Australian Heritage Council

Publications

Linking a Nation: Australia's Transport and Communications 1788 - 1970

Australia: Our national stories
By Dr Robert Lee of the University of Western Sydney
Australian Heritage Commission, 2003

Chapter 9: Radio and Television, 1905-1970

The Origins of Wireless Communication

Radio technology dates from just before the establishment of the Commonwealth of Australia in 1901. In 1895, Guigliemo Marconi patented the process of wireless telegraphy. This system allowed the transmission of Morse code (telegraphy) over the airwaves (wireless). Marconi's system enabled a revolutionary form of communication permitting communication between ships and the mainland for the first time. Radiotelephony was a practical impossibility prior to the First World War (1914-1918), but a technique developed during the war using thermionic valves and continuously tuned circuits in both the transmitter and radio receiver made possible radiotelephone communication. The process of wireless telegraphy was envisaged to communicate information from one user to another, in much the same way as a telegram or telephone call. However David Sarnoff, of the Marconi Company, saw wireless communication as a way to get into every household from one point. He envisaged the wireless bringing entertainment and information to many from one point. This was the revolutionary concept of the wireless broadcast, so called because transmissions were broadcast widely and could be received by anyone, not just a single specified recipient.

Although governments strictly controlled wireless technology during the First World War, the war effort allowed much research into this form of communication, especially in the use and appropriateness of various alloys in valve fabrication. Thus, by the time test transmissions commenced in the 1920s, special valves had been designed for broadcast transmitter services. The Marconi Company's transmitter in Caernarvon in North Wales successfully communicated with Australia in November 1921.

The first broadcasters were in the USA and many stations were developed for commercial purposes. The American system consisted of a greater number of smaller stations to cover vast areas through networking and sharing of broadcast programs. Britain's broadcasting system also commenced in a similar manner until the British Broadcasting Company was established in November 1922. The haphazard, even chaotic, introduction of radio in Britain and the USA led Australian officials to consider the development of the wireless carefully. At this time in Australia, there were 900 amateur broadcasters, but most of these operations were very tentative affairs - single operators transmitting recordings and talking.

In Australia, wireless was a Commonwealth responsibility from the beginning under the Constitution's allocation of communications powers to the federal government, and its Wireless Telegraphy Act of 1905 made provision for the development of the wireless under strict government control. There were experiments in broadcasting all over the country, but the government did not erect its first two-way wireless telegraphy stations in Queenscliff, Victoria until 1913. The same year, two Commonwealth wireless telegraph stations were erected in Fremantle and Sydney (at first at Pennant Hills - still an important radio transmission site - and after 1927 at La Perouse), built by Marconi's company which then monopolised the industry worldwide. These were built primarily for defence, navigation (including ship-to-shore radiotelephony) and other government communications. These non-broadcast functions of radio were always significant (and remain so), although of course they cannot be considered as part of the public broadcasting industry.

Because radio technology was relatively cheap (compared with building cars or ships or railways for instance) and took up little space, amateurs were able to play an important role in its early development, often working out of their homes. One of the most important such men was Sydney Catholic priest Father Archibald Shaw, who operated out of the presbytery of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart in Randwick between 1910 and 1915. Shaw endlessly tinkered with radios and even claimed to have his own scheme, until Telefunken and Marconi threatened to prosecute him for breach of patent in 1915. Shaw withdrew at this point, but for five years he had communicated by radio with missionaries of his order in the South Pacific as far as 2,000 miles away. He had some support within the Commonwealth government, and even supplied radio equipment for Douglas (later Sir Douglas) Mawson's Antarctic Expedition of 1911-1913. He appears to have won this contract because his system developed to maintain contact with his missionaries actually worked effectively. Bizarrely enough, the presbytery and adjacent school for a while was the major centre in Australia for training young radio engineers by Shaw's Maritime Wireless Company.

Amalgamated Wireless (Australasia) Ltd (AWA) and Government Regulation

Shaw's concern, with its probable infringement of patents, proved to be a false start, and the Australian radio industry, as opposed to amateurs or government services, began with the amalgamation of Marconi's Wireless Company with Telefunken to form Amalgamated Wireless (Australasia) Ltd (AWA) in 1913. This company played a dominant role in the development of the wireless in Australia. The public was fascinated by the way voices could travel through the air and the process was then in the hands of technically literate amateurs. Any local member of the community who could construct a wireless was a popular person. The first official broadcast in Australia was in August 1919 when Ernest Fisk, head of AWA, broadcast the National Anthem from one building to another at his lecture on 'Wireless Telegraphy' to the Royal Society of New South Wales.

Fisk's success soon after guaranteed him permission from the government to broadcast for experimental use. From January 1921, he broadcast during the day from AWA's office using a 500-watt Marconi transmitter and in the evenings from his residence in Canterbury. In 1922, tests were altered to long and medium wave transmissions and conducted from the old AWA building in Clarence Street and from a factory in Know Street. Fisk's success aroused fears that AWA, in effect Marconi's Australian branch, would monopolise the industry. As a result, Postmaster General William Gibson called a conference for May 1923 to discuss the establishment of broadcasting in Australia. Present were representatives from wireless institutes, radio associations, the press and those who had interest in the establishment of a broadcasting service in Australia. In his address, the PMG explained that a proper system needed to be thought out and introduced. Gibson wanted to prevent the appearance of the chaotic systems that had evolved in America and in Britain. He wanted a superior system, regulated and controlled, neither monopolised by one company nor dispersed amongst hundreds of operators as elsewhere.

