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The Evolution of Radio in Australia
Early days
Today, radio and "wireless communication" is part
of everyday life. It's hard for
modern people to put themselves in
the position of people in the early
1900s when radio was a new
invention. Imagine, hearing voices
and music from across the country,
or across the world - without wires.
Instant communications. You don't
have to wait for the newspaper to
find out what is going on.
Entertainment? Sure. Turn on the
"radiogram" or "wireless" and hear
Bob Dyer, Jack Davey, Graham
Kennedy, Burns and Allen, Jack
Benny, The Village Glee Club, and
hundreds more.
All courtesy of the magic of electromagnetic
radiation!
The discovery of this phenomenon was
credited to the Italian Guillermo
Marconi. He patented the process of
wireless telegraphy and introduced
systems that allowed the
transmission of Morse code
(telegraphy) over the airwaves
(wireless). This invention was
mostly used to enable communication
between ships and shore.
During the First World War
(1914-1918), wireless telegraphy
around the world came under the
control of governments for security
and strategic reasons. During this
time, the development of the vacuum
tube extended the technology to
allow the use of voice.
Up until then, it was thought that
the invention would only be used to
communicate from one point to
another. In 1916 David Sarnoff of
the Marconi Company in USA wrote a
memo to his boss: "I have a plan
that would make radio a household
utility." He was one of the first to
see radio as a potential medium for
communication from one point to many
(broadcasting), and for
entertainment and information, as
well as communication.
Australia wasn't far behind the rest
of the world in the early days of
the development of radio. The first
"broadcast" in Australia was
organised by George Fisk of AWA
(Amalgamated Wireless Australasia)
on 19 August 1919, when he arranged
for the National Anthem to be
broadcast from one building to
another. Around that time there were
900 amateur radio broadcasters, many
of whom worked as radio operators
during World War I.
First official station
It was not until 1923 that radio
stations were first licensed by the
Australian government. The first
official station was 2SB in Sydney
(later to become 2BL), developed by
AWA. 2SB's riveting initial
broadcast was a concert featuring a
soprano, a bass, a contralto, a
cellist, a baritone and a quartet.
Early stations operated on a
subscription basis. On payment of a
fee, people received a radio that
was sealed and tuned to only the
frequency of the station they had
subscribed to. Public acceptance of
the sealed-set system was best
described as "underwhelming." Sets
were scarce. By mid 1924 there were
only about 1,200 sealed-set licenses
issued. It took about two days to
figure out how to jimmy open the
sealed sets and rig them to receive
anything you wanted to hear!
National Broadcasting Service
The 1927 Royal Commission into wireless
broadcasting came about from
listener dissatisfaction with the
programming and coverage of the
manufacturer/retailer driven
services. It recommended the licence
fees be pooled, and that the larger
stations should co-operate to
provide better services and wider
coverage. This would result in
larger capital-city stations
effectively subsidising smaller
country-town stations. Of course,
the larger stations refused to agree
to this Government scheme.
In mid-1928, to break the impasse the Government
established the National
Broadcasting Service to provide the
service and coverage the existing
stations were unwilling to provide.
This service was funded by a
compulsory license fee paid by all
owners of radio receivers. As
licenses for the larger stations
came up for renewal they were
cancelled and reissued to the
National Broadcasting Service - with
their transmitters and studio
equipment being purchased by the
Government. (Imagine that happening
today!!)
Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC)
The Postmaster General's Department (PMG) was
given the responsibility of running
the new service, in addition to
postal and telephone services. This
was short lived. On 1 July 1932 the
Government established the
Australian Broadcasting Commission
to run the National Broadcasting
Service. The ABC still operates the
stations "snatched" from the early
entrepreneurs - such as 2BL, 2FC,
3LO and 3AR.
Sport increases radio's popularity
In 1934 commercial radio won the
greatest scoop of its young career
when the England versus Australia
cricket Test Match series was played
in England. Commercial radio owners
came up with the idea of
broadcasting matches from overseas.
