rage is an all night music video program broadcast on ABC TV on Friday and Saturday nights. rage first screened in April 1987.

On Friday nights rage plays new release videos through until 6am. From 6-8am rage plays a package of hits and new releases. From 8-10am rage plays a mix of new releases, rage requests and clips from the vault. From 10-11am rage plays a preview of the upcoming night’s guest programmer of special.

The show has no presenters, except on Saturday nights when rage has musicians as guest programmers. They host the show and talk about, and screen, their favourite music videos. rage’s guest programmers have included Nick Cave, Jarvis Cocker, Jared Leto from 30 Seconds To Mars, Marilyn Manson, Courtney Love, Deborah Harry, Elvis Costello, Radiohead, Trent Reznor from Nine Inch Nails, Chris Cornell from Soundgarden & Audioslave, Tom Morello from Rage Against The Machine & Audioslave, Billy Corgan from Smashing Pumpkins, R.E.M., Silverchair, Eskimo Joe, Powderfinger, Wolfmother, The Living End, You Am I, The Cruel Sea, Spiderbait, Faith No More, Metallica, Sepultura, Trivium, My Chemical Romance, Panic! At The Disco, Fall Out Boy, Queens Of The Stone Age, Sonic Youth, The Breeders, Pavement, Weezer, Beck, Wilco, Mercury Rev, Frank Black, Jack Black, Green Day, Beastie Boys, Hilltop Hoods, Grandmaster Flash, Public Enemy, Ice Cube, Ice-T, Andre 3000 from Outkast, The Flaming Lips, Devo, Butthole Surfers, Tool, Primus, Wilco, The Strokes, Interpol, Bloc Party, New Order, Supergrass, Kasabian, Ash, Gomez, Muse, Franz Ferdinand, The Stranglers, Malcolm McLaren, Garbage, Kylie Minogue, Neneh Cherry, Lily Allen, Cyndi Lauper, Tori Amos, Scissor Sisters, Porno For Pyros, Jane’s Addiction, Dandy Warhols, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Avalanches, Massive Attack and The Prodigy.

On some Saturday nights rage has Specials. The specials may feature one particular band or artist (such as Beastie Boys, Madonna, Nirvana & Pearl Jam, The Chemical Brothers) or be genre specials (Australian bands & artists, U.K bands & artists, Hip Hop, Electronic, Dance music, female bands, artists & lead singers) or concept specials (cover songs, novelty songs, rage in love, rage pigs out, weird science).

‘20 Years of rage’ hit ABC TV during April 2007 with ‘rage’ screening a series of specials featuring the standout videos from its 20 years on air.

rage has released CDs and DVDs including ‘The Songs Most Chosen By rage Guest Programmers’, ‘The Chosen Ones’ and ‘20 Years of rage’.

Monday

Programming of Saturday night rage begins on Mondays. It is "get organised" day. Videos that have arrived by mail or courier from independent bands and artists are signed in to the rage library, ready to be dubbed onto digital betacam (rage's on-air tapes). Last week's independent tapes are sent back to the bands/managers by registered mail (the rage copy of their video is held in the rage library).

rage Guest Programmer shoots are often set up on Mondays, so there is lots of liaising with record companies, publicists, band managers, TV crews, location hotels etc.

Tuesday

Tuesday is the Attack Of The Record Companies. Promotions representatives from roughly 15 record companies arrive for their rage meetings, bringing their latest video releases with them. The promo reps also pitch possible Guest Programmers or rage Specials.

Starting mid-afternoon, the videos - which arrive on the tape formats Digital Betacam and Betacam SP - are transferred to larger rage Digital Betacam compile tapes (roughly 16 videos on each tape). Transferring of tapes continues overnight.

Wednesday

Wednesday is a viewing and programming day. New videos - which have been transferred to digital betacam (for on-air) and also to the rage viewing computer - are watched. Wednesday morning is spent viewing all the videos, looking for the best new videos, assessing which videos are right for which rage timeslot, double-checking for technical quality, checking the appropriate timing for rage supers to be put on the video, and checking the censorship rating of each. On Wednesday afternoon the programming for Friday night show begins.

