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Golden West Network

The Golden West Network, often abbreviated to GWN, is an Australian television network owned by Prime Television Limited that is based in Bunbury, Australia. The Golden West Network launched on March 10, 1967 as BTW-3 in Bunbury, and has since expanded to cover regional and remote Western Australia, servicing all areas except metropolitan Perth.

GWN is affiliated to the Seven Network, with the network's on-air schedule closely following that of TVW-7, its Perth counterpart.

History

Origins

GWN began life as a group of smaller, independent stations - BTW-3 Bunbury, launched on 10 March, 1967 (with a relay in Mount Barker commencing the next year), VEW-8 Kalgoorlie, which began on 18 June 1971, and relay station GSW-9 Albany, opened on 29 August 1974. GTW-11 Geraldton was the last station to launch, on 21 January 1977. Jack Bendat purchased South West Telecasters (owner of BTW/GSW) in the early 1980s, and changed the company’s name to Golden West Network.

GWN applied to broadcast an additional service on October 31 1984, when the Australian Broadcasting Tribunal called for applications to broadcast to Christmas Island and the Cocos (Keeling) Islands via satellite as part of the Remote Commercial Television License (RCTS) scheme. GWN was granted the Remote Commercial Television License (RCTS) in June 1985 and the service went to air on 18 October 1986 using the call-sign WAW.

Not long after, GWN continued to expand within Western Australia, acquiring Mid-Western Television (owner of VEW-8 Kalgoorlie) in December 1985 for AU$7 million, and Geraldton Telecasters (owner of GTW-11) in March 1987 for an undisclosed amount. The takeovers gave the network a monopoly over all commercial television services in regional Western Australia. In 1987, Bendat and Kerry Stokes merged their media interests into joint company BDC Investments. Later that year, Northern Star Holdings purchased BDC for AU$206 million. Northern Star were forced to sell GWN to satisfy existing media regulations. GWN was sold back to Stokes in December 1988 for AU$54 million, who upgraded equipment throughout the network. In April 1990, stations usign the callsigns BTW and GSW were merged, to become SSW.

1990s to the 2000s

Stokes gained control of the Seven Network in 1995, and attempted to sell GWN to Seven in return for more shares. Seven Network shareholders agreed to the trade in April, 1996, a deal which would see Seven acquire GWN for AU$72.8 million. The arrangement was called off when the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) found that a 15 year exclusive programming deal GWN made with the Nine Network was anti-competitive, and opposed the acquisition. The Seven subsequently dropped their plans to purchase GWN.

Prime Television purchased GWN in November 1996 from Stokes for AU$71 million. WIN Television was granted the rights to a second television licence in regional Western Australia in 1997, ending GWN's monopoly. In 1999, GWN switched their affiliation from the Nine Network to the Seven Network, in-line with Prime Television in the eastern states. As a result, WIN Television WA picked up both the Nine Network and Network Ten affiliations.

The network's broadcast operations were moved from Bunbury to Prime Television Limited's digital broadcast facility in Canberra in April, 2005. Programming is delivered to regional Western Australia via a satellite feed.

A proposal for a third television station - a joint venture between GWN's parent company Prime Television Limited and WIN Corporation - was submitted to the Australian Communications and Media Authority in 2006. Similar to Mildura Digital Television or Tasmanian Digital Television, the new channel will operate under a Section 38B license.

Programming

GWN is affiliated to the Seven Network, with the network's on-air schedule being almost identical to that of its metropolitan affiliate, that of TVW-7, its Perth counterpart - including its local editions of Seven News and Today Tonight. GWN also produces a weeknightly local news service, Golden West News, shown at 5:30pm. Since the network's inception it has featured a broad range of original regional programming, currently including the children's program The Saturday Club with Doopa Dog; as well as community service strand GWN InfoNet, a series of short updates listing local community events.

Golden West News

Golden West News (or GWN News) is the network's local news service. Its main 30-minute bulletin, shown at 5:30 p.m. before Seven News Perth, deals primarily with local news and issues and was in direct competition with WIN News Western Australia until WIN moved its news to a later time at 6.30. Until August, 2007 Golden West News competed with Ten News Perth, with an audience share of up to 86%.

Golden West News is produced and broadcast from GWN's main studios in Bunbury with reporters also based at newsrooms in Perth, Albany, Kalgoorlie-Boulder, Karratha, Geraldton and Broome, Western Australia. International correspondents are also based in the UK and France.

Golden West News is currently presented by Noel Brunning, sport by Troy Hynam and weather presented by either Chris Mills or Shauna Willis. Noel Brunning was the main presenter until 2007, when he took long service leave to run for an independent seat in the Forrest electorate. After failing to win the seat,he returned to the old job at GWN. Shauna Willis presented during this time and continues to stand in for Brunning. Alex Cullen previously presented the sport segment for Golden West News, however he is now with Seven News Sydney.

Golden West News updates are aired in conjunction with Seven News updates on weekdays until 8:30pm, after which time only Seven News updates are aired. GWN also show a repeat of their 5:30 p.m. news at 12:30am each weekday morning.

Presenters and Reporters

Main anchor: Noel Brunning
Sports presenter: Troy Hynam
Weather presenters: Chris Mills, Shauna Willis (also stand-in for Noel Brunning)

Reporters:

Bunbury newsroom - Estelle Lewis, Jarrod Cardy, Julian Poole
Perth newsroom - Samantha Beech
Kalgoorlie-Boulder newsroom - Jasmine Heale
Geraldton newsroom - Catherine Somerville
Albany newsroom - Kate Phillips
Broome newsroom - Esse Deves
Karratha newsroom - Alice Pooley

Production Team

News Director: Murray Dickson
Senior News Producer: Matt East
Studio Director: Grant Johns
Audio: John Silvestro
Floor Manager: Paul Morris
Senior network operators/editors: Alan 'Gridge' Griffiths, Mike Voss, Justin Holmes
Camera operators/editors: Troy Jackson, Cameron Wallis, Paul Morris, Pierre Huembs, Hayden Fortescue

Availability

The Golden West Network broadcasts analogue transmissions in all areas of regional and remote Western Australia. Free-to-air transmissions are available from both terrestrial transmitters in major regional centres, and satellite transmissions on the free-to-view Optus Aurora platform. Standard definition and 1080i high definition digital terrestrial television transmissions are currently planned for June 2008.

GWN operates a number of stations throughout the state - GTW Geraldton, VEW Kalgoorlie, SSW South West and Great Southern, as well as WAW in other areas.

GWN is also available in Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea though the HiTRON subscription television service.

Logos

The Golden West Network became a network in 1986, with a shared logo produced and used across the regional stations, featuring the letters GWN inside an outlined oval surrounded by an orbiting ring. This logo was used across the network until 1995, when a new logo was introduced with the removal of outlined oval surrounding the letters GWN. Following this, 2001 saw the launch of a new simplified yellow logo, with the removal of the orbiting ring. This logo has been used since, and was launched concurrently with a similarly design logo on Prime Television.