WIN newspaper advertisement appealing to national businesses to advertise on the station. The Sydney Morning Herald, 1 December 1971.
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… it’s called “contra” … I thought you said you worked in the business
Murdoch didn’t own WIN before 1963 when he bought the US programs
… still not sure what you are getting at … I made sensible programming decisions based on what was available in the market and as a result achieved the best ratings in WIN’s history … are you somehow suggesting that was wrong? Have you ever programmed a television station?
… now you’re just being silly … try reading what I wrote
… see above about silly comments
… but you obviously have never programmed or run a regional television station
… no idea I was in the UK in 1963 … where were you?
… still makes no sense against your absurd claim that the “audience” was paying
Are you going to continue with this nonsense? I’m bored so I’m sure the rest of Media Spy feels the same.
Seriously, take the temperature down. I’m not questioning your credentials - just very interested in the facts of the Murdoch era and how WIN continues to play alongside Sydney channels.
I think I’ve presented some pretty clear published facts and noted where I’ve included conjecture.
This could be an opportunity for an adult conversation. Pretty much what this site is about.
Ok, so this is interesting. Contra isn’t free as such, given the like-for-like on ad spend. So, WIN was willing to give up airtime for Sydney papers in exchange for advertising that for some reason both parties saw value in. My query would be, what was that inherent value WIN saw that wouldn’t have been better served by doing a deal with the Mercury instead.
As an aside, because I think this is relevant, WIN refused to do contra with us at 2CA in Canberra, as did Prime. Only SC were willing.
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“A good knight’s entertainment”?
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… contra covers a lot of things … I was having a discussion on another forum with a guy who had a senior role in a record company and recording outfit that Murdoch had an interest in and he mentioned that WIN used to do all the production for the record company, ads, clips etc … and there were other deals like that …
… and yes, we did deals with the Mercury as well … and also radio stations and newspapers all the way down the coast … post-aggregation was an entirely different story as you say …
“metro” Newcastle? That’s an interesting take…
That would work well for NBN. 
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An interest? News Limited fully owned Festival Records.
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And siphoned all the bloody money out of it too.
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… yes, I think Mark was being polite when he said that 
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Looks like they based that on the size of the market and its demographics compared to other regional stations.
As an aside, ABC Newcastle was metropolitan station until 2015.
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I do believe SES8 became the majority shareholder in the station sometime in the 1980s and by the early 1990’s both stations had an almost identical schedule.
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Another ye olde PRG, this time from GMV6 Shepparton, 1988
YouTube: Edward Jones
This was the second version of their animated PRG. The earlier version just had the “6” logo spinning around half a dozen times.
The whole video includes a compilation of ads. Mostly from national advertisers but a few typical country ones thrown in, including the high -tech “tomorrow’s top temperature brought to you by…”
That’s it. That’s the whole ad. Not even a forecast, just the temperature! No expense spared by Barry Gain Homes 
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Please tell me they used the tag line “you Gain more with Barry!” 
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I don’t think the budget extended to tag lines 
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I hope he used it elsewhere. I would’ve.
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Well, with graphics like that, “no pain, no gain”.
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