The government sought ideas from other sources at this conference, but firmly held to their control legally founded on the Wireless Telegraphy Act of 1905. Interested parties were given opportunity to present their views. Ernest Fisk's presentation of a Sealed Set Scheme became the basis of the draft adopted at the conference which was to be put before Cabinet. The Sealed Set Scheme involved the selling and purchasing of radio sets which were designed to receive only those frequencies (stations) to which the purchaser had subscribed. This was to ensure that those stations would receive revenue from their sales and cost would be proportional to service. The proposed regulations meant strict control of the radio broadcasting industry in areas including licensing, subscription, services and sales for both buyers and sellers of radio sets. Annual fees were imposed for all licensees and licensers to ensure continual governmental revenue to support the growth of the system. Inspectors were appointed to control the system, but the regulations, particularly those concerning the Sealed Set, were difficult to meet.

The first official station to commence broadcasting was 2SB (subsequently 2BL) on 13 November 1923. The Sealed Set Scheme (with the inspector system), however, was abandoned the following year as only 1,400 people took out licences. Although illegal, many users simply altered their sets to receive other stations' broadcasts. Thus, the Sealed Set System was quickly replaced with a dual A-Class and B-Class system. Both types of stations were owned and operated by private companies with approved government licensing, but A-Class stations were funded by licence fees and B-Class relied on advertising revenue. By the end of 1924 there were almost 40,000 listener licences sold, which doubled in the next year. The radio era had arrived, and expansion was extraordinarily rapid.

AWA played a major role in the industry for the next fifty years, and Fisk was knighted for his pioneering entrepreneurship, even though his sealed set scheme had been a total failure and the A-Class licence system only marginally better. AWA's technical dominance was such that it provided the bulk of transmitters and other equipment needed to establish radio stations. The company expressed its confidence and domination of the industry in its headquarters, built in York Street, Sydney in 1938-39. Twelve stories high and including radio studios, the building was (and is) surmounted with a tower loosely modelled on Gustav Eiffel's famous tower in Paris. From here radio transmissions were broadcast. In total 364 feet (111 metres) high, the AWA Tower was Sydney's highest building for a quarter of a century. Fisk chose Pegasus the winged horse as a potent symbol of AWA's ambitions and a huge relief sculpture of Pegasus is the main decoration on the building's streamlined, art deco lines.1 The building is easily the radio age's most durable physical monument, and a spectacular one at that.

Although early radio receivers were large and expensive pieces of furniture, there were far cheaper and more accessible options for the listener. These were radio kits and crystal sets. For the handyman or teenage boy (girls were not encouraged to play with such things in the 1920s!), these meant easy access to broadcasts. Moreover, since kit and crystal sets were small, there was less risk of being detected by an inspector for having an unlicensed receiver. Many kit and crystal sets were owned by schoolboys rather than their parents and, since these sets were anything but handsome pieces of furniture, they were kept in boys' bedrooms rather than in living rooms. Under these circumstances, it was almost impossible to fine the boys for not possessing a licence. A typical kit set usually included wire, terminals, knobs, drilled baseboard and a construction circuit. When broadcasting commenced in 1923, shops were already selling kits. Even cheaper was the 'crystal set'. Crystals were either natural or manufactured minerals and could be bought in kits containing the whiskers and tweezers. A simple 'crystal set' comprised of a coil slider, crystal detector and cat's whiskers and could receive broadcasts using a crystal rectifier. It was estimated that in 1927 over 60 percent of listeners had (mostly unlicensed) crystal sets.

Meanwhile, amateurs needed only a few spare pounds to get into radio broadcasting. Many were embracing the new technology with enthusiasm. By 1923, amateur experimental broadcast transmissions were expanding rapidly, anticipated the licensing system Gibson was setting up. There were 37 amateur radio clubs whose members subscribed to two major magazines, The Popular Radio Weekly and London's Popular Wireless and Wireless Review. In Adelaide in 1924, those working within the 200-metre band had to organise co-operative shifts published to allow for radio space, such was the demand for bandwidth from amateurs. Different time slots were allocated according to popularity. The same sort of organisation occurred in Brisbane in the 1930s.2

Amateur experimenters, although not licensed and far from encouraged by the government, gained such a large following that even when the A and B Class stations were introduced and the amateurs were forced to change time slots, their stations successfully operated out of hours. Vic Coombe of Adelaide was one such experimenter. An invalid who broadcast from his bed, he failed in the 1930s to receive a B-Class licence for reasons of a shortage of frequencies, yet continued to be a successful broadcaster. His radio club, the Western Suburban Radio Club, would provide resources and members, but requests to gain licensed status repeatedly were denied. This was the case for many amateur experimenters. Their stations gradually fell into decline and were closed to keep airwaves clear during the Second World War. Their broadcasting rights were never reinstated

The Radio Industry

Government policy allowed for the establishment of two stations in each capital city. Broadcasters (Sydney) Ltd (2SB) was a conglomeration of local companies and interests, which quickly (March 1924) changed its name to 2BL to avoid confusion with another station. The station aimed to broadcast without costs to the listener so published requests to the listener to purchase from the businesses providing finances. The Sydney transmitter was a 500-watt transmitter established on the roof of The Daily Guardian building in Phillip Street Sydney. Its studio was in the same building. It was only 4.3m by 3.6m, holding a full sized grand piano and a desk for the announcer. If a guest orchestra performed, they performed on the roof with a microphone extended on a lead out the door.

