Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), Australian public service broadcaster, founded by the Australian Broadcasting Commission Act of May 1932 as a national broadcasting organization, free from advertising and financed by radio licences. The Australian Broadcasting Commission, as the Australian Broadcasting Corporation was originally known, began radio transmission on July 1, 1932. Based on the British Broadcasting Corporation, the ABC’s programming covered educational, sporting, and rural programmes, in addition to music and drama. Transmitters were set up in regional cities and towns, linked to the state capitals by landline. The ABC also developed symphony orchestras in all Australian states, and, from 1946, began broadcasting the proceedings of the Federal Parliament. Radio Australia was established as part of the ABC at the beginning of World War II, and transmitted news services on short wave to countries in Asia and the Pacific. It was annexed by the wartime Department of Information in 1944, but returned to the ABC in 1950. In 1947 the ABC was required by the government to establish an independent news service with its own correspondents reporting from regional Australia and overseas.

The ABC’s television service began in November 1956, with transmitters in Sydney and Melbourne. Transmitters in other state capitals and regional centres followed. In 1983 a new Australian Broadcasting Act was enacted, enabling the Commission to become the Australian Broadcasting Corporation controlled by a managing director.