Thursday

Thursday is an intensive programming day where Friday & Saturday night rage programming is completed and the schedules are entered into rage's computer system. When programming, rage looks for the best new video and/or best new music of the week to open the Friday night show. From there the rage programmer attempts to build a whole night of programming which flows well, moving smoothly from video to video, from genre to genre of music. rage also looks for good musical and visual transitions - segues - so that you are watching the next video before you realise it.

For Saturday night programming Specials featuring particular bands & artists - eg. Radiohead - are researched to put the videos in chronological order. Other Specials - e.g. Australian Music, Animated Videos, Rage In Love, Hip-Hop etc - are put together during the week or so before they go to air.

For Guest Programmer Saturday nights - all of the band or artist's 40-odd choices are put on paper, on a big rage board, and shuffled into an order that makes sense. Then this rough programming is fine-tuned by watching all the videos and building the 40 choices into a show that flows. The Guest Programmers 40 choices are followed by their own videos, put into order by rage.

Friday

Friday is a manic rage day. Schedules are finalised before the rage data is transferred to the ABC TV on-air computer to go to air. The schedule in this computer tells it which tapes to play, at what timecode on that tape, for what duration, followed by which tape next. The computer is monitored by TV Presentation/Transmission people who make sure ABC TV programs get to air.

During Friday afternoon rage on-screen Artist/Song supers are prepared. rage program breakers are 'packaged' with bottom of screen 'crawls' telling the audience what the Saturday night show is and giving rage website and 1900 info line details. rage's 1900 phone info line is recorded. triple j announcers are sent info on what will be on rage this weekend. rage program Warnings - usually M or MA - have their graphics done and warning voice-overs are recorded.

On Friday, rage staff work closely with ABC transmission people to finalise the program, checking the schedule, checking program supers, checking Guest Programmer tapes etc...

The transmission librarian pulls tapes off the shelves filling two huge trolleys full of the tapes required for the weekend's two rage programs.

Saturday

Saturday - rage work continues in ABC transmission where rage Saturday night show is prepared for transmission and put to air.

Anything else??

rage shoots fit into the week wherever/whenever the bands/artists are available. They are shot by ABC TV 2-person betacam crews - camera & sound - and are directed by rage producers. Guest programmers receive the rage red book - a printout of all the videos in our library - and they choose 40 videos.

The rage head office is at ABC TV's Ultimo studios in Sydney. rage is part of ABC TV.

Producer/Programmer - Madeline Palmer
Producer/Programmer - Sophie Zoellner
Program Co-ordinator- Julia Tamplenizza

Production team :
Justine Braddon - Technical Producer/Editor
Leonard Zech - Technical Producer/Editor
Angelo Giakoumatos - Technical Producer/Editor
Mike Wooller - Technical Producer/Editor
Gannon Conroy - Production Manager
Wendy McKee - Information Technology Liaison
Melissa Mason - Network Control Officer
Ross Krahe - Network Control Officer
Jonathan Love - Network Control Officer
Reilly McCarron - Transmission Officer
Andrew Lush - Transmission Officer
Alex Taylor - Transmission Officer
Dan Brady - Transmission Officer
Sandy Reid - Transmission Officer
Colin Tyrrell - Transmission Officer
Takeshi Fujimura - Transmission Officer
Camella Hardjo - Tape Librarian
Lauren Curless - Tape Librarian
Rebecca Tomarchio - Tape Librarian
Nina Probst - Tape Librarian
Anne Gilbee- Film Researcher
Claire Barrett- Film Researcher
Simon Kain - Film Researcher
John Williams - Film Researcher
Dylan Brookes - Publicist
Dom D'Souza - Online Producer
Kath Earle - Executive Producer
Lou Porter - Production Executive
Amanda Duthie- Head of Arts and Entertainment