AMV-4
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AMV is an Australian
television station A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the earth's s ...
licensed to, and serving the regions surrounding
Wagga Wagga Wagga Wagga (; informally called Wagga) is a major regional city in the Riverina region of New South Wales, Australia. Straddling the Murrumbidgee River, with an urban population of more than 57,003 as of 2021, it is an important agricultural, m ...
and Albury-Wodonga in south western
New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...
and north eastern Victoria. The station was, for many years, merged with RVN-2 as ''the Riverina and North East Victoria Television Service''.


History


Origins and license history

AMV-4 commenced broadcasting on 7 September 1964. It broadcast programming from the three commercial stations in Sydney (
ATN-7 ATN is the Sydney flagship television station of the Seven Network in Australia. The licence, issued to a company named Amalgamated Television Services, a subsidiary of John Fairfax & Sons, was one of the first four licences (two in Sydney, two ...
,
TCN-9 TCN is the flagship television station of the Nine Network in Australia. The station is currently located at 1 Denison Street, North Sydney. The licence, issued to a company named Television Corporation Ltd headed by Frank Packer, was one of the ...
and TEN-10) alongside local programming including coverage of the Albury Gold Cup, the Ovens and Murray Football League Grand Final and the 1988 Miss Australia pageant. The station has continuously produced a half-hour regional news program on weeknights, currently known as '' Prime7 News'', with local news and sports reports produced in
Albury Albury (; ) is a major regional city that is located in the Murray River, Murray region of New South Wales, Australia. It is part of the twin city of Albury–Wodonga, Albury-Wodonga and is located on the Hume Highway and the northern side of ...
but aired in bulletins put together at Prime7's
Canberra Canberra ( ; ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the Federation of Australia, federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's list of cities in Australia, largest in ...
headquarters. The company to operate the station, ''Albury-Upper Murray TV Limited'', was awarded its broadcasting licence on 4 October 1962. Principal shareholders in the company included Amalgamated Wireless Australasia,
Hoyts The HOYTS Group of companies in Australia and New Zealand includes HOYTS Cinemas, a cinema chain, and Val Morgan, which sells advertising on cinema screens and digital billboards. The company was established by dentist Arthur Russell in Melbo ...
, '' The Border Morning Mail'' newspaper and other local businesses — complying with the requirement that at least 50 per cent of the company's shareholding must be locally based.


RVN's origins prior to going on air

When the commercial television license for the
Riverina The Riverina () is an agricultural list of regions in Australia, region of south-western New South Wales, Australia. The Riverina is distinguished from other Australian regions by the combination of flat plains, a climate with significant seaso ...
area was being determined, a number of local groups submitted proposals.
Young Young may refer to: * Offspring, the product of reproduction of a new organism produced by one or more parents * Youth, the time of life when one's age is low, often meaning the time between childhood and adulthood Music * The Young, an America ...
-based radio station 2LF, along with local councils and businesses in the Young-
Cootamundra Cootamundra, nicknamed Coota, is a town in the South West Slopes region of New South Wales, Australia and within the Riverina. It is within the Cootamundra-Gundagai Regional Council. At the 2016 Census, Cootamundra had a population of 6,782. I ...
area,
Wagga Wagga Wagga Wagga (; informally called Wagga) is a major regional city in the Riverina region of New South Wales, Australia. Straddling the Murrumbidgee River, with an urban population of more than 57,003 as of 2021, it is an important agricultural, m ...
newspaper '' The Daily Advertiser'' and radio station 2WG, together with local Wagga Wagga businessmen, as well as a group of smaller newspapers and some licensed clubs. 2LF's proposal later joined forces with ''the Advertiser''–2WG bid — 2LF would get 10 per cent of the shares, 2WG got 20 per cent and ''The Advertiser'' got 15 per cent, with the remaining shares to be offered to local people. After issues at the
Australian Broadcasting Control Board The Australian Broadcasting Control Board was an Australian government agency formed in 1949 whose main roles were to regulate commercial radio and television broadcasting. It was also the introducer and regulator for FM broadcasting. The agenc ...
enquiry for the license, the 2LF–2WG–''Advertiser'' group (trading as Riverina Television) won the license. The initial board was made up representatives from 2WG, 2LF, ''The Daily Advertiser'', and two local councils. A few days after the license was announced, the chairman and station manager had a disagreement, resulting in the resignation of both. They were replaced by Wal Hucker, who ran a film animation and sound company in
Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...
and was also the former chairman's brother-in-law. The former chairman's wife also joined the board, as the Control Board made it clear that 2WG had to remain involved in the station. Bill Marsden, of 2LF, became the station manager. A disagreement with the Wagga Wagga city council over the location of a potential studio site, which would have provided direct line of sight transmission to the
Mount Ulandra Mount Ulandra is a mountain with an elevation of that is located within the Ulandra Nature Reserve in the South West Slopes region of New South Wales, Australia. The mountain is located approximately south-west of and south-east of . At ...
transmitter, saw a new site rezoned from residential areas. As with most stations launching at that time, the mast would be shared with the local transmitter of the
ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Aliw Broadcasting Corporation, Philippine broadcast company * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial American ...
, but not the transmitting facilities, as chief engineer Stuart McDonald wanted to operate the facilities remotely. RVN would be the first station to operate their transmitters in this way. The studios were completed in early 1964, after construction started on 31 July 1963.


