Australia’s countryside is dotted with TV stations created to offer specialty programming particular to that vicinity. More than just a source of entertainment, those TV stations have also became focal points for the community, helping with telethons or sending talent the way of the city networks.
You can’t take the country out of TV
Life wasn’t easy as a rural Australian TV addict in the ’70s and ’80s. There were only two stations to choose from: the ABC plus a local commercial station offering a mix of programming from metropolitan stations and a healthy amount of local content. There’s no denying city viewers had more choice.
But to suggest the story of regional TV is poorer for it is to sell that story short.
Like their city counterparts, rural TV stations have offered shining celebrities and national stars. One of its biggest stars was NBN Newcastle’s Big Dog, who would amble across the screen at 7.30 pm each night and tell the kids it was time to go to bed.
And, of course, there’s Prime Possum, the Prime Network’s response to Big Dog. Prime Possum has achieved such heights of fame in rural areas that he/she is mobbed by youngsters at shopping-mall appearances. Remote Australia broadcaster Imparja – renowned for its distinctive Indigenous flavour - hit the airwaves in 1988, and later introduced a half-hour children’s show based on its station mascot, ‘Yamba’. The odd-looking honey ant first appeared in Yamba’s Playtime in 1995.
More than a few humans have made their start in regional TV, too. Today funny man Steven Jacobs got his first big break when he signed up to host a children’s program, Kids News, on WIN-TV; newsreader Jim Whaley had beginnings in 1966 on Tamworth’s NEN-9 while Brisbane newsreader Sharon Ghidella was a reporter for North Queensland Television. Matthew White, who has worked in sport on channels Ten and Seven, began his career on bush telly; Channel Seven news anchor and Dancing With The Stars contestant Chris Bath moved across from NBN Newcastle; and Helen Kapalos, a newsreader at Nine, also moved from regional TV to a metro news service. That’s just to name a few.
So, yes, regional TV unearthed some famous faces. But at its core, regional TV is a bush telegraph that contributes to the well-being of local communities by hosting, for example, telethons for regional hospitals, the local footy grand final, or ads for local businesses. Within the TV industry, it has also been a rich source of behind-the-camera talent: engineering crew, make-up artists, camera operators, and editors who first worked for the likes of NBN Newcastle or Imparja have gone on to fill the studios and newsrooms of metropolitan stations.
As proof of its contribution to the development of Australian TV, early regional television broke new ground. BTV Channel 6 in Ballarat, for example, was the first regional station to air an outside broadcast, and the few owners of TV sets in the area watched in amazement as the 1963 Royal Tour and the Royal Melbourne Agricultural Show were electronically paraded before them. BTV-6 is also famous for its popular live variety program Six Tonight (1971–83), one of a small number of live programs of this type being presented in Australia at the time. Six Tonight enjoyed a long run and attracted high-profile guests including Jack Klugman, Shirley Bassey, Neil Sedaka, Sophia Loren and John Farnham, to name a few.
In the mid-1980s, regional TV underwent a revolution. Aggregation, as it became known, was introduced giving viewers in regional areas access to the ABC, three commercial stations, and eventually SBS. Country-based TV addicts rejoiced. While a massively expensive exercise, aggregation gave country viewers the same choice as their city counterparts, but also gave rise to fears it would lead to the death of locally produced content.
By 2003, the Australian Broadcasting Authority (ABA) had introduced regulations protecting the production of local content by regional TV stations, in everything from news and other regionally based programming.
And by the time Australian TV reached its 50th year, regional TV had a long and interesting story of its own to tell. While much of that story might be hidden from those living in the nation’s major cities, those in remote communities would attest it has entertained, informed and reflected their lives as only a local broadcaster could.
In your neck of the woods
Regional networks produce and source programs that don’t appear on metropolitan networks. Some of the most successful TV shows have been:
> Today Extra (NBN Television): magazine program
> Travellin’ Out West (NBN Television): country music show
> On the Land (Prime Television) – agricultural news
> State Focus (Southern Cross Ten) – state-based regional current affairs
> A Little Bit of Country (Prime Television) – country music program
> The Saturday Club (Prime Television) – children’s show
> Fishing Australia (WIN Television) – fishing program
> Destinations (WIN Television) – travel program
> Yamba’s Playhouse (Imparja Television) – children’s program
> Six Tonight (BTV-6) – variety/talk program