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NBN Newcastle moving to new headquarters

After nearly 60 years in Mosbri Crescent studios, NBN Newcastle is on the move.

NBN Newcastle is set to vacate its home of 59 years in Mosbri Crescent to a new site at 28 Honeysuckle Drive.

A special Goodbye Mosbri documentary will screen locally at 5:30pm on Sunday, November 7, the work of staffers Stewart Macdonald, Kerry “Bear” Regan, and hosts Natasha Beyersdorf and Paul Lobb.

In a note to staff, Jenny Webber General Manager, NBN said, “NBN Newcastle was born in 1962 and was Australia’s first regional station, It was a brand new place of employment and a growing business to stimulate the local economy. Multiple studios were built for locally produced shows with the very latest production and editing facilities for their time.

“Mosbri Crescent was the nerve centre for producing a vast variety of programs from our own backyard and beyond beamed out of our studios – Swallows Juniors, Saturday Date, Jackpot Quiz, Travlin’ Out West, Star Quest, Beating Around the Bush, Ask The Leyland Brothers, Poppa Ryan Breakfast Club, Romper Room and Big Dog and Friends to name a few.

“From its inception in 1962 NBN News has focused on covering all the stories that matter – the triumphs and the tough times. In 1972 the station was the first in Australia to produce and telecast an hour long News service each weeknight. Colour television was introduced in 1975. Some of the big stories that NBN News covered over the decades include the Sygna Wreck, Star Hotel Riots, Newcastle Earthquake, Newcastle Knights Grand Finals and when the Pasha Bulka found itself stuck on our Nobbys Beach. Many of these moments are currently being remembered during our Sunday night News – part of our “NBN News Rewind” series partnered by Port Waratah Coal Services and Newcastle Permanent Building Society. Community partnerships were such a large part of the past. Kellie Hampton and I are working hard to ensure they are an important part of our future.

“NBN has been operating for almost 60 years – and on the 4th of March, 2022 we will celebrate this marvelous milestone from the new Nine NBN.

“Delivering the News each and every day has always been and continues to be the core component of what we do. Monday 8 November NBN News will broadcast Live in HD from our amazing new home at Nine Newcastle on Honeysuckle Drive. An exciting new chapter has commenced that sees us more aligned with Nine than ever before with new ways of working to ensure we remain the No.1 local News service to our loyal viewers. Nine’s investment in everything we do has positioned us as market leaders when it comes to breaking local news. Under Darius Winterfield’s leadership and direction, you will see and be part of more live crosses than ever before as we take our audiences Live to the heart of stories that matter hosted from our stunning new News set.

“Our state of the art facilities and the latest in editing, communicating and broadcast technology also improves the great work we are doing for our clients from a production and digital perspective too, enabling the team to deliver the highest quality product more efficiently. We cannot give enough thanks to the incredible efforts of Steve Brown, Geoff Williams, Steve Bates and the entire engineering team, Graeme Armstrong, Leo Flynn, Craig Larson, Nine Sydney broadcast operations engineers and our new control room ‘family’ members at Nine Brisbane, a place I loved and was part of for 32 years.

“We have not said ‘Goodbye’ to Mosbri Crescent without paying respect to our history. The legacy wall on honeysuckle drive as you enter the building is a gorgeous reminder of those before us and we have some beautiful memorabilia proudly on display at our new television station.”

One Response

  1. I grew up in 1970s Newcastle when there was just the choice between NBN-3 and the ABC.
    It is hard to overestimate the importance of NBN to the Newcastle and Hunter community, often culminating in the regular telethons which raised millions of dollars.

    Sadly the new station will be but a shadow of the Mosbri Crescent complex, which was a genuine TV station that produced a continuous stream of local programming over many decades. Of course, times change, and NBN is really now just a news provider, and producing local shows beyond news bulletins is considered unviable. I can even see the day coming when the bean counters decide that it is easier to just beam the whole thing out of Sydney, and just have a couple of news crews on standby.

    As for the Mosbri Crescent building, it is to become a housing development; just like TCN and GTV became. The lure of of selling real estate is just too much to resist it seems, and so another bit of Australian television history meets the wrecking…

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