I think the TV stations are also just outside food delivery service coverage?
The leases are something like $1 a year and it will only ever be designated for broadcasting purposes. So there is no possibility for sale to a developer nor any other interested party.
That alone makes the vacation of the premises null and void. If they can’t make their money back straight away (instead of saving over years for not maintaining the property) then they won’t do it.
As for food delivery services, I know pizza places would deliver.
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Just because a property is on a 99 year lease doesn’t mean they have to stay the entire 99 years but there would probably an encounter of millions of dollars in exit fees (or whatever agreement was signed in the 50’s or 60’s).
But yes, I’m sure Council won’t allow developers to come in and start building apartment towers or mansions in place of the TV Stations. There is emergency access issues (mountainous road with poor lighting), water/sewage and zero retail/other businesses located nearby (except at The Summit). Also the fact it’s in the middle of a forest.
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They could probably reduce the cost if all three networks walked away at the same time.
Turn it into a political issue (ie “restoring the mountain for recreation” and “keeping jobs in Queensland”) to shift remediation costs onto the Council and/or State Government.
The towers (or at least some of them) would presumably need to stay in place.
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When we were setting up Queensland Satellite Television in 1985, the original choice was to establish a new facility alongside the existing stations, but the complications of the zoning meant that it would have taken at least five years to process the approvals with no guarantee of success. The land is zoned as National Park with areas excluded for television broadcasting, should the stations move the land would revert to National Park and the stations would be responsible for the clean-up. It’s a no-win situation and compared to the windfall gains made elsewhere by selling land to developers and then leasing in the city, this would actually cost the networks multiple millions of dollars. So they stay where they are and hope that the maintenance costs don’t kill them. No alternative.
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I’ve done a bit more research and found some more information about Mt Coot-tha. I’m happy for anyone to point out if I have misunderstood anything.
In the early 1980s the three Brisbane commercial television stations wanted to expand their existing operations on Mt Coot-tha and approached the Queensland government seeking to purchase adjacent Brisbane Forest Park land. Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen’s government agreed, as did the Liberal run Brisbane City Council, and legislation was passed by the government so that the stations could buy the additional land from the council.
During the second reading of the Land (Mt. Coot-tha Television Stations) Sales Bill in 1986 in the Queensland parliament various members state that the stations owned their existing land freehold and that the additional land would be sold to them fee simple (freehold). The previous Labor government wanted to sell the additional land leasehold but the television stations said that they needed it freehold. (The then existing land was originally owned leasehold but was later changed to freehold).
There was an interesting debate during the bill’s second reading:
The Land (Mt. Coot-tha Television Stations)
Sales Act, 1986 (Qld) and Section 90 of the City of Brisbane Act 2010 (Qld) make it clear that the land originally purchased by the stations and the additional land purchased in 1986 can only be used for “television station purposes or related purposes”, and indicates that the council can resume the land by agreement or compulsorily acquire it under the Acquisition of Lands Act 1967 (Qld) with the stations receiving compensation, however any decision by the council including the amount of compensation cannot be appealed. So the commercial stations would be forced to accept whatever value the council decided the land was worth.
I checked the ownership of two of the land titles: the original QTQ land is owned by Queensland Television Ltd which is owned by Nine; the original TVQ land is owned by Television & Telecasters (Properties) Pty Limited which is owned by Ten. Both are owned ‘fee simple’.
Sources:
Hansard - Land (Mt. Coot-tha Television Stations) Sales Bill, from page 4346
https://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/documents/hansard/1986/1986_03_18.pdf
Land (Mt. Coot-tha Television Stations) Sales Act, 1986:
https://www.legislation.qld.gov.au/view/whole/pdf/asmade/asmade/act-1986-011
City of Brisbane Act 2010, S 90 page 67:
https://www.legislation.qld.gov.au/view/pdf/inforce/current/act-2010-023
Brisbane’s breathing space: Mt Coot-tha, page 100:
https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:210139/p9780646519197_1_89.pdf
The land the ABC tower occupies has different zoning and appears to be leased from the Brisbane council.
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The networks have already won with the money they’ve saved in leasing/buying up there.
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And last I heard, the council values the land at $1 each. So that’s all the stations would get if they were to leave, or be forced out.
Thanks for that fascinating read.
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Some vintage exterior shots of Sydney television studios appeared in a Nine News Mike Dalton report on the Bill Collins memorabilia auction tonight. Missing is TEN 10 North Ryde studios, Bill’s TV home throughout the 1980s, to complete the set.
Studio shot of Bill at WIN Television City Wollongong where he recorded his pieces to camera for Foxtel.
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I saw that report and noted the lack of Network Ten footage. which for me was ironic given how he introduced movies on Channel Ten all those years… I only ever associated him with TEN, never with any other network.
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Same. I have vague memories of Bill Collins presenting a segment on Seven National News in the 1970s but most strongly associate him with TEN. In the days before the VCR it was Saturday nights at my grandparents house watching Golden Years of Hollywood and Sunday afternoons watching Andy Hardy and Shirley Temple movies as we eagerly awaited a sumptuous lunch.
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Is that really what they called WIN’s studios in the Gong? 
This must be the closest Google Streetview imagery of a AUS/NZ FM/TV transmitter site/tower that I can recall seeing. Right under the large lattice tower servicing Nelson, NZ. The site known as the Grampians.
I’ve heard FM stations from here via fortuitous FMDX reception across the Tasman pond.
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Artarmon, Willoughby and Gore Hill would have good Street View imagery being almost right on a very accessible road, not as good as that though!
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Anyone here work at mediahub, deluxe or npc? Keen to hear what it’s like working in pres? Good or bad?
Thanks
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Last night, Seven News Melbourne ran a long story that showed people watching the AFL Grand Final in their homes, or in pubs in regional areas.
Not one of the TVs shown during the story was on 7HD. After all this time, people still don’t watch channel 70. Not helped by the total absence of promotion of HD these days.
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Anyone who has ever worked in consumer electronics understands this, essentially the masses (especially older audiences) don’t give a shit about picture quality. I still remember just how many people watched stretched 4:3 analogue FTA on shiny new Plasmas and LCDs through the 2000s and were perfectly happy with it! 
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Ha! One of my pet peeves. Then they even mangled the picture through (mis)settings when they were forced to watch the digital equivalents