History of wireless telegraphy and broadcasting in Australia/Topical/Publications/Australian Radio History/Introduction

INTRODUCTION Why compile all this radio history? How did it start? It all started when I was asked to explain the relevance of the letters in the callsigns of radio stations 2UW, 5DN and 5CK (the answers are in my research). I then decided to research the relevance of all A.M. broadcast radio station callsigns. The number of callsigns kept increasing until I reached over 700. As a result, this research covers more Australian broadcast stations than any other published listings. During this project, it became obvious that there had never been any research conducted on all the Australian A.M. radio stations on a “station by station” basis. I then decided to compile a brief history on each A.M. station broadcasting during the 20th Century, (1918-2000) organised in chronological order within each State.

Most publications recognise 2SB (23 Nov 1923), which soon changed to 2BL, as the first licensed broadcast station to go to air in Australia. I firmly believe that this is not correct. 2SB was the first licensed commercial station on air in Australia. (They ceased broadcasting advertisements when they became an A.B.C. station on 1-7-1932).

On the 1 Dec 1922 the Australian Government issued “The Regulations – Radio Laws for the Amateur”. The regulations, as they relate to Broadcasting, state:

“A broadcasting station licence may be granted in respect of a station operated for the purpose of disseminating news service or  entertainment service. The licensed station shall be operated by a certificated operator, or by a competent person who shall be approved by the Controller. The station shall not be utilised for broadcasting advertising matter or commercial traffic”. The first licensed broadcast station in Australia, under these new regulations, was 2CM Sydney, owned by Charles MacLurcan, in December 1922. The licence (number one) was signed by Prime Minister, The Rt. Hon. Billy Hughes. Despite not being a commercial licence, the biggest advertiser on 2CM was Charles himself, advertising his own MacLurcan Radio receivers. Callsign 2CM is listed by the Federal Government as “Never to be Reissued”, in recognition of the pioneering achievements of Charles MacLurcan. Numerous amateur operators were then issued broadcast licences. Several of these stations, which, contrary to their licence conditions, did broadcast advertisements, were later granted commercial licence status. In addition, several licensed broadcast amateurs became the Chief Engineers, managers, and owners of the early commercial and pre A.B.C. licences. In order to recognise the valuable pioneer broadcasting efforts of these licensed broadcast amateurs, I have acknowledged them in these listings. However, as these listings are of broadcast licences, amateurs must have met all of the following criteria to be included:

1) Must have been issued a broadcast transmitter licence under “The Regulations – Radio Laws for the Amateur”. 2)  Must have broadcast on longwave and/or medium wave (not shortwave). 3) Must have broadcast speech and music programs (not Morse code).

My journey started with emails being sent to all A.M. stations, plus the F.M. stations that had converted from A.M. The response was very poor, so I wrote to the remaining stations. Again the response was poor, so I telephoned them. Most ‘promised me everything, and sent me nothing’. Very disappointing. I got the impression that most stations either couldn’t care less about their history, or had experienced so many changes of ownership that their history was lost. A small number of stations did have some history on their web sites. These sources of information were of some use; however, except for 2AD Armidale and 2DU Dubbo, they lacked much detail. 2RE Taree and 2GF Grafton were both good enough to give me a book on their history. While on holidays each year, I visited as many stations as possible. Again I was promised that information would be sent to me. Nothing ever arrived.

Commercial Radio Australia was good enough to publicise my quest to all their member stations. However, this resulted in only one station responding (3GL Geelong). The A.B.C. weren’t any better. The small amount of information that the A.B.C. did provide contained numerous errors and contradictions. I was assured of full cooperation by the National Archives of Australia. This proved to be a very expensive waste of time.

I researched the availability of relevant books on the internet. These were borrowed through my local library, and were a great source of information, despite also containing numerous errors. I also visited the National Film and Sound Archives in Canberra, the Australian Communications and Media Authority library in Sydney, and the Mitchell library (several times) in Sydney. All were very helpful.

I then contacted every local council library, every historical society, and every local newspaper, in locations where I was still short of information. These three types of sources proved to be of immense value, especially with old newspaper cuttings. www.trove.nla.gov.au within the National Library was also a very worthwhile source. Following interviews on radio stations 2GB, 2UE, and 6WF, I was contacted by numerous very helpful ex radio station employees and their descendents. Thanks to the Daily Telegraph, I was even able to locate the grandson of Charles MacLurcan from 2CM. My research lasted for nine years from 2005 until I had exhausted all avenues of enquiries.

Apart from a lack of interest and broken promises by numerous radio stations, my biggest disappointment was my inability to track down a copy of the original 2CM broadcast licence. Can any reader help?

I have put every effort into keeping my research as accurate as possible. Where practical, I have confirmed all information from a second source. Some information that was given to me was deliberately omitted as it couldn’t be confirmed and didn’t match known events. I believe that this research would be a valuable reference source for media personnel, students studying broadcast development, and anyone with a general interest in 20th Century Australian A.M. radio history. This publication is in celebration of my fifty years within the radio industry, which is still on-going.

Note: All broadcast licenses issued before December 1922 are listed as “experimental”. However, not all dates are accurately known. Therefore, their status as “experimental” licence or “broadcast” licence is open to further research.