Learn more about the history of our national broadcaster and how it has interpreted and reflected almost every aspect of Australian life.
What did it mean to be an ABC listener in the 1930s, or a television viewer in the 1970s? What were Australians expecting when they tuned into ‘Auntie’, whether in the living room or at the beach, in the city or the bush? How did listeners and viewers themselves shape ABC programming through their feedback, some of it solicited, some of it not – and how did management respond to their needs and aspirations?
Based on the ABC’s vast archives, including recently unearthed audience letters and call logs, this book illuminates the role of our principal public service broadcaster in the lives of generations of Australians. It focuses on the years of the Australian Broadcasting Commission: from its establishment as a radio broadcaster in 1932, to the launch of television in 1956, before its transformation into the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in 1983. Covering a rich array of programming genres, from education to rural, current affairs to drama, and music to sport, the essays collected here range across Indigenous Australians, young people, migrants and ABC Friends.
Including insightful reflections from well-known broadcasters, Our ABC will inform, enlighten and surprise – just as ABC programs have for nearly a century.
