Good, thanks for the 'heads up'; now to clear my diary for more Countdown (hopefully).

Finishes at 7am again.

I guess the 6-7am slot Sunday morning will be more repeated new releases (such a waste of space).

Just thought that our friends in Perth might be able to help out on Jan 17 if there are any issues as the soccer runs from 7:30 to 9:30 due to the different time zone.

It has previously happened that things missed in the eastern states were shown in Perth when the ABC hosted the Hopman Cup tennis a few years back.

The Perth TV Guide for Jan 17 is:
7:30-9:30 soccer
9:30-10:30 Death In Paradise
10:30-11:30 Call The Midwife
11:30-12:00 Miranda
12:00-7:00 Rage

I also recall that previously the ABC would persevere in showing programmed shows, which are all repeats of recent airings anyway, and cut into Rage so if the soccer ran overtime they would likely get all their other programs regardless.

The other thing that may save us is that the games are live on Foxtel and delayed replays on the ABC. When the ABC show delayed sports and allocate 2 hours then it is generally very accurate - they will trim a game down to fit. The Australia v Korea game on Jan 17 starts at 8pm Queensland time.

Therefore at this stage I am expecting Rage to start at midnight on Jan 17

Rage have confirmed there are 5 weeks of retro month:

Hi Nathan, unfortunately not - but the payoff is that we are playing the Hottest 100 on a Friday this year so you will get 5 weeks of Retro Month


This is their reply to me asking if they could air more retro stuff between 6 and 7am Sunday, such as 2 Countdown Revolution episodes, rather than an hour of repeated new releases.

How interesting the "unfortunately not" comment. Makes me wonder if they're somehow obliged to air an hour of new release clips during the last hour of Saturday night's programming regardless? That never used to be the case.

Hahaha Nathan, I was about to copy and post the Facebook convo you had with rage. YES! 5 Saturday's!!!!!

For the benefit of those who don't use facebook:

"Make sure you program your VCR to tape the second installment of RETRO MONTH this Saturday. We have have Countdown episodes hosted by Split Enz, Queen and everyone's favourite peroxided mullet Warwick Capper."

I saw Nathan's post on facebook and rage's reply. I then asked them to reply to my request about showing the October '88 episode of 'The Factory' featuring Wendy James and Bros in the studio. Haven't looked yet to see if there was a reply.

Playlists now up.

Oddly the Sunday morning playlist finishes at 9! But with what looks like THREE hours of new releases finishing the night/morning off! What the heck?! And what a waste of space

The Countdowns number 4 in total - Split Enz ex 25/04/82 as hoped, 21/04/85 (Queen), 14/05/87 (Warwick Capper) and a previously un-announced one also from 1987 - 12/04 - hosted by Peter O'Brien.

One Rock Arena - 18/12/84 with Machinations mentioned - I think this is the one requested for a number of years now.

I think that Rock Arena is a repeat? Not sure, just something about a 1984 Machinations episode that tells me it may have been on before.

EDIT: It was too - January 2010

http://www.abc.net.au/rage/archive/s2782075.htm

But is a repeat as I have since discovered

Just wondering if Rage are having a bit of a theme.

The first week seemed to have a few November episodes and week 2 has had mostly April episodes. Even the episode of Antenna appeared to be from April if 50 Years had just been released.

Inside Story, Once More Without Vocals was advertised as being from 1970 but it was a 1978 episode.

They have been going with this "theme" thing for a number of years so it would not surprise me Gurubob.

Watched a bit of last nights, probably not as good as Week One. I never object to picking up episodes I have not seen, even 1987 which were a bit dull. Just did not like that Pirate TV format at all. No wonder it did not last.

I noticed the April theme too, when they played '50 Years' on Antenna. Brian Mannix is a funny guy.

I know Molly has a lot to say/remember in a limited time when doing Humdrum, but I laughed when he said that Madonna is getting rave reviews for her performance in 'Searching for Susan'

Also, something I forgot to mention last week was when Gavin Wood did the April '81 Top 10 and said watch out for Debbie Harry's self titled album coming out in June called 'Debonese'