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SBS Radio
SBS Radio is an Australian radio network owned by the Special Broadcasting Service directed towards newly arrived immigrants in Australia. It originally began as two stations based in Melbourne and Sydney, set up to provide pre-recorded information about the then-new Medibank health care system in languages other than English. Nowadays, the network targets the estimated 4+ million Australians who speak a language other than English at home with programs in 68 languages.
Like SBS Television, SBS Radio supplements its government funding with paid-for information campaigns for government agencies and non-profit organisations as well as commercial advertising and sponsorship.
The history of SBS Radio goes back to the 1970s when the government started considering the demand for broadcasting in languages other than English after a mass-influx of foreign-born populace post World War Two.[citation needed]
In January 1975, Al Grassby, the Commissioner of Community Relations at the time, approached future members of the SBS executive board about his intention to start up two experimental radio stations in Sydney and Melbourne, which would almost always broadcast in non-English languages, on a budget of around $67,000.[citation needed] The amount was sufficient to pay for two broadcasters per program and rented studios in the two cities.[citation needed]
On 12 May 1975, the ABC established 3ZZ in Melbourne, which broadcast predominantly in languages other than English.
After some months of planning, on 9 June 1975, 2EA (EA standing for Ethnic Australia), opened in Sydney by Al Grassby, with the first language heard on 2EA being Greek. Not long afterwards, on 23 June 3EA opened in Melbourne. Both stations operated under 3-month temporary licenses, with 42 hour per week schedules in seven and eight languages, respectively. The initial purposes of the stations were to inform ethnic communities about proposed changes in the healthcare system via the new Medibank scheme. By the end of the year the two stations were broadcasting in Arabic, Cantonese, Croatian, German, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Maltese, Mandarin, Polish, Russian, Serbian, Slovenian, Spanish, and Turkish.
Studios were first located at the 2CBA studios in Five Dock in Sydney, and in the Armstrong Audio Video studios in southern Melbourne. In May 1976, the Consultative Committee on Ethnic Broadcaster was founded to plan out the future of ethnic broadcasting. That same year, four new languages, Dutch, French, Polish and Romanian were added to 3EA's schedule; this pales in comparison to the nineteen languages added to 2EA's lineup, which included Armenian, Assyrian, Bangla, Czech, Dutch, Estonian, French, Gujarati, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Portuguese, Punjabi, Slovak, Tamil, Ukrainian and Urdu. It was also around this time that the two stations had ceased to be known as "experimental stations", and that they had become permanent.
During 1977, programming and language coverage expanded to 119 hours per week in 33 languages on 2EA and 103 hours per week in 22 languages on 3EA. Of the 33 languages on 2EA, three languages, Finnish, Romanian, and Vietnamese, had only been added that year, and of the 22 on 3EA, four languages, Bulgarian, Estonian, Hungarian, and Portuguese, were new additions.
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SBS Radio
SBS Radio is an Australian radio network owned by the Special Broadcasting Service directed towards newly arrived immigrants in Australia. It originally began as two stations based in Melbourne and Sydney, set up to provide pre-recorded information about the then-new Medibank health care system in languages other than English. Nowadays, the network targets the estimated 4+ million Australians who speak a language other than English at home with programs in 68 languages.
Like SBS Television, SBS Radio supplements its government funding with paid-for information campaigns for government agencies and non-profit organisations as well as commercial advertising and sponsorship.
The history of SBS Radio goes back to the 1970s when the government started considering the demand for broadcasting in languages other than English after a mass-influx of foreign-born populace post World War Two.[citation needed]
In January 1975, Al Grassby, the Commissioner of Community Relations at the time, approached future members of the SBS executive board about his intention to start up two experimental radio stations in Sydney and Melbourne, which would almost always broadcast in non-English languages, on a budget of around $67,000.[citation needed] The amount was sufficient to pay for two broadcasters per program and rented studios in the two cities.[citation needed]
On 12 May 1975, the ABC established 3ZZ in Melbourne, which broadcast predominantly in languages other than English.
After some months of planning, on 9 June 1975, 2EA (EA standing for Ethnic Australia), opened in Sydney by Al Grassby, with the first language heard on 2EA being Greek. Not long afterwards, on 23 June 3EA opened in Melbourne. Both stations operated under 3-month temporary licenses, with 42 hour per week schedules in seven and eight languages, respectively. The initial purposes of the stations were to inform ethnic communities about proposed changes in the healthcare system via the new Medibank scheme. By the end of the year the two stations were broadcasting in Arabic, Cantonese, Croatian, German, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Maltese, Mandarin, Polish, Russian, Serbian, Slovenian, Spanish, and Turkish.
Studios were first located at the 2CBA studios in Five Dock in Sydney, and in the Armstrong Audio Video studios in southern Melbourne. In May 1976, the Consultative Committee on Ethnic Broadcaster was founded to plan out the future of ethnic broadcasting. That same year, four new languages, Dutch, French, Polish and Romanian were added to 3EA's schedule; this pales in comparison to the nineteen languages added to 2EA's lineup, which included Armenian, Assyrian, Bangla, Czech, Dutch, Estonian, French, Gujarati, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Portuguese, Punjabi, Slovak, Tamil, Ukrainian and Urdu. It was also around this time that the two stations had ceased to be known as "experimental stations", and that they had become permanent.
During 1977, programming and language coverage expanded to 119 hours per week in 33 languages on 2EA and 103 hours per week in 22 languages on 3EA. Of the 33 languages on 2EA, three languages, Finnish, Romanian, and Vietnamese, had only been added that year, and of the 22 on 3EA, four languages, Bulgarian, Estonian, Hungarian, and Portuguese, were new additions.