Orange Regional Museum to show archival Channel 8 footage at 60th anniversary event

Welcome to Television: the 60th anniversary of Channel 8, to be held at the museum from 6pm - 8pm on Friday March 18, will feature digitised highlights of Channel 8 news, current affairs and sport footage that was donated to the museum in 16mm format by Prime Television in 2021.

CBN Channel 8 first went to air on March 17, 1962, starting with five hours of programming a day from 5.30pm at its studio on the Mitchell Highway.

In the early days, CBN-8 and the ABC were the only local television available in the central west.

Over the years its production crews generated hundreds of hours of original content including a regional news service, Rural Roundup, Weekend Report, Sports Action and event programming.

Broadcasting continued from the Mitchell Highway site for almost 50 years, with the last bulletin by Prime in 2010.

The building was demolished in 2019.

"The television station made such an important contribution to the region, not only by telling the stories of the time, but also with the role it played in the daily lives of local families watching at home," Orange City Councillor Mel McDonell said.

Guest speaker Bronwyn Barnett from the National Film and Sound Archive will join the ORM event to provide an insight into building and preserving the national television collection for future generations.

She will also talk about the beginnings of regional television, its importance to local communities and how technology has given communities more viewing choice whilst diminishing the local station footprint.

Guests can enjoy a glass of wine, grazing platters and an after-hours viewing of Orange Regional Museum's exhibition Child's Play: Growing up in Orange in the 1950s and 1960s.

Tickets to ORM Talks cost $15 (Friends of Orange Regional Museum receive a 25% discount) and can be booked online at ormtalkscbn8.eventbrite.com.au