ABW (TV station)

ABW is the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's television station in Perth, Western Australia. The station began broadcasting on 7 May 1960 from studios on Adelaide Terrace in downtown Perth and its transmitter at Bickley. The station is relayed throughout the state by a number of transmitters as well as on the Optus Aurora free-to-view satellite television platform.

ABW

Perth, Western Australia
Channels	Digital: 12 (VHF) Virtual: 2
Programming
Affiliations	ABC Television
Ownership
Owner	Australian Broadcasting Corporation
History
First air date	7 May 1960
Former channel number(s)	Analog: 2 (VHF)(1960-2013)
Call sign meaning	ABC Western Australia
Technical information
ERP	200 kW (analog) 50 kW (digital)
HAAT	262 m (analog) 284 m (digital)[1]
Transmitter coordinates	32°0′38″S 116°5′4″E
Links
Website	www.abc.net.au/tv

In 2005 the station moved to a new digital broadcast centre in East Perth.

Programming

East Perth studios

ABC News Western Australia is presented by Pamela Medlen, Tyne Logan for weather on weeknights and Charlotte Hamlyn on weekends. Tom Wildie presents local sport bulletins on Saturdays and Sundays. The weeknight bulletins also incorporates a national finance segment presented by Alan Kohler in Melbourne.

The Western Australian edition of 7.30 was presented by Andrew O'Connor each Friday night but was cancelled to broadcast a national edition only when the ABC had its funding cut.

Due to different time zones, ABW also receives a local version of ABC News at Noon produced from the ABN Sydney studios, which is also simulcast live nationally on the ABC News channel.

ABW used to carry live coverage of West Australian Football League matches every Saturday afternoon throughout the season until 2014. TVW now carries this along with the other Seven Network stations i.e. SAS, HSV

News studio

Satellite link truck, used for outside broadcasts or live crosses

In February 2013 ABW was the first TV station in Western Australia to start producing a national news bulletin at 5.30pm. Due to different time zones in Australia, the bulletin goes live to air on the east coast at 5.30pm and a separate local edition is produced for the west coast.

ABW commenced digital television transmission in January 2001, broadcasting on VHF Channel 12 while maintaining analogue transmission on VHF Channel 2.

The analogue signal for ABW was shut off at 9.00am Western Standard Time, Tuesday, 16 April 2013.

On 6 April 2018, weeknight weather presenter Rebecca Dollery stepped down from the ABC due to family reasons. From 9 April, Dollery was replaced by Irena Ceranic as weather presenter.

As at late June 2018, Trevor Jenkins is no longer used as a weekend sport presenter, he was replaced by Tom Wildie.

James McHale formerly present the news on weekdays until 11 September 2020.

In January 2021, Tyne Logan took over from Ceranic as weather presenter on weeknights.

Relay stations

The following stations relay ABW throughout Western Australia:

Call	Region served	City	Channels (analog/ digital)	First air date	3rd letter's meaning	ERP (analog/ digital)	HAAT (analog/ digital)[lower-alpha 1]	Transmitter coordinates	Transmitter location
ABAW	Southern Agricultural Area	Albany	2 (VHF) 11 (VHF)	6 June 1966	Albany	200 kW 50 kW	321 m 375 m	34°39′21″S 117°38′49″E	Mount Barker
ABCW	Central Agricultural Area	Northam	5A (VHF)[lower-alpha 2] 45 (UHF)	28 March 1966	Central Agricultural area	160 kW 300 kW	251 m 270 m	31°59′4″S 117°11′24″E	Mawson Trig
ABCMW	Morawa	Morawa	8 (VHF) 7 (VHF)	8 March 1975	ABC Morawa	13 kW 3.2 kW	137 m 137 m	29°19′6″S 115°52′53″E	Mount Campbell
ABCNW	Carnarvon	Carnarvon	7 (VHF) 6 (VHF)	30 June 1972	CarnarvoN	0.5 kW 0.125 kW	112 m 112 m	24°54′20″S 113°43′13″E	Brown Range
ABDW	Dampier	Dampier	29 (UHF)[lower-alpha 3] 28 (UHF)	17 December 1973	Dampier	0.08 kW 0.02 kW	79 m 79 m	20°39′19″S 116°43′42″E	Kangaroo Hill
ABEW	Esperance	Esperance	10 (VHF) 9A (VHF)	21 October 1974	Esperance	2 kW 0.5 kW	128 m 130 m	33°52′30″S 121°53′41″E	Wireless Hill
ABGW	Geraldton	Geraldton	6 (VHF) 41 (UHF)	8 December 1969	Geraldton	32 kW 150 kW	257 m 273 m	28°40′55″S 114°40′37″E	Moresby Range
ABKW	Kalgoorlie	Kalgoorlie	6 (VHF) 9A (VHF)	27 January 1970	Kalgoorlie	8 kW 4 kW	110 m 110 m	30°43′2″S 121°26′25″E	Peters Hill
ABKAW	Karratha	Karratha	54 (UHF)[lower-alpha 4] 53 (UHF)	17 December 1973	KarrathA	0.8 kW 0.25 kW	114 m 114 m	20°44′8″S 116°51′33″E	Karratha
ABMW	Moora	Moora	60 (UHF)[lower-alpha 5] 52 (UHF)	30 September 1974	Moora	120 kW 30 kW	142 m 142 m	30°38′7″S 116°9′35″E	Quarrel Range
ABNW	Norseman	Norseman	7 (VHF) 6 (VHF)	14 April 1971	Norseman	0.08 kW 0.02 kW	69 m 70 m	32°8′34″S 121°43′40″E	Norseman
ABPHW	Port Hedland	Port Hedland	7 (VHF) 8 (VHF)	3 October 1973	Port Hedland	3 kW 0.75 kW	52 m 52 m	20°22′2″S 118°33′32″E	Finucane Island
ABRBW	Roebourne	Roebourne	9 (VHF) 9A (VHF)	17 December 1973	RoeBourne	2 kW 0.5 kW	71 m 73 m	20°46′19″S 117°8′32″E	Mount Welcome
ABSW	Bunbury	Bunbury	5 (VHF)[lower-alpha 6] 36 (UHF)	10 May 1965	South West	300 kW 300 kW	308 m 332 m	33°23′48″S 115°54′53″E	Mount Lennard
ABSBW	Southern Cross/Bullfinch	Southern Cross	9 (VHF) 7 (VHF)	16 July 1973	Southern Cross/Bullfinch	2 kW 0.5 kW	117 m 118 m	31°16′34″S 119°30′33″E	Ghooli
ABW	Broome	Broome	8 (VHF) 9 (VHF)			2 kW 0.5 kW	75 m 75 m	17°53′19″S 122°15′48″E	Broome

1. HAAT estimated from http://www.itu.int/SRTM3/ using EHAAT.
2. ABCW was on VHF channel 4 from its 1966 sign-on until the late 1970s, moving to its current channel in order to accommodate FM radio.
3. ABDW originally broadcast on VHF channel 10.
4. ABKAW originally broadcast on VHF channel 7.
5. ABMW was on VHF channel 10 from its 1974 sign-on until 1987, moving to its current channel in order to accommodate a new TV station in Perth on channel 10 (NEW).
6. ABSW is the only station in Australia to use channel 5.

See also

• Television broadcasting in Australia
• 720 ABC Perth – radio station located in the same building

References

1. HAAT estimated from http://www.itu.int/SRTM3/ using EHAAT.