ABC radio starts its Adelaide broadcasts through 5CL and 5AN from Hindmarsh Square in the 1930s

ABC announcer Stafford Dyson in the 5CL/5AN studios in Hindmarsh Square, Adelaide, in 1939.
Images courtesy Warwick Kemp

ABC (Australian Broadcasting Commission, later Corporation) radio was started nationally by the federal government in 1932, based on the British Broadcasting Corporation model.

In Adelaide, the ABC took over the privately owned 5CL that had been given an A Class broadcasting licence in 1925. 5CL was joined by 5AN as the other Adelaide ABC station in 1937. 5AN became the more Adelaide oriented station while 5CL (now part of the Radio National network) would take ABC network recorded programmes such as the children’s Argonauts, classical music and, later, the outlet for federal parliament broadcasts.

The two ABC stations would take over the former Congregational Church, used by the previous commercial Australian Broadcasting Company’s 5CL, and adjoining stables in Hindmarsh Square, Adelaide. (It also used "Football House" on the opposite side of the square). The church and its outbuildings also housed an orchestral studio and PMG (post master general technical workshops). Referred to as a “rabbit warren”, the complex lacked soundproofing.

5AN started transmitting in 1937 with equipment in the Adelaide central telephone exchange and a radio mast in Post Office Place, Adelaide. The station transmitter was moved to Brooklyn Park, already the site of 5CL’s transmitter, in 1944. The radio mast was moved  in 1952 to make way for a road to the projected West Beach airport. This prompted a transmitter site to be found in fields at Pimpala, near, Reynella, opened in 1961 by the postmaster general C. W. Davidson.

ABC radio also built a regional network in South Australia, starting with 5CK (now called ABC North and West SA), based at Port Pirie and transmitting from Crystal Brook since 1932 as the ABC's fourth regional station. Initially, 5CK was a split-programme station between local material and relay from 5CL. This switched in 1937 to taking a relay from 5AN (with more sport, current affairs and light entertainement) in 1937. The other ABC regional stations are ABC Riverland (1062AM) at Renmark and ABC South-East SA at Mount Gambier (1476AM) and Naracoorte (1161AM). Broken Hill also received programmes from 5AN.

South Australian rural news is also gathered by ABC reporters and broadcast through the long-running Country Hour.

The ABC was funded by listeners’ licence fees until the 1970s. Initial plans to permit advertising on the ABC were dropped soon.