Radio Across the Tasman

New Zealand Listener, Volume 37, Issue 951, 1 November 1957, Page 12

Radio Across the Tasman

BROADCASTING IN AUSTRALIA, by lan Mackay; Melbourne University Press, Australian price 25/-.

(Reviewed by

K.M.

H.

steady trickle of New Zealand broadcasters who have crossed the Tasman in search of wider opportunities. A year or two later, in Broadcasting in New Zealand, he recorded his disillusion with the Structure and control of the NZBS, and looked back nostalgically to the days when two independent services competed for the New Zealand radio audience. N 1950 Ian Mackay joined the Readers of his earlier book will recognise some familiar arguments in Broadcasting in Australia, for the author likes the competition that exists between Australian stations, and retains his dislike for broadcasting monopolies wherever they may be. But he has a larger purpose: to describe and explain the origin and characteristics of Australian broadcasting. To fulfil it he draws on a variety of written sources to supplement his personal experience. The result is clear, comprehensive and informative. Some facets of Australian broadcasting would strike New Zealanders as unusual. One is the Broadcasting Control Board, sitting astride a public corporation (the Australian Broadcasting Commission) and a large number of pri-vately-owned commercial stations. The Board has wide powers to lay down and enforce programme and technical standards, and to ensure, among other things, "a reasonable variety of programmes." It is not clear to this reader why a. public corporation, the members of whose governing board are appointed by the Minister, should need to be supervised by a control board whose members are appointed~ bythe same Minister; and in practice the Board concerns itself more with the commercial stations. . A second\ feature is the method of financing the ABC. The annual licence fee has been abolished in Australia, and teplaced by annual Parliamentary appropriations. National broadcasting is thus supported by the taxpayer rather than the listener, and the resulting uncertainties are clearly brought out. The grant can and does vary from year to year, making it difficult for the ABC to plan ahead; and any number of considerations, not necessarily related to the ABC’s needs, can affect its size. There is good reason for the author’s view that this method of financing must corrode the independence of the ABC. A third is that the ABC, alone among major broadcasting services anywhere, does not control its technical services. These are provided and staffed by the ‘Postmaster-General’s Department. Conflicts of loyalty do not seem to arise, at least at the producer-technician level; but as the author points out, the artistic and technical processes in broadcasting are so closely related that the division is artificial, and has no real defence. Mr Mackay is at his best in describing and explaining contemporary practice. His conclusions are personal opinions that can only be tested by listeners familiar with the full range of Australian programmes, For this

reason the book is not likely to have a wide appeal in New Zealand; but anybody with a special interest in how broadcasting functions in Australia wil] find it valuable for reference.