Report on the First Year of Broadcasting
2SER Educational Radio Report on the First Year of Broadcasting
This week’s Deep Dive in the Archive looks at a document from November 1980, the “Report on the First Year of Broadcasting” for 2SER. Typeset on the kind of paper that suited an old manual typewriter and white out (remember, do you?), it covers the station’s progress to date, key financial, technical and program details, as well as notes about the listeners, the broadcasting environment and training.
Aside from being a really interesting snapshot into community media of the time, and all media, come to that, it also makes for a fascinating – and hilarious – read into expectations from the time. We particularly love an entry towards the end on “Obscenity”, where questions about what type of language and content the public would put up with were raised. In addition to some questions about words with four letters, some quite bizarre possible complaints were detailed. The surprise in the source of the “allegedly obscene material” – not punk, hardcore or any other controversial music form or topic – but some an old school Shakespeare piece.
If this was the report from year one – what will the report from year 40 look like? If you have any requests, suggestions (or further objections to Classic English Literature), let us know!
You can get in touch with 2ser on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram OR you can send an email to the Deep Dive in the Archive team at weekendbreakfast(@)2ser.com
