Celebrating 70 years

Radio Australia has long been one of my favorite shortwave – if not my most favorite – international broadcaster. Over the some 45 years during which I have been a listener, I am pleased to count Radio Australia, and several people who make it what it is, as valued friends. I certainly would be proud if they thought of me in the same way.

Radio Australia, like the continent it so ably represents, has weathered some significant storms and, in response, has smartly changed over time. From a station that saw itself initially as almost a European outpost in Oceania, it has become a powerful voice from and to the Pacific and south and south-east Asia, not only representing the region to itself, but also to the world at large. As such, it daily demonstrates Australia’s steadfast commitment to its neighbors while explaining an evolving multicultural Australia to the nations and peoples among which it lives.

My earliest memory of RA is as a young teenager turning the dial of my newly christened Heathkit GR-54 receiver one morning and, to my complete amazement, finding a strong, steady signal on 9580 kiloHertz (kilocycles, then!). It was Australia, literally halfway around the world from upstate New York! (Incidentally, that signal on that frequency still makes its way here despite the interference and noise added to the band in the intervening five decades. Some things persist despite everything!)

There were several fine programs on offer, but the one which made the deepest impression on me was a segment each weekday morning called ‘Window on Australia’, where a call was made to one Australian seemingly at random to describe what he or she was seeing outside their window at the moment. The images depicted must have had their impact because it became an early dream to some day visit Australia myself and personally experience some of the scenes I first saw in my mind’s eye through that program.

I had no idea how that opportunity would come, if indeed it would ever come at all. In 1998, my daughter enrolled in a college semester abroad program at Macquarie University near Sydney. Of course, we could not let her be so far from home alone for so long a time. So, in the trip of a lifetime, my wife and I and our three other children flew to Sydney and, with our daughter, on to Melbourne, the Great Barrier Reef and Brisbane.

One of the genuine highlights of the trip for me was visiting Radio Australia at its Southbank headquarters and being so graciously received by Roger Broadbent, John Westland and Jean-Gabriel Manguy, RA’s Director at the time. 1998 and the years immediately preceding and succeeding it were perhaps the most challenging times for the station, as there had been significant pressure placed by the government at that time on the ABC to dismantle Radio Australia entirely. As it was, funding was reduced to a virtual trickle. As a writer on international broadcasting, it was my intention to produce a comprehensive illustrated magazine article explaining Radio Australia’s mission and the threats under which it was operating and which could cause it to stop doing so entirely. Roger took me on a tour of the station and he, Jean-Gabriel and John took considerable time out of their extremely stressed schedules to explain matters as they stood and as the plans that were in place for refocusing and rebuilding RA for the future. They made this visitor, this listener, feel most welcome – just like they do on the air.

After publication of the article, I looked for a way to help other listeners become more aware of the wealth of valuable programming broadcast by Radio Australia. So, for several years thereafter, I undertook an effort to publish comprehensive details of that programming on the internet and in an annual print publication I edited. Again, I received nothing but wholehearted support from Roger Broadbent and the RA team.

I am pleased to say that my enthusiasm for Radio Australia continues undiminished today, though it is more often that I hear its programs via podcast, Sirius/XM satellite radio and my wifi internet radios than by the still much cherished shortwave medium. It remains my favorite broadcaster and I am honored to count Roger Broadbent, Nigel Holmes and Brendon Telfer (who for years gave me my necessary dose of Aussie rules and rugby stories and scores) as friends with whom I can freely correspond from time to time despite the many thousands of miles between us. It seems we share a common passion.

Radio Australia has been an important factor in my life for almost five decades. Congratulations Radio Australia on your 70th! Here’s hoping for many more!

About the author

John has been listening to Radio Australia for almost five decades from his listening post in New York state in the US. He has been and continues to be a staunch supporter and very good friend of RA. For many years now John has been an unofficial ambassador for us ensuring that as many people as possible, in the US and elsewhere, are aware of what we do and how we can be heard.