1920s Radio Dance bands on this week’s Phantom Dancer made me think about what is remembered about 1920s radio in Australia

The Phantom Dancer is your non-stop mix of swing and jazz from live 1920s-60s radio and TV every week. Presented and produced by 1920s-30s singer and actor Greg Poppleton, The Phantom Dancer’s been on-air over 107.3 2SER Sydney since 1985.

Hear The Phantom Dancer online from 12:04pm AEST Tuesday 11 August at https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/ where you can also hear two years of archived shows.

As always, the finyl hour is vinyl.

SIR ERNEST FISK

In 1916, former Marconi telegraphy agent, Sir Ernest Fisk, became managing director of the fledgling company. Australian Wireless Amalgamated (AWA)

The Australian Government granted AWA the exclusive rights to operate the Coastal Radio Service (CRS), a network of maritime radio stations that eventually included stations in New Guinea that had been hurriedly installed when Japan entered World War II.

1918
The first radio broadcast from the UK to Australia was received by AWA with the then Prime Minister, Billy Hughes, praising the troops he has just inspected on the Western Front.

1922
The Australian Government needed a direct radio service with the UK and they commissioned AWA to create a service. The government increased the new company’s capital and became its majority shareholder.

1926
AWA established two large beam wireless stations on 180 hectare sites; a receiver site in Victoria at Rockbank near Melbourne and a transmitter site at Ballan near Ballarat; this site became known as Fiskville.

1927
A shortwave beam radiotelegraph service was set up between Australia and Britain. This new service undercut the early cable companies and was inaugurated on 8 April 1927, this service continued until 31 May 1969.

1928
AWA established a similar service between Australia and Canada. In April 1930 the Empire radiotelephone service commenced.

1930
AWA transmits the first newsreel pictures from Sydney to London.

1920s RADIO IN AUSTRALIA

1921 – 22
1920s radio in Australian began when Charles MacLurcan was issued the very first broadcast radio licence in Australia for station 2CM. This was broadcast from the Wentworth Hotel in Sydney, which was owned by the MacLurcan family. 2CM broadcast popular classical music concerts every Sunday night.

It was the first radio station in Australia to publish a regular program guide. His first broadcast resulted in over 2000 letters from enthusiastic listeners. Broadcasts ended with the joke, “Time to wind up the cat and put out the clock.”

2CM evolved from morse code station, XDM, which began broadcasting in 1911.

In 1921, Sydney audiences could also hear 2YG broadcasting weekly concerts from Coogee. It was operated by Ray Allsop who had also started in 1911 with a morse code station, XCA. Ray Allsop went on to be chief engineer of 2BL Sydney. He lobbied for the introduction of FM radio in Australia.

There were almost 50 radio stations on air in Australia in 1921 and 1922.

1923
In May, lobbying for the introduction of professional radio broadcasting led the Commonwealth Government, to hold a conference with the radio manufacturing industry. This conference resulted in Australian radio being managed under ‘the sealed set’ system, whereby stations could be licensed to broadcast and fund themselves by selling radio sets to ‘listeners-in’ preset to receive only their station.

It was easy for listeners to avoid the licence fee by building their own sets or modifying one they had bought to receive more than one station.

2FC in Sydney was the first radio station to be licensed on 10 September 1923 (going to air officially on 9 January 1924) under the new system. The first station to go to air was 2SB Sydney (soon renamed 2BL), officially starting on 23 November 1923.

1924
3AR and 3LO Melbourne went to air on 26 January and 13 October 1924.

The radio industry successfully lobbied the Commonwealth Government to introduce a two-tiered system in July 1924. The ‘A’ licences were financed by listeners’ licence fees imposed and collected by the Government. ‘B’ class licence stations generated their own revenue through advertising. ‘A’ class stations could also advertise but few did.

The ‘A’ class stations were the original sealed set stations plus one each in Hobart, Adelaide and Perth – 2BL, 2FC, 3AR, 3LO, 7ZL, 5CL, 6WF.

The first ‘B’ class station on air was 2BE Sydney in November 1924

South Australia’s first radio station 5CL went to air on November 20.

Number of radio receiving licences reached 40,000 by year’s end.

