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Here is the news

Here is the News

Here is the News

Published: February 1993

Publication: Herald Sun

Author: Editor

Words: 66

Image of article: Shown below

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Here is the news

If the bubble and squeak of Today and The Big Breakfast isn’t your style, you can wake up to hard news with the ABC’s new morning show, First Edition, which premieres next Monday at 6.30am hosted by Doug Weller and Kate Dunstan.

“This won’t be the traditional morning program, we want to concentrate on news and current affairs without the chit-chat in between,” Weller told Spotlight.

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Here is the news

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ABC Makes a New Start

ABC Makes a New Start

ABC Makes a New Start

Published: 15 February 1993

Publication: Herald Sun

Author: Editor

Words: 173

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ABC makes a new start

The ABC’s first ‘serious’ morning news and current affairs program, 1st Edition finally went to air today.

Technical problems delayed the show’s debut by a week, but presenters Doug Weller and Kate Dunstan were excited that today’s show went without a hitch.

1st Edition which covered 52 items including the latest national and international news, a live interview cross to Canberra, checks on what newspapers said, and business and law reports, was difficult to produce.

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ABC Makes a New Start

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ABC Close to 24 Hour News Plan

ABC Close to 24-Hour News Plan

ABC Close to 24-Hour News Plan

Published: 7 February 1993

Publication: Herald Sun TV Extra

Author: Editor

Words: 234

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ABC Close to 24-Hour News Plan

The ABC will next week strengthen its bid for a 24-hour news service with Kate Dunstan and Doug Weller at the forefront.

Dunstan and Weller will co-host First Edition (premiering tomorrow week and running weekdays at 6.30am) and take the network a step closer to covering national and international news around the clock in a timeslot traditionally dominated by magazine-type shows.

“It will focus mainly on politics and business, and aim to break news,” Dunstan said. The show will also help set up the main news for the day to be built on.”

While the mother-of-two hopes First Edition will appeal to all viewers, she said it would be aimed at people “including politicians and businessmen who lead busy lives”.

“The program should prove popular with those who work early in the morning, and don’t want to spend their evening assessing what has happened throughout the day,” she said.

Dunstan said Australia would not be the only continent to benefit from the show. But she said the ABC was still to negotiate a telecast into Asia.

Dunstan has vast experience in the news-gathering arena, having started with The Age and later moving on to Channels Nine and Seven.

Her First Edition co-host Weller also had penty of experience in the media. His last post was as a political reporter for ABC Radio in Canberra, reporting from Parliament House for the AM and PM programs.

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ABC Close to 24 Hour News Plan

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Saddam on toast

Saddam on Toast

Saddam on Toast

Published: 6 February 1993

Publication: TV Week

Author: Editor

Words: 441

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Saddam on Toast

There is good news for viewers wanting to wake up to something serious on television.

First Edition starting on February 8, is the ABC’s early morning offering for 1993.

Don’t expect cute-puppy stories or beaming presenters – this is one hour of hard news.

The program will screen on weekdays at 6.30, meaning a 3.30 start for presenters Doug Weller and Kate Dunstan, who say the only bonus is not having to be merry in the morning.

“It is going to be a much more serious program than morning television has been to date.” Dunstan says. “It will be hard news, a lot of international news and a lot of politics. It will be a really serious program.”

There are those who may argue few people will want to fall out of bed to watch the woes of the world on television. But Weller has a different view and points to the success of ABC Radio’s morning news programs, which have a large and faithful audience.

“I don’t think what we are doing is really brave,” he says.

“There are a lot of serious-minded people who watch television at that time of day.”

“The audience we are after will be up at 6.30am and out the door by 7.30am. It’s going to be perfect for them.”

Executive producer Jill Singer, formerly with The 7.30 Report, hand picked the team, which includes reporters Kevin McQuillan and Lisa Backhouse with ABC Radio’s Pru Goward as a commentator.

Dunstan is a familiar face in the ABC TV’s newsroom, reading weekend bulletins and, in summer, the nightly seven o’clock news.

Earlier she was one of the original producers of the Seven Network’s Tonight Live news.

Jill Singer says First Edition will combine headline news with interviews and background stories.

She wants the program to set new ground rules for Australian morning television, which in the past has aimed mainly to entertain.

So what sort of news do you find at 3.30am?

The timeslot gives the first bite at international news and events developing in Canberra.

Singer also points to the way ABC radio news in the morning tends to set the agenda for the day’s news.

“If you listen to radio in the morning, a lot of it creates the news of the day,” she says.

“That’s what we want to do – it’s just that we’re on television.”

By the time First Edition goes to air the team will have had three weeks to make a series of pilots and organise their schedule.

Singer, Dunstan and Weller remain undaunted by their starting time.

Perhaps their zeal has something to do with the origins of First Edition?

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Saddam on toast

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