The name ‘Aunty’ possibly disposed journalists to write benignly about the anniversary. If you work for a paper or a television station owned by Kerry Packer you can’t ask awkward questions about him, but you can go for your life in pursuit of displaced ABC head Jonathan Shier. It must be liberating for journalists who are seldom if ever free to report the troubles of their own organisation to dwell on the tribulations of another. These contests are readily documented, the contestants commonly using the media leak as a weapon.

Moreover, the national broadcaster is a permanent field of contest, both among parties inside the organisation and between the ABC and governments and interest groups. Editors know that most people are at least occasional viewers and listeners and all are taxpayers. The ABC has always been an attractive subject for the media. Newspapers greeted the birthday as a big event. Before anniversary news bulletins on radio, the old news theme (once known as ‘Imperial Fanfare’) was played live by the brass section of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. One of the oldest ABC radio stations, in Sydney, put on a lively symposium entitled ‘Dear Aunty’.

The seventieth anniversary set off much rejoicing, on the air and around the country. The ABC first went to air on 1 July 1932. Sadly departed in the past week, historian Ken Inglis wrote this appraisal of the ABC for Meanjin in 2003 (Vol62/2) to mark the broadcaster’s 70th anniversary…

Dial a for aunty