GLV/BCV

GLV-10 in Traralgon was the first regional television station to launch in Australia, on 9 December 1961, originally covering the Gippsland and Latrobe Valley areas. It was also the first station to use entirely 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 (the same day as the launch of GMV-6 Shepparton), serving Bendigo and Central Victoria.

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 were forced 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 (GTV-9), Seven Network (HSV-7), and from 1964, Network Ten (ATV-0).

An affiliation was 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. The name changed to the Southern Cross Network seven years later. STV-8 was 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.

On 17 January 1980, GLV-10 changed frequency from VHF channel 10 to 8, to allow neighbouring Melbourne television station ATV-0 to move to the channel 10 frequency three days later to eliminate interference problems on VHF-0. Channels 8 and 10 became simply Channel 8 as a result of the switch.

A Southern Cross Ten regional sales office in Echuca.

When aggregation in regional Victoria took place between 1992 and 1993, the Southern Cross Network expanded to Shepparton, Ballarat and Albury as an affiliate of Network Ten. By September 1993, the network had changed its name and logo to SCN TV, and then again in May 1994 to Ten Victoria. This latest change coincided with the axing of the station's local news service (SCN TV News at Six), replaced by ATV-10's Ten News at 5.

On 30 November 2000, GLV-8 moved again to UHF channel 37, in order to allow another Melbourne station, this time GTV-9 to commence digital television transmissions on Channel 8 without interference. The two stations' playout and management operations were moved from Bendigo to Canberra in September 2005.[1]

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.[2][3]

GLV/BCV broadcasts a half hour Regional Victorian bulletin commissioned by Nine News on weeknights. The bulletin is presented from GTV-9's Melbourne studios. It is presented by Jo Hall and weather is presented by Gavin Morris.

From their inception, regional stations GLV and BCV provided local news bulletins within their respective markets. This was usually supplemented by a relay of one of the Melbourne-based bulletins.

During the 1980s, GLV/BCV branded their evening news block as TV8 NewsHour, comprising half an hour of locally based news and half an hour of news from Melbourne channel HSV-7. In April 1987, the Melbourne-based news became sourced from GTV-9 as HSV-7 had changed its news format to a one-hour bulletin.

In 1986, TV8 NewsHour won a Logie award for Most Outstanding Contribution by a Regional Television Station.

In 1991, GLV/BCV changed its Melbourne-based news relay to Ten Eyewitness News from ATV-10, in the lead-up to the aggregation of regional markets which would see GLV/BCV align with the Ten Network for program material.

In January 1992, following aggregation, GLV/BCV maintained its local half-hour news in its traditional markets of Gippsland and Bendigo. (Alternative general entertainment programming was broadcast in this timeslot in the newer markets of Shepparton, Ballarat and Albury) This bulletin was supplemented by a half-hour edition of Southern Cross Eyewitness News, anchored by Rob Gaylard and broadcast across the expanded market covered by GLV/BCV, presenting 'national' news of relevance to the broader market.

Southern Cross Eyewitness News was soon disbanded, instead having the Gippsland and Bendigo local news services at 6:00 pm supplemented by the Melbourne-based Ten Eyewitness News, from ATV-10, which aired weeknights at 5:00 pm.

In September 1993, Southern Cross Network became SCN. The news programming block was changed again. Relay of the Melbourne-based Ten Eyewitness News was dropped, with the Bendigo edition of local news - SCN News at Six - expanded to cover the local markets of Shepparton and Ballarat. The Gippsland-based edition of SCN News at Six continued to cover that local region only. At 6:30 pm, GLV/BCV re-instated the statewide Eyewitness News half-hour bulletin for broadcast across the Gippsland, Bendigo, Shepparton and Ballarat markets. The Albury/Upper Murray local market instead received a delayed broadcast of the Sydney-based Ten Eyewitness News bulletin in the 6:00 pm hour as an alternative to Melbourne-based bulletins being broadcast on rival channels VIC TV and Prime Television.

In May 1994, SCN was re-branded Ten Victoria. The local news bulletins of GLV/BCV were axed, as was the now renamed statewide SCN News at 6. News coverage was now a straight relay of the Melbourne edition of Ten News from ATV-10 with no local or state-based news bulletins (on weekdays) and the national weekend report from TEN-10 from Sydney during weekends, as well as, till 2014, the Network Ten national morning and late night news bulletins.

Local news was reintroduced to the station in 2004 in the form of three-minute updates at various times of the day. The Updates are produced by Southern Cross News from its CTC studios in Canberra. As Southern Cross Ten Local News, the updates are pre-recorded. Between 21 March 2011 and 19 June 2015, viewers in Shepparton and the Goulburn Valley received a trial regional news magazine program called Weeknights at 6:30pm on weekdays. The Project then aired in full in its place for the remainder of its Ten affiliation.

Given its 1 July 2016 affiliate switch to the Nine Network, the news updates have been upgraded to full bulletin relaunch as Nine Local News by March 2017. The new SC9 serves as the Nine News regional broadcaster to regional Victoria viewers, with the state and local level news provided by GTV-9 in Melbourne.