Overview
Released in Australia in late 1982 as ABC Records 2ABCL 8206, The Big Broadcast 1932–1982 marked the Australian Broadcasting Commission’s fiftieth anniversary, which fell on 1 July that year. Presented in a gatefold sleeve, the double LP assembled a sound montage of news, politics, sport, comedy, drama and music, drawing on Australian broadcasts alongside material from Britain and the United States.
Each side covered a different period: the ABC’s pioneering years from 1932 to 1939; the Second World War; postwar development from 1945 to 1960; and the social, political and technological changes of 1960–1982. The selection ranged from Con Charlton’s announcement on the ABC’s first day of transmission to wartime speeches, the Melbourne Olympics, the Moon landing and the dismissal of the Whitlam government.
An excerpt from ‘Love Me Do’ appears as the seventh listed item on side four, placing The Beatles within the album’s survey of the 1960s. Later on the same side, ‘The Long and Winding Road’ is credited to Paul McCartney, providing a further connection. Both appear within the documentary montage, where music helps evoke the changing times alongside the spoken recordings.
