ive been trying to figure out which network actually aired back of bourke. contacted: ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) - no records Channel 9 - no records Channel 7 - no records Channel 10 - no records (tho they didnt start til 1965) various regional stations - no records this is bizarre, a show this many ppl remember should have SOME documentation somewhere, production files, broadcast logs, advertising, SOMETHING what network did you watch it on??

i watched it on channel 9 in sydney mid 70s, im certain because i remember it came on after another show we always watched on 9 EDIT: just asked my brother he swears it was abc, but we watched it together!! how can we remember different channels??

definitely channel 7 in melbourne early 60s, my dad worked at 7 and mentioned show coming through, tho when i asked him last year he said he didnt remember it at all...

we only had abc where i grew up (country sa) so must have been abc, black and white probably 1964 or 65?? tho my mum insists we watched it in color in 70s which would mean commercial station, but we didnt get commercial tv until 1971...

this is exactly the problem, everyone remembers different network, some remember black and white (early 60s) others color (70s or later) but NONE of the networks have any record of it, ive even checked production companies that might have made it independently for syndication, nothing its like show existed but left no paperwork trail whatsoever

i work in tv archives professionally, heres what makes this strange: in 1960s every broadcast had to be logged by law, networks were required to keep detailed records of what aired when and how long, for licensing and regulatory for show to have aired on ANY australian network and have zero records is essentially impossible, even if footage was wiped (which was common) paperwork should exist only explanation i can think is it was broadcast illegally or outside normal channels, but that raises more questions about how so many ppl saw it

@BroadcastHistorian could it have been on some kind of test signal or regional frequency that wasnt officially logged?? i know there were experimental broadcasts in early days of australian tv

@TechTheory theoretically possible but unlikely, test broadcasts were usually just color bars and test patterns, and they wouldnt have reach to cover entire country which is where viewers report seeing show from also test broadcasts werent scheduled regularly enough for ppl to have watched multiple episodes over time

what if it was deliberately erased from records?? like coverup i know that sounds paranoid but given how many ppl remember it and how completely its been erased from official records maybe someone WANTED it to disappear??

@ConspiracyMind i usually dismiss conspiracy theories but have to admit complete absence of records is suspicious, even shows networks are embarrassed by usually have some paperwork somewhere this is too clean, too complete, like someone systematically removed every trace but why?? what could be so problematic about 60s horror anthology it needed to be erased from history??

i worked at regional station in nsw in 70s and 80s, we used to get programs from all sorts of sources, syndication packages, direct from networks, even some international stuff i have vague memory of back of bourke coming through in one of those packages, but when i went back to check our old acquisition logs theres a gap, like several pages missing from book my manager at time said something weird, that certain programs "werent meant to be remembered" and we should just pretend we never received them, i thought he was joking but he was dead serious

@RegionalStationWorker very interesting "not meant to be remembered" perhaps question isnt which network aired it but WHETHER it aired through conventional broadcast at all there are other ways signals can reach televisions, luminous day to all

@shiningbeacon what are you suggesting?? that it was broadcast through some kind of pirate signal actually has anyone heard of max headroom signal hijacking, that happened in US in 80s, someone managed to override official broadcasts could something similar have happened here but with whole tv show instead of just brief interruption??

@SydneyViewer signal hijacking for single incident is difficult enough, hijacking signal consistently over weeks or months to broadcast entire episodes would require massive resources and technical expertise and still wouldnt explain how it appeared on different networks in different parts of country at different times unless... no im not going to suggest what im thinking because it sounds ridiculous

@BroadcastHistorian please share, at this point nothing sounds more ridiculous than situation were already in

fine heres my crazy theory: what if show wasnt broadcast by any network at all, what if ppl received it directly on their televisions through some kind of localized phenomenon we dont understand that would explain why everyone remembers different channels, why there are no broadcast records, why it appeared across country simultaneously, why attempts to record it often fail or show different content i know it sounds insane but its only explanation that fits all evidence

@BroadcastHistorian not insane at all, there are more ways to transmit signals than conventional broadcast question is who or what was doing transmitting and why luminous day to all