Isn’t Ray Martin a freelancer these days? As well as the specials for Prime7, he’s also been doing stuff for on SBS and filing stories for the Nine Network’s “Getaway” program in recent times…
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Regarding PRIME7, NBN etc on the Gold Coast, what happens during DST when the NSW channels are effectively running an hour ahead of the QLD channels? Do Gold Coast viewers find their programmes appearing an hour earlier than scheduled on the regionals, so have the choice of watching, e.g. Home and Away at 6pm on PRIME7 or 7pm on 7 Brisbane?
Used to, until about 1997, although NBN were using the hour delay in 1996. I think there was a complaint to the ACMA’s predecessor, the ABA and then anything that came from NSW that was rebroadcast into Queensland was held on the hour delay (except for live sports like Cricket, Tennis, V8’s, etc). It resulted from M classified programs being shown at 7:30pm into the Gold Coast, something which wasn’t allowed back then.
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Yep, the complaint was about Prime screening the movie “Pulp Fiction” at 7.30pm QLD time. It caused quite a stir up there at the time (I was living there then).
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The original complaint was from NBN against Prime (NEN) and Ten Northern (NRN) that ‘M’, ‘MA’, ‘PG’ and ‘C’ programs were being broadcast an hour earlier than the classification times set down in the Commercial Television Industry Code of Practice. It cited three examples for each network or programs with M classification broadcast at 7.30pm.
Subsequently another complaint was received from a Queensland viewer regarding Prime showing Pulp Fiction at 7.30pm.
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Given how close the northern parts of NSW are to the Gold Coast, and the fact that TV is obviously broadcast in QLD time to avoid any issues with classification times.
I’m assuming this means that places like Tweed Heads, Cudgen, Kingscliff in Northern NSW only receive TV in QLD time?
This would be a real annoyance if you lived in the area.
A pain for Prime7, NBN and SC10 to have to delay their signal by 1 hour for just 1 market also.
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These areas can also receive NSW signals from Nightcap very well if they desire.
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And Mt Nardi, the main Tx site for the Northern Rivers.
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Mt Nardi is at Nightcap - same place 
What was the reasoning behind letting the NNSW affiliates broadcast into the Gold Coast post-aggregation? I take it ownership would have played a role but can anyone provide some more detail?
The hour delay introduced in the 00s IIRC seems to make it increasingly irritating for NNSW affiliates to broadcast in the Gold Coast.
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Thanks for the responses. So - if I’m picking this up correctly - NBN and the other NNSW stations operate on a one-hour delay across the whole market area, not just on the Gold Coast/Northern Rivers transmitters (the latter would be a logistical nightmare, I assume). So even as far south as Newcastle everything goes out an hour ‘late’ in the summer?
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Only the transmissions that originate in and are designed to cover Queensland are delayed - so Gold Coast, Currumbin and Gold Coast Hinterland.
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As posted in the NBN News thread a little while ago:
Goes back to the days before aggregation. NRTV (NRN-11 Coffs Harbour/RTN-8 Lismore) was relayed into the Gold Coast in the early 80’s. Brisbane channels also broadcast into Gold Coast.
When aggregation was bought in the early 90’s NRTV became an affiliate of Ten. Prime (Seven) and NBN (Nine) were also allowed to enter the Gold Coast market.
Prime set up a full television station in Southport with a live local news bulletin (to be axed in 2000) while NBN News was re-broadcast from Newcastle and NRTV kept their re-broadcast bulletin from Coffs Harbour. NRTV also had some localised Gold Coast shows which only lasted a few short years post-aggregation.
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The Gold Coast has always been part of the coverage and later licence area for the commercial station that served Lismore, Richmond/Tweed area. Viewers on the coast were able to receive the original channels ABRN 6 and RTN 8 with a standard antenna. But reception of both Brisbane and Gold Coast on adjacent channels 6, 7, 8 an 9 was not ideal and required two antennas so a UHF relay was established that included all commercials and one ABC channel. So when aggregation came in the two new commercials were given the same licence areas as the existing and automatically broadcast to the Gold Coast.
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The same situation exists on the NSW Central Coast and the southern Sunshine Coast, again due to legacy overlap in their licence coverage areas. There are no time zone issues with these regions however.
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How viable would it have been during aggregation to have NRTV cease broadcasting to the Gold Coast and not bother with expanding NBN and NEN into QLD?
That I can’t really answer but I do know NRTV would have wanted compensation if they weren’t allowed to broadcast on the Gold Coast anymore. They were a big part of the community in the 1980’s with the annual broadcast of the Tropicarnival Parade and some content produced from their Ashmore studios. It was also an opportunity for local businesses to afford television advertising which would have been more expensive and probably not relevant on Brisbane based stations (ie- like a car yard which only has one Gold Coast lot). Local News was produced from Coffs Harbour but I understand their Lismore bureau would drive up to the Gold Coast if there were stories which were considered “important”. Their news sign off was “From Port (Macquarie) to Southport”.
If they stopped broadcasting, I imagine Seven, Nine and Ten would have been given the green light to sell Gold Coast advertising blocks on their UHF transmitters which they currently aren’t allowed to do. So Brisbane gets one set of ads, Gold Coast another.
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NRTV would really not have ceased broadcasting to the Gold Coast. They would just not have been using the Mt Tamborine relay site. Theoretically viewers would still have been able to receive the NRTV signal on RTN 8 as had always been the case - they would have just needed to have two antennas again.
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While I’m well aware that the metro/regional broadcasting situation on the Gold Coast (and also the NSW Central Coast, minus the timezone/state border issues) happened because of decisions made pre-aggregation to provide viewers with better reception and an additional viewing choice, surely at some point in the future there will come a point when those metro/regional regions become TV licence areas in their own right?
More likely that areas would be amalgamated rather than divided IMO.
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