Broadcasts were on the dull side by modern standards and, due to government regulation, consisted of news, weather, sports, lectures, church services and political speeches. The daily program also included items of interest, exchange calls and music broadcasts, usually orchestral and performed live. Rapid growth meant the studio could no longer fit the required demands and was moved twice in the space of a year, initially to the Fuller Building at Elizabeth Street, then to 4 Bligh Street. The registered office was located at Radio House, in George Street, Sydney. 2FC commenced in 1924 providing competition with a 5000-watt transmitter. As a consequence 2BL was forced to expand and gained permission to build a 1500-watt transmitter in Coogee. 2BL's transmitter costs (built by AWA) were planned to be financed by Sealed Set sales, but the failure of sales and low revenue saw the merger with 2FC in 1928 to form the New South Wales Broadcasting Co Ltd. The government ultimately acquired both stations for the formation of a national broadcasting service.

In Melbourne, the Associated Radio Company of Australia started Victoria's first A-Class station, 3AR, on 26 January 1924. It began its operations from 51-53 A'Beckett Street Melbourne, although moved out into the suburbs where it could build a more powerful transmitter the following year. Associated Radio found its costs were too high, so soon merged with the other Melbourne A-Class station, 3LO to form Dominion Broadcasting Ltd. Associated Radio was also instrumental in establishing Adelaide's first A-Class station, 5CL, which began transmissions on 20 November 1924, and 7ZL in Hobart. In Perth, Western Farmers Ltd established the A-Class station 6WF, using a transmitter installed on top of their studios by AWA. Broadcasts began in June 1924. The company targeted farmers and intended to provide a rural-oriented service, but few in the reception area were interested or could afford the licence fees, so the station soon declined in both quality and revenue.

B-Class stations, relying on the then new concept of paid advertising, took longer to establish themselves. The first, Sydney's 2BE, went bankrupt in 1929, leaving 2UE,which began broadcasts in Sydney on 26 January 1925 as the oldest survivor of the B-Class stations. 5DN began broadcasting as a B-Class station in Adelaide on 24 February 1925. 5DN is an interesting case, since its origins were so amateur yet it has thrived as a business. Mr Ernest J Hume purchased a call sign, transmitter and ancillary equipment from another experimenter and began transmitting with his family. His wife, Stella, was the first female announcer in Australia and was known as the voice of 5DN. Hume began by broadcasting lectures from Adelaide University and classical music from the Elder Conservatorium of Music from his home 'Peltonga' in Tynte Street, Parkside, North Adelaide. With success, the station moved into commercial premises and from 1936 to 1956 the transmitter was located on the top floor of the CMC building in King William St, Adelaide. In 1953, 5DN erected a 200ft transmitter at Dry Creek to increase coverage and since has continued to expand and bought into FM broadcasting in the 1980s.

By 1927 there were eight A-Class stations and twelve B-Class stations with 225,240 licensed wireless receivers. The monopoly of the A-Class stations became a source of tension for citizens, technical experts and the media. Issues such as distribution of licensing revenue, ownership of stations, lack of competition and low coverage areas highlighted flaws in the system. As usual at that time, Australia looked to British precedents and policy to address these issues. Following the nationalisation and purchase of the British Broadcasting Company by the British government in 1926, the Australian government set up a Royal Commission into broadcasting in 1927. This Royal Commission advised the government to nationalise all A-Class stations and leave B-Class stations relatively unaffected. The aim was to maximise efficiencies and maintain standards. The conservative Bruce-Page government was averse to nationalisation, but did partially adopt the Royal Commission's recommendations.

In 1929, all transmission facilities were contracted to the government and the provision of programming was allocated to the Australian Broadcasting Company (ABC), which was a consortium of entertainment interests. Broadcasting continued to thrive during the Great Depression in which most industries suffered. Like the cinema, radio seemed impervious to the hard times, as all but the very poorest Australians sought entertainment as solace in adversity. Moreover, with the development of crystal set technology, listening to the radio became virtually free, if illegal. Thus, radio broadcasting boomed as those who could not afford a receiver could still manage to make their own. In this climate, the government at last drafted and implemented the Australian Broadcasting Commission Act of 1932, nationalising and renaming the ABC as the Australian Broadcasting Commission in 1932.

Thereafter, radio broadcasting was developed as a two-tier system comprising the ABC - the national broadcaster, initially with twelve stations and funded by licence fees which now went to the government rather than private companies; - and the commercial sector with at first 43 stations. Prime Minister Lyons inaugurated this system on 1 July 1932, stating that the government's aim was to provide a national service of integrity and which would provide entertainment, information and culture to 'serve all sections and to satisfy the diversified tastes of the public.'3

At this time, Australia was something of a leader in short-wave broadcasting and transmission overseas. This was because Australia still had intimate but very long-distance relations with Britain, and also because of the enormous distances within Australia itself, which only short-wave transmission could cover. Services commenced in 1927, with AWA conducting a series of transmissions to Britain, known as Radio Australia. A 1934 initiative saw the short-wave service transmitting to listeners in the outback and in 1939 an international service began transmission from the same transmitters. That same year, the ABC incorporated Radio Australia into its network.

Not all radio communication has been public broadcasting. Indeed, radio began as private wireless telegraphy and telephony. Radiotelephony has been an important part of communication in the Australian outback since the 1920s. The cost of laying telephone lines in such areas was (and remains) prohibitive. Radiotelephony was the obvious alternative. However, most outback areas also had no electricity supplies beyond what was generated on the property. While large stations could afford diesel generators, many people could not. In the 1920s, Alfred H. Traeger's combination of radio technology and mechanical genius alleviated the isolation of the outback areas. He established a base station at Cloncurry in northwest Queensland and a series of transceiver out-stations whose power source was a mechanical pedal device adapted from a cheap and readily available sewing machine treadle.

