Does anybody know if reasonable reception was obtained on DDQ when it changed to Channel 0?
Though reception varied due to atmospheric conditions, reception in Brisbane was better than from 10 because of the lower frequency.
I recorded this not long after the change in frequency from suburban Brisbane @ 175km (on a good day) but without any special antenna and the antenna not pointed directly at the transmitter.
They did have some teething issues though - this crawler says they are operating at reduced power.
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Here is DDQ0 as Star FM also recorded from Brisbane
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i think one of old News stories (probably posted by @TV.Cynic ?) included the comment that the terrain in the Darling Downs is a lot flatter than in Brisbane, so it was more conducive to clear reception on Channel 0 than in Brisbane. I don’t know if that was just marketing spin, or if it was legit.
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Possibly legitimate technically but the biggest problem was the lack of suitable antenna installations for the O frequency around 46 MHz. Though the big population centre of Toowoomba was served by 5a so unaffected.
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Star Television along with BCV-GLV’s SCN TV in Victoria, are probably the 2 most shortest lived regional TV station names.
Sounds like the dulcet tones of Lofty Fulton on the Star Television V/O.
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Gee, they’re being generous with their coverage maps! A snowy picture just above the noise level is probably the most you could hope for in Roma.
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Those would have needed a wideband VHF antenna anyway as ABDQ was already on Channel 3, so 0 should have been OK unless you were deep fringe.
Not necessarily, although it would’ve depended whether you were in a town that had their own ABC relay, that was mainly on band III (eg. Roma had ABRAQ on channel 7, to pair with DDQ on 10 originally) - or relied on ABDQ itself. I imagine there might’ve still been a few band-III antennae outside Toowoomba itself as a result and could’ve posed an issue.
SBS had started in Toowoomba itself by then at least, but perhaps were wasn’t as much a push for replacement until ABC moved to UHF in 1993.
That sounds most likely, although I think last time I pondered this, ISTR saying it’d probably require a trip to the QLD State Library or to Rocky/Toowoomba itself to look through the local newspaper database, given the relative inability to access the earlier but post-Trove News Corp content online (as the Rocky Morning Bulletin in particular was… the base search on the State Library site sadly only goes back to 1991!) and I suspect the best way to find out would’ve been ads in the local paper or the TV guides.
I wouldn’t be surprised if being resigned to Ten and the Star TV branding didn’t happen until Darling Downs TV/Aspermont lost in their attempts to get aggregation struck down entirely (both dragging in the minister, and also through a attempt to have Qintex’s aggregation deals with Prime scuttled on reach rule grounds), which didn’t come down until the end of May. There’s really not a lot around online re: use of the Star name between then and the YT video @TV.Cynic posted, which the original uploader pointed to early December, but mid-year sounds about right.
WIN had a different throw at the stumps later in the year though; putting in a bid to buy Seven out of Qintex’s receivership (which happened in about November)… although with the size WIN was then, that was very unlikely to happen, and the SMH article at the time (in their paid archives) also questioned how much Paramount would have got out of it ownership-wise, as Bruce Gordon’s still then-employer, and whether that would’ve broken the laws at the time (similar ones to what Canwest had to get around to buy their stake in Ten later on).
That would’ve seen WIN have to choose between RTQ and STQ [Sunshine], the effects on DDQ would have probably been unknown (although I’m sure they would’ve gladly taken Seven programming if they could) and the article suggested they may have needed to get rid of their Wollongong interests too (again, reach rule I guess), inclusive of 2OO radio. Of course WIN might’ve still bought DDQ out but then without a Nine dotty, then you start throwing in questions of where the WIN brand might’ve even gone then.
I suspect (speculation alert!) that with Nine having a ~20% or so chunk of QTV, the most obvious way both DDQ and WIN would’ve seen to get out of a losing Ten affiliation would’ve been a way to get Seven… that wasn’t going to happen in QLD while Qintex also owned Sunshine, but the receivership gave WIN one last throw of the dice at least, even though they basically would’ve had to have rolled a “natural 20” to win that.
After that, perhaps they realised that they could do a better deal for Nine than what Nine could do themselves by part-owning QTV. It was interesting for Bruce to crow that that deal wasn’t as watertight as it should’ve been.
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Not to mention that map showing the SDQ transmitter as if it’s over the border when it’s firmly in Canetoad country!
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Wasn’t there a DDQ10 relay in Miles at some stage?
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Yes, it commenced after the move to 0.
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Up at Passchendaele Ridge, the cane toads would freeze.
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A bit like nen/ecn being labelled 9-8 Television.
Speaking of the northern NSW market, I wonder if NBN TV was at one point hoping the Prime deal would fall through with some of Sevens shows being shown eg Wheel of Fortune. I think at one point they also screen Home and away. It could have been a potentially cheaper option for the independent network if this was the case
I think that most saw a Seven affiliation as a safer option given costs versus revenue potential
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I think NBN was glad to be Nine affiliated… which pretty much fell in their lap since Prime bought NEN/ECN and NRTV had to be Ten aligned due to ownership links.
Being Nine aligned got NBN the cricket and rugby league, being in Newcastle Knights territory. Even more fortunately for NBN, the first year of aggregation (1992) was when all of the rugby league moved from 10 to 9.
And Nine was a ratings powerhouse back then when Kerry Packer was in charge.
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I agree. Nine was “Still the One” and was the top of the 3 networks, of course it would been more desirable given the ratings and premium ad rates it would attract. And a lot of regional channels pre-aggregation carried plenty of Nine product.
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I’m not saying they wouldn’t have been pleased. I think there would have been a sigh of relief from NBN owners , Washington H. Soul Pattinson, when WIN didn’t secure NRTV ownership around the time of the RTQ/DDQ takeover and the outcome for QTV.
I think it was fairly obvious that NRTV had little interest in linking itself with Seven given that there was very little Seven content in the station from 1987 onward ( A Country Practice, Beyond 2000, The Golden Girls and a few kids shows like Wombat). From station open til 11am were channel 10 programs then channel 9 sourced programs through to the 6pm (except the occasion channel 7 or 10 children’s program)
NBN TV was the only northern NSW channel pre-aggregation that had a genuine mix of programs from all three commercial metro stations, although only a handful of shows like Dallas from channel 10, Perhaps it was a way of demonstrating the strong opposition NBN TV had to aggregation of regional markets.
In reality, we would have ended up with the same model and outcomes regardless of which model they used for aggregation.
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Question re: the Navy anthem film shown on many stations (I’ve counted 3 different edits on YT)…where in Sydnay was the band filmed? In the version aired on Vision TV shown in a previous post, the camera zooms out to show the Opera House in the background…
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