GLV/BCV

GLV and BCV, better known collectively as Southern Cross Ten Victoria, are television stations in regional Victoria, Australia.

History

Early years

GLV-10 in Traralgon was the first regional television station to launch in Australia, on 9 December 1961, originally covering the Gippsland and Latrobe Valley areas. It was also the first station to use entirely Australian-made broadcasting equipment from Amalgamated Wireless Australasia. The original transmission equipment consisted of a 10 kW and 2 kW transmitter (standby) which was based on the RCA product and adapted to 230V 50 Hz by AWA. The Melbourne pickup was a Rhode and Schwarz off air receiver with AWA return microwave links to the Studio. BCV-8 followed two weeks later on 23 December 1961 (the same day as the launch of GMV-6 Shepparton), serving Bendigo and central Victoria.

Affiliations

GLV pioneered the use of live, 'off-air' relays of television programs from stations in Melbourne, including GTV-9's hugely popular In Melbourne Tonight. Since the station had no video recording equipment, engineers were forced to rely on picking up the original signal at the transmitter site to relay back to the studio. As the sole commercial television station in the region, GLV's program lineup included local output such as news and children's programs, combined with programs selected from Melbourne's commercial stations - the Seven Network (HSV-7), Nine Network (GTV-9) and from 1964, Network Ten (ATV-0, later ATV-10).

An affiliation was formed between the two stations and STV-8 Mildura in the 1970s. In 1982, the three stations merged as the TV8 network, sharing a common logo and programming schedule. The name changed to the Southern Cross Network seven years later. STV-8 was split from the network in 1990 when the station joined the then-VIC Television network.

From GLV-10 to GLV-8

In January 1980, GLV-10 changed frequency from VHF channel 10 to 8, becoming GLV-8 to allow neighbouring Melbourne television station ATV-0 to move to the channel 10 frequency.

A Southern Cross Ten regional sales office in Echuca.

Aggregation

When aggregation in regional Victoria took place between 1992 and 1993, the Southern Cross Network expanded to Shepparton, Ballarat and Albury as an affiliate of Network Ten. By September 1993, the network had changed its name and logo to SCN, and then again in May 1994 to Ten Victoria. This latest change coincided with the axing of the station's local news service (SCN News at 6), replaced by ATV-10's Ten News at 5.

21st century developments

In 2000, GLV-8 moved again to UHF channel 37, in order to allow another Melbourne station, this time GTV-9 to commence digital television transmissions without interference. The two stations' playout and management operations were moved from Bendigo to Canberra in September 2005.^[1]

Programming

News and Current Affairs

From their inception, regional stations GLV and BCV provided local news bulletins within their respective markets. This was usually supplemented by a relay of one of the Melbourne-based bulletins.

During the 1980s, GLV/BCV branded their evening news block as Newshour, comprising half an hour of locally based news and half an hour of news from Melbourne channel HSV-7. In April 1987, the Melbourne-based news became sourced from GTV-9 as HSV-7 had changed its news format to a one-hour bulletin.

In 1986, Newshour won a Logie award for Most Outstanding Contribution by a Regional Television Station.

In 1991, GLV/BCV changed its Melbourne-based news relay to Ten Eyewitness News from ATV-10, in the lead-up to the aggregation of regional markets which would see GLV/BCV align with the Ten Network for program material.

In January 1992, following aggregation, GLV/BCV maintained its local half-hour news in its traditional markets of Gippsland and Bendigo. (Alternative general entertainment programming was broadcast in this timeslot in the newer markets of Shepparton, Ballarat and Albury) This bulletin was supplemented by a half-hour edition of Southern Cross Eyewitness News, anchored by Rob Gaylard and broadcast across the expanded market covered by GLV/BCV, presenting 'national' news of relevance to the broader market.

Southern Cross Eyewitness News was soon disbanded, instead having the Gippsland and Bendigo local news services at 6:00 pm supplemented by the Melbourne-based Ten Eyewitness News, from ATV-10, which aired weeknights at 5:00 pm.

In September 1993, Southern Cross Network became SCN. The news programming block was changed again. Relay of the Melbourne-based Ten Eyewitness News was dropped, with the Bendigo edition of local news - SCN Local News - expanded to cover the local markets of Shepparton and Ballarat. The Gippsland-based edition of SCN Local News continued to cover that local region only. At 6:30 pm, GLV/BCV re-instated the statewide Eyewitness News half-hour bulletin for broadcast across the Gippsland, Bendigo, Shepparton and Ballarat markets. The Albury/Upper Murray local market instead received a delayed broadcast of the Sydney-based Ten Eyewitness News bulletin in the 6:00 pm hour as an alternative to Melbourne-based bulletins being broadcast on rival channels VIC TV and Prime Television.

In May 1994, SCN was re-branded Ten Victoria. The local news bulletins of GLV/BCV were axed, as was the now renamed statewide SCN News at 6. News coverage was now a straight relay of the Melbourne edition of Ten News from ATV-10 with no local or state-based news bulletins (on weekdays) and the national weekend report from TEN-10 from Sydney during weekends, as well as, till 2014, the Network Ten national morning and late night news bulletins.

Local news was reintroduced to the station in 2004 in the form of three-minute updates at various times of the day. The Updates are produced by Southern Cross News from its CTC studios in Canberra. Now dubbed Southern Cross Ten Local News, the updates are pre-recorded.Between 21 March 2011 and 19 June 2015, viewers in Shepparton and the Goulburn Valley received a trial regional news magazine program called Weeknights at 6:30pm on weekdays. The Project now airs in full in its place.

As part of its responsibility as the state Network Ten affiliate it also airs The Bolt Report on Sundays.

Main Transmitters

The following transmitters use the GLV call sign:

The following transmitters use the BCV call sign:

Notes:

• 1. HAAT estimated from http://www.itu.int/SRTM3/ using EHAAT.
• 2. The Latrobe Valley station was on VHF channel 10 from its 1961 sign-on until 1980, moving to VHF channel 8 in order to accommodate ATV Melbourne's switch from VHF channel 0 to channel 10. It moved to its current channel in 2000 in order to accommodate digital television in Melbourne.
• 3. The Bendigo station also broadcasts on analog (UHF) channel 38 with 1200 kW ERP at 508 m HAAT.
• 4. Swan Hill translator initially broadcast on VHF channel 11 from sign-on in 1967 until the early 1990s when it changed to VHF channel 10.
• 5. Analogue transmissions ceased as of 5 May 2011 as part of the conversion to digital television.

References

See also

• Regional television in Australia
• Southern Cross Ten