ABW (TV station)

ABW

Perth—Mandurah, Western Australia Australia
Channels	Digital: 12 (VHF) Virtual: 2
Programming
Affiliations	ABC Television
Ownership
Owner	Australian Broadcasting Corporation
History
First air date	7 May 1960; 64 years ago (1960-05-07)
Former channel number(s)	Analog: 2 (VHF) (1960–2013)
Call sign meaning	ABC Western Australia
Technical information
Licensing authority	Australian Communications and Media Authority
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 / 32.01056°S 116.08444°E / -32.01056; 116.08444 (ABW)
Links
Website	www.abc.net.au/tv

ABC Television in Western Australia comprises national and local programming on the ABC television network in the Australian state of Western Australia, on a number of channels under the ABC call sign. There is some local programming from the Perth studio.

ABW or ABW-2 was the historic call sign of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's television station in Perth, with the "W" standing for the name of the state.

The station began broadcasting on 7 May 1960 from studios on Adelaide Terrace in downtown Perth and its transmitter at Bickley. The station was relayed throughout the state by a number of transmitters, and in the 2000s on the Optus Aurora free-to-view satellite television platform, replaced by Viewer Access Satellite Television (VAST) in 2010.^{[citation needed]}

ABW commenced digital television transmission in January 2001, broadcasting on VHF Channel 12 while maintaining analogue television transmission on VHF Channel 2.^{[citation needed]}

In 2005 the station moved to a new digital broadcast centre in East Perth.^{[citation needed]}

In February 2013 ABC Perth was the first TV station in Western Australia to start producing a national news bulletin at 5.30pm. ^{[citation needed]}

The analogue signal for ABW was shut off on 16 April 2013.^[2]

The Western Australian edition of 7.30 was presented by Andrew O'Connor each Friday night but was cancelled in 2014 to broadcast a national edition only, in a round of severe cuts to the ABC.^[3]

The channel used to carry live coverage of West Australian Football League matches every Saturday afternoon throughout the season until 2014.

As of 2021^[update] there is a large number of transmitters broadcasting a number of ABC channels.^[4]

ABC News Western Australia is presented by Pamela Medlen Monday-Thursday, Charlotte Hamlyn Friday-Sunday, and Herlyn Kaur for weather on weeknights. Tom Wildie presents local sport bulletins on weekends. The weeknight bulletins also incorporates a national finance segment presented by Alan Kohler in Melbourne.

Due to different time zones in Australia, the 5:30 news bulletin goes live to air on the east coast at 5.30pm and a separate local edition is produced for the west coast. Perth also receives a local version of ABC News at Noon produced from the ABC's Sydney studios, which is also simulcast live nationally on the ABC News channel.^{[citation needed]}

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. In January 2021, Tyne Logan took over from Ceranic as weather presenter on weeknights.^{[citation needed]} As at March 2023, Herlyn Kaur or Tabarak Al Jrood currently present the weeknight weather, replacing Tyne Logan.

In late June 2018, Tom Wildie replaced Trevor Jenkins as the weekend sport presenter.

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

Briana Shepherd formerly presented the news on weekends, between August 2021 and June 2022, while Charlotte Hamlyn is on maternity leave.

The following stations relayed ABW throughout Western Australia:

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