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  Celebrating Radio, TV, Theatre and Cinema history at WA Day service Tony Howes has kindly alerted us to the following event…     On Sunday 31st May at 5pm in St George’s Cathedral, Perth, in a service celebrating “WA Day”, four new plaques will be blessed to commemorate the contribution to WA Heritage of pioneers […]

Celebrating the life of Miss Coralie Condon

Posted by ken On February - 11 - 2015

Celebrating the life of Miss Coralie Condon Coralie Condon and Max Kay judging Stars of the Future     Coralie Condon died peacefully at Castledare Nursing Home on 24 December, 2014, aged 99. Only a few months short of her birthday on May 16th.     Coralie was an actress, writer, composer, producer, presenter, business woman, the […]

Part 2 – Tribute to Coralie Condon (1915-2014)

Posted by ken On January - 22 - 2015

Coralie kept in touch, and gave Anthony his first professional job (while still at the Theatre Guild) as a ‘puppet voice’ in “Children’s Channel 7”.     In the midst of full time employment at Seven, with extra curricular activities helping the Anglican Church and others, Coralie found time to direct “The Mikado” at the Playhouse Theatre in May 1964.     Back out at Seven that year, they were making the television version of Coralie’s musical comedy ‘The Good Oil’, which starred Jill Perryman and husband Kevan Johnston with top-line local artists, who included: Margot Robertson, Vic Hawkins, Bill McPherson, John Chalton, Neville Teede, Philip Porter, Joan Bruce, Gerry Atkinson, Veronica Overton, Danni Harford and the Channel 7 Dancers – Jennifer Hayden, Karen Obbs, Janet Ladner, Adrienne O’Meara, Gay Chandler and Clarice Page.

…It was called Tenderloin, and was a musical in which the cast could let their hair down and have a ball.     Coralie remained at Channel 7 on permanent staff from July 1959 to August 1969 and then on a casual basis from 1969 to 1973.     Former TVW Enterprises Managing Director Sir James Cruthers described Coralie Condon to Dr Peter Harries as, “…a very important cog in the TVW wheel… She was responsible for almost all the production we did, one way or another… quite unusual that a woman should do this in those days.”     Earlier in September 1964, Frank Baden-Powell had formed The Hole in the Wall Theatre, on the corner of Newcastle and Stirling Streets, North Perth, in partnership with John Gill.

Coralie Condon’s 98th Birthday Party

Posted by ken On June - 23 - 2013

    Coralie Condon is an actress, writer, composer, producer, presenter, business woman, the Great Dame of Perth theatre and the First Lady of Western Australian Television. As a special treat, Rick Hearder and friends organised a party for Coralie on Sunday May 19th of May, 2013, to celebrate her 98th birthday. The party girl wearing […]

Part 1 starts when Perth was still referred to as the Swan River Colony. Western Australia had been a penal colony from 1850 to 1868, receiving over 9,000 convicts transported over 43 ocean voyages. The colony’s first cultural centre was The Swan River Mechanics’ Institute, established in 1851. As well as housing an extensive library, […]

Entertainment was evolving beyond live performers on a stage. A spate of inventions led to the recording of performances both in sound and picture. These innovations started a revolution in the way we amuse ourselves. No longer were people dependant on the family piano or folk enjoying a sing along, for we could now enjoy […]

Vaudeville was the popular entertainment before the advent of motion picture houses, though it was not uncommon for live shows to be complimented by a few silent movies. Though there was an amateur theatre community in Perth, many shows were brought across from the eastern states. As people often entertained themselves, family or friends, it […]

The next revolution was to provide remote entertainment to the listeners at home by the means of broadcasting. This initially impacted on silent films until cinemas were able to present movies with sound. The Perth airwaves were then populated by a variety of commercial and ABC radio stations.     The advent of wireless opened up […]

Hollywood created an illusion with performers becoming stars who were recognised world wide. The movie musicals offered a glimpse of Broadway well beyond the streets of New York. The sale of gramophone recordings also made stars out of singers, musicians and bands. Much of this conveyed American culture to the world, which was a big […]

In 1997, Village Roadshow subsidiary Austereo purchased radio stations 92.9FM (former 6PM) and 94.5FM (former 6KY) from Jack Bendat, but Australian media ownership laws required the divestiture of Triple M (former 96FM), so Village Roadshow sold it to Southern Cross Broadcasting (a division of Fairfax Media from 2007), which also owned AM radio station 6PR.

…All stations Digital Radio breakfast – Preview WA TV History On Thursday 6th August 2009, the PERTH venue was FORREST PLACE for the Digital Radio breakfast with participating stations and personalities… Austereo Mix 94.5 The Bunch with Fred Botica, Lisa Shaw, Joss Dwyer, Paul Shepherd Austereo 92.9 Em and Sam Mac now with Basil Zempilas – Emelia Rusciano, Sam McMillan & Basil Zempilas DMG Nova 937 Nathan & Nat with Shaun McManus – Nathan Morris, Natalie Locke, Shaun McManus Fairfax 6PR Breakfast with Millsy & Tony Mac – Tony McManus & Steve Mills Fairfax 96fm The Crew with Gary, Fitzy & Aleysha – Gary Shannon, Brad “Fitzy” Fitzgerald & Aleysha Knowles Capital 6iX Johnny Young’s Big Breakfast and ABC 720 Breakfast with Eoin Cameron Digital Radio Launch WA TV History In a world first, Australian commercial radio broadcasters and the public service broadcasters put competition aside on Thursday 6th August 2009 when more than 40 different radio stations held a simultaneous outside broadcast in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide to promote digital radio.