SWITCHES were flicked and dials were turned in hundreds of district homes at the weekend as the miracle of television hit like an epidemic.
TV is not new to Sunraysia, but TV of the quality viewers received at the weekend is new.
Mildura came at the end of the line as far as television was concerned in Victoria.
Places such as Ballarat and Bendigo have had TV stations for two or three years.
But the timing at the end of the line have helped bring to this area TV that developed through the mistakes and the progress of others.
On Friday and Saturday, viewers who had their sets on Channel 4 saw a direct telecast of cricket being played at Melbourne Cricket Ground between Victoria and the touring MCC side.
Some of the feature films on the ABC network for Victoria during the past few nights have also been seen on Channel 4.
The cricket and these films were fed into Mildura by technicians of the Post Master General’s Department who will hand over ABMV4 to the ABC.
From 3.55pm today, television will come to northwestern Victoria as a regular service by relay from the ABC’s Melbourne studios.
Equipment making this relay possible will be operated and maintained by PMG staff.
On Saturday night and again last night, viewers saw test programs from the commercial station STV8.
These programs were not relayed, but came direct from the station’s studios at Mildura.
The ABC programs will come to viewers through a system of repeater stations strung through the Mallee scrub to the southwest.
Those from STV8 will come from studios on land which, only a few years ago, stood the workshop of Mildura Urban Water Trust.
Such is progress, TV is here, and for most Sunraysia people it will change their way of life.
The TV set and that high antenna will no longer be some social status symbol.
School examinations begin this week to give parents their first test of control in the TV era.
