7 by Sydney-based Fairfax Holdings in 1987, and was replaced by a relay of ATN7's Sportsworld

Victorian Football League

At 4.15pm on the 20th April 1957, Victorian Rules football was first broadcast live on HSV. It was a Collingwood and Essendon match at Victoria Park. Tony Charlton introduced the coverage along with Bill Collins, Doug Elliot, John Coleman and Jack Dyer. Such was the lack of equipment in the early days of HSV,that the football coverage would finish with only 2 cameras at the ground,as the third had to be rushed back to Dorcas Street to cover the news.

HSV7's association with the Victorian Football League (VFL) continued until 1987 when the broadcast rights were taken over by Broadcom, who onsold the telecast rights to ABC TV in Victoria and commercial stations interstate. Seven regained VFL (now AFL) coverage in 1988 but lost again in 2001 after opting not to bid against the Nine/Ten/Foxtel's bid to take over AFL telecast rights for 2002-2006. Seven has now aligned with the Ten Network to bid for AFL telecast rights for season 2007 onwards.

The football replay was an institution on HSV. Football Inquest was another. Mike Williamson hosted it and it ran until 1974 every Saturday at 7pm on HSV7.

Variety

The Penthouse Club featuring live variety, harness racing and the Tattslotto draw, ran Saturday nights from 1970 to 1979, changing its name in its final year to Saturday Night Live.

News

Geoff Raymond was one of HSV's early newsreaders. He left HSV to go to ATV-0, then ABV-2.

Brian Naylor headed the top-rating Seven National News during the 1970s until moving to GTV-9 in 1979. Many thought David Johnston would take over as anchor of the nightly news, however, Mal Walden took over chief newsreading role. David Johnston left HSV choosing to buy a newsagency for a while before heading back to television in 1980 as ATV-10's main newsreader for the next 15 years. Walden then too became a victim of the Fairfax takeover in 1987, and was replaced by a Perth import Greg Pearce. The public backlash against the revamped Seven National News saw ratings fall to virtually zero.

In 1988, new management replaced Pearce with a new newsreading team Jennifer Keyte (previously at ATV-10) and Glenn Taylor, and a retitled bulletin Seven Nightly News. The revamped news and a new current affairs programme Hinch At Seven (1988-1991) gave Seven a more competitive news and current affairs lineup.

In 1990, Taylor was dumped from Seven Nightly News&joined TVQ-10 in Brisbane, leaving Jennifer Keyte as sole newsreader, a role she maintained until 1995. David Johnston returned to HSV-7 in 1996 to take on the newsreading role, being joined by Anne Fulwood in 1999.

In 2000, Johnston and Fulwood were both replaced by former weekend newsreader Peter Mitchell. Johnston then fronted the national 4.30 Seven News bulletin, until September 23, 2005 when he retired from the newsdesk after an outstanding career that began way back in 1959.

Rebecca Maddern now heads the 4.30 bulletin while Jennifer Keyte heads the weekend bulletin.

1960 You're on Seven, This is Herald-Sun TV

1964 HSV7 Tops The Lot!

1965-66 Melbourne's Sold on HSV Channel 7!

1967 Look For The Seven

Christmas 1970: Christmas in Melbourne

1971-72 This is Seven, Looking Good

1973-74 Seven, Something Special

1975 (Mar. 1-Aug. 31) SSSSSSS Seven Colour Television

1979 You're on Seven

1980-81 Seven is a Part of You

Summer 1981/82 Summer is a Part of You

1982 Take a Bow

1983 Sevensational

1984 Be There

1985-87 Hello Melbourne

1986 (Nov.) Entertaining Melbourne

1989 Nobody Knows Melbourne Like Seven

Early 1999 Melbourne's Alive!

2005 (Aug. 22) Melbourne is Seven

2005 (Nov. 4) Our 50th Begins!

2006 (Aug-Sept) 7 Melbourne - 50 Years On

References

Roberts, Michael (2001) Heart of the Game: 45 Years of Football on Television, Victoria, Australia: Hardie Grant (ISBN: 1097227)