ABSTRACT
No country, it was said, had embraced radio so eagerly. Australians listened to their sets for long hours compared to people in other countries and at the beginning of 1940 had twenty-five ABC stations and ninety-eight commercial stations serving them across the continent.1 The radio told them of a world, a reality, that broadcasters and listeners shared together - the everyday ordinary; this world was presented as their domain, the sum-total of their normal social experiences. But in special programmes radio told them of another world, a world that was separate, distanced, from their daily lives. This was the outside world of public occasions, political wranglings, and unusual events. Radio brought its listeners news of the non-ordinary in the comfort and security of their own homes, their daily lives.
