4 20 Years since the first

Today Tonight went to air

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1. Linotype operator J.S. Ashton helps produce The West Australian circa
the 1960s. 2. Captain Menzies, C.G. Friend, Sir Charles Gairdner and James
Cruthers watch the first broadcast at TVW-7 in 1959. 3. The Goss press at
West Australian Newspapers. 4. Laying out page plates at WA
Newspapers. 5. TVW-7s first TV program, featuring Leave It to Beaver at
8pm. 6. The original home of The West Australian Newspaper House in
St Georges Terrace.

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Partnership comes full circle

There is much in history which the Nullarbor to examine this thing purchaser of the first TV licence in Ltd, to form Seven West Media.
unites The West Australian and called television, and report back to WA, a Mr J.A. Redmond, an Now that formal association is a
Seven Perth, the company which his board on whether the new Irishman whod seen television physical one, after Seven Perths
began life as TVW-7 in 1958 as a medium would work in WA. He was overseas, handed over his five 100-plus staff moved to The Wests
fledgling TV pioneer under the filled with enthusiasm, not just for pounds. Newspaper House in Osborne Park,
auspices of WA Newspapers Ltd, an television itself but for the role he As the first broadcast approached, forming what is Australias first,
ambitious gleam in the eye of its thought WA Newspapers Ltd should The West Australian remarked in an and one of only a few in the world,
managing director, James take in setting up the company to editorial that the arrival of fully integrated print and television
Macartney. run it. television would make a profound newsroom.
He had no real idea what this The board agreed and in June 1958 change to peoples lives. A lot of rot, In the wider media world, the
new-fangled medium was really like announced the formation of a new it said, had been talked about TVs speed of change has been just as
when the board of WAN, made up of company called TVW Ltd. The power to pervert young minds and rapid. New owners have come and,
local businessmen, applied for the company was registered, to raise dull the senses of the old. We in some cases, gone. New alliances
States first commercial television one million pounds by selling two should remember that when all is have been formed and, in some
licence. million shares at 10 shillings. boiled down, TV will be as good or cases, fractured. Government
When the bid was won, there was Equipment had to be bought and bad as we make it. legislation has been tightened, then
no studio, no programs and no staff. shipped from England, the site for a In the 57 years which followed relaxed.
Few people in Perth had ever seen a suitable line-of-sight transmitter TVW-7s opening broadcast, on The media industry, facing
television picture. had to identified and acquired, October 16, 1959, the two companies challenging times both in Australia
Jim Cruthers was at The West production staff found, auditions for separated, their origins a matter of and overseas, is watching the
Australian when he was sent across on-air talent held. And the local media nostalgia. But they integration with great interest.
came together again in 2011 when In 2015, 136 years after The West
In 2015, 136 years after The West Australian appeared Kerry Stokes who had arrived in Australian appeared for the first
Perth in the year that TVW-7 went to time and 58 years after Seven
for the first time and 58 years after Seven Perths first air for the first time and found work Perths first pictures went to air, two
pictures went to air, two proud West Australian companies, as an installer of television aerials proud West Australian companies,
acquired first the Seven with a shared heritage, are back
with a shared heritage, are back together again. Network and then WA Newspapers together again.