Early broadcasting

RVN opened transmission on 19 June 1964, at 7pm, to much anticipation by the people of the Riverina and South-West Slopes. Prior to the opening of RVN-2, many in the Riverina needed marketing advice of purchasing their television sets and installing their aerials in advance to a any last minute demands, while others who did not own television sets were invited to view them from shopfronts. The opening night's programming of RVN included an announcement from the area's then local Federal Member, footage of the station's construction, a five minute news bulletin with newsreader Paul Griffiths, the feature film, '' The Dambusters'' at 9:05pm and
The Jack Benny Program ''The Jack Benny Program'', starring Jack Benny, is a radio and television comedy series. The show ran for over three decades, from 1932 to 1955 on radio, and from 1950 to 1965 on television. It won numerous awards, including the 1959 and 19 ...
. AMV-4 Albury opened transmission for the first time at 4:55pm on 7 September 1964, with ''Cohns Cobbers’ Teleclub''. Before the official opening at 7:16pm titled ''Were You There — with AMV'', the other programmes were ''Captain Gallant'' at 6pm, '' Calvin and the Colonel'' at 6:30pm, ''On Target'' with Ross Sellars at 6:55pm and ''
ABC News ABC News most commonly refers to: * ABC News (Australia), a national news service of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation * ABC News (United States), a news-gathering and broadcasting division of the American Broadcasting Company ABC News may a ...
'' from
ABV-2 ABV is the call sign of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's television station in Melbourne, Victoria. History The station began broadcasting on 19 November 1956 and is transmitted throughout the state via a network of relay transmitters ...
at 7pm. After the opening, the programs were ''
Bonanza ''Bonanza'' is an American Western television series that ran on NBC from September 12, 1959, to January 16, 1973. Lasting 14 seasons and 431 episodes, ''Bonanza'' is NBC's longest-running Western, the second-longest-running Western series on ...
'' at 8:30pm, the 1954 movie Lucky Me at 9:30pm and ''Mike Hammer'' at 11:15pm. The station closed down for the night at 11:35pm. As with most stations at the time, news was done by announcing over slides, or read to the camera, combined with the previous night's news film from
ATN-7 ATN is the Sydney flagship television station of the Seven Network in Australia. The licence, issued to a company named Amalgamated Television Services, a subsidiary of John Fairfax & Sons, was one of the first four licences (two in Sydney, two ...
Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...
. Local programming, including commercials, was broadcast live. RVN was the only station to have made a profit, albeit a small one, in its first year of operation.


