Adelaide celebrates 100 years of radio, from early broadcasters and the ABC, to SA-FM's Skyshow and DAB

By Malcolm Sutton

The ABC's Bob Maynard and Peter Morton with one of the first radio sets, circa 1924, made in Adelaide. (ABC News)

A century ago, Adelaideans were introduced to the power of radio after police were called to a crowd of 5,000 people who had gathered on Hindley Street.

They were listening to live federal election results broadcast out the front of 5CL, which had been granted Adelaide's first commercial radio licence the previous year in 1924 — exactly 100 years ago today.

Up until then, most stations were experiments run by enthusiasts, amateurs and musicians, with the first, Harry Kauper's 5BG, being heard in 1921 from as far away as New York and California from its transmitter in Dulwich and then Tusmore.

But 5CL (originally called 5AB) was the first to be granted an A-class licence, meaning it could be funded by listener licence fees, unlike the B-class licence granted to 5DN in 1925.

Launched with the assistance of Mr Kauper, 5DN subsequently became Adelaide's first commercial station to be funded by advertising.

Adopted quickly

The emergence of radio was immediately popular in Australia.

Historical Radio Society of Australia SA (HRSASA) vice president Keith Ellison said at one point in the 1920s there were about 45 different factories in Adelaide "including some big ones in the CBD".

"The National Radio factory in Pirie Street had over 100 staff and they were making radios that were being rebadged under a variety of names for most of the department stores," he said.

"John Martins, David Jones, all of those were selling radios under their own badge, but a lot of them came out of the same factory."

The Philips factory at Hendon, Adelaide, employed more than 4,000 workers, mostly female. (Supplied: John Crawford)

5CL was taken over in 1932 by the newly-formed Australian Broadcasting Commission, which replaced A-class licences, and the two-tier radio system was abandoned.

Shortly afterwards, radio's golden era was born, as families sat in their living rooms listening to scripted radio plays and variety shows on a rapidly expanding number of stations.

"The radio play days, Blue Hills and those sorts of shows, was the big hey day, and there was a lot of comedy," Mr Ellison said.

A typical 1965 lounge room showing a reel-to-reel, a TV, radio and turntable. (Supplied: Ian Smyth)

Serial programs on commercial stations like 5DN, and 5AD and 5KA, gave rise to the term "soap opera", as they were often dramas backed by soap companies targeting female listeners.

Music was a big part of radio too, initially with live concerts for the most part until recorded music technology evolved from gramophones and piano rolls to tape after World War II.

ABC sing-along programs were broadcast to classrooms around Australia, accompanied by songbooks that people could read from, starting in the 1940s and going all the way through to 2014.

By the 60s, radios had become smaller and more portable and were regularly seen at places like the Royal Adelaide Show, the Oakbank racing carnival, or the Adelaide Festival of Arts.

Young people enamoured with pop music were ringing into their favourite stations to request songs, as pop and rock'n'roll trends that had started in the 50s exploded with counter-culture, and Top 40 formats emerged to combat the threat of television after it was introduced in 1956.

1960s radios like this Pye Industries Jetliner, made in NSW, had some fun and funky names. 
(ABC Radio Adelaide: Malcolm Sutton)

One of the biggest radio moments of this scene in Adelaide took place on June 12, 1964, when Lawrie Sjoberg from 5DN recorded The Beatles live performance at Centennial Hall with just four microphones.

An assistant had to stand behind Mr Sjoberg during the concert to press the earphones against his head because the audience was screaming so loud.

"The night we did a recording at Centennial Hall, it was not a good thing for acoustics," he said.

"But for some reason I was able to get the quality."

Management at The Beatles' record company, Apple, were reportedly so impressed with the quality, they asked how he did it because the standard was better than anything the BBC had managed.

The arrival of talkback radio

The next boon for radio occurred when talkback programming landed in 1967.

"There was a long period of time when radio wanted to do talkback radio but couldn't because they were concerned about people saying things on-air and not being able to stop them," Mr Ellison said.

First published at ABC News Adelaide, November 20, 2024

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