VTV (TV station)

VTV
Regional Victoria
Branding WIN
Slogan Welcome Home
Channels Analog: see table below
Digital: see table below
Affiliations Nine
Network WIN
Owner WIN Corporation Pty Ltd
(WIN Television Vic Pty Ltd)
First air date 1 January 1992
Call letters' meaning Vic
Television
Victoria
Transmitter power see table below
Height see table below
Transmitter coordinates see table below
Website www.wintv.com.au

VTV is an Australian television station broadcasting in regional Victoria in Australia. The network was owned by ENT Ltd., before being purchased by the WIN Corporation.

Contents

Network history

Vic Television began as a network of several stations serving northern and western Victoria:

Vic Television was owned and operated by Ent Ltd., a company which already owned TVT-6 Hobart as well as GMV-6 and BTV-6. Shortly after they purchased STV-8 in 1990, the three Victorian stations took on the on-air identity of VicTV, providing a single programming service across all three stations with separate regional news services for each area.

On 1 January 1992, aggregation of regional television took place in Victoria. Vic Television extended their transmission area to incorporate the Bendigo, Albury and Gippsland area markets. Vic Television had entered into a program supply agreement with the Nine Network but continued to maintain news services in each of the six regional markets in which it now operated. The official callsigns of GMV and BTV were consolidated into a single callsign of VTV. STV-8 kept its own callsign as it was excluded from the area affected by aggregation.

In October 1994, ENT Ltd. sold Vic Television to the WIN Corporation which already operated WIN Television stations in New South Wales, Canberra and Queensland. The stations are now part of the WIN Television network.

BTV-6 Ballarat & Western Victoria

BTV-6 opened at 7pm on Friday 27 April 1962 with the documentary "This is BTV Channel 6".[1] The station produced a wide range of local and part-networked TV programming through its history, most notably the chat show Six Tonight, which aired from 1971 to 1983, eventually also being carried on the Six (BTV6 and GMV6 Shepparton) and Eight (now Southern Cross) Networks across much of Victoria, as well as parts of South Australia and New South Wales.

BTV placed a strong emphasis on local news, with the first news bulletin read by Arthur Scuffins on 27 April 1962. The nightly news program, Six News, was extended to 30 minutes in 1980 in response to the ABC dropping their regional news service in the late 1970s. The bulletin was rebranded as News Centre Six in the mid 1980s.

On-air talent included Arthur Scuffins, Eric Gracie, Val Sarah, Craig Campbell, Peter Gamble, Gary Rice, John Garland, Glenn Ridge and Fred Fargher.

GMV-6 Shepparton & Goulburn Valley

GMV-6, one of the first regional television stations in Australia, began transmission from Shepparton on 23 December 1961 (the same launch date as BCV-8 Bendigo), broadcasting from a transmitter at Mount Major. Originally, the station was owned in conjunction with local radio station 3SR.

The callsign of GMV referred to its coverage area which included the Goulburn River and Murray River catchent areas. The 'V' refers to Victoria as is the normal protocol for commercial TV station callsigns, where the third letter indicates the state in which the service is licensed.

By the late 1960s, various low powered relay transmitters began operation in the fringes of the GMV region including GMV-3 Eildon, GMV-8 Jerilderie NSW, GMV-10 Deniliquin NSW and GMV-10 Alexandra (later changed to GMV-11).

GMV-6 converted to full scale colour TV transmission on 1 March 1975. By the mid-1980s, transmission hours had extended to commence at 7.00am weekdays, broadcasting until around midnight. Programming included regional news and children's programmes, mixed with programs selected from the three commercial networks in Melbourne; HSV-7 (Seven), GTV-9 (Nine) and ATV-10 (Ten). The evening local news bulletin was supplemented by a relay of the nightly Seven National News from HSV-7 until 1987, and then National Nine News from GTV-9

WIN News

WIN News produces regional news bulletins for each of the six area markets covered by VTV. Reporters and camera crews are based within each of the six regions from newsrooms in Ballarat, Bendigo, Shepparton, Traralgon, Mildura and Albury. Studio presentation for the Bendigo, Gippsland, Shepparton, Mildura and Albury bulletins is pre-recorded from VTV's Ballarat studios with the Ballarat bulletin broadcast live.

All six WIN News bulletins are presented by Bruce Roberts with sports presenter Sean Sowerby and weather presenter Jane Bunn.

Reporters

Albury

  • Andrew Moir (Editor, Chief of Staff)
  • James Oaten
  • Jonathan Kearsley

Ballarat

  • Patrick Mitchell
  • Ebony Piera
  • Nathan Tanti
  • Natalie Schenken
  • Henry Peters

Bendigo

  • Elizabeth McDonald (Editor, Chief of Staff)
  • Aleisha Verwoert
  • Dougal Beatty

Gippsland

  • Brooke Van Nooten (Editor, Chief of Staff)
  • Tom Kelly
  • Stephanie Charalambous

Mildura

  • Adam Watherston (Editor, Chief of Staff)
  • Breanna Gallagher
  • Jessica Harris

Shepparton

  • Wes Cusworth (Editor, Chief of Staff)
  • Britt Ditterich
  • Sueanne McCumstie

The chief of staff for all WIN News services in Victoria is Jeff Sly.

Main Transmitters

Region served City Channels
(Analog/
Digital)
First air date ERP
(Analog/
Digital)
HAAT
(Analog/
Digital)
1
Transmitter Coordinates Transmitter Location
Ballarat2 Ballarat 36 (UHF)3 6
37 (UHF)
27 April 1962 2000 kW
500 kW
710 m
713 m
Lookout Hill
Bendigo Bendigo 35 (UHF)6
54 (UHF)
1 January 1992 2000 kW
1000 kW
517 m
505 m
Mount Alexander
Goulburn Valley4 Shepparton 6 (VHF)6
9 (VHF)
23 December 1961 220 kW
55 kW
319 m
319 m
Mount Major
Latrobe Valley Traralgon 43 (UHF)6
36 (UHF)
1 January 1992 1000 kW
400 kW
515 m
487 m
(analog)
(digital)
Mount Tassie
Murray Valley Swan Hill 50 (UHF)6
60 (UHF)
1 January 1992 400 kW 179 m Goschen
Upper Murray Albury 33 (UHF)6
10 (VHF)
1 January 1992 1200 kW
60 kW
533 m
525 m
Mount Baranduda
Western Victoria5 11 (VHF)6
10 (VHF)
30 kW
15 kW
365 m
365 m
Mount Dundas

Notes:

See also

References

  1. ^ TV Week, 23 April 1962 - Television AU

External links