REVIEW: Radio Australia speaking to the world

Review of Australia Calling: The ABC Radio Australia Story, by Phil Kafcaloudes

Abstract

Australia Calling: The ABC Radio Australia Story, by Phil Kafcaloudes, ABC Books, 2022. 224 pages. ISBN: 9780646852430.

RADIO AUSTRALIA was conceived at the beginning of the Second World War out of Canberra’s desire to counter Japanese propaganda in the Pacific. More than 70 years later its rebirth is being driven by a similarly urgent need to counter propaganda, this time from China. Set up within the towering framework of the ABC, Radio Australia was, and remains, an institution with a lively multilingual culture of its own. Sometimes it has thrived and sometimes, especially in recent decades, it has struggled as political priorities and media fashions waxed and waned within the ABC and the wider world.