The article is divided into the following sections:

History Programming News

History

The original licence to operate Brisbane's third commercial TV station was assigned to Universal Telecasters Queensland Limited with a major shareholder being Ansett Transport Industries, who also owned ATV-0 in Melbourne. The new channel was assigned channel 0 on the VHF band. The alternative frequency, 10, was not available as it was already being used in the neighbouring Darling Downs region (DDQ-10) and to use it in Brisbane would cause interference.

Test transmissions on TVQ-0 commenced on Monday 22 March 1965 from a transmitter at Mt Coot-tha in Brisbane. Test transmissions consisted of test patterns and 'demonstration films' (mostly educational or short films - broadcasting rules prohibited any form of mainstream or general-interest programming during test transmissions) between the hours 9.00am and 8.00pm weekdays, and 1.30pm to 8.00pm weekends - enabling the tuning in of TV receivers to the new station. Like its Melbourne counterpart ATV-0, TVQ embarked on a campaign to ensure that all TV households in Brisbane could receive the new channel 0 frequency.

Reception of the new channel was reported in nearby regional areas such as the Gold Coast, Bundaberg and Darling Downs with the most distant report coming from Cairns in the far north of Queensland.

Unlike its sister stations in Sydney (TEN-10) and Melbourne (ATV-0) that marked their opening nights with special event programming, TVQ-0 opted to start with normal programming. The station joined the Independent Television Network (later re-titled the 0-10 Network) with TEN-10, ATV-0 and SAS-10 (Adelaide).

In 1970, Ansett bought out the remaining share of Universal Telecasters and in 1980 sold the station to Sydney radio station 2SM and petroleum company Ampol.

Colour transmission began officially in 1975. In 1980, TVQ-0 and its rival Brisbane stations commenced transmission in the Gold Coast on UHF translator stations. TVQ-0's relay in the Gold Coast broadcasts on TVQ-46. Also in the early 1980s, TVQ-0 adopted the on-air branding "TV0".

In 1984, Christopher Skase's Qintex group purchased TVQ-0 from 2SM and Ampol. In 1987, changes to media ownership laws enabled Skase to purchase the Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane members of the Seven Network which meant TVQ-0 had to be sold. The station was sold to regional telecaster Darling Downs TV (DDQ-10), based in nearby Toowoomba. Upon DDQ's purchase of the station, their first decision was to swap the two stations frequencies, which would bring TVQ into line with its interstate network counterparts that are all broadcasting on channel 10.

On 10 September 1988, TVQ-0 switched to TVQ-10, and DDQ-10 in Toowoomba (broadcasting as "Vision TV") switched to DDQ-0. The switchover was timed to roughly coincide with Network Ten's telecast of the 1988 Olympic Games, due to begin the following weekend. (the Gold Coast relay station stayed unchanged on channel 46)

Also in 1988, TVQ-0 was host broadcaster for World Expo 88 which was held in Brisbane from April to October that year. The highlight of TVQ's coverage was a weekly half-hour programme This Week At Expo which was screened on Network Ten every weekend for the duration of Expo.

TVQ-10 commenced digital transmission on 1 January 2001 on VHF channel 11, in simulcast with the analogue channel 10 broadcast.

Programming

TVQ's game show Moneymakers with Philip Brady, launched in 1971, was taken up by the 0-10 Network nationally. After the demise of Moneymakers, Brady took on hosting another TVQ game show Casino 10 in 1976.

TVQ is a major contributor of children's programming for Network Ten, having produced such programmes as science/general interest programme Totally Wild, news programme The Total News (TTN) and pre-schooler's programme In The Box.

News

Early news bulletins on the station were restricted only to five minute news summaries in the evenings. It was 1974 before the first regular evening news bulletin appeared.

On 3 May 1974, the first regular TVQ-0 news bulletin went to air. The first bulletin was put together at the city offices of (then) Brisbane radio station 4IP, and then taken to TVQ-0 for transmission.

Although its network partners were using the title Eyewitness News, the name was already adopted in Brisbane by BTQ-7. TVQ then used an alternative title News Watch.

By the early 1980s, BTQ-7 had relinquished the name, and TVQ-0 took on the Eyewitness News title in line with its network counterparts.

In 1985, TVQ-0 started to produce their own one-hour Eyewitness News bulletin. Unlike previous attempts by the other channels, the one-hour news format proved to be a success for TVQ.

For World Expo 88, from April to October 1988, TVQ relocated its newsroom to the Expo site for the six month duration, enabling public demonstration of its newsroom operations.

At about this time, TVQ-0 was also producing its own weekly current affairs program, Newsmaker Sunday.

The name changed to TEN News in September 1988, following the conversion to TVQ-10. However a re-branding of the entire network in July 1989 saw the news revert back to the Eyewitness News name as directed by managing director Bob Shanks.

In January 1990, the name changed again to TEN Evening News, adapting the title from the American CBS Evening News. By this stage, the one-hour bulletin was shortened to 30-minutes at 6.00pm, followed by a local current affairs program Brisbane With Anna McMahon.

By the end of 1990, the TEN Network was in financial ruin and massive budget cuts saw Brisbane With Anna McMahon cancelled. In January 1991, the relaunch of TEN as The Entertainment Network brought yet another revival of the Eyewitness News branding.

In April 1991, TEN resumed the one-hour news bulletin and in January 1992, Eyewitness News moved to the 5.00pm timeslot. In 1994, the title changed again to TEN News.

Newsreaders at TVQ over the years have included David Jull, Brian Cahill, Des McWilliam, Jo Pearson, Jacki MacDonald, Kay McGrath, Rob Readings, Chris Collins, Anna McMahon, Glenn Taylor, Geoff Mullins, Tracey Spicer, Marie-Louise Thiele and Bill McDonald.

Controversy has also sprung at the TVQ newsdesk. Newsreader Glenn Taylor was sacked from the station after an on-air incident where he followed a story about a sportsperson being suspended - to which he quipped "by the testicles" - unaware that the microphone was still on. In June 2000, Marie-Louise Thiele also got caught out when an off-air conversation with newsreading partner Geoff Mullins continued following the end of the commercial break. Thiele was making comments about her husband, describing him as "this arsehole I'm married to..." before realising that they were back on-air. A very awkward apology followed the next night. Thiele kept her job - and her marriage.

References:

Beck, Christopher (1988) The Magic of Television (TV0/World Expo 88 Special Edition), Brisbane: Network Ten (Qld) Ltd.