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Osher Günsberg farewells Channel [V]

Osher Günsberg remembers extraordinary adventures, friends for life and pioneering Live web chats.

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Music channel [V] today ends a 20 year run on the Foxtel platform, after two decades of music videos, Live broadcasts, concert events and highlights including its Presenter Search, The Channel V Oz Artist of the Year, Guerilla Gigs and [V] Island Parties.

Osher Günsberg, as a young Andrew G, was one of many presenters who have appeared on [V] along with Molly Meldrum, James Mathison, Jabba, James Kerley, Yumi Stynes, Chloe Maxwell, Danny Clayton, Marty Smiley, Jane Gazzo, Renee Bargh, Andrew Mercado, Billy Russell and Toni Pearen.

Osher Günsberg told TV Tonight, “It’s with sadness in my heart I see Channel [v] go, however we did put in motion what would eventually end us.

“On my first night on air, April 12th 1999, I asked my producer Tim Daley (now general manager of CMC) if I could put the chat screen on the laptop onto the broadcast.

“He said ‘Sure!’ so we plugged it in and the next time we were Live the Director put the laptop feed live to air. We brought live web chat to live TV there and then, bringing the internet and TV together.

“Once broadband speeds increased, we began to put video on more and more – and now those same speeds that we were experimenting with are bringing music fans full HD music videos whenever they want to see them.

“So there is sadness, but I am sort of happy how it ended. Our audience moved on, and that is a wonderful thing. What it means for other content providers is yet to be seen. But I am grateful that through my time there I had “, and was given permission to explore new frontiers in broadcasting with a very cheeky edge.

“We would never have existed were it not for the fans, so may I say ‘Thank you’ to every person that subscribed or showed up at a broadcast . We would have been lost without you (thanks Delta).”

From tomorrow [V] Hits will continue the [V] brand.

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4 Responses

  1. Yeah, probably agree more with Geoff than Armchair on this one. I reckon music TV is all right to put in the background and for waiting rooms and whatnot, but I wouldn’t actually sit down and watch rage. Attention spans are shorter, music tastes are more diverse and streaming sites are so ubiquitous now. Not to mention that these shows were aimed at the youth market, who are watching TV less and less these days.

  2. Those days are not exactly gone forever. Network TEN has the Loop even though it would have been better to keep VideoHits and bring it back to just a clip based format. ABC still has RAGE. At some point all three commercial tv networks had a music clip show. I think music tv will continue but in performance shows and maybe clip shows in the right time slot. The structure and format will determine the success of any music show on tv.

  3. Great article Osher.
    You Tube has killed music television.
    Why would kids wait for their favourite songs when they can watch them instantly now.
    Remember Saturday mornings when millions of Aussies would watch the Rage countdown and then Video Hits, or Countdown before that?
    Those days are gone forever.

  4. It’s sad news. I remember the days where you could go to the Channel [V] studios at Fox and just hang out for free and watch musicians perform. Brilliant times. 🙂 I never had Pay TV, so I used to make the trek from Newcastle to Sydney to catch my favourite bands.

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