Scrabbling about in the back of the SCMP official television filing cabinet this week, I came upon a piece of Hong Kong history that moved me so much I feel bound to share it with you.
In fact, I give fair warning that I will probably be milking this archive a lot during the next few days, especially when the racing is on and there is nothing contemporary worth commenting on.
What I discovered was an intact copy of TV and Entertainment Times, covering the week August 15-21, 1984.
With the greatest respect to my colleagues who run the current publication of the same name, those were the glory days of the magazine, because English language television was in its heyday.
They were the days when World was known as ATV English channel, and Home as ATV Chinese channel. The days when there were two chances to catch the evening news, first the News at Eight, on ATV English, and then TVB Pearl's Newsfile, at 9pm.
Diana Lin, the esteemed editor of The Pearl Report (Pearl, 8pm), was the new girl at ATV, praised for her 'understated projection and pronunciation'. Brian Langley, recently seen hosting the World Cup for ATV, was commended for surviving the 16-day coverage of the Los Angeles Olympics for TVB Pearl.
Keith Kwan was presenting the predecessor of Citylife, Monday and Friday's Solid Gold, and ATV filled awkward gaps in the commercial schedules with little proglets to mark National Days.