The government had always maintained wireless links for defence and navigational purposes. These links were expanded dramatically during the Second World War. High Frequency (HF) transmitters for Radio Australia were installed at Shepparton and a radio site was established at Werribee. Werribee consisted of a large receiver station and a complex of 31 antennas. The development and application of Radar was particularly important during these years and extensive studies were undertaken in the radio field for the defence forces as most industry study was dedicated to the war effort. Throughout the country wireless communications systems were erected, many of whose masts - and collections of masts - survive to the present. Sometimes public and defence broadcasters shared facilities, as in Canberra where ABC station 2CY was established in 1938 associated with the facilities of the Royal Naval Transmitting Station in Belconnen.

The war period brought great technological advances in domestic as well as in military communciations radio. Home receivers produced after the war contained 16 or 32 valves. Pre-war models typically had 9 valves in 1933, 10 valves in 1943, 12 valves in 1936 (all the Reliance-York model), and 20 valves in 1937 (Royal-York model). The great post-war development was the transistor, famously invented in the United States, whose complacent and foolish radio manufacturers dismissed it as useless for anything other than hearing aids. Thus, the patent was sold cheaply to the Sony Corporation of Japan, which used the new technology as the basis of much of Japan's post-war industrial recovery. The introduction of plastics (far lighter, cheaper and more durable than the bakelite they replaced) meant the introduction of the all-transistor battery operated portable radio in the early 1960s, manufactured either in Japan or locally with Japanese electronic components. This coincided roughly with the introduction of television, so radio went from being primarily an in-home living room experience for most Australians to an outside or bedroom experience. Transistors also made possible the manufacture of reliable car radios. The transistor marked the beginning of the shift from American and British domination of radio manufacturing for the Australian market to Japanese domination.

Radio programming became increasingly attuned to public tastes during the 1930s. The staples of radio were news, sport, drama and music. Live broadcasts of test matches (and even pseudo-live broadcasts reconstructed from telegrams describing the play sent from England after every over) were enormously popular during the 1930s. The ABC developed its own news services, although commercial stations mostly tended to rely on newspaper services. Networking was unknown, since the technology did not exist for high-quality transmission and retransmission of material. Initially most music was broadcast live, although recorded music made inroads during the 1930s and became dominant in the 1940s. This gave rise to a whole new industry, the top-forty popular music industry, which essentially rode on the success of radio. The popular song and the popular dance tune were enduring cultural creations of the radio era. The golden age of radio, the 25 years from 1930 to 1955, was also the golden age of ballroom dancing, so the dance hit and dance band were an important part of music programming. The ABC even maintained its own dance bands in the major capitals. However, recorded music was always cheaper, and so dominated the commercial stations' airwaves. This reinforced the cultural dominance of the popular (and, of course, very good) American and British dance bands and singers of the 1930s and 1940s.

Comedy, often using artists who also worked in live vaudeville performances, and drama were very popular. The radio serial, often rather risqué by prevailing social standards, was a staple of programming, and popular serials were the main tools commercial radio stations used to maximise their market share and hence their advertising revenue in pre-television days. Although most radio stations tended to try to appeal widely to the community, there was some specialisation even as early as the 1930s, especially in sport, with certain metropolitan stations specialising in the turf, covering every prominent - and quite a few very obscure - race meetings. The ABC always covered the national sport of cricket, and where it had two stations (in the major capitals), one tended to specialise in serious, even intellectual, comment and classical music, while the other's programming was much the same as the commercial stations, only with more sport and no advertisements.

Country commercial radio stations reflected local interests and had close relationships with the local newspapers. They bought drama from city commercial stations, broadcast recorded music and covered local race meetings and other sports. They also provided genuine community services and information, and sourced their news from the local press. During the 1940s, the ABC began to pay more attention to rural listeners and develop specialised services for them. This development dated from the war years, when it sought to use radio to promote farmers' support of the agricultural war effort. Success here had a major influence in the commencement of Rural Broadcasts as a separate operation within the ABC in 1949. At their centre was A Country Hour which sought to give the farmer all the news he needed during his lunch hour, thus the broadcast included world and national news, weather reports, information on stock and produce sales, and the famous litany of river heights. A Country Hour was defined as a 'service' of the ABC.

Rural Broadcasts aimed to entertain as well as inform and the serial it produced, Blue Hills, gained an enormous following. Blue Hills ran for 27 years from 1949 to 1976 daily, thereby becoming the longest running radio serial in Australia, and outlasting by decades most such serials, which soon succumbed to television. Blue Hills' success was largely because it was so rural in its content and appeal (where television penetrated later and more slowly than in the cities) and because it was broadcast during the day when people listened to the radio while doing other tasks, rather than at night as other serials had been. Rural Broadcasting produced programs to which country Australians could relate, and they boosted and maintained country interest and support of radio well into the television age.

By 1940, Australia boasted 26 ABC stations and about a hundred commercial stations; with over 1,212,000 licensed receivers. It became evident by mid 1941 that there were more stations on the air than the 96 separate channels allowed. A shared system of broadcasting on the same wavelengths was introduced for the commercial stations. During the golden years of radio in the 1940s and early 1950s about 130 commercial radio stations and roughly the same ABC stations served the Australian public. After the creation of the Australian Broadcasting Control Board in 1948, effectively no new stations came on the scene despite the new technologies available, as the Board argued that all space for conventional AM (Amplitude Modulation) was allocated and that potential FM (Frequency Modulation) spaces were allocated to television, which it was planned soon to introduce.

