Branding Nine Affiliations Nine (O&O) | Channels Digital: 8 (VHF) First air date 5 September 1959 | |
Owner Nine Entertainment Co.
(Channel 9 South Australia Pty Ltd) Call letters' meaning The NeWs South Australia | ||
NWS is an Australian television station based in Adelaide, Australia. It is owned-and-operated by the Nine Network. The station callsign, NWS, is an acronym of The NeWs South Australia.
Contents
Origins
NWS-9 was the first television broadcaster in Adelaide, beginning on 5 September 1959 from their Tynte Street studios. It was owned by Rupert Murdoch through his Southern Television Corporation Ltd who also owned city newspaper The News. Popular programs produced in its early days included the live variety shows Adelaide Tonight and Hey Hey It's Saturday (on-location specials), science show The Curiosity Show, The Country and Western Hour, and children's shows Channel Niners, Here's Humphrey and Pick Your Face.
In early 1980, NBN Limited became NWS's owner for A$19 million. In 1981, Hadjoin Pty. Ltd., a subsidiary of Parry's Esplanade Limited (later Parry Corporation), purchased 19.88% of NBN Limited for $6.7 million.
Following this, Parry then attempted to buy the Wansey family's stake in NBN, but was blocked by the Supreme Court of New South Wales, after which Parry revealed that he wanted to take over NBN (and thus NWS). Parry and the Lamb family then formed a deal - NBN would transfer NWS to the Lambs in exchange for their share of NBN which went to the Parrys. This ended NBN Limited's ownership of NWS.
Recent history
The Lamb family sold NWS to Southern Cross Broadcasting for $96 million in 1999, leading to redundancies among almost half of the station's staff.
On 30 May 2007, Southern Cross announced its sale of NWS-9 to WIN Corporation for $105 million. WIN took control on 1 July 2007.
It was reported on 3 June 2013 that Nine Entertainment Co. would immediately purchase Nine Adelaide (NWS) from WIN Corporation as part of a deal to secure international cricket television rights. Nine officially gained control of NWS on 1 July 2013. This move saw Nine Adelaide join Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne as Nine Network owned-and-operated metropolitan stations leaving only Perth which was purchased only months later in September.
Managing Director of Nine Adelaide, Sean O'Brien, announced in late 2014 that within two years, the station would move from their Tynte Street location of over fifty years to new studios in the CBD.
The final broadcast from the Tynte Street studios occurred on 18 September 2015, followed a day later by the first transmission from the new street-level studios on Pirie Street.
Programming
Nine Adelaide continues to produce some shows including Postcards, Out of the Blue, Garden Gurus SA, Building Ideas,Feeling Good and Out of the Ordinary.
News and Current Affairs
Nine News Adelaide is produced from NWS's news studios and presented by Kate Collins and Brenton Ragless on weeknights with Warren Tredrea presenting sport. Jessica Braithwaite is the weather presenter. Will McDonald presents the news on weekends.
News history
From 1988 to 2007 the weeknight bulletin was presented by Rob Kelvin and the late Kevin Crease. They were one of the longest serving news duos in Australia.
Throughout the 1990s, Deanna Williams was the main fill-in presenter and state political reporter. Following her resignation in March 2002, either Kelvin or Crease would fill in for McGuinness on weekends, but in 2005 the situation arose where all three presenters were unavailable - leaving weekend sports presenter Mark Bickley to read the news.
In late 2008, NWS-9 launched its own local version of the Nine Network's flagship current affairs program, A Current Affair, hosted by Adelaide journalist Kate Collins. It was axed only one year later.
On 26 November 2009, one day after the axing of the local A Current Affair was announced, Kelly Nestor announced live on air that her contract as Kelvin's weeknight co-anchor would not be renewed and she would finish on 18 December 2009.
On 22 February 2010, it was announced that senior reporter Michael Smyth would be joining Rob Kelvin at the newsdesk.
On 31 October 2010, Rob Kelvin announced that he would retire from the newsdesk after 32 years on the air. He would present his last bulletin on 31 December 2010 after 27 years anchoring the news. However, News Director, Tony Agars announced that Kelvin would continue to present the occasional special report and fill-in a few times a year when required. Kate Collins replaced Kelvin, joining Smyth at the news desk.
In October 2011, it was announced that Michael Smyth and Georgina McGuinness would not have their contracts renewed. From the end of November 2011 till December 2013, Kate Collins presented the bulletin solo on weeknights and Will McDonald replaced McGuinness as presenter for weekend bulletins at the end of December 2011.