Before the year's series was
completed many more people were
listening in and new broadcasting
licences had been taken out.
Australian commercial radio had
established a unique reputation for
sporting broadcasts which were
immediate (ball-by-ball) and highly
entertaining.
The war years
The importance of radio increased
during World War II. For the first
time Australians could hear, rather
than just read, reports from the
battle fronts. Radio was viewed as
the immediate information source on
war news. News became more
important. Radio networks had
correspondents in the field and the
deeds and voices of the men in the
Second AIF were recorded and sent
back to Australia. Australian radio
programs were also sent to the
troops.
Golden era of radio
By the early 1940s there were about
130 commercial stations and a
roughly equivalent number of ABC
stations, which were very much caste
in the BBC mould. Radio drama became
very popular. Families would sit
around the radio together, much like
families watch television nowadays.
The most popular radio dramas were
"Blue Hills", "The Lawsons" and "Dad
and Dave" - dubbed "soaps" or "soapies"
because they were sponsored by soap
companies, such as Lever & Kitchen.
Australian children were not
forgotten. They had their own club
and radio program called the
"Argonauts Club", which ran for 30
years from 1941 to 1971. Over 50,000
Australian children became members
of the club during that time.
In the 1950s, American imported radio material
was banned to protect Australian
business, allowing Australian radio
to come into its own by making
American-style programs. Although
many of the serials sounded like
they were made and produced in
America, they were actually made in
Australia and exported overseas.
During the '50s quiz programs such
as Pick-A-Box and The Quiz Kids were
also very popular.
With the launch in 1956 of
television in Australia to coincide
with the Melbourne Olympic Games,
popular wisdom was that radio would
die because television was only
radio with pictures. Which, at the
time, it was! All the quiz shows,
plays and variety shows were
transferred across to television.
Radio began to reinvent itself and
become more of an information and
music medium.
Portable radios
Up until the 1920s most commercially made radios
were imported into Australia, but
after this date increasing numbers
were manufactured locally. All of
these were battery-operated until
the introduction of mains-operation
in 1928.
Some of the first truly compact
radios produced in Australia at this
time were to be found in cars, but
they were virtually unusable while
moving due to interference from the
engine and electrical system. Other
problems included bulky valves,
overheating and high power demands
which could drain the car's battery.
In the '30s and '40s solving these
problems saw the size and power
consumption of car radios decrease,
while the introduction of the
ferrite rod aerial also reduced the
size of portable radios.
In 1948 the world's first
solid-state amplifier was invented.
Called a "transistor", it replaced
the valves used in radios and opened
up new possibilities for decreasing
the size of radios. So in 1954 the
Regency TR-1 became the world's
first pocket transistor radio.
Produced in a range of colours, over
100,000 were sold during the first
year of manufacture. Portability
changed the way we listened.
Top 40 music was huge in the '60s.
This was the era of the Beatles and
a generation of music that changed
society. Radio drove this. Radio was
very much a young person's medium
and everyone had a transistor radio.
Most cars also featured radios as
standard equipment.
At this time there was a push for
more access to the airwaves. In the
late '60s the "draft" protestors in
Melbourne and Sydney mounted pirate
broadcasts. In Brisbane, students
formed their own radio station in
1971 (ultimately 4ZZZ).
FM radio
FM broadcasting was invented in the US during the
1930s. It was a much superior
broadcasting medium - it could
broadcast in stereo and wasn't
subject to electrical interference
like the AM system. Through the '50s
and '60s there was some
experimentation with FM broadcasting
in Australia, but no significant
activity. Even following a
Government recommendation in 1972
that FM broadcasting be introduced,
there wasn't a lot of interest from
the existing AM'ers.
