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Image source: https://unsplash.com/photos/i2BcaGXomv0 Broadcasting in Australia 100 years of Broadcast Radio The story of early broadcast radio was very political, highly commercially competitive and steeped in controversy – both at the time and many years later. By Kevin Poulter A ustralians watched as major countries started radio broadcasting in 1919, including the Netherlands, Canada and the UK, then the USA in 1920. But we were not idle, with many amateur experimenters and large companies like AWA running test broadcasts and developing circuits. Many well-known international scientists and Australians developed the components and techniques to prove that radio was a viable news and entertainment medium. They also had to counter critics, who thought radio would be politicised, or would negatively influence family life. Marconi Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi is acknowledged as one of the foremost driving forces for developing news and entertainment radio. Reminiscing in November 1931, he said: The seed for wireless was the discovery made by Michael Faraday, that it was not necessary for two electrical circuits to be in actual physical contact for electric energy to pass across a small space between them. This great discovery was followed by the masterly electromagnetic theory of [James] Clerk Maxwell, published in 1865, in which he clearly visualised the existence of electric waves in space. Scottish physicist Maxwell’s theory suggested that electromagnetic waves could be generated in a laboratory. Such wave generation was first 44 Silicon Chip demonstrated by German physicist Heinrich Hertz in 1887. In 1895, Marconi began research utilising electric waves for telegraphy across considerable distances. He successfully transmitted and received intelligible telegraphic signals over about 1¾ miles (2.8km). A microphone was essential Scottish-born Dr Alexander Graham Bell demonstrated the first practical form of the telephone in 1876. It was later modified for commercial use, employing a bar magnet, a speech coil at one end, and an iron diaphragm. For the carbon microphone, which was invented two years later, we are indebted to Professor David Edward Hughes (UK), Thomas A. Edison (USA) and Rev. Henry Hunnings (UK). The trio’s discoveries in this field were all made public in the same year, 1878. Fessenden’s Experiments Professor Reginald A. Fessenden (Canada/USA) made the first attempt to transmit speech through space by electric waves in 1900, communicating over a distance of one mile (1.6km). As is well known today, the speech waveform was superimposed on a high-frequency carrier wave, which must be unbroken, not intermittent. Still in the spark transmitter era, Fessenden endeavoured to make the wave trains of the sparks overlap to Australia's electronics magazine achieve continuous transmission by increasing the number to 10,000 per second. Spark-based radio transmitters had the advantage of simplicity, which was significant when most electronic components were costly as they had to be custom-made. However, sparks are broadband radiators, so such transmitters could not readily share the available spectrum. Hence, the technology was short-lived. Communicating across the Atlantic Ocean In 1906, Fessenden engaged a high-frequency alternator, which gave him a useful carrier wave of 20,000 cycles per second (20kHz). This enabled him to transmit speech from Brant Rock, Massachusetts to Jamaica, New York (USA) the following year, a distance of 300km (~190 miles). In the meantime, in December 1901, Marconi transmitted and received telegraphic signals across the Atlantic Ocean, from Poldhu in Cornwall to St John’s, Newfoundland, a distance of 3400km (~2100 miles). This showed that long-distance transmissions were possible, because the electrical waves would follow the Earth’s curvature around the globe. At the end of 1915, the American Telephone and Telegraph Co (AT&T), working in conjunction with the Western Electric Co, transmitted speech from the US naval station at Arlington, siliconchip.com.au Guglielmo Marconi with his wireless equipment on board his yacht “Electra”. At the time, he believed he had received radio signals broadcast from Mars. Virginia to the Eiffel Tower Station, Paris, a distance of 6200km (~3800 miles). Over 300 valves were used in the oscillator and modulator circuits! 1920: a memorable year The year 1920 is memorable for several important wireless telephone transmissions that had both news and entertainment value and thus had the same character that broadcasting has today. Australia’s world-renowned opera singer Dame Nellie Melba gave her first broadcast recital on the 15th of June 1920, from Marconi’s New Street Works factory in Chelmsford, UK. She was shown around the factory, including the roof area, where the imposing transmission tower was visible. On seeing the height, she said, “Young man, if you think I am going to climb up there, you are sadly mistaken!” Such was the lack of knowledge of how radio worked. On the 30th of May 1924, Marconi spoke from Poldhu to Sydney, thus conveying intelligible speech by wireless from England to Australia for the first time. That was a distance of 17400km (~10800 miles). The first broadcast demo The first