FM broadcasting had been invented in the 1930s and meant a great improvement in fidelity (since it was not affected by electrical interference) and offered the potential to broadcast in stereo. In America, the dominance of David Sarnoff's Radio Corporation of America (RCA; formerly Marconi Wireless Co.) in the market stalled the introduction of FM. Sarnoff pushed to have the frequency of FM broadcasts changed from 42-50 MHz to 82-108 MHz (the so-called VHF or Very High Frequency band) and, to the detriment of the owners of 40,000 sets already purchased, succeeded. By 1946, FM had been re-launched in America to the specifications RCA wanted.

In Australia, experimental FM broadcasts did not commence until 1948, but the allocation of the VHF FM band for television led the government to close down all experimental FM stations in 1957. Innovation in radio broadcasting in the period from the late 1950s to the early 1970s came from what became known as the third-tier in broadcasting, the public and community sector. Audiences were small, but its influence was important. An early leader was Dr Neil Runcie who formed a listeners' society with the aim to develop a community of fine music listeners. Out of this concept came Australia's first FM stereo radio station, 2MBS-FM, although it did not commence transmissions until 1972. It deliberately catered to minority (although hardly miniscule) groups interested in classical and jazz music and was funded by its subscribers. Meanwhile, the University of New South Wales was able to transmit lectures over a non-broadcast frequency of VL-2UV.

The 1960s was a time of dissatisfaction with government policy for not allowing the introduction of the FM band for higher quality in sound for fine music and education. In addition, ethnic communities became critical of what they saw as Australia's white, Anglo-Celtic approach to broadcasting. In 1964, a policy was introduced providing incentives for commercial stations to devote up to 10% of broadcast time for ethnic broadcasting. 2CH in Sydney and 3XY in Melbourne took advantage of this, but abandoned the innovation by 1972. Politically active students also sought to open radio for use for political causes. A group of radical Brisbane students formed 4ZZZ in 1971, but found access to the airwaves impossible to sustain. The government finally allowed FM broadcasts by community groups (beginning with Sydney's Music Broadcasting Society, operators of 2MBS FM) in 1972, but access to the FM band was denied to all the existing commercial stations. This would later change, but these developments are outside the scope of this study. In fact, the 1970s would see more changes in radio broadcasting than any decade since the 1920s, as FM broadcasting became widely established, first in the capital cities and ultimately across the country, in a repeat of the creation of the original AM network in the 1920s and 1930s.

Television

The concept of television has been around since 1875 in various shapes and forms, but it was not named as such until an article in Scientific American coined the term in 1907.4 Persistent inventors and experiments on the functions of the cathode-ray tube, fluorescent screen and the transmission of pictures based on previous scientific findings led to the rapid development of technical processes known today as television. Real working models did not, however, come about until the 1925 when Vladimir Zworykin filed for a patent for an all-electronic colour television system. The very same year, the Scottish engineer John Logie Baird gave the first closed-circuit demonstration of television. The following year, US President Herbert Hoover appeared on an experimental television broadcast and Pholio T. Farnsworth applied for a patent for an electronic television system. Then in 1928, Baird demonstrated the colour television for the first time and the first scheduled television program was broadcast from WGY New York. Baird's television aroused enormous interest and was widely demonstrated in Germany and Britain, and he became the true father of the industry. His technology was so effective that in Britain the BBC adopted it and bought Baird's company, assuming the responsibility (and a British monopoly) of broadcasting television in London in 1932. Elsewhere in the world, Germany began national broadcasting in 1935 (very much controlled by the Nazi state) and US companies (rather less controlled by the US government but still subject to wartime restrictions which inhibited their growth) started broadcasting in 1941.

The lifting of the US wartime restrictions on television in 1946 led to a boom in manufacturing television receivers. The industry flourished, driven by market forces and the popularity of television. The 1950s saw the introduction of international standards of television production and systems for colour television to ensure quality. A number of rival systems were established, but these were limited in number and hence common standards were effective throughout the world. While the pioneer television industries were established in America, Britain and Germany, television came rather late to Australia, which was an ironic situation considering how early and with what enthusiasm Australians had embraced radio. This was despite the fact that the first local experimentation with television occurred as early as the late 1920s. One such experiment, 'Radiovision', was conducted by Gilbert Miles and Donald McDonald, who transmitted from 3DB and 3UZ in Melbourne. Donald McDonald, who was then a consulting engineer to Melbourne's Associated Radio Company of Australia, later founded the Television and Radio Laboratories Pty Ltd, doing much developmental work in early television and facsimile picture transmission in the late 1920s. The Depression, accompanied by unadventurous government policy during the 1930s, followed by the Second World War, delayed the introduction of television in Australia. Australia's models for a broadcasting industry, as for so much else, were Britain and the USA.

In 1934 the Royal Society, a scientific body, sponsored the first regular (although experimental) 30-line Baird system television transmissions in Australia. T.M. Elliot and Dr Val McDowell conducted these experiments in Brisbane. By 1938, Elliot had produced a 180-line television picture, but with the outbreak of the war, all television experimentation was ceased. The wartime Labor government's idea was to establish a national or public service system, which would be run by the ABC, and so in 1942 a parliamentary committee discussed the establishment of television broadcasting in Australia. Out of these talks came the Television and Broadcasting Act of 1942 which regulated all radio and television broadcasting in Australia. This did not lead to any rapid movements towards television until 1948 when the Act was amended to allow for the creation of the Australian Broadcasting Control Board (the ABCB, renamed the Australian Broadcasting Tribunal in 1977).