1925
The oldest surviving ‘B’ class (commercial) station is 2UE which went on air on January 26.

3UZ Melbourne began broadcasting.

South Australia’s first commercial radio station 5DN went to air February 24.

Uniquely, radio broadcasting began in Brisbane in 1925 when the Government of Queensland commenced its own broadcasting operations with the callsign 4QG – 4 denoted the state of Queensland; QG stood for Queensland Government.

Number of licences issued reached 80,000.

1926
3DB Melbourne commenced broadcasting

1927 – 1930
A Royal Commission into radio recommended full nationalisation of radio in Australia in the style of the BBC. The conservative government chose to out-sourced programming, instead. However, as each ‘A-class’ licence expired during 1929 and 1930, the Commonwealth acquired then maintained the station’s transmitters and studios through the Postmaster-General’s Department. Programming for the Commonwealth Government’s National Broadcasting Service was supplied by the private Australian Broadcasting Company, formed in Melbourne in 1924.

Licensed radio listeners rose to over 300,000 (approx. 4.7% of a population of 6,400,000) by the end of 1929. With an average household size in metropolitan areas of about 4.2 people (based on 1921 and 1933 censuses), this meant that 20% households in Australia had radio by the end of the 1920s.

Australian radio though, was largely heard in the capital cities.

By December 1929 there were 19 licensed stations but only three were in regional cities. These were Newcastle, Toowoomba and Bathurst.

CALL SIGNS

Australian radio call signs begin with a number followed by 2 letters (and later 3 letters for FM stations). The international radio prefix for Australian radio is VK. Shortwave stations and stations outside of the standard AM and FM frequencies would identify themsleves with the VK prefix. For example, the University of NSW educational station on 1740 KHz in the 1970s announced itself as  VK2UV.

The number designates the state in which the radio station is situated.

The original numbers were,
2 – New South Wales
3 – Victoria
4 – Queensland
5 – South Australia
6 – Western Australia
7 – Tasmania

Later were added at various times,

0 – Antarctica
1 – Australian Capital Territory
8 – Northern Territory
9 – Papua New Guinea and Australian External Territories

VIDEO OF THE WEEK

The ONLY extant recorded representation of the Sydney (Australia) broadcasting station 2FC’s very formal programming when it was ‘Farmer And Company’s Station’, recorded in Jan 1928.

The 2FC personalities heard on this disc are:
* CHARLES E LAWRENCE (1885 – 1968), the vaudeville and radio comedian, pseudonymously recording in whispered and subversive undertones as ‘Mike – the voice of the studio’.
* LAWRENCE HALBERT, the 2FC announcer.
* LEN MAURICE (1900 – 1952), baritone and contract singer for Columbia Records’ studio at Homebush, Sydney.
* BERTHA WARREN, soprano.
* JEAN GERRARD, accordionist.
* FRANK MC EACHERN, bass.
* EWART CHAPPLE, pianist and accompanist. Enjoy!

