And many older TV sets had to be re-adjusted in both Melbourne and Brisbane before ATV0 and TVQ0 began.
Something interesting in that document, is that the channel 4 and 5 assignments don’t match the ones used.
That Channel 5 position is pretty close to where 5A ended up.
They actually touch on the channel 10 thing later down the document,
“minor modifications may be desirable to overcome difficulties which might otherwise be encountered because of the fact that channels 4 and 5 will not, as the Board is at present advised, be available for television until 1st July, 1963. As mentioned in paragraph 102, the Plan provides for four stations in the capital cities of the States, for one of which channel 10 has been reserved. On the other hand, channels 4 and 5 have been reserved for stations in country districts. As it now seems likely that stations will be established in country districts before a fourth station commences service in either Sydney or Melbourne, consideration is being given to the desirability of allocating channel 10 to country stations and reserving channel 4 or 5 for a fourth station in Sydney and Melbourne.”
1 Like
I think when WIN4 started in Wollongong I read something about older sets needing some adjustments because the parameters of Channel 4 had changed from the original plan?
1 Like
Australia Day bulletin 1988 incl end of Australia Day themed Perfect Match.
PS - if you look closely you can seen a small amount of power line interference on the TVQ O signal.
1 Like
I can’t believe that they let WIN4 use that channel because that’s right in the middle of Airband. Meaning it could have had co channel issues with Kingsford Smith airport.
So Air Traffic Control would have to say “You’re flying over WIN, Australia’s largest regional television network”
Bloody Bruce, interfering with everything, even way back then!
2 Likes
They didn’t, by the time WIN started it was in the middle of the FM band instead.
I actually remember the days when C31 had horrible reception and then it miraculously improved.
Thank God those days are over, Since Analogue TV was Terminated in the Early 2010’s, VHF Channel’s 0 to 5A have been Declared Useless as As Digital Broadcasting On VHF is between 6 and 12 While UHF is 28 to 51 with 52 to 69 used for Mobile Broadband Coverage.
I can also remember the days of SBS28 having a terrible picture and 31 being unwatchable. I only lived 4km away from Mount Dandenong so it was annoying being so close to the towers but not getting a good picture.
I also have a vague memory of being able to watch WIN from right at the top of the mountain. I’m guessing that was the Gippsland signal being picked up?
Most likely Gippsland given the proximity, but given the westerly outlook from Mt Dandenong there’s every chance it could have just as easily been Ballarat or Bendigo from there
2 Likes
Even when I lived in the west of Melbourne I very occasionally still got Channel 8 from Gippsland judging by the ads that played and also got to see the captions scrolling along the screen advising of the imminent conversion of GLV8 to UHF.
2 Likes
I am wondering if the original plan of QTV becoming the QLD regional affiliate of channel 9, how long its 5:30pm news would have lasted before it made the transition to 6pm and whether it would have filmed a combined bulletin when Nine News went to 1 hour across the east coast…
I also wonder what would have happened, if Bruce Gordon (and WIN) had of bought NRTV back in the late 80s/early 90s when he bought Vision TV/Star TV (DDQ and RTQ)… I wonder if NBN News would still exist today or whether it might have under the Southern Cross banner…
I doubt NBN or NBN News would have survived for very long either had they been affiliated with TEN instead of Nine.
I don’t think it would have lasted any longer than the TEN Capital News At Six did (which was axed in mid 2001 I think). I also think the Capital bulletin being axed was the catalyst for Prime axing it’s NCL/CBR/WLG bulletins a few months later.
2 Likes
That may be true and I guess that the assumption that NBN had a stranglehold on Newcastle would only hold true on the back of strong lead-ins, which if NBN maintained a 6pm presence under an affiliation with Ten, then the lead in would of been Neighbours or The Simpsons or whatever else Ten programmed between 6pm and 7pm in Sydney… and probably not the best programs to win the 6pm news slot, even with Ray Dinneen and Chris Bath…
Another thought is, would Chris Bath have made it to Seven if NBN News was axed before she left???
1 Like
Actually it’s the reverse. Prime News began swimming the axe in June 2001, Ten Capital News’ axe was swung in november 2001
in either case, both triggered the ACA to launch an investigation into the adequacy of local news on regional networks
1 Like
I agree. Not only did NBN get affiliated with what was then the #1 TV network in the country, they also got very lucky when it came to coverage of the NSW Rugby League (as I understand it, Northern NSW and particularly NBN’s home market of Newcastle & the Hunter was/is mad on the sport) with them switching from Ten to Nine for the 1992 season.
If NBN became the Ten affiliate instead…I’d imagine that regional TV in Australia would be even more consolidated (and from a branding/On-Air Presentation perspective, more boring and homogenised) than it is now!
2 Likes
At the end of the day, both Prime and Ten Capital had all axed local news by the end of 2001, with Ten NNSW starting the trend in 1995 under the Telecasters Australia banner, before Ten NNSW and Ten Capital being bought by Southern Cross Broadcasting