RVN-AMV

By the early 1970s, many regional stations faced financial difficulties, and as a result RVN and AMV planned to merge to form the Riverina and North East Victoria Television Service Pty Ltd, in 1971. The stations were known on-air as ''RVN-AMV''. Both stations were programmed separately, until 1976 when transmission for both stations was centralised in Wagga Wagga. In 1983, the stations faced a unique situation when New South Wales and Victoria ended daylight saving periods at different times. For three weeks, RVN's output was shown on AMV on a one-hour delay. It was also unusual in that it served audiences in two states, and had to program accordingly.
New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...
viewers in the Riverina received Sydney news and sports, primarily
rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby 13/XIII in non-Anglophone Europe, is a contact sport, full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular Rugby league playin ...
, while viewers in North East Victoria were shown
Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...
news and sports (mainly
Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the pre-eminent professional sports, professional competition of Australian rules football. It was originally named the Victorian Football League (VFL) and was founded in 1896 as a breakaway competition ...
FL; previously VFL. By the mid-1980s, 80 people were employed at Wagga, and a further 40 in Albury.


Prime/Ramcorp

RVN-AMV was purchased by Paul Ramsay's Ramcorp Ltd. in 1987, and merged with the MidState Television network, forming ''Prime Television''. RVN and AMV split up in 1989, when Southern
New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...
was aggregated - RVN joined with
CBN CBN, or cbn, may refer to: Broadcasting organizations * Radio stations in St. John's, Newfoundland: ** CBN (AM), CBC Radio One ** CBN-FM, CBC Music * Chronicle Broadcasting Network, the predecessor of ABS-CBN * CBN (Australian TV station), a TV ...
, as the
Seven Network Seven Network (stylised 7Network, and commonly known as Channel Seven or simply Seven) is an Australian commercial free-to-air Television broadcasting in Australia, television network. It is owned by Seven West Media, Seven West Media Limited, ...
affiliate in the area in competition with
Ten Capital CTC is a television station in Canberra, Australia. The station was the tenth to begin transmission in regional Australia, and the 26th station in Australia as a whole. CTC has an affiliation agreement to show content from Network 10. Just as i ...
and
WIN Television WIN Television is an Australian television broadcasting, Australian television network owned and operated by WIN Corporation that is based in Wollongong, New South Wales. WIN commenced transmissions on 18 March 1962 as a single television stat ...
. AMV, meanwhile expanded into the rest of Victoria as the state's
Seven Network Seven Network (stylised 7Network, and commonly known as Channel Seven or simply Seven) is an Australian commercial free-to-air Television broadcasting in Australia, television network. It is owned by Seven West Media, Seven West Media Limited, ...
affiliate, in competition with Vic TV and
Southern Cross CRUX is a lightweight x86-64 Linux distribution targeted at experienced Linux users and delivered by a tar.gz-based package system with BSD-style initscripts. It is not based on any other Linux distribution. It also utilizes a ports system to ...
. RVN's callsign ceased to exist in 1991, when the Wagga Wagga and Orange licenses were merged to become only CBN. At the same time, AMV moved from VHF channel 4 to VHF channel 11, in order to allow FM stations to be established without interference from existing television stations (using VHF channels 3, 4, 5 and 5A). In preparation for aggregation of the Victorian market - (excluding
Mildura Mildura ( ) is a regional city in north-west Victoria, Australia. Located on the Victorian side of the Murray River, Mildura had a population of 34,565 at the 2021 census. When nearby Wentworth, Irymple, Nichols Point, Merbein and Red ...
) - in early 1992, a studio facility and playout centre was constructed in the Ballarat suburb of Mitchell Park. At that time this facility was the playout centre for the Western Victoria, Central Victoria, and
Gippsland Gippsland () is a rural region in the southeastern part of Victoria, Australia, mostly comprising the coastal plains south of the Victorian Alps (the southernmost section of the Great Dividing Range). It covers an elongated area of east of th ...
regions. Playout for the Albury and
Shepparton Shepparton () (Yorta Yorta language, Yortayorta: ''Kanny-goopna'') is a city located on the floodplain of the Goulburn River (Victoria), Goulburn River in northern Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, approximately north-northeast of Mel ...
regions was maintained at Prime's Albury studios. The
Ballarat Ballarat ( ) () is a city in the Central Highlands of Victoria, Australia. At the 2021 census, Ballarat had a population of 111,973, making it the third-largest urban inland city in Australia and the third-largest city in Victoria. Within mo ...
centre was and continues to be operated under the AMV licence. The station celebrated its 50th anniversary in September 2014, at its now former Union Road studios. The station moved to studios in Dean Street,
Albury Albury (; ) is a major regional city that is located in the Murray River, Murray region of New South Wales, Australia. It is part of the twin city of Albury–Wodonga, Albury-Wodonga and is located on the Hume Highway and the northern side of ...
in April 2015.


