Regional TV Australia is a website dedicated to the TV Stations outside the five major Capital Cities in Australia. We are interested in the history of Regional TV, mainly in the pre-Aggregation era, but also in the current operations of the major Regional TV networks. The project started as the “regionaltv” YouTube Channel in April 2008, where I set up a list of “favorites” from the many regional clips posted by members of YouTube.
This project is run by Michael Costello, a resident of Melbourne, Australia. I enjoyed watching the independent Regional TV Stations BCV 8 and GMV 6 while on holidays on our relative’s farm in Bamawm, near Echuca in Regional Victoria, and really miss the local content that used to set these stations apart before the Aggregation process took it all away in the early 1990s.
(Read this article from TelevisionAU about Aggregation for more details on this change)
This News Report from the final edition of “SCN News At Six” explains how Aggregation affected local content on Regional TV
And another News Report from ABC Queensland in 1986….
Regional TV Video Interviews
Regional TV Australia has started recording interviews with former Regional TV staff about their experiences in the Regional Television Industry. The aim of the interviews is to record people’s stories of their time in the industry and how things were done in the industry in bygone eras, which is very different to what we have now.
To date, we have recorded a number of these interviews, which are featured on our webpage and YouTube Channel. We have had very positive feedback about these interviews.
Contribute to Regional TV Australia
For those that have the skills to do it, we also accept “self produced” video contributions to the project along similar lines to the interviews that we record.
These video contributions can be submitted to us via your own YouTube account. That way, you retain control of your contribution, and we simply feature and link to it on our website and YouTube Channel. You are welcome to include any relevant footage in your video contribution.
Spread the word
Regional TV Australia is the website that is dedicated to remembering and recording regional TV history for future generations.
We can only achieve this with the help of those who were a part of the regional TV family. So if you are still in touch with other regional TV staff, let them know about our project. We would love to speak to them too!
Join the project
If you have an interest in Regional TV and would like to join the happy crew who work on the project, please feel free to let us know! We are always looking for people to help us out on the website and the videos we produce.
Your suggestions are welcome
If you have any suggestions for our project, we would love to hear them! Just email, write or phone us, and we will look at incorporating them into the project.
About the producer
Michael is a long standing Community TV volunteer at C31 Melbourne and the production group, Northern Access Television. He learnt his craft in many crew roles on various NAT productions (much like many Regional TV staff did at their stations!).
He has also volunteered in the Presentation Control Room as a Tape, Graphics and Audio Operator for a number of years.
More at: www.videbus.com.au
In the Capital Cities, including here in Melbourne, we have had the opportunity to run distinctive local TV in the form of Community Television, and I got involved in that as a volunteer with MCT 31 and member group, Northern Access TV in 1995. Michael also hopes that Regional Areas will get this chance in the near future, if for no other reason, to restore the local television taken away by “networked” Regional Commercial TV.
Our Logo!
The coloured TV-shaped outline of the logo for Regional TV Australia comes from the 80s era logo of BTV 6, GMV 6 and SES 8 (now all part of the WIN TV Network). Thanks to Andrew of TelevisionAU for the scan of the logo and also his encouragement and support with our project!