The following year, Prime Minister Chifley announced that the government would endeavour to implement a 'national television service'5 as soon as possible. The Labor government envisaged broadcasts from the six capital cities, which would cover 60% of the population, and exclude access to television airwaves from commercial interests. Within six months, however, a Liberal-Country Party coalition, under Menzies, was elected which permitted only one television station in Sydney, but concluded that expansion would only occur as funds became available. Tenders were called for the construction of the first ABC Television station in Sydney in June 1950. The government's policies also made possible the establishment of a commercial station in Sydney and Melbourne and in each other capital city that could support such a service to be awarded a licence. However, Menzies was temporising: he did not like the prospect of television and distrusted the impact it might have on the public, fearing it would erode the family unit.

Thus, in 1952 he seized on the critical economic situation to review its television policy, and decided that the introduction of television would be deferred indefinitely. This, naturally enough, aroused public hostility, which Menzies attempted to deflect by calling a Royal Commission into television the following year. The evidence before this Royal Commission was a fascinating display of how Australians saw their culture and what their hopes and fears for television were. Sir Richard Boyer, chairman of the ABC, argued for an ABC national monopoly, on cultural grounds far more than anything else. There was plenty of opposition to television altogether, especially from the churches and conservative groups in general. There was no doubt a strong streak of puritanism in this opposition. Publishers and broadcasters naturally enough wanted the right to operate private television stations, just as they operated private newspapers and radio stations. In some ways the more thoughtful views of the advocates of private broadcasting were among the most interesting. On the whole they welcomed an ABC television presence, largely because the ABC could cater for what some of them termed 'cultural' broadcasts, since these would not be so lucrative for the private operators. In addition, they suggested that private broadcasting would not be dangerous for society since it would need to reflect society's values as a whole if it were to be commercially successful. Sir Ernest Fisk, who was still at the helm of AWA, was as influential in determining the future shape of Australian television, as he had been thirty years earlier in determining the pattern of Australian radio. He argued,

There is nothing seriously wrong with the morals and ethics of the community. If things are really bad sooner or later there will be protests, churches and other bodies will take it up, there will be public protest. You want plenty of that, you want a few bodies who are going to harass these fellows you know, but, as to that, if you are going to have commercial and competitive [TV] you have to leave it there.6

The Commission recommended that the Television Act be amended to allow for commercial television and that the Postmaster General be granted the authority to award the licenses. The aim was to establish a dual system of national and commercial stations on a gradual basis (due to financial constraints) generally following the precedent of the radio network as it had evolved since the creation of the ABC in 1932. Initially there would be an ABC station and two commercial stations in both Sydney and Melbourne - with possible extension to other capitals later.7 The Australian Broadcasting Control Board would be given responsibility of regulating the commercial sector. The government decided that television would be introduced in time for the Olympic Games to be held in Melbourne in 1956.

In 1955, the Australian Broadcasting Control Board conducted hearings to determine who would obtain the rights to broadcast. The government, in turn, awarded all such licenses to established firms with substantial press and broadcasting interest. The Sydney licenses went to Consolidated Press and The Australian Woman's Weekly; and to Fairfax Newspapers and the Macquarie Network; and the Melbourne licences to the publishers of the Age and the Herald and Weekly Times Group. The licenses were granted for five years from 1 December 1955 and thereafter would be renewed annually.

For the ABC, responsibility for television was simply added to the list of the tasks required of the programming department. The Head of the ABC, Charles Moses, understood that television would merely be an extension of radio. In 1955, 97% of Australian homes in the three major capital cities had a radio set and he expected that television would be just as popular. In this he held exactly the same opinion as the interests which had acquired commercial television licenses. Commercial broadcasters tended to agree with Moses, and many early locally produced commercial television programs were developed directly from existing radio shows. Some were even broadcast at exactly the same time (or simulcast) with exactly the same content on the two media. This was especially true of the enormously popular quiz shows of the time. The Macquarie Radio Network and the Channel 7 television network had intimate financial links, and these were reflected in their programming, with shows hosted by the radio stars of the time like Jack Davey, Bob Dyer and John Dease appearing on both radio and television. However, the two media did have fundamentally different requirements, and simulcasting ended after a year or so.

The first television test transmissions were by Frank Packer's Channel 9 in Sydney, on 13 July 1956, and apparently the first viewers were a group of drinkers clustered around a set on the bar of Bell's Hotel in Woolloomooloo. Regular programmed broadcasting by Channel 9 began on 16 September and included very popular American shows such as I Love Lucy as well as appearances by such diverse Australian hosts as Bruce Gyngell, who would have a very long career in the industry, and Mrs Zina Chaplin, who cooked up a storm on the small screen using the latest Westinghouse cooking appliances from David Jones. However, Channel 9 did not officially open until 27 October.

