ABW (TV station)

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ABC Television in Western Australia comprises national and local programming on the ABC television network in the Australian state of Western Australia, on a number of channels under the ABC call sign. There is some local programming from the Perth studio.

ABW
Channels
Programming
AffiliationsABC Television
Ownership
OwnerAustralian Broadcasting Corporation
History
First air date
7 May 1960; 64 years ago (1960-05-07)
Former channel number(s)
Analog: 2 (VHF) (1960–2013)
Call sign meaning
ABC Western Australia
Technical information
Licensing authority
Australian Communications and Media Authority
ERP200 kW (analog)
50 kW (digital)
HAAT262 m (analog)
284 m (digital)[1]
Transmitter coordinates32°0′38″S 116°5′4″E / 32.01056°S 116.08444°E / -32.01056; 116.08444 (ABW)
Links
Websitewww.abc.net.au/tv

ABW or ABW-2 was the historic call sign of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's television station in Perth, with the "W" standing for the name of the state.

History

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The station began broadcasting on 7 May 1960 from studios on Adelaide Terrace in downtown Perth and its transmitter at Bickley. The station was relayed throughout the state by a number of transmitters, and in the 2000s on the Optus Aurora free-to-view satellite television platform, replaced by Viewer Access Satellite Television (VAST) in 2010.[citation needed]

ABW commenced digital television transmission in January 2001, broadcasting on VHF Channel 12 while maintaining analogue television transmission on VHF Channel 2.[citation needed]

In 2005 the station moved to a new digital broadcast centre in East Perth.[citation needed]

In February 2013 ABC Perth was the first TV station in Western Australia to start producing a national news bulletin at 5.30pm. [citation needed]

The analogue signal for ABW was shut off on 16 April 2013.[2]

The Western Australian edition of 7.30 was presented by Andrew O'Connor each Friday night but was cancelled in 2014 to broadcast a national edition only, in a round of severe cuts to the ABC.[3]

The channel used to carry live coverage of West Australian Football League matches every Saturday afternoon throughout the season until 2014.

ABC Television in WA today

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As of 2021 there is a large number of transmitters broadcasting a number of ABC channels.[4]

Programming

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East Perth studios
 
News studio
 
Satellite link truck, used for outside broadcasts or live crosses

ABC News Western Australia is presented by Pamela Medlen Monday-Thursday, Charlotte Hamlyn Friday-Sunday, and Herlyn Kaur for weather on weeknights. Tom Wildie presents local sport bulletins on weekends. The weeknight bulletins also incorporates a national finance segment presented by Alan Kohler in Melbourne.

Due to different time zones in Australia, the 5:30 news bulletin goes live to air on the east coast at 5.30pm and a separate local edition is produced for the west coast. Perth also receives a local version of ABC News at Noon produced from the ABC's Sydney studios, which is also simulcast live nationally on the ABC News channel.[citation needed]

Presenters

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On 6 April 2018, weeknight weather presenter Rebecca Dollery stepped down from the ABC due to family reasons. From 9 April, Dollery was replaced by Irena Ceranic as weather presenter. In January 2021, Tyne Logan took over from Ceranic as weather presenter on weeknights.[citation needed] As at March 2023, Herlyn Kaur or Tabarak Al Jrood currently present the weeknight weather, replacing Tyne Logan.

In late June 2018, Tom Wildie replaced Trevor Jenkins as the weekend sport presenter.

James McHale formerly presented the news on weekdays, until 11 September 2020.

Briana Shepherd formerly presented the news on weekends, between August 2021 and June 2022, while Charlotte Hamlyn is on maternity leave.

Relay stations

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The following stations relayed ABW throughout Western Australia:

