How a Groundbreaking Three-Month Experiment Revolutionized Australia's TV Scene

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In celebration of 50 years on air, SBS is airing a powerful documentary that tells the story of how a bold experiment in ethnic broadcasting became a platform for some of the most important voices in modern Australian history.

This hour-long special episode of Living Black traces the broadcaster’s evolution from its early days as a fledgling multicultural radio service to its current status as a national leader in Indigenous storytelling.

Told through the eyes of prominent broadcasters, trailblazing journalists and community leaders, including Ray Martin, Rhoda Roberts, Frances Rings, and Catherine Liddle, the documentary examines not just a media history, but a story of cultural transformation.

Among them is Living Black presenter Karla Grant, who this year marks 30 years with the broadcaster. She takes viewers on an emotional journey through decades of groundbreaking reporting, from coverage of the historic Sydney Harbour Bridge Walk for Reconciliation in 2000 to the 2008 apology to the Stolen Generations and the 2023 Voice to Parliament referendum.

“At its core, my job is to document the many challenges facing First Nations people and give them a voice,” Grant said.

“And I can’t help but wonder how diminished that voice would be if NITV and SBS didn’t exist.”

A radical idea

Born from a need to communicate changes to the Australian population about a new healthcare reform, Medicare, the immigration minister at the time, Al Grassby, suggested the creation of a radio service designed primarily to speak to multicultural Australia.

“It was the simple problem of communication. So, the idea was to have an experiment in communication,” he said at the time.

What followed was the creation of two experimental radio stations, 2EA in Sydney and 3EA in Melbourne. The letters EA stood for “Ethnic Australia”. The experiment was originally meant to last only 3 months, but it was extended and continued to evolve.

Giving a voice to First Nations stories

At the time, one of the most urgent gaps in Australian media was the absence of First Nations voices. It was a void that SBS would gradually, and then decisively, work to fill.

In 1989, First In Line became the very first Aboriginal current affairs show in the country. Presented by Rhoda Roberts and Michael Johnson and supported by a team of First Nations journalists and producers, their stories were finally told nationally in prime time.

Veteran journalist Ray Martin remembered the impact of the program.

“I think it was really important that SBS looked at First Nations stories for the first time. We knew more about Greeks and Italians in this multicultural network than we knew about Aboriginal peoples,” he said.

Over the years, SBS continued to lead the way with its Indigenous news content. It aired the Indigenous Current Affairs Magazine program and Living Black, along with a swathe of important documentaries, including First Contact and The Australian Wars. NITV, founded in 2007, became a part of the broadcaster in 2012.

From crisis to innovation

SBS has also faced its fair share of challenges. In 2014, the Abbott government announced a cut of $54 million over five years from SBS’s budget, forcing a rethink of operations. But adversity sparked innovation.

Tanya Orman, who was a channel manager at NITV at the time, recalls how the broadcaster pivoted.

“We put as much money as we could into content. Technology was changing, so we experimented by broadcasting live from the Garma Festival, and creating new models for remote production,” Orman said.

“We problem-solved our way through it.”

Part of the problem-solving came in the training for the next generation of reporters.

Years earlier, Grant had helped advocate for an Indigenous cadetship program at the broadcaster. Today, that program has produced some of the country’s top journalists, including Nakari Thorpe, now with ABC News.

“I applied because I never saw my community in the news,” Thorpe said.

“The cadetship changed my life. You’re not just learning journalism, you’re learning how to tell our stories, with truth and respect.”

“I think people would be surprised how many First Nations journalists started at NITV,” SBS Managing Director James Taylor said.

“We’re a platform for excellence in Indigenous storytelling and that must grow.”

As Australia continues to grapple with questions of identity, inclusion and reconciliation, this program serves as a timely reminder of the power of public broadcasting to not only reflect a nation, but to help shape it.

‘Redefining Australia: 50 Years of SBS’ airs tonight at 8:30pm on SBS and SBS On Demand.