The ABC was not far behind with its first evening's transmission from ABC station ABN Channel 2 in Sydney on 5 November 1956. The first face of ABC television was Michael Charlton, who had been a regular on ABC radio sports and a news presenter. Melbourne's ABC station opened two weeks later and coincided with the commencement of the Olympic Games. Five out of the first six stations (four commercial and two national) opened in time for the Olympics; all broadcasting by January 1957. Only 5,000 television sets had been sold in time for television's commencement, but many hundreds of thousands more enjoyed the images from outside shop windows. Both department stores (like David Jones, whose stoves figured so prominently in Channel 9's experimental broadcasts) and specialist electrical shops (which were suddenly going to become far more numerous) displayed televisions in the windows.8

The Broadcasting and Television Act was again amended in 1956 to allow for the realities of television. The amendments gave ABC television control of its own technical services, except for transmitters which belonged to the PMG. As a result, ABC engineers would have to convey the programs from studios to outside locations (transmitters). The government had acted on a recommendation from the Royal Commission that in television, as not yet in radio, the ABC should be given control of its own technical services, leaving only the transmitters in PMG hands.

In one year, television ownership in Sydney households increased from 1 % to 12% and in Melbourne from 5% to 26%, so in 1957, both national and commercial services were extended to Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth and Hobart. Many were sceptical as to whether these cities could support two stations each, but the commercial sector was confident they could and played a role in influencing decisions. By the mid 1960s, fully 81% of households all over the country owned a television set. Most of those households without a television were in rural areas, where television services were still very sparse. Consolidated Press had acquired GTV9 in Melbourne and, since restrictions on ownership limited further purchasing power, a program-sharing network was established between Melbourne and Sydney which enabled the stations to reduce costs.

The geographical spread of television remained modest, as television signals only could reach an approximate 50-mile radius, and rural areas did not have the population density to justify the expense of investing in broadcast facilities. Initially, live broadcasting taped interstate was flown to other states after being filmed off the screen. This resulted in poor footage. Overseas news arrived as film by air, generally several days after events. Television stations attempted to improve this system by using microwave links. In 1957, ATN7 established a microwave link with Canberra, and GTV9 connected Melbourne with Sydney, for first time, with five mountain-top microwave links in an exercise called Operation Kangaroo. Then, in 1960 a coaxial cable was built between Sydney and Melbourne and videotape facilities were introduced in 1962, facilitating the rapid exchange of information and making technically possible the beginning of national networks, as opposed to the one-city television stations then existing.

By 1961, television had been extended to 33 country areas, and although the government supported the growth and influence of the commercial stations, it was a firm policy that regional stations were to be owned by regional interests, generally the local press. In 1963, the government increased the quota of commercial stations by two: both Sydney and Melbourne were given a third commercial channel. This was the beginning of the TEN network. This was followed in 1965 with third channels (all TEN) for both Brisbane and Adelaide and a second station for Perth. The Australian Broadcasting Control Board advised against establishing these extra stations in Brisbane and Perth but the government, faced with popular pressure for more television services, ignored this advice. By 1968 most adequately populated rural areas were covered by both national and commercial television services. In these rural areas the single commercial stations (there was only ever one) drew their programming from the three metropolitan commercial stations, but produced their own news. Darwin, interestingly, did not receive television broadcasts until 1971.

Internationally, in 1962 the world's first communications satellite, Telstar, was launched enabling live TV pictures to be transmitted from the USA to France. This form of transmission became a reality in Australia in November 1966, with the first satellite telecast arriving through a ground station in Carnarvon, Western Australia. The Carnarvon ground station had been built as a result of an agreement between 14 countries signed inn 1964 to establish a global satellite-based communications system by 1968. By this time, the ABC had set up microwave links between Sydney and Melbourne and its regional stations in the country. The ABC, however, rarely used these links for anything other than sports, whose broadcasting it then dominated. Throughout the 1950s the ABC felt that television would reflect radio and many programs were simply 'simulcast' with the radio. This showed the continuing dependence of ABC television on radio, as it did not have its own programming departments.

Some of the first programs broadcast had to be Australian because of currency and import restrictions. The Broadcasting and Television Act also required that Australians be used to produce and present programs, and this policy supported production and nurtured the skills of Australian personnel. Yet, in the early stages, the Australian film industry was ill-equipped and inexperienced, so most programs were low-cost variety shows. A few locally produced programs enjoyed great success. In Melbourne Tonight, hosted by Graham Kennedy, began in 1957 was very successful relying on light entertainment format. Teenage programs were also popular, such as Brian Henderson's Bandstand on Sydney's TCN9, and Brian Naylor's Swallow Junior in Melbourne and the ABC's Six O'Clock Rock, hosted by Johnny O'Keefe, which opened in Sydney in 1959. Otherwise most local programs were sports, news and documentary programs, like the ABC's 4Corners, introduced in 1961. Another current affairs program which became the model for the whole genre in Australia was This Day Tonight which commenced on the ABC in 1967. The program's popularity rapidly spread and it was flown all over the country from the Sydney base, to be used by ABC channels other states. This situation did not last long, as soon better technology was available. From 1969 stations could broadcast live news daily from London via the newly opened Satellite Communications Earth Station at Ceduna in South Australia.

There was, however, almost no local drama in the early years. In this field, as in the cinema, American programs were immensely popular, and British drama also had its followers. Up to 1962, less that 50 percent of shows were Australian made. American situation comedies and dramas such as I Love Lucy, Father Knows Best, and 77 Sunset Strip were enormously popular and dominated programming, especially on commercial channels. Both to assist the local industry and for cultural nationalist reasons, quotas were introduced in the 1960s restricting foreign content. The Australian Broadcasting Control Board stipulated that 40% of all programs be Australian. This quota was increased to 45% in 1964 and 50% in 1965. The 'TV-Make it Australian' campaign of 1970 led to the introduction of a points system of Australian content over the quota system in 1973. In the late 1960s three local shows marked the beginning of something big: the Australian serial drama. These were the ABC's early evening serial Bellbird, chronicling (like its radio equivalent Blue Hills) the life and times of a fictional Australian country town, and the commercially produced police series Homicide and children's series Skippy. The latter, improbably starring a kangaroo, was the first big export success of Australian television drama, relying though entirely on the novelty of the fauna for its success. Thus, it was not until the 1980s that Australian serial dramas became widely made, commercially attractive and internationally popular, to the extent that they now rival similar British and American shows not just in Australia but around the world.

