Just a brief post to remind members and guests that Australia will (or should) celebrate 100 years of Australian radio broadcasting on the 23rd November, 2023. It was 100 years prior to that date that Australia's first radio station opened for business, not including test transmissions, etc which occurred prior to this.

It all happened in the leafy Sydney suburb of Castlecrag, not far from where I live, and I will have more to say on this in the coming days and weeks. I must admit that I am somewhat dismayed that little has been mentioned about this important time in our nation's history in the media and this may prompt me to rattle some cages in the weeks and months ahead.

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A valve a day keeps the transistor away...

Who was it that ran the first broadcast transmitter?
It would be fascinating if any pictures of the site and of the transmitter itself exist to this day.
How much power did it put out?

Anniversary was discussed briefly last year in this thread: https://vintage-radio.com.au/default.asp?f=1&th=1945#21289

I see that HRSA Radiofest is commemorating the event. Since Radiofest is in Melbourne this time, see

https://hrsa.org.au/

it would seem appropriate for Sydney to do something as well, and logically this would be the Sydney branch.
January Radiowaves doesn't mention it in their HRSA Activities section, and neither does their section in Activities on the website.
Maybe something will turn up in April Radiowaves.

Do we know the exact place / street address in Castlecrag?

The historic plaque says:

QUOTE: Radio Broadcasting Station 2FC

2FC began broadcasting on 5/12/1923. Farmer and Company Limited Broadcasting Service leased land then the corner of Edinburgh Road and Lyle Street (now part of Eastern Valley Way) to halfway to Sugarloaf Creek. Powered by 5,000 watts it was “the world’s largest broadcasting station” (1923 Willoughby Municipal Council Annual Report). Two steel lattice towers 200 feet high and 600 feet apart supported a squirrel type cage aerial. The main operating room and staff quarters were directly below. The studios in Pitt Street were linked to Willoughby by landline. In 1929 the transmitter, by then out of date, was dismantled and moved to Homebush Bay.

From: "The Suburb of Castlecrag: A Community Story, compiled by Esther Leslie (1988)"

QUOTE: The section on the north side of Edinburgh Road was Lyle Street (formerly the tail end of Victoria Avenue). It was named by one of the Forsyth Family, after the maternal family name of Lile, incorrectly spelt ‘Lyle’. Thomas Todd Forsyth had owned the land from Sugarloaf Creek to Edinburgh Road from the 1880s to c.1920.

... so if there was a dwelling on the land, then it was likely owned by a Forsyth. The Forysth dynasty, built on a tanning business situated on the corner of Ann and Stan streets, is well known in Willoughby. There's Forsyth Street and Forsyth Real Estate across the road from it..

I am part of a facebook group which is limiting its members to people who have worked in the radio and television media industry and I have just found out that these guys dont even know about the anniversary!
Maybe I should share Bruce Cartys link with them.
This involves a free ebook so it doesn't involve any copyright.

http://www.austamradiohistory.com/

This is a very interesting article. According to Bruce Carty it was 2SB not 2FC that started on 23/11/1923.

According to Bruce Carty it was 2SB not 2FC that started on 23/11/1923

As the quote from the plaque in post #6 above says: 2FC commenced broadcasting on 5/12/1923 (i.e. 12 days later)

2SB was the forerunner of 2BL:

QUOTE: ABC Radio Sydney is the first public radio station in Australia opened in Sydney at 8:00pm on 23 November 1923 Its first callsign was 2SB where 2 denotes the State of New South Wales and SB stood for Sydney Broadcasters Limited. However, the callsign was soon altered to 2BL for Sydney Broadcasters Limited. The change was due to the audio similarity of the sounds FC and SB. In May 1928 the Sydney Broadcasting Company was formed to take over stations 2BL and 2FC.

A year later a consortium of entertainment companies founded the Australian Broadcasting Company Limited (ABC) to supply programme material to 2BL, 2FC and similar "A-class" stations in other capital cities. 2BL became one of the inaugural stations, along with sister station 2FC, in the government-owned Australian Broadcasting Commission (also ABC) network when it was founded in 1932.

GTC I have heard a few people say it was 2FC! This is why this Forum and Bruce Carty's work is so important.

It was noted on 2GB today that 2GB has turned 97. I reckon we are going to see a few significant anniversaries in radio broadcasting over the next few years.

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A valve a day keeps the transistor away...

19 days until we break the 100 year barrier. Almost not a word from anyone outside vintage radio circles about it.

I did notice a set dressing mentioned "100 years of Radio" a couple of weeks ago, though I do not remember what it was in relation to. It could be the Logies or something similar.

UPDATE: I did find this - a fairly low key address by the Minister for Communications:-

https://minister.infrastructure.gov.au/rowland/media-release/speech-commercial-radio-australia-100-years-radio

And:-

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A valve a day keeps the transistor away...

Good to see the late Doug Mulray, with a typical joke.

Article from the ABC about 2SB

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-11-22/abc-radio-2bl-702-sydney-celebrates-100-years-on-air/103119034

Wow they mentioned it on 2CA this afternoon. More like a afterthought!