radio demonstration “broadcast” in Australia is normally credited to Ernest Thomas Fisk of Amalgamated Wireless (Australia) Ltd (AWA) on the 19th of August 1919. siliconchip.com.au However, many others were making experimental transmissions around that time. Fisk arranged for the national anthem to be broadcast from one building to another at the end of a lecture he gave on the new medium to the Royal Society of New South Wales. Government permission After two further years of exhaustive experiment and demonstration, in 1920, AWA and several other commercial interests approached the federal government for permission to establish systematic broadcasting as a public service. A conference was called by the Postmaster-­G eneral’s Department (PMG, part of which became Telstra), which was held in Melbourne in May 1923. It was this occasion that saw the genesis of commercial radio in Australia. Internationally-famous Australian opera singer Dame Nellie Melba sang over the airwaves at the Marconi building in 1920. that the station licensees should make their own subscription charges. The most controversial feature of the sealed sets was that only one of two stations could be received. The stations pushed the federal government for this feature, thinking it was a brilliant idea – forcing listeners to listen to only their station. The public thought it was a dreadful idea, Sealed receiver sets The conference unanimously decided on a scheme that became known as the “Sealed Set Scheme”. This meant A 1923 sealed set made by AWA, restored by Robert McGregor. The public was not happy with the single-station reception of such sets. Australia's electronics magazine 45 Confusion over the date of the first commercial broadcast In researching the dates in this article, I came across some incorrect dates that were published several times. For example, The Sun newspaper (Sydney, NSW), published on Tuesday, 9th of November 1948, stated that 2FC began broadcasting on the 5th of December 1923. However, that was the official opening ceremony for the station, not the first day of broadcasting. Another example is from the editorial “HIGH STANDARDS OF AUSTRALIAN RADIO”, published in The Sun (Sydney, NSW) on Wednesday 1st of July 1953, on page 3: “The first commercial broadcast went on the air in Sydney in 1923”. That is not correct if you consider that it wasn’t until 1924 that the first ads appeared on the radio in Sydney (which I consider necessary for them to be ‘commercial’). The dates given in this article are clear enough in the newspapers published at the time and are supported by the findings of several of my peers. and let the government know in no uncertain terms. The four stations that supplied services under this scheme were: • 2SB Sydney, owned by Broadcasters Sydney, Limited, subsequently renamed to 2BL. • 2FC Sydney, owned by Farmer & Company. • 3AR Melbourne, owned by Associated Radio Company. • 6WF Perth, owned by Westralian Farmers, Limited (now known as Wesfarmers). Under the “Sealed Set Scheme”, the listener in Sydney had to decide which of the two stations they desired to listen to, then pay the company controlling that station a fee of either £10/(for 2SB) or £63/- (for 2FC). However, between the 1st of October 1923, and the 30th of June 1924, only 1400 listeners were licensed under these new regulations. The first Australian broadcast The first officially-licensed broadcast station to go to air was 2SB Sydney (soon renamed 2BL), at 8pm on the 23rd of November 1923. The station was established by a small company, “Broadcasters (Sydney) Limited”. Note that this was not a ‘commercial broadcast’ as there were no ads on the station in those early days. Before this event, Australia’s leading amateur, Charles MacLurcan, received a licence for his 2CM station in Sydney in 1921. However, it was primarily an experimental station, so most By 1924, thousands of Australians were making wireless receivers, producing programs, magazines & selling radios. The horn speaker petals are made of thin timber. – including the media at the time – credit 2SB as the first fully established station, with corporate backing, well-published, regular programs and receivers available at a range of radio stores. Early broadcasts came increasingly under the jurisdiction of the PMG, which was one of the reasons that MacLurcan left the broadcast band and transmitted on short wave. Commercial radio broadcasting, with paid advertising, commenced in 1924. During the evening of the 23rd of November 1923, people across Sydney gathered eagerly in their homes around pieces of wondrous new technology to hear the first radio broadcast in Australia. At precisely 8pm, they tuned in to hear the St Andrews Choir with soloists Misses Deering & Druitt and Messrs Saunders, Pick & Thorp. The ensemble performed “Le cygne” (The Swan) from Camille Saint-Saens’ Carnaval des animaux (The Carnival of the Animals). The advent of the ‘wireless’ and the first radio broadcast was a keenly anticipated event. The radio station’s call sign was 2SB, for Broadcasters (Sydney) Ltd. The company staff breathed a sigh of relief at the success of their radio broadcast, particularly as they had beaten their rival station, Farmer and Co (2FC), who did not achieve transmission for another two weeks (starting on the 5th of December 1923). Soon after their initial broadcast, 2SB changed their call sign to 2BL. 2FC went on to become Radio National. More about the stations The pioneer broadcasting station of Australia was 2BL (Sydney). This station, with its aerial system, was located on the “Daily Guardian” building in Phillip Street, Sydney. The station was designed by radio experts and was very successful in transmitting over long distances, no doubt enabled by the lack of electrical interference at that time. Farmer’s station Renee Kelly performed on stage in the UK and the USA, then Australia. She broadcast on 3LO on Christmas night in 1925. 