TVW
- This article is about the television station in Perth, Western Australia. For other channels known as TVW, see TVW (disambiguation).
 | |
| Perth, Western Australia | |
|---|---|
| Branding | Seven |
| Slogan | GottaLoveItOn7 |
| Channels | Digital: 6 (VHF – 64-QAM) |
| Affiliations | Seven (O&O) |
| Network | Seven |
| Owner |
Seven West Media Limited (Channel Seven Perth Pty Ltd) |
| First air date | 16 October 1959 |
| Call letters' meaning | TeleVision Western Australia |
| Sister station(s) | ATN, HSV, BTQ, SAS, STQ |
| Former channel number(s) | 7 (VHF)(analog) |
| Former affiliations | Independent (1959–1979) |
| Transmitter power | 50 kW (digital) |
| Height | 280 m (digital)[1] |
| Transmitter coordinates | 32°0′30″S 116°5′3″E / 32.00833°S 116.08417°E |
| Website | www.7perth.com.au |
TVW is a television station broadcasting in Perth, Western Australia, wholly owned by the Seven Network. It was the first television station in Western Australia, commencing service on 16 October 1959. It broadcasts a digitally modulated 64-QAM signal of four DVB channels (Seven Network, 7Two, 7Mate and TV4ME) on VHF channel 6 at 177.5 MHz from Bickley, located in the Perth Hills. The primary channel was available as a PAL-B modulated simulcast on VHF channel 7 at 182.25 MHz before being discontinued in the first half of 2013, which was the station's primary signal since its inception. The TVW callsign stands for Television Western Australia.
It is a member of the Seven Network, whose principal shareholder is Perth-born Kerry Stokes.
History
On 13 October 1958, the first commercial television license in Perth was granted by the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs to TVW Limited, and they commenced broadcasting a little over a year later. The then Governor of Western Australia, Sir Charles Gairdner opened the station at 7.30pm on 16 October 1959. Some of the first programs included Leave It to Beaver, Sea Hunt, Father Knows Best, Gunsmoke, Perry Mason, The Epilogue and a local show called Spotlight which featured Rolf Harris.
The signal was originally broadcast from the Applecross Wireless Station.
The original owner of TVW was West Australian Newspapers (WAN), which publishes the Perth daily newspaper, The West Australian. Coincidentally, the Seven Network bought a 15% share in WAN in 2006.
TVW-7 did not have a rival commercial television station until 1965 when STW-9 commenced broadcasting. However the presence of a rival did not have a large negative impact on TVW, at least in the early years. In fact a survey by its rival found that more people agreed with a statement that "TVW fulfilled their viewing needs, and it would be a matter of indifference to them if the new station were to cease transmissions".[2] The six years TVW had as sole commercial operator flowed through for many more years to come, some would even argue that it is still present today considering how well Seven performs in the market compared to Nine, which for nearly two decades until the mid-2000s, generally won comfortably nationally.
After STW-9 entered the market, a 'cartel' was formed between the two stations for the duty of buying from both Australian and overseas production sources. The two stations set up a separate company, TV Facilities, (50%/50% partners). This allowed the stations to purchase programs cheaper than if they were two separate entities, which would bid on shows and subsequently raise prices. This partnership was disliked by Eastern States stations who could not increase their charges to the extent which they would have liked. Allocation of programs was decided by a coin toss, which would allow the winner to pick first and then alternate the picking of programs. However TVW would always be in a more dominant position as it had the rights to continuing shows from the previous six years as well as half of the new programs.
In 1971 TVW Enterprises purchased the Adelaide station, SAS-10, now SAS-7. Eight years later, TVW finally took on an affiliation, aligning with the Seven stations in the East. 1982 saw TVW (and SAS) purchased by Perth based businessman Robert Holmes à Court’s Bell Group. This soon posed a problem for SAS, since Network Ten officials were unwilling to discuss network plans with Bell given that it owned a Seven affiliate. To solve this problem, SAS swapped affiliations and frequencies with Adelaide's original Ten affiliate, ADS, in 1987.[3]
In 1988, Perth finally got full network service when NEW signed on and aligned with Ten. 1988 also saw the station change hands when the Christopher Skase led Qintex group purchased the station. Qintex collapsed a year later, leaving TVW in the hands of receivers. In 1991 the network was floated on the stock exchange and by 1995 Perth-born Kerry Stokes was in charge of both TVW and the rest of the network. Since then, the station has continued to enjoy a dominant share of television ratings in the Perth market.
