History of ABC Radio (Australia)
ABC Radio and Regional Content, later ABC Radio, was the division of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation responsible for radio output and regional content. This was the first public radio station in Australia, which opened in Sydney at 8:00pm on 23 November 1923 under the call sign 2SB (which later became ABC Radio Sydney).
For the history of the parent organisation, see History of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.Broadcast area
World War II[edit]
During World War II, the ABC continued to recruit staff, including a greater proportion of women to replace men who had joined the armed forces.[8] The organisation established reporting and recording facilities in a number of overseas locations, including the Middle East, Greece and around the Asia-Pacific region.[8] An early challenge to its independence came in June, 1940 when wartime censorship was imposed, meaning that the Department of Information (headed by Keith Murdoch) took control of the ABC's 7 p.m. nightly national news bulletin.[8] This lasted until September, when control of the news was returned to the ABC after listeners expressed a preference for independent news presented by the commission.[8]
On 7 January 1941 the ABC revived the Children's Session as a national program, including the Argonauts Club, which was first broadcast in 1933–34 in Melbourne.[6] The Argonauts Club proved hugely popular with young Australians - by 1950 there were over 50,000 members, with 10,000 new members joining each year through the 1950s. The Club encouraged children's contributions of writing, music, poetry and art, and became one of the ABC's most popular programs, running six days a week for 28 years.[6]
Post-war period[edit]
In December, 1945 rural and regional affairs program The Country Hour premiered. The ABC's coverage of rural affairs was significantly enhanced by the deployment of journalists and 'extension officers' to major country areas.[9]
9PA in Port Moresby was added to the ABC radio network on 1 July 1946. Additional stations were added to the network in Papua and New Guinea after this time.[10]
Legislation passed in 1946 requiring the ABC to broadcast Parliament when in session.[9] The first broadcast from Parliament was of Question Time on 10 July 1946.[11] The broadcasts were put onto the interstate network; however the Commission frequently commented on the disruption this caused to its programming in its annual reports.[9]
The ABC was also required to "secure its news for broadcasting purposes within the Commonwealth by its own staff, and abroad through such overseas news agencies and other overseas sources as it desired" (along with its own foreign correspondents). The news department continued to expand, and was inaugurated on 1 June 1947.[3]
Changes made in the post-war moved "serious" programming such as news, current affairs, and features — early forms of what became known as documentaries to the commission's national network, with lighter entertainment programming left for the metropolitan stations.[9] A Light Entertainment department was formed, to produce programs such as ABC Hit Parade, The Wilfrid Thomas Show, Bob Dyer's Dude Ranch and The Village Glee.[3]
The increasing availability of landlines and teleprinters allowed the organisation to gather and broadcast news and other program material with much greater efficiency than in the previous two decades. By this time, as many as 13 national news bulletins were broadcast daily.
In 1948, the ABC began operating experimental FM stations on 92.1 MHz in many capital cities. These had ceased by 1958.[12]
1960s–1980s[edit]
The Papua New Guinea part of the ABC radio network became the National Broadcasting Commission of PNG in 1973, as part of preparations for PNG independence.
In 1975, the ABC introduced a 24-hour-a-day AM rock station in Sydney, 2JJ (Double Jay), which was eventually expanded into the national Triple J FM network.[13]
Also in 1975, 3ZZ Access Radio began in Melbourne. It gave access to airtime to people from many language groups that had previously rarely been heard on air. It was closed in 1977, with its assets absorbed by 3EA (later to be part of SBS).[14]
A classical music network was established in 1976 on the FM band, broadcasting from Adelaide. It was initially known as ABC-FM - referring both to its 'fine music' programming and type of radio modulation.[13]
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation Act 1983[15][16] changed the name of the organisation from the Australian Broadcasting Commission to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation effective 1 July 1983.[15] At the same time, television and radio operations were split into two separate divisions, with an overhaul of management, finance, property and engineering undertaken.[16][17]
In 1981 ABC Radio began carrying Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander broadcasts in Alice Springs and later North Queensland, while at the same time comedy and social history units were set up, and news and current affairs output expanded.[16][17]
A new Concert Music department was formed in 1985 to coordinate the corporation's six symphony orchestras, which in turn received a greater level of autonomy in order to better respond to local needs.[17] Open-air free concerts and tours, educational activities, and joint ventures with other music groups were undertaken at the time to expand the Orchestras' audience reach.[17]
ABC Radio was restructured significantly in 1985 - ABC Radio 1 became the ABC Metropolitan Radio network, while Radio 2 became known as Radio National (callsigns, however, were not standardised until 1990). New programs such as The World Today, Australia All Over and the Coodabeen Champions were introduced, while ABC-FM established an Australian Music Unit in 1989.[16][17] Radio Australia began to focus on the Asia-Pacific region, with coverage targeted at the south west and central Pacific, south-east Asia, and north Asia. Radio Australia also carried more news coverage, with special broadcasts during the 1987 Fijian coups d'état, Tiananmen Square massacre and the Gulf War.[16][17]
A government initiative undertaken in 1987 known as the Second Regional Radio Network established nineteen new studios in regional areas (with an additional sixteen upgraded), as well as approximately 300 additional transmitters.[16][17] At the same time, Radio National and ABC-FM were expanded into these areas.[16][17]
In August 1988, the Parliamentary Broadcast Network (PBN) was established under the National Metropolitan Radio Plan, as a dedicated station to carry the ABC's mandatory Parliamentary broadcasts on AM transmitters in each state capital as well as Newcastle and Canberra.[18][17]
2000s[edit]
Throughout the 2000s, ABC Radio continued to upgrade its studio and transmitter facilities.[16][24] The ABC attracted large audiences for its non-commercial radio coverage of the 2000 Summer Olympics, with a range of programming across its various networks.[24] All networks celebrated 100 years of radio in 2001 with special broadcasts marking the event and a limited edition CD released, with highlights of the ABC's output since 1932.[16]
ABC NewsRadio began streaming its news programming online while its radio network broadcast parliament in 2002 - amongst the first of the corporation's radio networks to offer live, exclusive, streaming online.[24] The service also expanded into the Gold Coast – the first new coverage area for the network in five years.[16][24] In 2009 ABC Radio switched on[25] DAB+ services, relaying its main channels and progressively launched new digital channels over subsequent years.[26][27]
Organisation[edit]
ABC Radio and Regional Content was the division of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation responsible for radio output and regional content. This was later shortened to simply ABC Radio There was an organisational restructure of the ABC in 2017–18.[31][32]