He was obliged to ad lib his lines. “There were no scriptwriters, no cue cards, and so I decided I would make my remarks as simple as possible,” he wrote.
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The studio itself was only 10 square metres in size. At 6.39pm Cornish, in evening dress, addressed the camera and said: “Good evening, and welcome to television.”
Or something very much like it. Reports differ.
“Unfortunately, there is no recording of that first night,” says media commentator Brett Debritz. “He always said that he would be delighted to redo it.”
Born in Killarney in Queensland’s southern downs, Hugh Cornish was a 25-year-old radio announcer and pianist from 4BH whose only previous experience of a TV camera was his audition.
His first broadcast began with a few welcome speeches, an episode of the US western series Fury, and the sitcom Leave It to Beaver, with live commercials read by Sydney personality Brian Wright, who had been flown in for the gig.
The 1952 John Wayne movie The Quiet Man followed, then an Alfred Hitchcock Presents, after which Cornish read Queensland’s first TV news and weather bulletin. It lasted 14 minutes – footage from several news stories were not broadcast due to a technical hitch.
A music show from down south, Your Hit Parade, ended the night’s proceedings, and the station went off air at 11.09 with God Save the Queen.
After a brief celebration Cornish travelled home with his wife Joyce, whom he’d married the previous year.
“As we drove along Gilchrist Avenue beside Victoria Park, Joyce became quite ill … she was pregnant with our first child.”
Hugh Cornish (1934-2024) and his wife Joyce Cornish (1934-2013).Credit: Nine
At QTQ-9, Cornish would at one stage function as publicity officer, promotions manager, game show host, standby announcer, coordinator, program manager and assistant general manager – all simultaneously.
Eventually elevated to general manager, he would remain with the station for 26 years, until 1985, when he clashed with its brash new owner, Alan Bond, and resigned.
“Dad got on a riser and addressed the station and a lot of the staff were crying, including dad,” recalls Tim Cornish. “It was bloody awful.”
There are currently calls for Hugh Cornish and his contribution to television to be remembered at a state funeral.
“They invented television for Queensland audiences, because no one had done it before,” says Debritz. “They just had to make it up as they went along.”
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