This article is divided into the following sections:

Early Days Opening Night History Since Then Facilities Programming Slogans Reference

Early Days

Plans for the station had begun in 1954 before as early staff members met at the Sun Newspaper building in Sydney to plan the future of the station.

As part of the initial issuing of licenses for commercial television in Australia, Amalgamated Television Services, a subsidiary of John Fairfax Newspapers, was awarded one of the licenses for Sydney in April 1955. They went with the callsign ATN and selected VHF channel 7.

As rival station TCN-9 was owned by the same company that published the chief rivals of Fairfax newspapers, the opening of the first television station in Australia got no coverage in Fairfax newspapers.

Opening Night

2nd December 1956 saw the station open. With a shortage of equipment and only one studio operational (Studio B), a severe thunderstorm nearly knocked the station off the air on its first night. Rain leaked through the roof and caused problems with the lighting console.

History Since Then

The first transmission tower for ATN was located at Gore Hill, near the ABC's. This was replaced in 1960 by a taller tower at nearby Artarmon, which would also be used for TEN-10 when it came on the air in 1965.

In 1957, the station established a link with GTV9 Melbourne. It looked like Fairfax was going to buy the station in 1963, but Frank Packer, owners of TCN trumped the Fairfax offer. This resulted in the birth of the Nine Network, leaving the other Seven Network stations no choice but to affiliate to each other (with the exception of TVW7 Perth).

ATN introduced a microwave link between Sydney and Canberra to broadcast the visit of Queen Elizabeth.

In 1959 ATN was the first station in Australia to install videotape equipment. The same year they helped established a microwave link between Melbourne and Sydney for the broadcast of test cricket from the Sydney Cricket Ground.

One of the first full time commercial satellite links outside North America was established there in 1983. Since the satellite power was very limited at that time, The dish needed to be 18 metres in diameter, although there were two alternative dishes, both 12m in diameter whose power was equivalent to that of an 18m dish. This satellite carried CNN thereby making it the first international broadcast of the channel outside North America. Similarly, a 13m dish was installed in 1986 for distribution of Seven Network programs to remote Australia through the AUSSAT satellite.

Also at this time, the technical staff at the station won an Emmy Award for the invention and development of RaceCam in car cameras. The technology, originally used for Australian touring cars, was later adapted for just about every motor sport series seen on television, as well as for many other sports.

Fairfax purchased Brisbane sister station BTQ7 in 1984.

In February 1987, Fairfax purchased HSV7 Melbourne. Job cuts were immediately made and local programming was slashed at the Melbourne station. The revamped Seven National News rated as low as zero. As a result of changes to media ownership laws. Fairfax sold ATN, BTQ & HSV to Christopher Skase's Qintex company in August 1987.

After the Seven Network went into receivership in 1990, the company was floated on the stock exchange in 1993 and Kerry Stokes purchased 20% of the company in May 1995, and immediately became chairman of the company, where he remains to this day.

Facilities

When completed, ATN7 Studio A was at the time the largest studio in the country. The Epping studios were eventually expanded to five studios and became the largest producer of Australian television programs. Main studio: Mobbs Lane, Epping. News studio: Martin Place, Sydney City. Offices: Pirrama St, Pyrmont.

Programming

Australia's first current affairs program, Seven On 7 with Howard Craven started at 7pm on 3rd December 1956. It was also the home of Australia's first two soap operas, Autumn Affair and The Story Of Peter Grey. Some of the programs to have been produced at ATN include Sons and Daughters, A Country Practice, Home and Away, All Saints, Wheel Of Fortune and BP Pick A Box.

Slogans

1956: This is ATN Channel 7, Sydney

1968: Seven is...

Summer 1978/79: Seven Summer

1979: Seven's Reaching for the Stars

1980: Channel 7's Proud in Sydney

1982: All The Best

Summer 1982/83: Summer is the Time, Seven is the Place

1983: Watch Us Now

1984: Be There

1985-87: Let's All Be There

1986: Sydney CBD

1986 (Nov): Thirty Years Together, Channel 7 and You

1987: You're Invited on a Journey

1988: Let's Celebrate '88

1989: Only The Best on 7

2006: Celebrating 50 Years of Television in Sydney

References

Morrell, Julia et. al. (1996) Forty Years of Television : The Story of ATN7, Millers Point, NSW, Australia: Lansdowne Publishers (ISBN: 1863025243)

Mercado, Andrew (2004) Super Aussie Soaps, North Melbourne, Victoria, Australia: Pluto Press Australia (ISBN: 1864031913)