TVW commenced digital television transmission in January 2001, broadcasting on VHF Channel 6 while maintaining analogue transmission on VHF Channel 7.
The analogue signal for TVW was shut off at 9.00am WST, Tuesday, 16 April, 2013.
In 2011, West Australian Newspapers bought the Seven Network to form Seven West Media, thus reuniting TVW with its founding owner.
Programming
Seven Perth for the most part follows the programming of the Seven Network.
Locally produced programs, which can also be seen in regional Western Australia on GWN7 include:
- Go Racing: News/discussion about the racing scene in both Perth and the Eastern States
- Have a Go TV: Features segments on travel, finance and investment, sport and recreation, health and wellbeing. Hosted by Tod Johnston.
- Home In WA: Lifestyle, building and renovation
- Fishing Western Australia: Explores fishing in WA.
- Our WA: A long-running series of specials which highlight a specific aspect of WA life
Locally produced programs, which can also be seen around Australia through the Seven Network and affiliates include:
- The Force: Behind the Line: Observational documentary about the Western Australia Police
Filmed at Dianella
Studio 1
Current
- Seven News
- Today Tonight (Perth Edition)
- Seven 4.30 News (Perth Edition)
Past
- Telethon
- The Early Bird Show
- A*mazing - Previously filmed at BTQ-7 from 1993-96.
- Time Masters
- Fat Cat's Funtime Show
- Good Morning Perth
- Scratch and Win Telespin
- The Adventures of Bush Patrol
- Family Feud
- In Perth Tonight
- Rothman's World of Football
- The Underground Video Show
- The Late Late Breakfast Show
- Reach for the Stars
- Turpie Tonight
- $50,000 Letter Box
- Spellbound
Studio 2 (Past)
- Brooksey's Footy Show/The Footy Club/Basil's Footy Show
- It's Academic
- Perth at 5
- FMTV
- What A Week
- Today
Studio 3: News
- Channel 7 News/Seven National News/Seven Nightly News/Seven News: 1959-2010
- State Affair: 1984-1989
- Today Tonight: 1995-2010
- Susannah Carr's Land Down Under/World Around Us: 1985-1999
- Sports Centre Seven: 1980s
News and Current Affairs
Seven News
Seven News Perth broadcasts live each night at 6pm with an afternoon bulletin also airing on weekdays at 4:00pm. The main evening program is presented on weeknights by Rick Ardon and Susannah Carr with sport presented by Basil Zempilas and weather presented by Angela Tsun. Ardon and Carr have anchored the 6pm bulletin since 1985, making them the longest serving TV news presenting team in Australia.
Blake Johnson or Samantha Jolly present the weekend news with sport by former West Coast Eagles player Adrian Barich. Chris Mainwaring was the weekend sport presenter until his unexpected death in October 2007.
Former political reporter Reece Whitby frequently filled in as weekend news presenter before running for the Labor Party in the 2008 state election. After failing to win the seat of Morley, he returned to TVW as a behind-the-scenes producer. Seven News stalwart Geoff Parry is the current state political reporter. TVW's current news director is Howard Gretton. Seven News Perth has had the highest ratings on average for almost two decades, it attracts almost double the ratings of rival Nine News Perth.
Long standing Seven News Perth presenter Jeff Newman announced his retirement from television on 1 July 2009, and retired from his role on Monday 10 August 2009. He was replaced by former Nine News Perth weather presenter Natalia Cooper, who began her new role during September 2009. Cooper resigned from Seven Perth at the end of 2012 with ex-Nine weather presenter Angela Tsun taking over as her replacement for the 4:30pm news and 6pm weather forecasts, while Cooper returned to Nine.
On October 24, 2011, ex-news director Shaun Menegola was subsequently fired from his job, in which took place just a few minutes before the 6.00 news went to air.
On Monday 2 April 2012, TVW launched a local edition of the network's 4:30pm news bulletin on weekdays, presented by Natalia Cooper. The bulletin was introduced in response to the Nine Network's launch of a localised afternoon news a month beforehand.
