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Research dossier · Places & Architecture

ABS (TV station)

Australian television station

Architectural plans, a scale model, maps and brass measuring instruments
Places and architectureInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMar 1, 2026
Entity authorityQ16207661 ↗
Source-derived summary

ABC Television in South Australia comprises national and local programming on the ABC television network in South Australia, headquartered in Adelaide. ABS or ABS-2 was the historic call sign and name of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's television station in Adelaide, with the "S" standing for South Australia.

History

ABS began broadcasting on 11 March 1960 from studios at the historic Tregenna mansion in the suburb of Collinswood. The station's transmitter is located at Mount Lofty and is augmented by a series of relay transmitters throughout the state.

ABS commenced digital television transmission in January 2001, broadcasting on VHF Channel 12 while maintaining analogue transmission on VHF Channel 2. The analogue signal for ABS was shut off at 9 am on Tuesday, 2 April 2013, making Adelaide the first state capital to make the permanent switch, with Canberra being the first city to do so in 2012.

In November 2014, current managing director Mark Scott announced at a meeting held at ABC's Ultimo headquarters in Sydney that a major restructuring would occur due to a cut of over A$254 million from the ABC budget. In an email to staff, Scott said:

[We will] close our Adelaide television production studio and wind down remaining television production in smaller states. The economics of the television sector make it difficult to maintain small-scale operations. It is more economically efficient to base production (outside news and current affairs) in Sydney and Melbourne.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “ABS (TV station)” is australian television station. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through station, Australian and television, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA valuable geographic starting point for tracing changing names, boundaries, uses and administrative responsibility. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1960, 2001, 2013, 2012—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1960-01-01. For this dossier, station, Australian and television is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “australian television station” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Place names and jurisdictional language are key evidence: both can reveal earlier catalogue descriptions and overlooked record series. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 1, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q16207661. VIAF identifies the subject as 142681521. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1960, 2001, 2013 and 2012.

Critical limits

Modern boundaries and familiar names can conceal earlier jurisdictions or structures that do not align with the present site. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.

Best used for
  • Historic place names
  • Jurisdictional context
  • Routes into maps and plans
Verify next

Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “ABS (TV station)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow ABS (TV station) primary sources, ABS (TV station) archive and station research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “ABS (TV station)”?
  2. Which earlier names or jurisdictions may reveal additional records?
  3. Which authority defined the place, boundary or structure at the relevant date?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “ABS (TV station)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.