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WIN TV sells Mount Gambier site

Another former broadcasting site sells, but has time for some nostalgia.

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WIN TV has sold its former Mount Gambier broadcasting site in South Australia, home to a 54 year history.

ABC reports the 4,000-square-metre parcel of land at John Watson Drive has been sold to prominent Mount Gambier business operator Peter Gazzard and an undisclosed Melbourne purchaser in a ‘multi-million-dollar’ transaction.

Mr Gazzard said hopes to retain the heritage of the SES-8 days and display old broadcasting equipment.

Ahead of redevelopment plans, the building will hopefully be used as a multi-platform space for creative users, musicians and volunteer groups.

“I love the old SES-8 days and all the history. My father advertised his caryard on the very first night of transmission,” Gazzard said.

“I came here as a five-year-old boy to the Hector Featherhead children’s show in the studio.

“All you wanted to do when I was a kid was to get on the Hector Featherhead show. We all wanted to get on television, it was black and white back then.

“My wife Carolyn also got her first job on TV as the barrel girl with Jim Kirkup as the host, then Carolyn got the Music Express job, then became the main person for the news and weather and Woman’s World and Cartoon Connection.”

In more recent years the site has been used as a sales office.

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  1. The former SES8 Is one of most compact full tv stations I’ve seen. Had a job interview there many years ago, and was amazed by the facilities for such a small broadcast area. And they produced so many local programs. Such a shame WIN ruined the last chance of regional local broadcasting existence.

    1. er … it wasn’t WIN that “ruined the last chance of regional local broadcasting” .. it was the politicians (on both sides) who fiddled with the rules to suit their city-based media-mogul mates …

      1. Mt.Gambier wasn’t included in the 4x Aggregated markets in regional areas on the East Coast during the late 80s/early 90s. The 2 sister-stations (also Renmark/Loxton5A) were later award additional licenses to transmit the 3x Metro Commercial signals (which WIN still owns). The local programming, followed by Local News was killed off early by WIN, when in fact they were their only competitor.

        1. … thanks Brad, but I’m well aware of the history of aggregated vs non-aggregated markets … I lived it!! … it wasn’t just Hawke’s aggregation policy that was caused by politicians fiddling … Paul Keating abolishing the “two-station-rule” did far more damage and was probably more instrumental in what happened in Mt Gambier … yes, WIN was the final executioner in this case, but it was caused by multiple factors (mostly financial) totally outside the local market where “they were their only competitor” … incidentally one of the options for aggregation that included Mt Gambier was to aggregate the whole of South Australia – metro and regional – into one market … now that would have been interesting …

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