Queensland’s only community television broadcaster, Briz 31 commenced transmission to a Brisbane and south east Queensland (Australia) audience on 31 July 1994. Since then it has achieved some remarkable milestones – survival being the biggest one!

With a 5KW analogue transmitter (an old Thompson Tube) and a warehouse in the West End district that used be a sound studio, Briz31 produced a wide range of local community television shows. The quality of the programming didn’t quite compare with the free-to-air commercial and government funded television broadcasters, but the programming was local, it was innovative and it used hordes of amazing volunteers and their conglomerated talents to get to air.

How Briz 31 actually stayed on air is anyone’s guess – could have been the zealous commitment of an ever-changing staff, could have been the second-hand broadcast equipment gleaned from other stations doing an annual redundancy drive, could have been fate.

With no local, state or federal government funding, air time sales and limited sponsorship announcements (read television commercials) kept some dollars rolling in.

The year 2004 was big for Briz 31 – the federal government regulator agreed to award them a five year licence, and the transmitter started to collapse, dragging the signal power down to just one KW. Fortunately for the operating company, Briz 31 Ltd, the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) and private philanthropists Kevin and Kay Seymour stepped in, and paid for a new and much more powerful transmitter.

That was in October 2005. Suddenly the Briz 31 UHF picture was no longer fuzzy and hard to get. While faced with the daunting prospect of a future transfer to digital – when the federal government decides – Briz 31’s audience has more than tripled. The terrestrial audience reach has also grown remarkably to include both the Sunshine Coast region to the north of Brisbane, and the Gold Coast to the south.

In October 2006, Briz 31 decided to change its on-air name to reflect its expanding marketplace position…moving to Channel 31-Your Local Television. What’s in a name you may ask? Well, nothing lasts for ever, and 31 is now moving to provide local television services throughout Queensland and on as many broadcasting platforms as possible.

Thank goodness for technology, and for all those nameless but brilliant IT people helping to make it happen because they too believe local community television is something that should be everywhere!