the Kangaroo Creek Gang as its mascot. Fat Cat is now mainly used for things to do with Telethon; Fat Cat dolls are sold through Friendlies Chemists & Bendigo Bank for $19.95 to raise money for Telethon. Seven also has an anthropomorphic TV character "TV Man" (an analogue TV with arms and legs with a red 7 on the screen) as a popular mascot used in on air promos nationally. Telethon TVW also produces an annual Telethon for the Princess Margaret Hospital for Children, the Telethon Kids Institute and around forty other beneficiaries spread throughout the Western Australian community. Since 1968 it has raised over $268 million (as of 2017 total). Although the fundraising takes place 365 days a year through the community, it culminates in a 26-hour live broadcast from Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre in the heart of Perth city over a weekend, usually in October. Seven network personalities fly to Perth for the weekend to help raise money, as do a lot of Aussie artists. Many international stars have also been part of Telethon over the years, including Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Celine Dion and Harry Connick Jr. The show is simulcasted around the state of Western Australia. This telethon is regarded as the highest fundraising Telethon (per capita) in the world ($13.94 per head of population in WA). In 2017 Channel 7 celebrated its milestone 50th Perth Telethon, raising $36.4m ($10m more than the previous year's record amount) and distributed this to over forty beneficiaries throughout Western Australia. It is broadcast on TVW7 across Perth metro area and across Western Australia. Christmas Pageant The station organises an annual Christmas parade through the streets of the Perth central business district, traditionally on the first Saturday of December. It is claimed to be the largest Christmas parade in the southern hemisphere. More than 600 floats and 60,000 participants have taken part in the procession in the history of the parade, which commenced in 1972. Each year several thousand people line the route to watch the parade. It was cancelled once in 2015 due to inclement weather. Broadcasting details Digital transport frequency: VHF-6 @ 177.5 MHz (Bandwidth: 7 MHz 64-QAM) Note: HD quality switches between 7 and 7mate due to sporting events. Only one channel broadcasts HD at any one time. See also Seven Network STW NEW (TV station) Television broadcasting in Australia Sources Perth Commercial Television After 1965