Updated September 25th 2005, Sydney Australia 

TV NEWS APPEALS TO A YOUNGER, FRESHER IMAGE. On October 22nd 2002, an icon in Australian broadcasting, Brian Henderson - read the news for the last time. Fondly known as "Hendo", Henderson was the "Dan Rather" of Australian News anchoring. He read the 6pm news nightly on The Nine Network, and was replaced by the next in line - Jim Whaley, who had been reading the late news for years and was in his fifties. Then management changed at The Nine Network, and some startling - if not risky - new ideas came into play. They ditched Whaley and replaced him with a much younger, trendier Mark Fergusin. Jim Whaley was put out to roost just months after he reached the top spot - the peak of his career, a spot he had spent decades clutching at. As we've seen for many years, female newsreaders HAVE to be young and good-looking. Have you ever seen a female newsreader in her fifties? It just doesn't happen. And now the same is happening for male newsreaders - or so Nine would have it. Nine's biggest challenger The Seven Network, has long-standing and older Ian Ross as it's anchor. It has put out promo's which say "Experience is what matters in News" as a swipe at Nine's new younger newsreader approach. It all seems a little silly to me anyway. Does a news anchor have to have all that experience? After all, they are just reading the news, other people's copy - from a comfortable desk in a studio surrounded by a whole team of experts. Well, maybe it does matter, because - for the first time ever (I think)- Channel Seven are beating The Nine Network in Sydney for the 6pm news spot. AUSTRALIAN TV TURNS 50 It may be a young country, but Australia managed to get TV up and running just about as quickly as the British. In 1955, folks in Sydney and Melbourne were treated to this new medium. It wasn't until the mid to late sixties network TV appeared. You have to remember the sheer size of Australia! To commemorate this landmark Channel Nine are doing a special tonight prime time "50 years, 50 shows", showing footage going right back to the first broadcast. If you click the logo on the left you can see a video promo for the show. Geeks like me will be sitting goggle-eyed in front of the telly tonight. I love this stuff! PS: There are some outdated links further down on this page - apologies - I'll clear it up soon. WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE ALERTED WHEN THIS SITE IS UPDATED? Just email me here and I'll send you an alert when the site is updated

The views expressed on this site are not necessarily those of it's owners. These views are expressly my own.