11 AUGUST PLAY LIST

Play List – The Phantom Dancer 107.3 2SER-FM Sydney, Live Stream, Digital Radio Community Radio Network Show CRN #449
107.3 2SER Tuesday 11 August 2020 After the 2SER 12 noon news, 12:04 – 2:00pm (+10 hours GMT) and Saturdays 5 – 5:55pm National Program: 1ART ArtsoundFM Canberra Sunday 10 – 11pm 5GTR Mt Gambier Monday 2:30 – 3:30am 3MBR Murrayville Monday 3 – 4am 4NAG Keppel FM Monday 3 – 4am 2SEA Eden Monday 3 – 4am 2MIA Griffith Monday 3 – 4pm 2BAR Edge FM Bega Monday 3 – 4pm 3VKV Alpine Radio Monday 6 – 7pm 7MID Oatlands Tuesday 8 – 9pm 2MCE Bathurst / Orange / Central West NSW Wednesday 9 – 10am 2ARM Armidale Friday 12 – 1pm 7LTN Launceston Sunday 5 – 6am 3MGB Mallacoota Sunday 5 – 6am 6GME Radio Goolarri Broome Sunday 5 – 6am
Set 1	Swing Orchestras on 1944 – 46 Radio
Open + There Must Be A Way	Boyd Raeburn Orchestra (voc) David Allyn and Margie Wood)	Palace Hotel KQW CBS San Francisco 19 Jun 1945
Open + Do You Love Me?	Harry James Orchestra (voc) Ginny Powell	‘Spotlight Bands’ El Patio Playhouse KHJ Mutual Los Angeles 13 Apr 1946/div>
Cherokee + Spring Fever	Jan Garber Orchestra	‘One Night Stand’ Palladium Ballroom AFRS Re-broadcast 25 May 1944
Set 2	1930s European Cabaret
Chodidla (Happy Feet with satirical lyrics)	Osvobozene Divadlo (voc) Jaroslav Jezek Orchestra	Comm Rec Prague 1931
Djangology + Limehouse Blues + Breakup	Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grapelli	‘Saturday Night Swing Club’ Shortwave from Bricktop’s Cabaret, Paris WABC CBS NY 30 Jun 1937
Song of the Inadequacy of Life + Mack The Knife + Final Chorus	Lotte Lenya and the cast of the 1930 Threepenny Opera Berlin Production	Comm Rec Berlin 1930
Set 3	Modern Jazz Sounds on 1950s Radio
Open + Without A Word Of Warning	Arnett Cobb Orchestra	‘Stars in Jazz’ Birdland WNBC NBC NY 3 Jul 1952
Open + Dynaflow	Stan Kenton Orchestra	‘Jazz Club USA’ Voice of America Washington DC 1952
Rockin’ Boogie + Close	Condoli Brothers	‘Stars of Jazz’ AFTRS Re-broadcast Hollywood 1958
Set 4	Dixieland Jazz on 1940s-50s Radio
Jack Armstrong Blues	Louis Armstrong All-Stars	Aircheck New York 1949
Georgia Blues	Miff Mole (tb) with Henry Levine Octet	‘Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street’ WJZ NBC Blue NY 11 Aug 1941
Sheik of Araby	Ralph Sutton All-Stars	Club Hangover KCBS CBS San Francisco 7 Sep 1954
Set 5	The Kings of Swing on 1945 Radio
Open + Instrumental	Tommy Dorsey Orchestra	‘One Night Stand’ 400 Restaurant AFRS Re-broadcast 30 Sep 1945
High Tide	Count Basie Orchestra	‘Jubilee’ AFRS Re-broadcast Nov 1945
Drop Me Off	Charlie Barnet Orchestra	‘Spotlight Bands’ Fort Devon Mass Mutual Network 15 Oct 1945
Flying Home	Lionel Hampton Orchestra	‘Jubilee’ AFRS Hollywood 3 Dec 1945
Set 6	1920s Dance Bands
Ja, ja, die Frau’n sind meine schwache Seite	Jack Hylton Orchestra (voc) Austin Egen	Comm Rec Berlin 26 Jan 1928
Mystery Medley (Can you guess the titles?)	Red Nichols and his Five Pennies	‘Brunswick Brevities’ Radio Transcription New York 27 Aug 1929
Tip Toe Through The Tulips	Don Voorhees Orchestra (cnt) Red Nichols	‘Hit of the Week Records’ New York City Feb 1930
Yours Sincerely	Eskimo Pie Orchestra	‘Eskimo Pie Program’ Radio Transcription New York Jul 1929
Set 7	Raymond Scott on 1940 Radio
Pretty Little Petticoat (theme) + Huckleberry Duck	Raymond Scott Orchestra	Panther Room Hotel Sherman WMAQ NBC Red Chicago 1940
Creepy Weepy	Raymond Scott Orchestra	Aircheck 1940
Birdseed Special	Raymond Scott Orchestra	Panther Room Hotel Sherman WMAQ NBC Red Chicago 1940
Powerhouse	Raymond Scott Orchestra	Aircheck 1940
Set 8	Bebop Infused Rhythms on 1940s Radio
Twilight in Teheran	Buck Ram All-Stars	Comm Rec New York City 18 Sep 1944
Mel’s Idea	Benny Goodman Sextet	‘One Night Stand’ The Click, Philadelphia AFRS Re-broadcast 3 Jun 1948
Tiny’s Blues + Father Knickerbocker	Chubby Jackson Orchestra	‘Symphony Sid Show’ Royal Roost WMCA NY 5 Mar 1949