46 Silicon Chip Australia's electronics magazine Station 2FC (Sydney) was next in the field, and it was claimed to be one of the most up-to-date stations in the world. It was constructed by Amalgamated Wireless (Australasia) Ltd (AWA) for Farmer and Co Ltd. The aerial system was a cage type, siliconchip.com.au suspended between two lattice steel towers, each 200 feet (61m) high and about 600 feet (183m) apart. The transmitting apparatus was described as most modern, and the station had no trouble working over long distances. Landlines connected the studios with theatres etc. Music and speech from these places and the studios were sent to the Northbridge station by landline for transmission. Westralian Farmers The next big station was that of Westralian Farmers Ltd, Perth. This station was supplied by AWA – it was manufactured in Sydney and transported to Perth. The aerial system was on top of the West Australian Farmers building, Murray Street, Perth. The masts were 180 feet (55m) above the pavement and 270 feet (82m) apart. The studios were located in the same building and were very large, to accommodate bands, choirs etc. As with the other studios, this one was designed with a view to making it absolutely soundproof. The Premier of Western Australia (Philip Collier) officially opened station 6WF on the 4th of June 1924. Melbourne station Melbourne’s broadcasting station was located at Braybrook, about six miles (~10km) from the city’s centre. It was built by AWA for the Australian Broadcasting Company (ABCo). The station was on a four-acre (16,000m2) area of flat land. Two lattice steel masts supported the aerial system, each 200 feet (61m) high and 575 feet (175m) apart. The operating house and quarters for the staff were situated directly beneath the aerial. The transmitting set was of the latest type, and the station was considered one of the best in the southern hemisphere. The station studios were located on the roof of the Melbourne Herald newspaper office, the music and speech being conveyed to the transmitting station by a landline. The following year, 2KY Sydney, 2UW Sydney, 2MK Bathurst, 3UZ Melbourne and 4GR Toowoomba were licensed. During the next year (1926), three more licences were issued: one to 2GB Sydney, one to 3DB Melbourne and the other to 5KA Adelaide. The sealed system was an outstanding failure. It was replaced in 1924 siliconchip.com.au Left: a GECoPHONE BC2050 five-valve receiver from 1924/5. Right: a GECoPHONE BC2001 (1922-24) two-valve receiver (HF and detector). It was an Australian sealed set. The radio is sitting on a matching BC2580 (1923-24) low-frequency amplifier. From Evan Murfett’s collection. with an ‘open’ system. The new system comprised two groups of stations: Class A and Class B. Class A stations received revenue from licence fees paid by listeners and from limited advertising, while all revenue for Class B stations came from advertising. In 1929, the federal government acquired all Class A stations, which were then operated by the PMG with programming supplied by the ABC. The number of listeners’ licences in the country had grown from 1400 at the end of 1924 to 329,600 by October 1930. In 1937, there were 21 national stations on the air, and 80 commercial stations were operating, while the number of listeners’ licences had risen to 940,068. This grew to 101 commercial broadcasting stations and, by the end of 1948, the number of listening licences was approximately 1.8 million. There should have been more licences, but some people could not afford a radio licence. Knowing there were radio inspectors who could knock on their door at any time to look for unlicensed radios, some residents hid their radio, or removed the valves between uses so they could say it was not working. Radio went on to become a massive industry, with millions of radios in Australian homes and vehicles. SC References ● Let’s look at radio: a review of commercial broadcasting in Australia, by the Australian Federation of Commercial Broadcasting Stations, circa 1950 (https:// catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/1661052) ● Listener In magazine, 10th of January 1925 ● Listener In magazine, 17th of January 1925 ● The Sydney Evening News Wireless Handbook, 1924 (https://catalogue.nla. gov.au/Record/1715208) ● The Dawn of Australia’s Radio Broadcasting, an Electronics Australia publication by Philip Geeves, 1993 ● The Magic Spark, 50 years of Radio in Australia, by R. R. Walker, 1973 ● Various issues of Wireless Weekly magazine ● HRSA Members: Ron Langhans, Bruce Carty (https://austamradiohistory.com), Richard Begbie and Robert McGregor. Australia's electronics magazine September 2023  47