TVNZ is about to celebrate 40 years of televised network news bulletins.
Dougal Stevenson read the first bulletin, which was a live broadcast by the NZBC (now TVNZ), simultaneously transmitted on a series of microwave links around New Zealand on November 3, 1969 at 7.35pm.
However, it has never been seen again as it wasn't recorded. Bulletins were not routinely recorded until the mid 1980s.
Stevenson, Philip Sherry and the late Bill Toft were the first network news readers and shared the nightly presenting role equally on a rotating roster.
"In the early days the small amounts of actual footage in the news was often days old before it arrived in New Zealand," said TVNZ's head of news and current affairs Anthony Flannery.
"There were no satellite feeds, little agility to include breaking news, no technology to report live from the scene, and there were no cameras in court or Parliament."
Until 1969 television broadcasts were regional. Auckland, Christchurch, Wellington and Dunedin had their own TV channels that broadcast between two and seven hours a day and often included regional news bulletins.
It was also widely believed the first colour broadcast was of the 1974 Commonwealth Games in Christchurch even though television was first broadcast in colour on October 31, 1973.
Continuity announcer and weekend news presenter Marama Martin presented the broadcast wearing a purple dress.
It was undeniable that television news had an impact, Mr Flannery said, and he cited many television news images that would be burned on our memories -- the Flight 90 wreckage strewn across Mt Erebus, the Springbok tour, the underarm incident and Lorraine Downes being crowned Miss Universe.
Former prime time network news presenters and news bosses and have been invited to the Auckland Television Centre on November 25 so TVNZ can recognise the contribution they have made to the country's news heritage, Mr Flannery said.
Archived footage can be seen on the website www.tvnz.co.nz.
