A Clamour of Voices: negotiations of power and purpose in Australian spoken-word radio from 1924 to 1942 JENNIFER MARY BOWEN ORCID ID: 0000-0001-7595-9978 Submitted in total fulfilment of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy December 2018 School of Historical and Philosophical Studies University of Melbourne 1 Abstract Radio broadcasting began in Australia as a commercial enterprise in the aftermath of World War I, with musicians and artistes offering audiences entertainment after the grief and divisiveness of the war years. However, the microphone also attracted a range of individuals and institutions who quickly saw an opportunity to speak: they wanted their voices to be heard in public and through their insistence, radio became such a place. This thesis views the history of early radio in Australia through the prism of its spoken-word output to argue that broadcasting was shaped not just by commercial interests and governmental bodies but also by the engagement of a diverse set of people concerned to communicate their ideas with fellow citizens. Previous studies have looked separately at the use of early radio by politicians, philosophers and feminists; the argument of this thesis is that radio was a shared space of mutual encounter for many interest groups. Their level of purpose and access to power varied, with consequences for their efficacy as broadcasters; their active involvement with radio, as a site of negotiation, exposed tensions around authority, control, and modes of representation in public life. The argument is developed by examining the shifting relationships between government regulators, broadcasting stations, those who sought to speak on air, and those who might listen. The dual system of public and commercial broadcasting that evolved in Australia gave rise to a porous boundary between the insiders and outsiders who influenced its development. The thesis examines the role of government alongside a series of case studies characterised by profession, ideology, gender and race. Programme content and form will be analysed as they were the means of realising broadcasters’ intentions; radio’s place within a larger media landscape is examined to take account of overseas rebroadcasting and the domestic press, particularly the latter’s part in the construction of listener subjectivity. While the primary focus is on broadcasters, the positioning and response of listeners will be discussed. This study draws on an extensive archive of primary source material, while also engaging with scholarly discussions of radio as a public sphere. This thesis shows how early spoken-word radio in Australia energised many individuals and groups: it gave rise to fresh consideration of civic engagement in a democracy and the role of government in developing this. In addition, the issue of broadcasting itself became a matter of public debate. The urge to be heard in public persists to the present: contemporary movements engaging with media can look to the initial campaigns around radio as an originary moment whose strategies and objectives, successes and failures are illuminating today. 2 DECLARATION PAGE This is to certify that: (i) the thesis comprises only my original work towards the PhD (ii) due acknowledgement has been made in the text to all other materials used; and (iii) the thesis is fewer that 100,000 words in length, exclusive of tables, maps, bibliographies and appendices. 3 Acknowledgements I am delighted to acknowledge the many people who have assisted me in writing this thesis. My supervisors, Professors Joy Damousi and David Goodman, have offered continuous support and encouragement; they showed boundless enthusiasm for my project and nudged me to consider new directions. I am enormously grateful for the way they helped make this project so fulfilling. It is a pleasure to acknowledge Catherine Hall and Samia Khatun who taught an inspiring elective course, ‘Race, Gender, Empire’, at the University of Melbourne in 2015, and Robert Hassan of the School of Culture and Communications whose post-graduate seminar I attended. I have benefited from presenting ideas at conferences in Australia and Europe; these trips were assisted by the University of Melbourne Faculty of Arts and the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies. I am most appreciative of their help. I am indebted to many archivists and librarians without whom I could not have undertaken the research required for this thesis; their support and interest in the project was always encouraging. I became familiar with the resources at the National Archives of Australia in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra, the State Libraries of Victoria and NSW, and the National Library of Australia: special thanks to archivist Edmund Rutlidge