Women in Early Radio

The sudden arrival of Australia’s wireless age signalled modernity. Wireless was Australia’s first telegraphic mass medium. During the 1920s, wireless broadcasts were conducted by amateurs or ham operators with access to radio equipment, who broadcast live music, commentary and played music recordings (from cylinders and discs) for a small but growing audience. At that time wireless technology was employed chiefly by the armed forces as a tool for telegraphic communication, then in 1923 Australia’s first licensed radio broadcast introduced the new medium to Australian society.

Radio became a central domestic and social activity in Australian society, as entire family groups gathered around a radio set for communal listening. The radio became an essential household item, providing hours of background entertainment to housewives carrying out their day-to-day duties. From this period onwards, Australian women were to develop a relationship with radio, which bonded them closely to the medium until the late 1950s. Australian women had a domestic affair with radio lasting 30 years.

Radio’s early advocates had lofty aspirations for its potential in Australian society. Ernest Fisk, Managing Director of AWA saw radio as ‘an opportunity for Australia to build stronger ties with Australia’s motherland’. Violet McKenzie from the Wireless Weekly, advocated ‘the unification of rural and urban communities with a medium which could so effortlessly traverse vast distance’. However, radio’s signature became its capacity for intimate communication. As radio secured its place in homes as a daily companion, radio programming became geared to suit the daily schedules of its key listeners: housewives.

Australian women’s relationship with radio went deeper than simply being an avid audience of listeners, women also played an important professional role during Australia’s early years of radio broadcasting. These women were pioneers in media production techniques and were integral to the shaping of Australian cultural identity. By the mid-to-late 1930s, women working in radio production gained prominence as producers, directors, writers and performers. This was at a time when most women were encouraged to stay at home as housewives and mothers — many of these radio pioneers were themselves mothers with their own households to manage.

During the Second World War, many women joined the workforce to help with the war effort. By this time women in Australian radio were contributing to the production of shows such as: Leave It To The Girls, Aunt Jenny’s Real Life Stories, When a Girl Marries, and Portia Faces Life, shows that were key to boosting the morale of working women nationwide. Here are some of the stories of our early women pioneers of Australian radio:

Grace Gibson

Grace Gibson was born in Texas in 1905. On completing her schooling in Hollywood, Gibson found work with the Radio Transcription Company of America. This was one of the first radio drama production companies in the USA. A few years later, she was selling radio programs to prospective sponsors. Managing Director of 2GB, AE Bennett, travelled to America to buy transcriptions and it was there he met Grace Gibson.

Ethel Lang

Ethel Lang was born in Sydney in 1902. Ethel Lang played leading ladies for ABC radio all through the 1930s, including; Portia in The Merchant of Venice, Lady Macbeth in Macbeth and the leading role of Jane Marryot in Noël Coward’s Cavalcade. She also worked extensively with 2SM and 2GB.

Queenie Ashton

Queenie Ashton was born in England in 1903. Ashton studied dancing from the age of four. From the age of sixteen she studied voice production, drama and sight reading. Her first professional appearance was at the Prince of Wales Theatre in London, where she sang a duet with Noel Coward, in a production of Happy Family. Ashton began her radio career in 1924, at Radio 2LO in London, singing brackets of classical songs.

Amber Mae Cecil

Amber Mae Cecil was born in 1938 to two of Australia’s best known radio figures: actress Rosalind Kennerdale and senior producer for the ABC, Lawrence H Cecil.In 1953, at the age of 15, Cecil left school to co-star as the daughter, Janie, in the popular family comedy, Life with Dexter, with Ray Hartley as the son, Ashleigh. The show was recorded live each week before an audience at 2GB and Cecil continued in the role for 11 years. Cecil was in constant demand for ABC radio plays.

Photo Details

Grace Gibson, (centre), with a group of production staff and sponsors, at the opening of BAP studios in 1952. BAP stood for British Australian Programmes. Gibson bought and renovated the studios located at 60 Hunter Street, Sydney.
[From left, Miss Gibson’s husband, Ronnie Parr, Judy Johnstone (Dr Paul adaptor), Gwen Plumb, Dianah Shearing, Alastair Duncan (Dr Paul), Kathleen Carroll, Peter Bernados (BAP panel operator), and below, Laurel Mather (Elizabeth in Dr Paul), Betty Woodward (wife of BAP’s John Woodward) and (behind her) Jim McKay, 2UW sm, John Woodward (BAP recording division manager) and behind him, John Wiltshire, Grace Gibson, Betty Baranrd, behind her, Ann Fuller, Therese Desmond (Dr Paul producer), Grant Taylor, Francis D. 'Pete’ Lyon, in front of him, Ray Hartley, Jim Joyce, John Taylor (2UW gm), Noel Battye (GG sales), Eric Solomon (B&T managing director) and Francis Levy (2UW assistant station manager).]

Additional Resources

• Many of the radio programs used in the re-sounding of Wireless House have been the contribution of these women radio pioneers.

• A guide to holdings in the National Film and Sound Archive Australian radio series (1930s–1970s)

• Various aspects of Australian radio can be explored at the NFSA through the collection, research publications and galleries online.

• Explore images of vintage sound equipment in the collection on Flickr.

• Radio provides an opportunity to reach remote communities. You can read about the history of remote Indigenous media groups in Australia in our Research section.

• The NFSA celebrated the inaugural World Radio Day on 13 February 2012 with a glimpse into the technical side of broadcasting during the Second World War in Australia.

• Find general information on the history of Australian radio at the NFSA Digital Learning website From Wireless to Web.

References

Lane, Richard and National Film and Sound Archive of Australia, 1994, The Golden Age of Australian Radio Drama 1923-1960: A History Through Biography Melbourne University Press, Carlton South, Vic.