Out of the Bakelite Box: The Heyday of Australian Radio
(Angus and Robertson, Sydney, 1983 (hardback); ABC Books, Sydney, 1990 (paperback)
At the end of World War II, radio in Australia was a varied, diversified and professional industry. The bakelite box had truly come into its own. This book celebrates the industry and the way in which its voice came to people all over the country: in cities, small towns and rural hamlets; in the bush, on building sites, in mines. The story is partly told in the words of the people who helped to mould it.
They were announcers, writers, producers, journalists – people behind the microphone as well as in front of it.
Some of their names are still well known, others are less familiar, but they put their stamp upon the world of radio in Australia.
I asked them to describe their world of radio. This they have done, giving often hilarious insights into life inside and outside the studio, as well as penetrating comments about the characters of performers whose names still live in legend.
By using the voices of the people whose industry it was, as well as interpolating extracts from scripts and commentaries on well known programs, I have tried to build up a word picture of radio as it was. The book concentrates on national programs and personalities, those that people who listened to the bakelite box will recall most readily.