at the National Archives in Chester Hill. I was well looked after during visits to the Archives of the Universities of Melbourne and Sydney and am particularly grateful to the archivists at the Universities of Adelaide and Western Australia who searched for relevant material to send to me. I also thank John Spence and Guy Tranter from the ABC Sound Archives and Document Archives in Sydney for their generous assistance. I spent productive time at the libraries of the Australian War Memorial and AIATSIS in Canberra, as well as a short visit to the BBC Written Archives Centre in the UK, where I was ably attended by Louise North. Siobhan Dee at the National Film and Sound Archives in Melbourne has been extremely helpful. I extend great thanks to the librarians at the Baillieu library at the University of Melbourne for their warmth and assistance. 4 Thanking fellow students is a great pleasure – their passion for their own research and the whole project of history created an excellent environment for research. Particular thanks to Henry Reese, Shan Windscript, Jimmy Yan, Susan Reidy, Melissa Afentoulis and Phoebe Kelloway for their camaraderie and sharing of ideas. Thanks also to Kylie Andrews and Walter Struve for conversations on shared topics of interest. I had the good fortune in 2018 to meet Peter Woods and Jenny Betteridge, grandchildren of ABC Chairman William Cleary, and I am grateful to Cecilie Bearup for permission to access the papers of her father, Thomas Bearup. I would also like to thank Sharon Davidson, Damien Prentice, Michelle Rayner, Judith Klepner, Julius Roe, Marion Crooke and members of the Preston Symphony Orchestra for their unflagging interest in the minutest details of my research. And I cannot say enough to thank my family – Andrew, Sam, Lucy, Vera, Leo and Ernest – for their love and more. Finally, I want to acknowledge my sister whose time, energy and patience were utterly limitless and give the last word to Anne Bowen. 5 Abbreviations AAAS Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science AAL Aborigines Advancement League (Victoria) AASW Australian Association of Scientific Workers ABC Australian Broadcasting Commission AIF Australian Imperial Force ALP Australian Labor Party ANU Australian National University ANZAAS Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science ANZAC Australian and New Zealand Army Corps APA Aborigines’ Progressive Association (NSW) AWA Amalgamated Wireless (Australasia) Ltd. AWNL Australian Women’s National League BBC British Broadcasting Corporation BBC WAC BBC Written Archives Centre BMA British Medical Association CPA Communist Party of Australia CSIR Council for Scientific and Industrial Research CWA Country Women’s Association DOI Department of Information FDR Franklin Delano Roosevelt IBU International Broadcasting Union LNU League of Nations Union NAA National Archives of Australia NLA National Library of Australia PM Prime Minister [Australia] PMG Postmaster General RSSILA Returned Soldiers and Sailors Imperial League of Australia (later RSL) SLNSW State Library of New South Wales SLV State Library of Victoria UAP United Australia Party UAW United Associations of Women UWA University of Western Australia WCTU Women’s Christian Temperance Union WEA Workers’ Educational Association 6 Contents Abstract 1 Declaration 2 Acknowledgements 3 Abbreviations 5 Introduction 9 Radio’s component parts 10 Spoken-word broadcasting: a brief genealogy 14 Radio history in Australia 17 Radio history outside Australia 22 Methodology 24 Chapter outline 28 Chapter One The Politics of Radio Talk 31 Wireless regulations in Australia: Early opportunities 33 Broadcasting commences 37 Politicians’ use of radio in the 1920s 40 Political ‘B’ stations 42 Regulatory reappraisal: Royal Commission into Wireless 1927 45 Political airtime in the 1930s: politicians and political organisations 46 Political commentaries 51 Broadcast censorship in the company of books 55 Opposition to censorship 58 Broadcasting in the cause of peace 60 Should the air be free? 63 Joint Parliamentary Committee into Broadcasting 1941–42 65 Conclusion 67 7 Chapter Two Science talks: scientists in the public sphere 69 University Years 72 Public perceptions of science in Australia 76 Professor Thomas Laby, advocate for science broadcasting 78 1932–38: radio talks, science and ‘gatekeepers’ 80 Science in the news 85 Australian Association of Scientific Workers 89 AASW Press service 91 Scientists’ problems with radio 94 Radio’s problems with scientists 96 Conclusion 100 Chapter Three Tune in with Britain: the imperial frequency of early radio 102 Radio: the limitless world of the ether 105 AWA’s Voice of Australia 107 BBC broadcasts to Australia: experimental start 108 Tuning to the BBC Empire Service 110 BBC royal broadcasts: