2023 saw two big events happen in the world of vintage radio. The first was the return of the RadioFest to the calendar after the previous three years were subject to border closures and community lockdowns. Whilst this year's event wasn't as big as a couple of the previous ones it was still successful, with a good auction followed by two days in the sales hall. I think, for many, people are still trying to get back into the groove following the departure of the effects of the coronavirus from our lives and this will be remedied with the passage of time.

The other big event was the 100th anniversary of radio broadcasting in Australia, with the show beginning on the 23rd November, 1923. Below is a somewhat brief timeline from then until now:-

Start of broadcasting, following around a decade of experimentation. Sydney's 2SB (soonafter renamed 2BL) is the first station granted a licence. With this, the 'sealed set' era begins, where your radio is tuned to the station of your choice and then sealed to stop the receiver pulling in other stations.
Beginning of broadcasting in rural areas.
The 'sealed set' era comes to an end after the Commonwealth Government finally agrees that people want more programming choice.
The big split - Class-A stations which would rely on licence revenue and Class-B stations which could run advertising to bring in revenue.
The start of the Australian Broadcasting Commission, which would take over ownership of all Class-A stations.
Networking - a sure way to a larger audience.
Experimenting begins on FM radio broadcasting.
FM broadcasting set aside whilst television broadcasting begins.
Transistorisation of smaller radios begins, followed by the introduction of 'solid state' floor systems.
A return to getting the ball rolling with FM broadcasting with the first station 2MBS hitting the airwaves in Sydney in 1974. FM brings stereo transmissions to radios.
Radio receiving licences would no longer be issued and funding for the ABC would instead come from consolidated revenue.
AM stations can finally broadcast in stereo. New encoding of AM broadcast signals, based on the American C-QUAM system, begins with full backward compatibility with mono radios.
Cross-media ownershop laws are gradually relaxed over the next two decades allowing the owner of one media platform to own another (the owner of a TV network can also own a newspaper or radio station in the same market, etc), followed by owning more than one of the same type of media in the same market (being able to own more than one radio station, etc).
AM stereo broadcasting is abolished. The number of people buying stereo receivers doesn't meet expectations.
Digital radio is introduced, based on the British DAB+ system. Only the capital cities have adopted it until 2019 when Mandurah, WA and Gold Coast, QLD became the first regional markets to get DAB+.
Radio turns 100 on the 23rd November.

With that, it's time to thank everyone for being a part of this community for 2023 and hope that the following year brings more great things to us. Merry Christmas and all the best for 2024.

A good summary. Merry Christmas to everyone, and a Happy New Year.

That reminds me, I need to throw out my now useless AM stereo receiver.

Happy Christmas Brad!
Liked the summary, small correction: Aus DAB is not the same as the British system, which still uses Mpeg1.

There are differences but I did say "based on", not "the same". I should have left the + out.

Thanks Brad for your efforts and to all a Merry Christmas .

Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year to all.

RE: Dropbears ...... We met a couple of overseas tourists whilst camping a few years ago and they were terrified by the growling all night ... took awhile for me to recover my composure. "No worries mate, it's only a couple of Koalas ... mating season". When we all sat around our camp fire that evening, a Koala climbed down a tree a metre away, sauntered casually between our chairs to another tree nearby. He split his beer and his wife nearly fainted. They drove out next morning just as the sun came up ... .

Stay safe,
Ian