NRN

NRN
Northern New South Wales
Branding Southern Cross Ten
Slogan Seriously Ten
Channels Analog: see table below
Digital: see table below
Affiliations Ten
Network Southern Cross Ten
Owner Macquarie Media Group
(Northern Rivers Television Pty Ltd)
First air date 23 January 1965
Call letters' meaning Northern
Rivers
New South Wales
Former affiliations independent (1965-1991)
Transmitter power see table below
Height see table below
Transmitter coordinates see table below

NRN is a television station originating in Coffs Harbour, Australia as part of the Southern Cross Ten network. The station was formally a partnership between NRN-11 Coffs Harbour (launched 23 January 1965) and RTN-8 Lismore (launched 12 May 1962).

Contents

History

Origins

NRN11 Coffs Harbour had merged with ECN8 Taree, but later demerged. Around 1971, RTN8 and NRN11 merged to form Northern Rivers Television (NRTV), but was known on-air originally as 11-8. The merged stations served the Mid North Coast and Northern Rivers areas of Northern New South Wales. During the mid 1970s, the station was known as Great Eastland Television, when the partnership shared programming and advertising with NEN-9 Tamworth and DDQ-10 Toowoomba/SDQ-4 Warwick, but they soon reverted back to the NRTV brand.

In 1983, NRTV was relayed into the Gold Coast after a lobbying campaign from residents, although they could also watch the commercial television stations from Brisbane. NRTV's Gold Coast studios and offices were constructed in Ashmore on Southport Nerang Road. The Gold Coast facilities didn't contain a newsroom, although relayed local news from the Coffs Harbour studios. News crews from Lismore travelled to the Gold Coast for stories of importance.

NRTV was at the forefront of local production during its heyday (1975 to 1990), each week pumping out five half hours of local news, three hours of live women's variety "Round About", 5 half hours of live children's variety "Get Set" and "Razzamataz" weekly, holiday specials "Summerthon", and a half hour daily exercise program "Jazzacize". Live sports specials including the annual "Grafton Cup" Racing Carnival and the pre-taped Grafton to Inverell Cycling Classic were among the many sports telecast across Australia. Not bad for a regional TV network.

Live programs mainly originated from the Coffs Harbour Studios with programs being recorded at both the networks other studios located at Lismore and Gold Coast.

Some of the memorable names from that era were:

> Greg Hughes who succeeded Wordsworth as News Reader and station announcer. He formally had worked for the Mike Walsh owned Penrith radio station. He left the network to work for the Army PR Dept.

1990s to 2000s

On 31 December 1991, Northern New South Wales became the third area to be aggregated, and NRTV, via links to Network Ten (it was part of Northern Star Holdings, owned by Westfield Group chairman Frank Lowy), became its affiliate in the region. At one stage, NRTV was the subject of a bid from WIN Television. Nothing came of it, although if WIN had gone through with the bid, it would have made NRTV the Nine Network's affiliate and left an unhappy NBN as Network Ten's affiliate instead.

NRTV was later sold to Telecasters Australia, who also owned the Queensland affiliate of Network Ten. In 1994, the station was renamed Ten Northern NSW, and its station identification was changed to that of Network Ten. The station stopped producing regional news for Coffs Harbour, Lismore and Gold Coast. They had previously produced a licence-wide bulletin, but that too was axed due to poor ratings.

Main Transmitters

Region served City Channels
(Analog/
Digital)
First air date ERP
(Analog/
Digital)
HAAT
(Analog/
Digital)
1
Transmitter Coordinates Transmitter Location
Grafton/Kempsey Coffs Harbour 11 (VHF)
38 (UHF)
23 January 1965 250 kW
250 kW
706 m
730 m
Mount Moombil
Manning River Taree 65 (UHF)
44 (UHF)
31 December 1991 600 kW
320 kW
633 m
633 m
Middle Brother
Newcastle/Hunter River Newcastle 57 (UHF)
51 (UHF)
31 December 1991 1200 kW
500 kW
439 m
439 m
Mount Sugarloaf
Richmond and Tweed2 Lismore 8 (VHF)
32 (UHF)
12 May 1962 200 kW
200 kW
612 m
648 m
(analog)
(digital)
Mount Nardi
Upper Namoi Tamworth 34 (UHF)
40 (UHF)
31 December 1991 600 kW
330 kW
844 m
874 m
Mount Dowe

Programming

News and Current Affairs

Local news was reintroduced to the station in 2004 in the form of three-minute updates at various times of the day.

Elyce Kolder presents the short bulletins for Gold Coast, Coffs Harbour, Newcastle and Tamworth. [1]

A local current affairs program, State Focus, is shown at 8.30am on Sundays , presented by Amy Bainbridge from the network's Canberra-based studios.[2]

References

See also