Editor’s Remarks: Radio Downunder - New Zealand, Australia, and Radio’s Diversity

Abstract

This issue of the Journal of Radio & Audio Media features the symposium, “Radio Downunder” radio research with a focus on New Zealand and Australia edited by Rufus McEwan and Matt Mollgaard (McEwan & Mollgaard, 2021). The two countries’ radio broadcasting encompasses dual networks, major deregulation, community radio, language, and other considerations. In “Comparing Australian, British, Canadian, and U.S. Broadcasting: The 1934 Radio Reports Compiled by Australian Broadcasting Commissioner E.M.R. Couchman” Michael Socolow employs an historical approach with his research about May Couchman’s archival records about her travels through the United States, Canada, and finally to England. Socolow underscores that her role was not only omitted from history but also ignored by contemporaries. He explains that her recommendations that “A.B.C. pursue programs about ‘Aborigines or Half Castes’ in 1933” as well as her report on ABC management were ignored (Socolow, 2021, p. 101). An additional historical survey to the present in “Dollars and Listeners”: Revisiting the Great New Zealand Radio Experiment of Market Deregulation”, Rufus McEwan and Matt Mollgaard conclude thirty years after deregulation and responding to The Great New Zealand Radio Experiment that “commercial radio can thrive if through solid branding, multiplatform distribution, and a clear value proposition to both audiences and advertisers it can find an equilibrium that maximizes both ‘Dollars and Listeners’ (McEwan & Mollgaard, 2021, p. 177). Australian and New Zealand broadcasting to the Pacific is an ongoing “balancing act” of culture and audiences. “International Broadcasting Downunder: A Content Analysis of Organizational Submissions to the Review of Australian Broadcasting Services in the Asia Pacific” by Andrew M. Clark investigates using a content analysis of organizational submissions to the Review of Australian Broadcasting Services in the Asia Pacific, which allows for a study of Radio New Zealand International and Radio Australia’s efforts to reach audiences throughout the Pacific region (Clark, 2021). Clark concludes, “The battle for the hearts and minds of audiences throughout the region is not lessening, if JOURNAL OF RADIO & AUDIO MEDIA 2021, VOL. 28, NO. 1, 1–4 https://doi.org/10.1080/19376529.2021.1917925