NEN (TV station)

NEN9 Tamworth/Upper Namoi commenced transmissions on 10 April 1965, with a relay in Armidale (NEN1, later NEN10) on 15 July 1966. ECN8 Taree/Manning River began on 27 May 1966.

By the mid 80's, prior to aggregation, the station was broadcasting to Tamworth on VHF 10, VHF9 from Mt Dowe (Kaputar) and VHF8 from Middle Brother Mountain. They had translators at Armidale VHF10, Ashford VHF10, Glenn Innes VHF3, Gloucester VHF11, Inverell VHF10, Quirindi VHF10, Tamworth VHF0, Walcha VHF1, Laurieton UHF47, Lightning Ridge UHF69.[1]

During 1968–69, ECN8 who at the time were facing financial difficulties approached NBN3 Newcastle to take the station over but the proposal was rejected by the Australian Broadcasting Control Board. An approach was also made to NRN11 Coffs Harbour but an agreement could not be reached. Finally, ECN approached NEN with an agreement for ECN to carry a relay broadcast of NEN's programming from the end of March 1969. In November 1971, ECN merged with NEN, but continued to use the callsign ECN into the mid 1980s.

During the 1970s and early 1980s NEN9 was a member of the Great Eastland Television partnership with NRN11 Coffs Harbour and DDQ/SDQ Toowoomba, Queensland, sharing programming and advertising. From 1984 until 1989 the station branded itself 9–8 Television, referencing the channel numbers of both their Tamworth and Taree broadcasts.

Prime Television purchased the station in 1989, rebranding the station Prime Television and aligning it with the Seven Network, similarly to CBN in southern New South Wales, whilst changing ECN's call sign to NEN. At the commencement of Northern NSW market Aggregation on 31 December 1991, Prime Television became the Northern NSW affiliate of the Seven Network, in competition with NRTV and NBN.

NEN produces and broadcasts two 30-minute Prime7 News bulletins for the North West and North Coast regional markets, both broadcast each weeknight at 6pm from Prime7's Canberra headquarters and is co-presented by Liz Gwynn and Karl Lijnders (also chief meteorologist), with the North West edition broadcasts live. Resident meteorologist Elly Wicks is the bulletin's weather presenter for both editions.

In the Newcastle and Central Coast markets, short two-minute updates are presented by several presenters on a rotating basis with weather forecasts from Daniel Gibson, Madelaine Collignon and Craig Moore.

Throughout the station's history, news bulletins for both regions were produced in Tamworth. In January 2012, the station announced studio presentation for both Prime7 News bulletins would be moved to Prime's Canberra headquarters in April 2012.[2] The plan was scrapped a month later.[3]

However, in a report by ABC News on 22 January 2015, Prime Media Group will continue its transfer of the Tamworth and North Coast bulletins to Canberra. This was a result of the closure of the Tamworth broadcast studios after 50 years of operation. Despite of the closure, 21 editorial staff from both regions will remain to prepare for these bulletins (with the relocation of its newsroom to a new premises in Tamworth).[4] The transfer completed on 27 April 2015.

Notes:

1. HAAT estimated from http://www.itu.int/SRTM3/ using EHAAT.
2. The Manning River station was an independent station with the callsign ECN from its 1966 sign-on until aggregation in 1991.
3. Analogue services ceased transmission as of 27 November 2012 as part of national conversion to digital-only television

• Regional television in Australia
• Prime7