Other news programming produced by the network's Sydney-based national news centre includes the morning news program Sunrise, Seven Morning News, Weekend Sunrise and Sunday Night. airing on Seven, 7TWO & 7mate, National news updates are also produced from the Sydney newsroom throughout the afternoon, evening and overnight hosted by Chris Bath on weekdays and Mark Ferguson on weekends for extended updates.
Today Tonight
The nightly news is followed by a locally produced edition of current affairs program Today Tonight hosted by Monika Kos. The program uses a mixture of reports from its sister programs on the east coast and in Adelaide as well as reports from locally based reporters. Like Seven News Perth, the program is very successful ratings wise, consistently beating its rival A Current Affair. Mario D'Orazio is the programme's producer.
Mascot
Seven Perth has long been the home of Fat Cat, the name standing for Francis Aloysius Thomas Cat. Fat Cat is "put to bed" every night at 7.30pm signalling the end of programs suitable for children. Fat Cat, along with GWN's Doopa Dog, are the last WA television mascots to survive. Longtime rival STW-9 used a large elephant, Flapper, as its mascot and NEW-10 used Kenny Kidna from the Kangaroo Creek Gang as its mascot.
Fat Cat is now mainly used for things to do with Telethon; Fat Cat dolls are sold through Friendlies Chemists for $19.95 to raise money for Telethon.
Seven also has a cartoon-like TV character as a popular mascot.
Telethon
TVW also produces an annual Telethon for the Princess Margaret Hospital for Children, the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research and the Telethon Speech and Hearing Centre. Since 1968 it has raised over $154 million (as of 2013 total). Although the fundraising takes place 365 days a year through the community, it culminates in a 26 hour live broadcast from Perth Convention Exhibition Centre in the heart of Perth over a weekend late in the year. Seven network personalities fly into Perth for the weekend to help raise money, as do a lot of Aussie artists. Many international stars have also been part of Telethon over the years, including Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Celine Dion and Harry Connick Jnr. The show is simulcasted around the state on Network affiliate GWN7.
Christmas Pageant
The station organises an annual Christmas parade through the streets of the Perth CBD. It is claimed to be the largest Christmas parade in the southern hemisphere. More than 600 floats and 60,000 participants have taken part in the procession in the history of the parade, which commenced in 1972.
Broadcasting details
Digital transport frequency: VHF-6 @ 177.5 MHz (Bandwidth: 7 MHz 64-QAM)
| LCN | Service | Image Quality | Compression Quality |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7 | 7 | 720x576i 16:9 SD | H.262 video @ 6500 kbit/s MPEG-1 Audio Layer II @ 256 kbit/s |
| 72 | 7 Two | ||
| 73 | 7 Mate | 1440x1080i 16:9 HD Lite | H.262 video @ 10770 kbit/s Dolby Digital audio @ 384 kbit/s MPEG-1 Audio Layer II @ 256 kbit/s |
Station slogans
- 1980: "21 Years of Television" (used to celebrate 21 Years of TVW7)
- 1982-83: "We're With You on Channel 7!!"
- 1984: "25 Years Together" (used to celebrate 25 Years of TVW7)
- 1984-85: "You Can See It All on 7"
- 1985-1988: "Love You Perth!"
- Summer 1986/87: "The Heat Is On!" (based on the Glenn Frey song) (used as the 1987 America's Cup theme)
- 1987: "Say Hello!"
- 1991-1995: "Seven, Good Night."
- 1997: "Perth's Home with Seven"
- 1999: "Perth - 40 Years" (used to celebrate 40 Years of TVW7)
- July–August 2009: "Still Love You Perth!" (used to celebrate 50 Years of TVW7)
- December 2011: "This City" (based on "This City" by Patrick Stump)
See also
Sources
- Perth Commercial Television After 1965 by Tom O'Regan & Ulla Hiltula
- The Introduction of Television into Western Australia by Eric Fisher
References
- ↑ HAAT estimated from http://www.itu.int/SRTM3/ using EHAAT.
- ↑ http://www.mcc.murdoch.edu.au/ReadingRoom/film/image/Fisher.html[]
- ↑ James Barrington (31 March 2006). "Switching Signals". Intertel. Transdiffusion Broadcasting System. Retrieved 2 December 2006.
External links
- Official Seven Perth Website
- Telethon Website
- Home in WA Website
- History of West Australian Television
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