AustLit

'This article investigates the evolution of the Australian Broadcasting Commission in Western Australia between the 1920s and the 1960s, covering the introduction and spread of radio and then television. It considers the visits of ABC commissioners and management to Perth, the appointment of commissioners from Western Australia, the building of radio and television studios, the creation of the ABC’s first state Advisory Committee in 1935, and the operations—in Perth—of the broadcaster’s last surviving capital city Television Viewers’ Committee. It examines local innovations in drama and in children’s, women’s and current affairs programming; the development of a broadcast news service and a symphony orchestra; and the work of key broadcasting figures, including Basil Kirke and Cathering King. The article argues that the history of the ABC in Western Australia was distinctive because of the state’s isolation and sparse population and, crucially, its time difference from the east coast.' (Publication abstract)

'After she left journalism, Patricia Clarke turned to researching and writing books, beginning with The Governesses in 1985. Bold Types is her fourteenth book. The Canberra writer was a familiar figure at media history and other conferences, and in the National Library of Australia reading rooms, until Covid-19 at least. Her books, augmented by dozens of articles and conference papers, focus mainly on the lives, careers and letters of Australian women, especially writers and journalists. Clarke also writes about the history of her city, Canberra, an interest reflected in some of the fourteen entries she has produced for the Australian Dictionary of Biography. The ninety-six-year-old has devoted nearly ‘half a lifetime’ (to borrow the title of one of her tomes, about Judith Wright) to historical endeavours.' (Introduction)

'Catherine Fisher’s first book explores the ways in which Australian radio, from its origins in the 1920s until the introduction of television in 1956, provided a space for women to engage with social and political issues as active citizens. It focuses on both the Australian Broadcasting Commission and the commercial sector, and country as well as city.' (Introduction)

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'After the Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC) was established in 1932, music occupied just over half of airtime, with talk making up the balance. With the gradual evolution of literary content on Australian radio, novels and plays were adapted, serialised or commissioned, and there were competitions and book readings. Based on fine-grained newspaper and archival research, this article considers the development of book criticism and discussions on ABC radio. It covers the period from the mid-1920s, as individual ‘A-class’ stations experimented with literary broadcasts in the years before the formation of the ABC, to the mid-1960s, after the deaths of critics Vance and Nettie Palmer, who are central to this article. It examines how Australian literature was placed within the context of world literature by ABC radio broadcasters ranging from Frederick T. Macartney and George Farwell to Norman Robb and Colin Roderick. In exploring the ABC’s pioneering and crucial role in the Australian literary ecology, the article also demonstrates how the ABC provided women with considerable opportunities as both critics and writers.' (Publication abstract)

'While Fairfax’s future seems likely to be in the hands of Nine, much of its past has recently been made accessible at the State Library of New South Wales. At a symposium earlier this month, Bridget Griffen-Foley introduced the company archive'