Figure 1.--The Australian Government was uncertain how to structure the radio industry, but the Labour Government decided to nationalize it during the Depression. Radios were still expensive and many families did not yet have them. Some were exoensive pieces of frniture that dominated living roons, although there were less aldo less expensive shelf modelsavailable.

Radio was very important in the development of the Australian nation. No other country had an entire continent to settle with such a small population. Radio broadcasting and later television helped to deal with the communication challenges of the country's vast and sparsely populated land mass. Not only is Australia huge, but the small population is concentrated in the southeastern coastal quadrant. Unlike movies, radio broadcasting developed along a largely country to country basis. While the technology was developed in Europe and America, the broadcasting programs and performers were largely unknown outside of their own countries. Here a major factor was language. William Bragg, Professor of Mathematics and Physics at the University of Adelaide is credited with the first experimental broadcast in Australia (1897), only 2 years after Guglielmo Marconi patented his ground-breaking wireless system. As in Britain, radio became known as wireless for some time. Marconi’s Wireless Telegraph Company built Australia’s first wireless telegraphy station at Queenscliff, Victoria (1905). The Governor-General and the Prime-Minister transmitted Australia’s first official two-way transmission. It was sent between Melbourne and Devonport in Tasmania. At the time radio was still Morse code, not voice transmissions. Parliament at thus early stage began to regulate radio. The Wireless Telegraphy Act established the federal government as the sole regulator of the exciting new technology. This was followed after nearly two decades with another act when after World War I and major technological advances, radio broadcasting began. The two acts gave the Federal Government authority to regulate the industry. George Fisk of the Amalgamated Wireless Australasia Limited Company made the first Australian broadcast. It was the National anthem transmitted within Sydney (1919). At the time only a handful of Australians had radio equipment to hear it and it could only be heard in Sydney. Radio broadcasting was relatively slow to develop in Australia, compared to America where turned over to the free market, it virtually exploded. Australia first radio station was 2CM which broadcast from the Wentworth Hotel in Sydney (1921). There were still only a handful of listeners and the early stations had relatively weak transmitters. After considerable study, the Government issued a set of radio broadcasting regulations (1923), modified in (1924). The Government developed a two-tiered licensing system. ‘A licenses’ were financed by listener fees as in Britain. ‘B licensees’ were issued to stations financed through advertising. In the next few years, Australian listeners although relatively small in number and limited to the well-to-do population who could afford a radio were widely dissatisfied with the the variety and quality of the broadcasts. We are not sure how that was expressed. The Government ordered a royal commission to assess radio broadcasting. The National Broadcasting Service appeared (NBS) which separated the studios from the and content. The stations were generally low-powered and there were few actual listeners. A Labour Government decided in the depths of the Depression decided to nationalize the industry, creating the Australian Broadcasting Service--ABS (1932). The ABC was initially self-supporting with its funds obtained from radio license fees paid by listeners. This would prove to be inadequate and the Government after World War II established a consolidated revenue system. Licensing fees continued until (1974).

Created: June 18, 2002
Last updated: 5:00 AM 2/10/2013