Australian Broadcasting Company
Ltd. was a short-lived Australian commercial broadcasting company set up by Sir Benjamin Fuller and Frank Albert.
Founded in Melbourne in 1924 with a capital of £A 100,000 by a consortium of entertainment interests, notably Farmer & Company, J. C. Williamson Limited and J.
[2] The Royal Commission of 1927 had recommended full nationalisation in the style of the BBC, but the conservative government of the time chose this out-sourced approach instead.
As each of the "A-class" licences expired during 1929 and 1930, the Commonwealth acquired and then maintained the station's transmitters and studios through the Postmaster-General's Department, while the programming was supplied by the Australian Broadcasting Company.
The ABC would broadcast 'stunts' to influence the purchasing of licences, which financially benefited the A class stations and equipment shareholders would sell.
Licence revenues for the station were immediately returned to the broadcasters after the government removed deductions and fulfilled royalty payments to the AWA.
The station was aimed at country people, but the farming families who would hear its programs didn't resonate with its content.
In 1928, the Post Master General's office had to rescue 6WF by buying its land, renting its premises, and paying staff to keep working.
After inquiries as to why the station had been closed down, the Postmaster General's Department released a statement ensuring it was for the better, saying that "Exceptional care has been exercised by the Department in the expansion of broadcasting services to the Commonwealth so that listeners might enjoy the greatest possible selection of programs without undue risk of interference in reception between one station and another.
"[7] The Postmaster General's department also ensured that the Australian Broadcasting Company would provide exceptional service and maintain a high standard.
'[7] Following the Department's statement in response to the B class radio stations, the ABC was subject to rules, requiring the company to avoid tedious broadcasting repetition of an artist in a particular state.
It would be run by the Post Master General's office and made available for public audiences such as organisations or firms.
Required by the new Act, the ABC commission was to take over the studios of the company and 'broadcast from the National Broadcasting Stations adequate and comprehensive programs in the interests of the community.
Lyons proclaimed his strategic direction for the company, saying its purpose was to provide 'information, entertainment, culture, and gaiety and serve all diversified tastes of the Australian Public.
'[6] The 1932 Opposition Leader, James Scullin also stated the company's other main purpose which was to ensure that broadcasting under national control must not encourage misrepresentation or suppression.
As Dr. Earle Page, leader of Country Party said, radio was indeed a luxury in Australia, but a necessity for farmers who used broadcasting information to set prices for their produce.
The ABC remains Australia's only advertisement-free and public broadcaster with almost twenty million viewers and listeners per week.
[13] Although they were a send-up, ironically they give contemporary listeners an insight into what radio sounded like in its early days.
