Featured here are the Dec 3rd 2013 TV News Reports on the analogue tv system shut down in Sydney from ABN 2 & ATN 7 as they were respectively identified when television in Sydney began for Channel 2 in September 1956 and Channel Seven on 2nd December 1956.
It’s weird feeling nostalgic for a mode of TV system, analogue terrestrial broadcasting, as electronics has advanced so much since television began but for those who can remember, 40 & over, I guess it’s the passing of time and change and turning off what was ostensibly running since 1956 well, it’s a reminder of an era long gone and all the people and values that time period stood for up until about 2000.
I love the quality of DVBT when its good and watching analogue on a plasma screen was the equivalent of watching a VHS video as the two modes definitely don’t complement each other.
The main Sydney digital channels still identify themselves to their VHF Origins but that legacy appears a bit quaint, as the identification they still use for main channels seems irrelevant as the idea of the mode of transmission these days is very broad and maybe the originators struggle to survive in a world of media convergence.
Licensed Terrestrial Broadcasters are desperately trying to cling to their idea of monopoly and invincibility when all around them, minus an actual transmitter, all of us in some way can transmit an idea or image or concept without the aid of them and their business conglomerate, broadly speaking.
I guess the passing of analogue on a human level reminds me of how sterile things appear now. To draw a strange kind of analogy, analogue was like a human, not infallible and prone to vagaries of distance transmission distortion, imperfections in its state of being like humans but digital as a broadcast system, is a very precise transmission and clinical in its overall manner of being and we can as humans attempt to be clinical and perfect in every way but it’s not possible, though I think the soul of humanity is fading through over pervasive technology.
Analogue in its early stages appeared more imperfect and human like and went out of its way to warm and charm us, by contrast the digital broadcast age appears more cold, literally picture perfect and superficially glossy, something which we must aspire to be ? TV doesn’t charm as much anymore, it’s a cool almost harsh world of reality, sold as entertainment.
I don’t want to go back in time and bury my head in the sand and walk blindly, though I think we could go back a bit the other way and offer more humanity and hope in our lives on tv than just bottom line based unscripted reality and song show downs.
Maybe showing my age but I remember more and derive more inspiration from good scripted tv, than I ever did watching just a bunch of live images with a few competition carrots thrown in.
I say thanks to the pioneers of the early television days and leave you with a final goodbye from Tommy Leonetti and the close down credits from ATN 7 Sydney.
XL Capris : My City Of Sydney 1979
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkspJuX7J9I&feature=youtu.be
Frenzal Rhomb : My City Of Sydney
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Li-5-Ke9J20
