QTQ

QTQ
Brisbane, Queensland
Branding Nine Queensland
Channels Digital: 8 (VHF)
Virtual: 9
Affiliations Nine (O&O)
Owner Nine Entertainment Co.
(Queensland Television Ltd)
First air date 16 August 1959
Call letters' meaning Quality
Television for
Queensland
Former channel number(s) Analog: 9 (VHF) (1959-2013)
Transmitter power 200 kW (analog)
50 kW (digital)
Height 327 m (analog)[1]
Transmitter coordinates 27°28′17″S 152°56′31″E / 27.47139°S 152.94194°E / -27.47139; 152.94194
Website 9now.com.au

QTQ is an Australian television station, licensed to, and serving Brisbane, Queensland. It is owned by the Nine Entertainment Co., and is part of the Nine Network. It broadcasts on VHF channel 9 (analog) and VHF channel 8 (digital). QTQ began broadcasting on 16 August 1959, the first of the Brisbane stations to launch. 2009 marked the 50 year anniversary for the station.

The station was an independent member of the network before Alan Bond purchased the station, and integrated it into the Nine Network when he had control of it in the 1980s.

Programming

Current in-house productions

Former in-house productions

News

QTQ-9's nightly news program is Nine News Queensland, presented on weeknights by Andrew Lofthouse and Melissa Downes, with Wally Lewis presenting sport, and Garry Youngberry presenting the weather. Jonathan Uptin is the weekend presenter, with Dominique Loudon presenting sport and Luke Bradnam presenting weather. Luke Bradnam also presents Beach and Fishing reports each Friday and Saturday evening.

Regular fill-in presenters for the bulletins include news presenters Wendy Kingston, Samantha Heathwood, Alison Ariotti and Aislin Kriukelis.

The bulletin is simulcast in Brisbane on commercial radio station River 94.9, across regional Queensland on Southern Cross Nine and throughout remote eastern and central Australia on Imparja Television. As of September 2017, weekend bulletins also air in Darwin.

Since 2014, QTQ-9 has produced local editions of Nine Live Queensland (as well as the Morning News until it was axed in October 2017) on weekdays. The bulletin is presented by Wendy Kingston (Monday – Wednesday) and Alison Ariotti (Thursday and Friday), sport is presented by Wally Lewis and Garry Youngberry on weather.

Presenter history

Wally Lewis was the weekday sports presenter until December 2006, when following an on-air incident, it was publicly revealed he had epilepsy. He returned to presenting weeknight sport during the 2007/2008 summer period, and also files sports reports.[2] Chris Bombolas was the weekend sports presenter who preceded Steve Haddan, before resigning to become a politician. John Schluter was the weather presenter until his resignation in September 2006, to join rival Seven News Brisbane as the weekday weather presenter; his departure indirectly resulted in Nine News Queensland losing its long-time ratings lead to Seven News Brisbane in 2007;[3] it was not until 2013 that they would regain the ratings lead.[4]

Mike London formerly presented alongside Heather Foord until he resigned in June 2003, following allegations that he had arrangements for a female fan to complain about weeknight presenter Bruce Paige, who was co-presenting with Jillian Whiting at the time. London had swapped roles with Paige in the mid 1990s following the latter's return to the Nine Network.[5]

Paige and Foord presented on weekdays between 2004 and 2008. In December 2008, Foord announced that she would step down from presenting weeknights to spend more time with her family. Weekend news presenter Melissa Downes replaced her with Eva Milic and Andrew Lofthouse replacing Downes as weekend news presenters.

The Queensland bulletin was the last news program to date in Australia to use the dual-presenter format on weekends (when London was presenting with Foord), until the Perth bulletin revived it in early 2008.

2011 "Choppergate" incident

On the bulletins of Nine News Queensland aired on 20 and 21 August 2011, newsreader Eva Milic conducted two crosses, one on each night, to reporters Melissa Mallet and Cameron Price, respectively, in the station's helicopter which claimed to be "near Beerwah", where the remains of murdered schoolboy Daniel Morcombe had been found earlier that month. The crosses were revealed to be fake when, on the second night, rival station Channel Seven filmed footage of the Nine helicopter sitting on the helipad outside their studios at Mount Coot-tha at the time of the broadcast. Radar footage also revealed that, on the first night, the helicopter was actually hovering over Chapel Hill, 70 km away from Beerwah. Both Mallet and Price, as well as news producer Aaron Wakeley, were sacked by the Nine Network following the incident, while news director Lee Anderson resigned in protest over the faked crossings.[6] Despite the scandal, Nine experienced a spike in its 6:00 pm news ratings in the weeks that followed,[7][8] managed to win more weeks than it did in the previous three years combined (winning seven of the 32 ratings weeks up to the first week of October),[9] and recovered to reclaim its mantle as Queensland's most-watched news service by 2013.[10]

Current presenters

News presenters

Sports presenters

Weather presenters

Fill-ins

Former news presenters

  • Don Seccombe (1962-1985)
  • Brian Cahill
  • Paul Griffin
  • Melody Iliffe (née Welsh)
  • Bruce Paige (1985–1990, 1993–2009; Gold Coast News: 2012–present)
  • Heather Foord (1988–2011)
  • Mike London (1986–2003)
  • Jillian Whiting (weekends, 1997–2001 and 2004–06, weeknights 2001–04)
  • Darren Curtis (weekends, 2014–17)
  • Alison Ariotti (weekends, 2014–17)
  • Sophie Walsh (filled in for Alison Ariotti on weekends in the first half of 2016)
  • Davina Smith (filled in for Eva Milic on weekends in the first half of 2012)
  • Lisa Backhouse

Former sports presenters

Former weather presenters

Reporters

Source

Notable former reporters

See also

References

  1. ↑ HAAT estimated from http://www.itu.int/SRTM3/ using EHAAT.
  2. ↑ "Lewis making good progress, says wife". AAP. ninemsn. 22 February 2007. Retrieved 29 April 2007.
  3. ↑ Schulter shaft Cummins Archived 28 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine. Australian-media.com.au, retrieved 26 February 2007.
  4. ↑ Cooper, Nathanael (10 September 2013). "Channel 7 News poach fishing and surf presenter Paul Burt from Nine". The Courier Mail. Retrieved 5 January 2017.
  5. ↑ Miles, Janelle; Connolly, Steve (4 June 2003). "Newsreader quits after complaint scandal". The Age. Retrieved 29 November 2016.
  6. ↑ "Channel 9 sacks three, news director resigns over 'Choppergate' scandal". News.com.au. August 26, 2011. Retrieved November 30, 2016.
  7. ↑ Baumgart, Sean (30 August 2011). "Nine ratings rise despite choppergate". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 27 May 2017.
  8. ↑ Cooper, Nathanael (3 September 2011). "Nine's choppergate scandal impacts worst on network that broke story, ratings leader Seven". The Courier-Mail. Retrieved 27 May 2017.
  9. ↑ Hunter, Clare (3 October 2011). "Seven dominates Nine in TV ratings". Queensland University of Technology. Retrieved 5 August 2017.
  10. ↑ Knox, David (19 November 2013). "Nail biter in Brisbane news battle". TV Tonight. Retrieved 11 May 2017.
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