Seven News

AMV produces and broadcasts a 30-minute Seven News bulletin for the Albury-Wodonga border and North East Victoria regional market each weeknight at 6:00pm co-presented by Madelaine Collignon and Nick Hose in Canberra introducing news and sports reports from Seven's Albury-based reporters. Kirstie Fitzpatrick is the bulletin's weather presenter. It is followed by a shortened 30-minute version of Seven's main 6pm bulletin from Melbourne at 6:30pm. The new news arrangement took place on 24 February 2014, over a month after Seven News extended its flagship bulletins in Australia's east coast metropolitan markets to a full hour as a result of axing current affairs programme Today Tonight (which the Border sub-market does not carry). Albury is in NSW, just over the border from the Victorian city of Wodonga. AMV takes its programs from Seven Melbourne under the Victoria broadcast market, with Albury much closer to Melbourne than it is to Sydney. Throughout the station's history, local news under various names were produced and broadcast from studios at 570 Union Road in Lavington in Albury's north. In the 2000s, then owner Prime Media began closing most of its regional studios, citing upgrade costs. Albury however was not cut and in late 2010 was upgraded to digital equipment. However, just two months after the upgrade, Prime Media announced it would be ending local programming from its Union Road, Albury studios, and instead transfer production to the company's headquarters in Canberra; its final local presentation was produced in March 2011. The studios were converted to a church several years later in 2016, however the last local news presenter, Helen Ballard, moved to the newly-established newsroom in Albury as a reporter. In the Ballarat, Bendigo and Gippsland regional markets, two-minute updates are presented by Pip Waller, with weather forecasts from Daniel Gibson.


Main transmitters


PTV Mildura

PTV is an Australian
television station A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the earth's s ...
licensed to, and serving the regions surrounding
Mildura, Victoria Mildura ( ) is a regional city in north-west Victoria, Australia. Located on the Victorian side of the Murray River, Mildura had a population of 34,565 at the 2021 census. When nearby Wentworth, Irymple, Nichols Point, Merbein and Red ...
. The station commenced transmissions in 1997, after
Prime Television Prime7, formerly Prime Television and other names, was an Australian television network. Prime Television launched on 17 March 1962 as '' CBN-8'' in Orange, and later expanded to cover regional New South Wales, Victoria and the Australian Ca ...
won the second television licence for
Mildura Mildura ( ) is a regional city in north-west Victoria, Australia. Located on the Victorian side of the Murray River, Mildura had a population of 34,565 at the 2021 census. When nearby Wentworth, Irymple, Nichols Point, Merbein and Red ...
, a non-aggregated market, in competition with
WIN Television WIN Television is an Australian television broadcasting, Australian television network owned and operated by WIN Corporation that is based in Wollongong, New South Wales. WIN commenced transmissions on 18 March 1962 as a single television stat ...
, for a cost of $3.2 million, in October 1996. The licence is held by ''Prime Television (Victoria) Pty Ltd'', the licensee of AMV. Analogue transmission ceased on 30 June 2010 as part of the national conversion to digital television.


Seven News

In the Mildura regional market, short one-to-two-minute news and weather updates are presented by rotating presenters. These updates were launched in early 2024 after Seven was found to be in breach of local content requirements in November 2023; their acquisition of Prime in December 2021 triggered new local content requirements in the Mildura regional market. The absence of local content went unnoticed for 16 months beyond the 6-month grace period following the acquisition.


Notes


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Amv (Tv Station) Prime Media Group Seven Network Television stations in New South Wales Television channels and stations established in 1964 1964 establishments in Australia