So FM was initially offered to fledgling
community broadcast groups for
non-commercial broadcasting, to be
funded by listener subscriptions and
limited sponsorship. The one or two
frequencies available in each state
capital city typically went to
classical music societies and
student unions. The latter
programmed wild progressive rock and
left-wing political commentary - as
you might expect from a University
student body of the '70s.
In July 1980 the first commercial FM station,
3EON (now 3MMM) in Melbourne, took
to the airwaves, followed closely by
2DAY-FM and 2MMM in Sydney. These
very quickly became profitable and
held ratings leads in most markets.
AM stereo also arrived in the early '80s, when
Australian AM'ers were being creamed
in the ratings by the FM stations.
AM stereo was viewed as a potential
saviour in the face of FM
competition.
Digital radio
The Digital Audio Broadcasting standard (DAB) was
developed in 1988 and formalised in
1993. Continental Europe and the UK
started broadcasting in 2000. But
the history of DAB is somewhat
chequered, and that's why we aren't
using it here in Australia. Instead,
we're using the upgraded DAB+
standard, which has many advantages.
With the arrival of digital radio gone are the
days of static and weak signals. The
AM/FM analogue signal is prone to
interference from many things - from
weather to a building being erected
next door.
The advantages of digital radio over AM are in
many ways even greater than over FM.
Listening to the AM band is now
clear and easy on the ears, which is
good news for Australia's unusually
high proportion of AM listeners (48
percent).
However, at this stage it isn't available to
everybody. The digital network (at
the time of writing) only works in
certain areas. For example, in
Sydney it is only operational within
the Sydney Metro area. However, the
network is slowly expanding and will
eventually include all of Australia.
So keep checking if you live outside
a capital city.
With just about every person in the
country owning some form of analogue
AM/FM radio, the one major question
we get asked is: "Will I have to get
rid of my trusty analogue radio?"
The answer is a resounding NO! Due
to the amount of time it will take
for digital radio to be accessible
across Australia, the good old
analogue radio will still have a
future.
The United Kingdom started using
digital radio in 2000, and
speculation has it that they will go
full digital and phase out analogue
by the end of 2015. That's 15 years,
and still not set in concrete! So,
depending on your location, you will
have a choice of analogue or digital
radio for many years.
Internet radio
A November 1994 Rolling Stones
concert was the "first major
cyberspace multicast concert." Mick
Jagger opened the concert by saying,
"I wanna say a special welcome to
everyone that's climbed into the
Internet tonight and has got into
the M-bone. And I hope it doesn't
all collapse."
The term "Internet radio" is actually a misnomer.
Internet radio is an audio service
transmitted via the Internet. No
radio transmitters need be involved
at any point in the process.
People often confuse digital radio with Internet
radio, but there is a huge
difference between the two. However,
most Internet radios also come with
DAB+, so you get the best of both
worlds.
Digital radio cannot access radio
stations worldwide - it can only
access radio stations in their own
city. Internet radio however, can
access radio stations from all
corners of the globe, from Athens to
Zimbabwe and everything in between.
With a good Internet radio you can
choose by country and genre - and
there are over 6,000 Internet
stations to choose from. So whether
your taste is classical, punk, '70s
disco or rap, there are stations out
there catering to your needs.
Internet radios usually have preset
buttons, so you can add a station to
your favourites, saving you from
searching through all the channels
to find them again.
Internet radio involves streaming
media, presenting listeners with a
continuous stream of audio, much
like traditional broadcast media.
Unlike digital radio, it cannot be
paused or replayed. However, many
Internet radio stations have
podcasts available, so you can catch
up on previous shows that you've
missed.
With an Internet radio all you need
is an Internet connection at home,
and it's a simple plug 'n' play.
Most are able to connect wirelessly,
so you can put it anywhere in the
house, and you don't need to have
your computer turned on to listen to
it. With the right set-up you can
even network your music stored on
your computer to come out of the
radio.
Whilst there has been a century of
development and advances in radio,
one thing hasn't changed. Radio is
still an important part of our
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