History
Early years
GLV-10 in Traralgon was the first regional television station to launch in Australia on 9 December 1961, [1] originally covering the Gippsland and Latrobe Valley areas. It was also the first station to completely use 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 230 V 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 first went to air two weeks later, on 23 December 1961 [1] (the same day as the launch of GMV-6 Shepparton), serving Bendigo and Central Victoria.
On 25 March 1970, BCV-8 was off the air for 45 minutes. The incident was caused by two mice who got into the transmitter's high-voltage cables, short circuiting the main circuit and the switchboard. [2]
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 needed 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 Nine Network, Seven Network (HSV-7), and from 1964, Network Ten (ATV-0).
An affiliation formed between the two stations and STV-8 Mildura in the 1970s as the Victorian Broadcasting Network, adopting the name of a former statewide radio network and later as Television Centre of Victoria. In 1982, the three stations merged as the Southern Cross TV8 television network, sharing a common stylised flag logo and programming schedule. Seven years later it was renamed the Southern Cross Network. [1] STV-8 split from the network in 1990 when the station joined the then-Television Victoria network, as Mildura was not included in the Victorian aggregation plan. [1] [3]
From GLV-10 to GLV-8
On 17 January 1980, GLV-10 changed frequencies from VHF channel 10 to 8 [1] to allow neighbouring Melbourne television station ATV-0 to move to the original frequency three days later to eliminate interference problems on VHF-0. Channels 8 and 10 became Channel 8 as a result of the switch.
Aggregation
When aggregation in regional Victoria took place between 1992 and 1993, [4] the Southern Cross Network expanded to Shepparton, Ballarat and Albury as an affiliate of Network 10. [1] By September 1993, the network had changed its name and logo to SCN TV, and then again in May 1994 to Ten Victoria, [1] which coincided with the cancellation of the station's local news service (SCN TV News at Six), replaced by ATV-10's Ten News at 5 .
21st century developments
On 1 July 2016, Southern Cross switched its primary affiliation from Network Ten to the Nine Network in Queensland, Southern NSW, ACT, South Australia, and Victoria. The Southern Cross Ten branding was retired and replaced by generic Nine branding. [5] [6]
On 1 July 2021, Southern Cross switched back its primary affiliation from the Nine Network to Network 10 and airs programs from ATV in Melbourne. [7]
