Localism in Australian radio 1931-2007 : from commercial radio to ‘your’ ABC in Mackay

Media regulation is not an anachronism; it has a real role in protecting public interests. Localism in radio fulfils a civic function in regional communities. But it cannot operate effectively in commercial radio without a strong policy framework. A study of localism policies in Australian commercial radio reveals the long-term effects of broadcast regulation and deregulation on commercial radio’s programming and practices. For many decades the cultural practice of listening to the radio was a very different experience in rural and urban Australia. Commercial radio stations were an audio ‘parish pump’ for their local communities. Some 80 per cent of the community tuned in to their local station and listeners developed a degree of ‘ownership’ of their sole commercial radio service. Commercial radio is an influential yet underrated medium and a neglected area of research although it attracts Australia’s biggest radio audiences. The sector is dominated by regional commercial radio services which outnumber their metropolitan peers in a ratio of six to one. For close to 70 years government broadcast-localism policies created a unique form of commercial radio in non-metropolitan Australia. A case study of commercial radio from 1931 ─ 2007 in the north Queensland town of Mackay demonstrates radio’s significant impact on community identity formation and reinforcement. Commercial radio exercised considerable social, cultural and political power in regional Australia during a period of government-endorsed broadcast monopolies. In regional Australia, localism regulations displaced advertising as the predominant constituting force of commercial radio’s discourse, programming, practices, profitability and structure. Local ownership and local content were actively supported by successive governments as a support for rural communities and a form of resistance to metropolitanism. Listening to the sole local commercial radio station became a community-defining practice. Radio audiences accord a high level of trust to the medium and this feature was enhanced for rural Australians by localism requirements. Radio remains the key site for broadcast localism in regional Australia. Deregulation in the 1990s catalysed a radio boom with new commercial stations opening across the nation. A consequence of this plurality of services has been a decline in live and local programming as network owners use syndicated, prerecorded and relay programming to cut costs. As a result, in many regional areas ABC local radio became the mainstay of broadcast localism. The opposing forces of globalisation and localisation are at their most apparent in the development trajectory of regional commercial radio in Australia. Commercial radio services no longer reflect distinct communities; local content is minimal and national and global matters predominate.