Progress on the website content development front, though steady, is not progressing as fast as I would like it to - perhaps I have not been enthusiastic enough in promoting this site, nor perhaps have I been researching enough (well, this is a hobby for me!), nor perhaps have I stated clearly the kind of information I am after - I am hoping with this post to change all of that!

As the name of the initiative (complete with gimmicky hyphens and capitalisation - sue me!) suggests, what I am after is for keen individuals to "adopt a station" - that is, pick any one of the 87 free-to-air television stations and networks featured on the site and research/write all they can about the station. At the moment, there is a dearth of information available on this subject on the World Wide Web, but you can help me rectify this!

A 'complete' article

The following is what I deem to be a "complete article" (an Internet article is of course never complete, but completeness is what we're aiming for here...):

1. Brief description of the station - company name, studio location, date of commencement of transmission, station owner(s), coverage area, etc...;

2. A complete, chronological history of the station;

3. A list of programmes (with brief descriptions of the programmes);

4. A list of station personalities;

   (if you've got detailed information on 3. and 4. do consider writing an article on them in the TV Shows and Personalities sections respectively)

5. Pictures of station logos/identities, list of slogans, etc.;

6. Appropriate pictures of station events, programmes, personalities, studio shots, etc.;

7. Complete list of references to newspapers/magazines/books/pictures etc. used in preparing the article.

Other extra information may include descriptions of the studio and transmitter facilities.

The length of the article can be as long as it needs to be - we are not limited by publishing constraints - there are, of course, the (ever-decreasing) practical constraints on downloading to consider...

Where to look

• I've found during my research 'adventures' that the best place to look is in the local newspapers published at the time (which can be convieniently read on microfilmed copies at many libraries) - you can find quite a bit of information there in the form of news and promotional articles, advertisements, pictures, logos, sometimes even 'letters to the editor' regarding a station.

  Note that quite often the local newspaper(s) would often have a financial interest in the station being researched, therefore, there tends to be a bias in favour of the station - rarely would anything critical of the station be published (unless of course it's published by a rival newspaper that quite often controls a rival station!).

  As libraries hold hundreds of reels of microfilm, your best research strategy would be to look at reels from dates corresponding to landmark events of the stations - they might, in turn, reference other landmark dates. If you've got the time you could go through each reel, one-by-one - by all means, go about it that way - but who has the time? (I know I don't)

• Libraries might even hold copies of the stations' annual reports - naturally they would often be blighted with self-congratulatory bias as well - nevertheless they're still useful if you can get your hands on them.

• Television-related magazines (including programme listings guides) are most definitely useful, being dedicated to the subject and all! Watch out for bias again...

• Books on the various stations are useful too! (Don't forget, bias..)

• Television specials and the programmes produced by the stations themselves (if you've got a hold of these, please consider donating a copy to us!)

• If you have worked at (or know someone who has worked at) a particular television station, please tell us about your experiences - maybe help clear up some myths perpetuated by print media! Remember though, this site does not intend to become a 'rumour mill', we want to remain as factual as possible!

• If you've got relevant pictures, please post them to us or scan and email them to us.

What's my payment?

• Access to the Downloads section (if the information/pictures you provide are good enough!)

• An overall feeling of satisfaction knowing that you've made a wortwhile contribution!

In closing...

So, if you have a free day, or if you really have nothing better to do, please consider donating some of your time and effort towards researching and writing an article for this site. Pop 'round to your local, State or the National library one day - they're bound to have something of value there! Feel free to "adopt" another station (or another, etc!) if you so wish...

I thank everyone who has a made a website contribution so far...let's hope that there are many, many more contributions in the future!

As the maintainers of an archive of Australian television history, we hope to preserve the history of Australian television in all its forms, including the informational aspect.

Thanks for reading - it's a lovely gesture!

Who's up to the challenge!?

bigdan wrote:

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One question:

How do we get images into the articles?

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X10TEN wrote:

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I'd like to adopt SBS :)

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southeastsa wrote:

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There's a goldmine of stuff in the State Library of SA! I am going to progressively go through every issue of "The Murray Pioneer" and "The Loxton News" (Riverland newspapers) from 1975. The other day I found many articles about 5A's launch!

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Oh, good on ya - can't wait to see the fruits of your labour!

If I were you, though, I'd actually start looking at least from 1970 onwards, so you can get a better idea of the station's pre-history...as you know, TV stations don't just materialise out of nothing.

tbozic wrote:

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southeastsa wrote:

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There's a goldmine of stuff in the State Library of SA! I am going to progressively go through every issue of "The Murray Pioneer" and "The Loxton News" (Riverland newspapers) from 1975. The other day I found many articles about 5A's launch!

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Oh, good on ya - can't wait to see the fruits of your labour!

If I were you, though, I'd actually start looking at least from 1970 onwards, so you can get a better idea of the station's pre-history...as you know, TV stations don't just materialise out of nothing.

Hopefully, both papers have been indexed, so that you don't have to labouriously go through every single issue.

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Thanks for the advice! I'm not aware of the papers being indexed, however the Loxton News only has one issue per week, and the Murray Pioneer two issues, so it doesn't take long to go through six months' worth. I might head back there tomorrow!

So I will galdy adopt channel 7 and o brisbane.