I’ll explain…
One of my earliest memories is a day trip up to Tamworth with Mum and Dad and driving into Tamworth, you’d drive past the studios with a gold statue of that logo. Now, I’m hoping I’m not imagining things but I am damn sure there was one.
… it was black and high up on the building wall …
That could be it. When did 9-8 rebrand to Prime? I swear it was up there for a while into the early 90s.
Pretty sure 9-8 Television rebranded to Prime Television in either 1988 or 1989, although I’m unsure of the exact year at the current time.
Paul bought NEN in October 1987 … it was rebranded as a corporate entity to Prime in 1988 …
At the same time, ECN had its callsign changed to NEN in preparation for aggregation.
… yeah I read that somewhere too, but I don’t recall it really happening because call signs became irrelevant when the market aggregated and everything from '88 was Prime anyway …
The publication I have on the history of Tamworth suggests it was May 1988
it definitely happened, the ECN call-sign was taken over by NEN with aggregation (Likewise, for Prime, the RVN, CBN and CWN call-signs all consolidated into CBN with aggregation)
Call-signs are still around, for the commercial stations anyway, though are probably just serve as an administrative function these days. They don’t serve any real on-air function anymore.
ABC did away with using individual AB-prefixed call-signs for its stations some years ago and just changed everything to a generic “ABC” call-sign regardless of location.
That last part about the ABC callsigns still doesn’t make sense to me, as you still have unique state-based feeds for ABC.
Sure, you don’t need the old ABRV/ABHN/ABDQ type callsigns any more, but at least having a state-based ABV/ABN/ABQ would make sense, even just to indicate the feed. There are areas around state/territory borders where this does matter as you have different news feeds and even time zones to consider
There was an explanation given by ABC at the time. I can’t recall it now but I vaguely remember it was somewhat related to the structure of its transmission networks. I mean, that could have just been PR-speak for “we can’t be bothered maintaining call-signs anymore”. I don’t know, but for whatever reason they just went with a uniform “ABC” call-sign in the same way that SBS uses a generic “SBS” call-sign everywhere.
Yes, I reckon “should” be 2 callsigns per state, as on Digital TV, in NSW, you have “ABC Sydney” as the network name on the TXs that cover the metro area, and “ABC NSW” everywhere else. So there “should” be ABN and ABRN respectively, and in other states, ABV / ABRV etc.(R for regional).
ABC and ACMA response:
this is the case in Queensland with the ABC and SBS provider on the Gold Coast, Toowoomba and in Brisbane (thats where I’ve been recently).
Brisbane = ABC Brisbane, SBS Brisbane
Gold Coast = ABC Queensland, SBS Brisbane
Toowoomba = ABC Queensland, SBS QLD
I can’t say what the providers are on the Sunshine Coast as I didn’t have time to visit the area.
If I’m not mistaken, the Central Coast of NSW receives “ABC NSW” rather than “ABC Sydney” - no idea about SBS because I’ve never checked out that relay largely due to the fact I’d be wasting far more valuable NBN/Prime7 Central Coast viewing time!
… yep, it took a little longer to finalise the NEN deal as the Higginbotham family were demanding additional conditions … but it must have been prior to May '88 as one of the conditions was that Mike Moroney become group general manager of Prime and I was already talking to him in Sydney in May after Allan Hoy had called me and asked me to join them … anyway by mid '88 it had all been wrapped up (and the debt started piling up) …
Yes, in Sydney it’s ABC Sydney and SBS Sydney, but if it’s the case for the Central Coast, I would say ABC NSW and SBS NSW.
I find it interesting in Newcastle, that the providers are:
ABC = ABC NSW
SBS = SBS NSW
WIN Newcastle = WIN
Prime7 Newcastle = PRIME
and funny enough
Nine Newcastle = NBN Newcastle
For most of Northern NSW, Nine’s provider is NBN still,
Central Coast = Unknown
Newcastle = NBN Newcastle
Taree-Port Macquarie = Nine Network Australia
Coffs Harbour = NBN Mid North Coast
Lismore = NBN Far North Coast
Gold Coast = NBN Gold Coast
According to this document, ABC & SBS at the Central Coast translators appeared to be fed off Satellite. In other words, it would be ABC NSW & SBS NSW, as Jeza02 said above.
The Sydney commercial channels are fed off-air directly from Artarmon/Gore Hill, whilst Prime7 & NBN are fed via a link, whilst WIN at the Forresters Beach translator is fed off-air from Mt Sugarloaf.
I was getting my information straight from the Main translators along NNSW.
Last time I checked, Central Coast was SBS Sydney, and I think ABC NSW.