Call Region served City Channels
(analog/
digital)
First air date 3rd letter's
meaning
ERP
(analog/
digital)
HAAT
(analog/
digital)
[a]
Transmitter coordinates Transmitter location
ABAW Southern Agricultural Area Albany 2 (VHF)
11 (VHF)
6 June 1966 Albany 200 kW
50 kW
321 m
375 m
34°39′21″S 117°38′49″E / 34.65583°S 117.64694°E / -34.65583; 117.64694 (ABAW) Mount Barker
ABCW Central Agricultural Area Northam 5A (VHF)[b]
45 (UHF)
28 March 1966 Central Agricultural area 160 kW
300 kW
251 m
270 m
31°59′4″S 117°11′24″E / 31.98444°S 117.19000°E / -31.98444; 117.19000 (ABCW) Mawson Trig
ABCMW Morawa Morawa 8 (VHF)
7 (VHF)
8 March 1975 ABC Morawa 13 kW
3.2 kW
137 m
137 m
29°19′6″S 115°52′53″E / 29.31833°S 115.88139°E / -29.31833; 115.88139 (ABCMW) Mount Campbell
ABCNW Carnarvon Carnarvon 7 (VHF)
6 (VHF)
30 June 1972 CarnarvoN 0.5 kW
0.125 kW
112 m
112 m
24°54′20″S 113°43′13″E / 24.90556°S 113.72028°E / -24.90556; 113.72028 (ABCNW) Brown Range
ABDW Dampier Dampier 29 (UHF)[c]
28 (UHF)
17 December 1973 Dampier 0.08 kW
0.02 kW
79 m
79 m
20°39′19″S 116°43′42″E / 20.65528°S 116.72833°E / -20.65528; 116.72833 (ABDW) Kangaroo Hill
ABEW Esperance Esperance 10 (VHF)
9A (VHF)
21 October 1974 Esperance 2 kW
0.5 kW
128 m
130 m
33°52′30″S 121°53′41″E / 33.87500°S 121.89472°E / -33.87500; 121.89472 (ABEW) Wireless Hill
ABGW Geraldton Geraldton 6 (VHF)
41 (UHF)
8 December 1969 Geraldton 32 kW
150 kW
257 m
273 m
28°40′55″S 114°40′37″E / 28.68194°S 114.67694°E / -28.68194; 114.67694 (ABGW) Moresby Range
ABKW Kalgoorlie Kalgoorlie 6 (VHF)
9A (VHF)
27 January 1970 Kalgoorlie 8 kW
4 kW
110 m
110 m
30°43′2″S 121°26′25″E / 30.71722°S 121.44028°E / -30.71722; 121.44028 (ABKW) Peters Hill
ABKAW Karratha Karratha 54 (UHF)[d]
53 (UHF)
17 December 1973 KarrathA 0.8 kW
0.25 kW
114 m
114 m
20°44′8″S 116°51′33″E / 20.73556°S 116.85917°E / -20.73556; 116.85917 (ABKAW) Karratha
ABMW Moora Moora 60 (UHF)[e]
52 (UHF)
30 September 1974 Moora 120 kW
30 kW
142 m
142 m
30°38′7″S 116°9′35″E / 30.63528°S 116.15972°E / -30.63528; 116.15972 (ABMW) Quarrel Range
ABNW Norseman Norseman 7 (VHF)
6 (VHF)
14 April 1971 Norseman 0.08 kW
0.02 kW
69 m
70 m
32°8′34″S 121°43′40″E / 32.14278°S 121.72778°E / -32.14278; 121.72778 (ABNW) Norseman
ABPHW Port Hedland Port Hedland 7 (VHF)
8 (VHF)
3 October 1973 Port Hedland 3 kW
0.75 kW
52 m
52 m
20°22′2″S 118°33′32″E / 20.36722°S 118.55889°E / -20.36722; 118.55889 (ABPHW) Finucane Island
ABRBW Roebourne Roebourne 9 (VHF)
9A (VHF)
17 December 1973 RoeBourne 2 kW
0.5 kW
71 m
73 m
20°46′19″S 117°8′32″E / 20.77194°S 117.14222°E / -20.77194; 117.14222 (ABRBW) Mount Welcome
ABSW Bunbury Bunbury 5 (VHF)[f]
36 (UHF)
10 May 1965 South West 300 kW
300 kW
308 m
332 m
33°23′48″S 115°54′53″E / 33.39667°S 115.91472°E / -33.39667; 115.91472 (ABSW) Mount Lennard
ABSBW Southern Cross/Bullfinch Southern Cross 9 (VHF)
7 (VHF)
16 July 1973 Southern Cross/Bullfinch 2 kW
0.5 kW
117 m
118 m
31°16′34″S 119°30′33″E / 31.27611°S 119.50917°E / -31.27611; 119.50917 (ABSBW) Ghooli
ABW Broome Broome 8 (VHF)
9 (VHF)
Western Australia 2 kW
0.5 kW
75 m
75 m
17°53′19″S 122°15′48″E / 17.88861°S 122.26333°E / -17.88861; 122.26333 (ABW) Broome
  1. ^ HAAT estimated from http://www.itu.int/SRTM3/ using EHAAT.
  2. ^ ABCW was on VHF channel 4 from its 1966 sign-on until the late 1970s, moving to its current channel to accommodate FM radio.
  3. ^ ABDW originally broadcast on VHF channel 10.
  4. ^ ABKAW originally broadcast on VHF channel 7.
  5. ^ ABMW was on VHF channel 10 from its 1974 sign-on until 26 February 1988, moving to its current channel to accommodate a new TV station in Perth on channel 10 (NEW).
  6. ^ ABSW is the only station in Australia to use channel 5.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ HAAT estimated from http://www.itu.int/SRTM3/ using EHAAT.
  2. ^ "Analogue TV gets an official switch-off date". Lifehacker Australia. 25 June 2012. Retrieved 18 June 2021.
  3. ^ Kidd, Jessica (24 November 2014). "Nearly 1 in 10 ABC staff facing redundancy as cuts bite". ABC News. Retrieved 18 June 2021.
  4. ^ "Section 7: Television Callsign order (by state)" (PDF). Radio and television broadcasting stations: Internet edition (PDF). Australian Communications and Media Authority. April 2021. pp. 211–213. Retrieved 18 June 2021.   Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence.