Only Prime News Albury was at 5.30pm (baring the GWN7 exemption).
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There was a time when every region that had a full Prime Local News bulletin in 1996 has it on at 5:30pm in order to air Seven Nightly News (as it was known then) live at 6pm, followed by Today Tonight at 6:30pm. With the exception of Albury, the 5:30pm experiment was a failure, and it was moved back to 6pm by August that year.
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I would rather Prime7 News at 5:30 to be honest, if I lived in Albury/Wodonga or Southern New South Wales, because I’d be able to watch it to the sport, and then watch Nine News at 6:00. Regional news should be no earlier than 5:30 in Regional Queensland, Southern New South Wales and Albury/Wodonga.
At the risk of veering into the History topics, Canberra had a 5.45 bulletin at one point too.
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I wonder with the Sydney and Melbourne bulletins if they cut out the closer where they say Today Tonight’s next or they pre recorded the closer?
The “and now here’s Today Tonight” closers were certainly cut off towards the end of that programs run, not sure about the earlier years…
Those supers are better than the ones Prime use now…
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A very quick question: does anyone know which Prime7 broadcast zone Batemans Bay falls under?
Because I went there for a holiday in early 2019 and I easily picked up a bulletin, not a noodle update, despite Batemans Bay being geographically located in SE NSW…
If I’m not mistaken, Batemans Bay officially receives Prime7 South Coast - which (like the services provided by WIN & SCA) is basically Prime7 Wollongong with more relevant local ads.
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Interesting. I received a full bulletin, but don’t remember any noodle updates. Probably maybe receives the Wagga signal?
Maybe it was a technical glitch or something? Wagga TV signals might be possible on the outskirts of Canberra, but they definitely wouldn’t make it as far East as Batemans Bay.
Probably not a glitch. Full bulletins played every night between 6-7 every day I was there.
Probably just Seven News and you didn’t realise it at the time, so your memory of it is different to what you’re claiming now.
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Nope, I remember it clearly. Madelaine Collignon was reading both the local and national bulletin. I only saw Seven News in a regional area when I visited Canberra in Oct 2019.
Are you sure you’re not confusing this with the short updates which air during ad breaks? Can’t say I personally keep track of who’s presenting them at any one time, but I guess it’s possible that Madelaine Collignon might’ve presented Wollongong/South Coast updates in addition to her full bulletin duties…
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Now then, a bit of a quick question:
I went to the beginning of this thread and found a post by @Radiohead about the history of Prime Local News in Newcastle. Does anyone know the history of Prime Local News in Canberra? From memory it wasn’t produced from the current super-studios in Watson, it was briefly discontinued in the 1990s, and Melissa Doyle was also a presenter there for some time.
Any other information?
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yes, it was … it started on the first day of aggregation 1 April 1989 with presenter/editor John Bok and a team including Sandra Sully and Angelo Frangopoulos … it rated asterisks so it was dropped … then someone had the bright idea of stealing, at huge cost, Geoff Hiscock, Ken Begg and a host of other hangers-on from Capital … that failed too …
This is a good read: https://televisionau.com/2013/07/flashback-to-canberras-other-leadership-battle.html
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I was under the impression that Prime’s Canberra HQ has been at Watson since aggregation, while CTC was the Canberra station who’s (now demolished to make way for a housing development project) Watson studios weren’t their original home.
Don’t quote me on this, but like SCA I think Prime7 Canberra are expected to eventually move to new facilities at some point in the future.
I believe she was at WIN Canberra for a while before moving to Prime and then of course, Seven Sydney.
I think Prime tried a few different formats for a Canberra news service during the first two years or so of aggregation. At one point (probably after Seven moved their Sydney bulletin to 6pm) there was a 15 minute bulletin at 5.45pm.
The 1993 revival was initially launched as a full scale competitor to then-market leader Capital (in the composite local/national/international format), but would revert to a half hour local bulletin followed by Seven Nightly News from Sydney by the end of the year.
Aside from a brief period around 1995-96 when Prime attempted to accommodate Today Tonight in their early evening schedule (first by attempting a half hour composite bulletin, then by having the local news on at 5.30pm) this was more or less a typical weeknight on Prime Canberra from 1994 until the local bulletin was axed in June 2001:
5.30pm - Wheel of Fortune (as per Seven metro)
6pm - Prime Local News
6.30pm - Seven News Sydney (on a half hour delay)
7pm - Home & Away (back to the network feed)
In addition to that great article from TVAU, Trove has an archive of The Canberra Times up to December 31, 1995. Lots of old Canberra media news up to that date can be found among those old papers, with a good starting point being “The Guide” TV & radio liftouts on Mondays:
That takes me back. Never missed The Guide on Mondays.
My memory of Prime News through that period is a little hazy. I do remember that my first indication of it being axed was flicking on at 6.30 one night to see Today Tonight airing
I think Catherine Garrett may have been the presenter at the time it was axed, and she then moved over to the ABC.
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