TV nation or TV city?

Abstract

For much of its history in the twentieth century, television was conceived mostly in national terms. American television, British television, Australian television and so on were thought of as distinct systems, even if they frequently displayed significant degrees of overlap. Such a notion has always been a convenient simplification. Television exists at a series of different spatial levels and the nationwide tier is only one of these. Recent interest in the notion of media capital draws attention to the role played by broadcasting hubs in larger television formations, not only in the industrial sense of resource accumulation and density but also in terms of colonizing larger media environments. This paper addresses this matter in terms of the role that a Sydney metropolitan television service has played in the life of the Australian nation. It surveys the material and ideological dimension of this service as a means of further problematizing the connection of television and nation.

Acknowledgements

This article is based on research conducted under a Discovery grant from the Australian Research Council (DP0667066). I am most grateful for this support.

Notes

1. Sydney radio broadcasting stations, both public service and commercial, were located in the downtown business district around the GPO in Martin Place in the period 1930–1956. These consisted of the two ABC broadcasters 2FC and 2BL, to be found in Elizabeth Street, 2UW in Market Street, 2KY in George Street, 2GB in Phillip Street, 2UE in Bligh Street, 2SM in Grosvenor Street and 2CH in York Street. In addition, at least one country broadcaster, 2GZ, had a Sydney studio tucked away in Angel Place, close to the GPO and connected by landline to its parent company, studios and transmitter at Orange in western New South Wales. This clustering occurred for obvious reasons. Being downtown meant that they were near to retail and other advertising sponsors. The location also gave them convenient access to newspaper news from such sources as Consolidated Press in Castlereagh Street and The Sun group in Elizabeth Street. They were also in close proximity to the principal advertising agencies including the Big Two, J. Walter Thompson in York Street and George Patterson in George Street near Wynyard Station. Ancillary services also took up nearby residence with, for example, the main transcription companies of Grace Gibson and AWA locating themselves nearby in Phillip Street and York Street, respectively.

2. This increasingly domesticated mid-century modernity was not unique but rather one of several. For an inquiry into a 1920s more public modernity in Sydney, see Matthews (2004).

3. A colleague has suggested that the discussion here of the changing call signs of an Adelaide television station is distracting. I am happy to suggest that the reader move immediately to the next paragraph in the text.

4. The same colleague has also pointed out that neither film was originally intended to be shot in Sydney and has suggested that I might have chosen a more ‘televisual’ film here, such as They're a Weird Mob, which now retails in DVD form. I am still coming to grips with this suggestion.

5. Water Rats appeared between 1996 and 2001. It was produced by Southern Star for the Nine Network, with Hal McElroy acting as executive producer. Altogether, 177 hour-long episodes were produced. The series starred Colin Friels and later Steve Bisley.

6. The identification of the suburban locations of the comedy and social realist programs that follow here was supplied in a series of interviews with their originating producers, writers and directors, mostly undertaken by the author between 1978 and 1981; cf. Moran (1985).

7. Pizza appeared between 2001 and 2006 and consisted of five seasons. It was produced by Paul French Productions, and was later revamped as Da Vinci Cup and broadcast on SBS Television.