NEN (TV station)

NEN

Northern New South Wales
Branding	Prime7
Slogan	Gottaloveit on Prime7
Channels	Analog: see table below Digital: see table below
Affiliations	Seven
Network	Prime7
Owner	Prime Television Ltd (Prime Television (Northern) Pty Ltd)
First air date	10 April 1965
Call letters' meaning	New England New South Wales
Former callsigns	ECN (Taree, Northern Rivers) [1966-1985]
Former affiliations	independent (1965-1991) Great Eastland Television (1975-1986) effective_radiated_power = see table below
Height	see table below
Transmitter coordinates	see table below
Website	www.primetv.com.au

NEN is an Australian television station licensed to, and serving northern New South Wales.

History

NEN9 Tamworth/Upper Namoi commenced transmissions on 10 April 1965, with a relay in Armidale (NEN1, later NEN10) on 15 July 1966. ECN8 Taree/Manning River began on 27 May 1966.

During 1968–69, ECN8 who at the time were facing financial difficulties approached NBN3 Newcastle to take the station over but the proposal was rejected by the Australian Broadcasting Control Board. An approach was also made to NRN11 Coffs Harbour but an agreement could not be reached. Finally, ECN approached NEN with an agreement for ECN to carry a relay broadcast of NEN's programming from the end of March 1969. In November 1971, ECN merged with NEN, but continued to use the callsign ECN into the mid 1980s.

During the 1970s and early 1980s NEN9 was a member of the Great Eastland Television partnership with NRN11 Coffs Harbour and DDQ/SDQ 10-4-5a Toowoomba, Queensland, sharing programming and advertising. From 1984 until 1989 the station branded itself 9-8 Television, referencing the channel numbers of both their Tamworth and Taree broadcasts.

Prime Television purchased the station in 1989, rebranding the station Prime Television and aligning it with the Seven Network, similarly to CBN in southern New South Wales, whilst changing ECN's call sign to NEN. At the commencement of Northern NSW market Aggregation on 31 December 1991, Prime Television became the Northern NSW affiliate of the Seven Network, in competition with NRTV (now Southern Cross Ten) and NBN.

Prime7 News

NEN produces and broadcasts two 30-minute Prime7 News bulletins for the Tamworth and North Coast regional markets, broadcast each weeknight at 6pm and presented by Madelaine Collignon.

In the Gold Coast, Newcastle and Central Coast markets, short two-minute updates are presented on a rotating basis by Natalie Forrest and Freya Cole with weather forecasts from Daniel Gibson, Madelaine Collignon and Craig Moore.

In January 2012, the station announced studio presentation for both Prime7 News bulletins would be moved to Prime's Canberra headquarters in April 2012.^[1] The plan was scrapped a month later.^[2]

However, in a report by ABC News on 22 January 2015, Prime Media Group will continue its transfer of the Tamworth and North Coast bulletins to Canberra. This is a result of the closure of the Tamworth broadcast studios after 50 years of operation, but the exact closure and transfer date isn't yet announced. 21 editorial staff from both regions will remain to prepare for these bulletins (with the relocation to a new premises in Tamworth), and Ferguson (who'll remain to be the News Editor of the North Coast bulletin) will step down as its news presenter once the transfer is made.^[3]

Main transmitters

Notes:

1. HAAT estimated from http://www.itu.int/SRTM3/ using EHAAT.
2. The Manning River station was an independent station with the callsign ECN from its 1966 sign-on until aggregation in 1991.
3. Analogue services ceased transmission as of 27 November 2012 as part of national conversion to digital-only television

References

See also

• Regional television in Australia
• Prime7