Nationwide began around Australia on 19 February 1979. Nationwide initially ran as four nights a week, Monday to Thursday. Nationwide was given the times-slot, 9:30pm. This time-slot would allow a more in depth analysis of the day's news and events and a slightly longer running time of 40 minutes. The show was unique in that it comprised a national segment, hosted by Clive Hale in Sydney, with the second half of the show devoted to local coverage presented by hosts in each state. The format allowed enough flexibility so that if there was a big national story on the day that it could take precedence over the local segments if required. Among Nationwide's reporting team were Paul Murphy, Mark Colvin, Paul Griffiths, Bill Nicol and Andrew Olle, with Richard Carleton returning from working at BBC to be Nationwide's political reporter in Canberra.