RMITV is one of the oldest community television organisations in Australia, having been involved in lobbying the government for community access to the television spectrum. It transmitted its first test broadcast in 1987. Early on RMITV struggled with licences for television spectrum. After originally lobbying for a public licence, similar to those seen in the American public television sector, RMITV was knocked back as public licences are not available in Australia. They were then granted a licence to broadcast to private audiences in a 10 km radius of the RMIT City Campus. The license was granted on the 09/08/1987. A week after a Channel 10 news report by
Mal Walden about RMITV's upcoming open day 1987 broadcast the licence was cancelled. The first licence was a General Licence Class D (Section 24). The Licence number was 211744/2. The callsign was VH3BVK. RMITV was also responsible for broadcasting ETV, a closed-circuit television system operated at the RMIT Campus in previous years. The government encouraged Melbourne's many aspirant community television broadcasters to form an umbrella organisation to apply for a broadcasting license, and so RMITV became a founding member of the
Melbourne Community Television Consortium; the license holder for Melbourne's Channel 31. RMITV has a long history of successful producers and practitioners moving into professional employment within the Australian television industry. Most notable alumni include:
Waleed Aly (
The Project),
Rove McManus (
Roving Enterprises),
Hamish and Andy (Fox FM), Shona Devlin (JTV –
Triple J),
Tommy Little (
This Week Live),
Dave Thornton (
This Week Live),
Peter Helliar and many more. RMITV has also had many crew members go on to work at the
ABC,
Network 10,
Videoworks and Staging Connections. RMITV's Productions are not only limited to C31, many of RMITV's productions air on community stations all around Australia. For example,
Live on Bowen (2012–2015) which were broadcast on C31, Face Television - Sky Channel 083 (New Zealand), WTV (Perth) and 31 Digital (South East Queensland),
The Inquiry (2009-2010),
In Pit Lane (1998–present) and 31 Questions (2012–2014). Throughout its time RMITV has produced some of the most well known programs on Australian community television, including:
The Loft Live,
Under Melbourne Tonight, ''
Chartbusting 80's, Raucous, Dawns Crack, PLUCK, Studio A, The Leak'' and countless outside broadcasts. Mid-2015 spawned a webseries collaboration between RMITV and
Catalyst, RMIT's Student Magazine, entitled "Politics at the Belleville". Based on the podcast "Politics on the Couch" the program was hosted by the same talent and was released every Friday afternoon. ==Internal structure==