TNQ
| regional Queensland | |
|---|---|
| Branding | Southern Cross Ten |
| Slogan | Turn on 10 |
| Channels |
Analog: see table below Digital: see table below |
| Affiliations | Ten |
| Owner |
Southern Cross Austereo (Regional Television Pty Ltd) |
| First air date | 1 November 1962 |
| Call letters' meaning |
Television Northern Queensland |
| Former affiliations |
independent (1962-1990) Nine (1990) |
| Transmitter power | see table below |
| Height | see table below |
| Transmitter coordinates | see table below |
| Website | http://www.southerncrossten.com.au/ |
TNQ is an Australian television station, licensed to, and serving the regional areas of Queensland. The station is owned and operated by Southern Cross Ten.
History
Southern Cross Ten in Queensland began in 1982 as North Queensland Television, a partnership between two regional stations:
- TNQ-7 Townsville (launched on 1 November 1962)
- FNQ-10 Cairns (launched on 7 September 1966)
Their slogan was The Place to Be, a slogan used by the station for over a decade up until 1993.
When aggregation was announced in the late 1980s, NQTV was planning to be the Nine Network affiliate for regional Queensland. NQTV had a write-in competition for their name and logo. The name QTV was chosen and because of the intended Nine affiliation, it adopted a logo with the Nine dots (similar to WIN and NBN's logos). Unfavourable viewer response forced the station to change logos within a few months. The station ran with a Nine-based identification package in the year leading up to aggregation.
However, the station faced a crisis in the days leading up to aggregation when WIN Television bought the Toowoomba and Rockhampton-based Star Television, and switched the affiliation from Ten to Nine, in line with WIN's NSW station. This meant that QTV had to change its logo and affiliation in a hurry. QTV picked up the vacant Ten affiliation. The station originally broadcast a licence-wide one-hour bulletin when Queensland was aggregated, but this was soon axed outside the North Queensland television market.
The station's owners, Telecasters North Queensland (later Telecasters Australia), joined the Ten Group Consortium in 1992–1993. This led to a change from QTV to Ten Queensland, and they began to use generic Ten branding.
In 2001, Telecasters was purchased by Southern Cross. In that same year, Ten Local News in North Queensland was axed (along with Ten Capital News in Canberra) and replaced with Ten News Queensland from Brisbane – one of the many decisions which led to the local news inquiry by the ABA. In 2002, like the other Southern Cross-owned Ten affiliates, the station was rebranded to Southern Cross Ten.
News & Current Affairs
From the 1970s to late 1990s, the station maintained regional news coverage through its 5-30pm 30 minute local news and later its 6pm one-hour news bulletins. In the lead up to aggregation, with NQTV (which soon after became QTV) gearing up to become the Nine Network affiliate, the look and feel of the news was changed to match that of National Nine News and became known as QTV News in 1990.
This was however short lived, as the station was instead left with Network Ten affiliation due to WIN Television purchasing a rival station, which in turn took the Nine Network affiliation for the region. The news changed its look and feel to that of Ten Eyewitness News and changed its name to QTV Eyewitness News. Initially, it broadcast a licence-wide one hour bulletin when Queensland was aggregated, but due to low ratings, this was scaled back to north Queensland. In 1993, the news service became Ten North Queensland News after the station was rebranded as Ten Queensland.
In January 2000, Ten Queensland revamped its news format in response to viewer demand for more local news. The 6pm news bulletin was reduced to 30 minutes and became a solely regional news bulletin with the introduction of Ten News Brisbane into North Queensland, and changed its name to Ten Local News to reflect the new format.
At the end of 2001, Ten Local News in North Queensland was finally axed by new owners Southern Cross Broadcasting due to cost-cutting measures.
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 and are now branded as Southern Cross Ten Local News.
It produces its own public affairs programme, State Focus, tackling issues across the state.
Main Transmitters
Notes:
- 1. HAAT estimated from http://www.itu.int/SRTM3/ using EHAAT.
- 2. The Cairns station was an independent station with the callsign FNQ from its 1966 sign-on until aggregation in 1990.
- 3. Analogue transmissions ceased on 6 December 2011 as part of the national shutdown of analogue television.
See also
References
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