radio and tv in australia
Fisk made radio and tv history on August 19, 1919 when he concluded his lecture to the Royal Society of the NSW with the first Australian radio broadcast of the national anthem. At this time, Fisk was head of AWA, which specialized in the telegraph. He recognized the opportunity in broadcast radio and with the backing of AWA began lobbying for broadcast radio regulations. Fisk and the AWA are largely responsible for early licensing restrictions and fees on broadcast radio.
On July 1, 1923, 2FC in Sydney obtained the first broadcast radio license, but was beaten to the airwaves by its competitor company 2BL on November 23, 1923. At this time, radios were sold only by the radio stations and could only be tuned to a single station. Similar to modern day usage of internet compared to earlier isolated subscription only networks, early listeners of Australian radio discovered that they could build their own sets and listen freely to any radio station they desired. A compromise was made in 1924 due to failure of the existing legislation to adequately control broadcast radio access. In 1927, AWA earned another stamp in the history of radio and tv in Australia when the company broadcast the first short wave signals to Britain. The signals began with a kookaburra's laugh, still used by Radio Australia (inc. 1939) today to open their broadcasts. Without a doubt, the history of radio and tv in Australia might be very different without the contributions of Fisk and AWA. We’d like to thank Miss Sue Lang on this great article. |
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