ABC Adelaide turns 60
This was ABC's first TV building in Adelaide, broadcasting from 11th March 1960.
- Published by David Knox
- on
Today marks the 60th anniversary of ABC TV in Adelaide.
ABS2 began broadcasting on 11th March 1960 from its studios in Collinswood. Tregenna, an adjacent 1913 two-storey mansion became the station’s administration block.
It began with a 20-minute introduction featuring speeches from Postmaster-General Charles Davidson, South Australian Premier Sir Thomas Playford and Opposition Leader Michael O’Halloran.
This was followed by the first ABC News bulletin then US sitcom The Phil Silvers Show, a documentary on Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, Western series Tales Of Wells Fargo, British drama Boyd QC, a local documentary on Adelaide and a live music program before the documentary Growing Up With Guba.
Tregenna was demolished and replaced in 1974 by the current building, officially opened by Gough Whitlam. Colour TV arrived a year later.
In 2014 due to funding cuts ABC was forced to close production. Recent shows had included Poh’s Kitchen, The Cook & The Chef, Behind The News, Dream Build,
Source: TelevisionAU,
2 Responses
Just to make the point on the Adelaide television production closure, this was a long time in coming. Mark Scott’s email to staff said “The economics of the television sector make it difficult to maintain small-scale operations. It is more economically efficient to base production (outside news and current affairs) in Sydney and Melbourne” which had already been happening during the term of the previous government with shutdowns in all the other smaller capitals. Yes, Tony Abbott came in and cut the budget, but this was used as a smokescreen to announce all the other cuts that had to be made since 2010 to fund the 24-hour news channel when the previous government would not give Scott the funds he had asked for to do so..
Although I started my TV career in Sydney a move back to my home town working at Tregenna is where my career really took off. Tregenna was a lovely old building ,but offices were very cramped. Sadly it was demolished for bigger and better things. Thanks for the memory David.