Studios at first were very rudimentary, although it soon became evident that television required far more elaborate studios than radio (which basically could operate out of any well-insulated office). All stations had studios of some sort. Quite early commercial stations began buying programs from external local producers, of whom Reg Grundy was the most important. Grundy maintained his own studios and production facilities. The ABC, which kept production in-house, had the largest studios and the only real training facilities. It bought land for studios at Gore Hill, near St Leonards in Sydney and at Ripponlea in Melbourne. While the Gore Hill Studios were being prepared, ABC Television operated out of studios adjacent to its radio studios in Forbes Street, Darlinghurst. A television training school was commenced at the Royal Melbourne Technical College in 1955 and the ABC commenced its own training in the very modest confines of St Peter's Church Hall, opposite its Sydney radio studios in Forbes Street. The leader of the commercial stations, TCN9, also acquired a large site on Sydney's north shore, at Willoughby, chosen like nearby Gore Hill for its high elevation, proximity to the city and relatively cheap land. TCN soon outgrew the site, and began acquiring neighbouring suburban cottages which it converted into studios. For what proved to be a lucrative industry, Australian television has always had quite modest premises.

Colour television had been a possibility, since television's inception in the 1920s. Yet, in Australia, the question of the introduction of colour television was not raised until 1965. The cautious and conservative government sought first to analyse overseas technological development and assess the best system before its introduction in Australia. This delay proved to be prudent, for the US system, although the first and the most widespread, was technically inferior to later colour systems developed in Europe, notably the pan-European PAL system and the French SECAM system. Thus, in 1968, the government announced that it would introduce the PAL colour television system, but it was not until 1972 that the decision to permit colour television transmission was made and the commencement date was set for March 1975. It was certainly a long delay.

Around 1970, the television industry was undergoing rapid change, and the prospect of colour broadcasting was the least of the changes. More important was the rapid growth in communications technology, both by cable and satellite, which was making possible networking within Australia and instant access to overseas television news stories. This technology would revolutionise televisions during the 1970s.

Satellite Technology

During the late 1960s the convergence of a number of technologies was beginning. This subsequently would revolutionise communications and make radio, television, telephone and (eventually) internet communications throughout the globe extremely cheap and reliable, at the same time rendering obsolete the century-and-a-quarter old technology of the electric telegraph. The immediate spur to these developments was the US space program, in which Australia, because of its geographical position, was an important participant in communications terms. In October 1966 the American space exploration agency, NASA, opened an earth station at Carnarvon in Western Australia. Its initial functions were tracking, telemetering and command services for the launch and control of satellites and it also provide direct satellite communication between Australia and the USA.

The capacity of the connection was far greater than NASA's needs, so within a month it was being used for commercial communications purposes. The first regular exchange of television broadcasts was as early as November 1966, and regular communications, including both television and telephone links, began via satellite in February 1967. A second earth station linking Australia with Japan, the western Pacific, and the US opened at Moree in New South Wales in March 1968. A third, the link to Britain, Europe, Africa, the Middle East and western Asia, opened at Ceduna in South Australia in December 1969. Meanwhile, in October 1969 a second antenna was completed at Carnarvon. The Carnarvon station was critical in providing communications for the NASA's Apollo manned space mission program, whose greatest achievement was putting a person on the moon in July 1969. One of eight such stations around the world, it closed as satellite communications became ever more sophisticated in 1987.

By 1974, more than half Australia's overseas telecommunications were by satellite. The cost of international telephone calls began its rapid and sustained fall, and Australians quickly became used to receiving international television news footage instantly and with high picture quality. With the development of these satellite earth stations, communications within and to and from Australia enter the contemporary age of instant, high-capacity, multi-function connections, with the same technology serving broadcasters as well as individual telephone and telephone-based communications.

1 This description is based on that in the New South Wales Heritage Office Website.
2 John F Ross, Radio Broadcasting Technology: 75 Years of Development in Australia 1923 - 1998, Adelaide, Openbook Publishers, Adelaide, 1998, p 7.
3 K.S. Inglis, This is the ABC: The Australian Broadcasting Commission 1932 - 1983, Melbourne, Melbourne University Press 1983, p 5.
4 Peter Beilby, Australian TV: The First 25 Years, Melbourne, Thomas Nelson, 1981, p 170.
5 Inglis, This is the ABC, p 193.
6 Quoted in Ann Curthoys, 'Television before Television', The Australian Journal of Media and Culture, vol. 4 no 2 (1991).
7 In Sydney the licensees were Amalgamated Television Services Pty Ltd (ATN7) and Television Corporation Pty Ltd (TCN9), while the Melbourne licensees were the General Television Corporation Pty Ltd (GTV9) and Herald and Weekly Times Ltd.
8 This detail on early television broadcasting is from Albert Moran, 'Some beginnings for Australian television: the first Governor-General', The Australian Journal of Media and Culture, vol. 4 no 2 (1991).