Three Seconds of Silence

By “Awake!” correspondent in Australia

EVERY night at 7 o’clock those listeners in Australia who have their radios turned to the National Broadcasting Station in their area hear a dispassionate voice proclaim, “This is the Australian Broadcasting Commission. Eastern standard time is 7 o’clock.” Then follow the five pips of the time signal, followed by a fanfare and again by another dispassionate voice that says, “Here is the news.”

Few people are aware of the tremendous amount of activity that takes place in the vital “three seconds of silence” between the time signals and the fanfare. During those three seconds at least twenty-eight persons in six Australian states have performed some function connected with the switching of the program. Thus the national system in all states has been prepared to accept the program from the originating studio in Sydney, New South Wales.

But what has led up to this vital “three seconds of silence”?

The Australian System

In Australia there is a unique system of broadcasting. As in most other countries, however, there is the usual commercial broadcasting arrangement, Australia having more than one hundred commercial radio stations. Since the stations are dependent upon the advertisers, the advertisers to a great extent determine the type of program. When the programs are slanted toward the majority preference, the quality can deteriorate.

By an Act of Parliament, however, a commission was formed to assure good broadcasting​—the Australian Broadcasting Commission. The commission is politically independent. Funds for its operation are covered to a large measure by the license fees paid by every householder of the community who possesses a radio or television receiver.

The obligation of the commission is to supply a broad-coverage program of exceptionally high quality. This would provide for the listener or viewer whose needs are, to a large extent, overlooked by the commercial stations. To accomplish this, there are three separate programs: National, Regional and Interstate. These three programs are broadcast in each state at the same time.

Without the need to pander to the tastes of a commercial sponsor, the commission can design programs that provide for all sections of the community: news broadcasts, orchestral music, parliamentary procedure, chamber music, current affairs, commentaries, lighter programs for the younger generation, and so forth. All this has a benefit for the Australian listener or viewer in general.

Consequently, commercial stations in Australia are disinclined from allowing their programs to fall below a level of presentation that might cause their listeners or viewers to reach for the tuning knob.

The Technical Aspect

The technical aspect of broadcasting and televising is mainly the province of the Postmaster General’s Department (PMG). It operates radio, telephone and telegraph services and fourteen capital-city radio broadcast transmitters, dozens of regional (country) broadcast transmitters, many shortwave transmitters, and a large percentage of the television transmitters.

Studio equipment is operated by the commission, but once the program leaves the studios, the PMG Department takes over, providing the amplifiers, the switching and the hundreds of miles of program lines all over the nation.

Program lines are of specially high quality, with a frequency response that allows the passage of audio frequencies without noticeable distortion. Daily tests are carried out on these lines to ensure that the distortion factor does not exceed 1 or 2 percent.

Regional transmitters broadcast a program almost exclusively supplied by the appropriate capital-city studios. However, there are facilities for local programs to be inserted from regional studios along the route. A news staff at these studios gathers and broadcasts local news, items of local interest, and sometimes a locally arranged program of music.

Usually, a local program is provided by these regional studios just before 7 o’clock each evening.

The Vital Three Seconds

The time has come for action. What is happening? The regional announcer, while giving his local news and announcements, is listening on the headphones to the voice of the capital-city announcer as it comes up the line. He synchronizes his own announcements so that when the capital-city announcer is saying, ‘This is the Australian Broadcasting Commission. Eastern standard time is 7 o’clock,” he is saying the same thing. He then closes his microphone and throws a switch that connects the capital-city studio to his transmitter.

This action is being duplicated by all regional announcers all over the country at this instant. The capital-city announcer operates his time-signal key, and five pips of the time signal are heard over all stations in the state. At the same time as he operates his time-signal key, the capital-city announcer pushes his network button and dozens of indicator lights flash on as the national, regional and interstate networks coalesce.

Now follow the “three seconds of silence.”

Each of the capital-city announcers has been listening to the voice of the central announcer coming up along the program line, and now, after hearing the time signal from the Central Studio, they all switch off their own time signals and throw a key that connects the Central Studio to their own equipment. This means that now the Central Studio in Sydney has access to the furthermost transmitter in the country (with the exception of Western Australia), via the program line to that particular state, via the capital-city studios, via the switchroom, via the various trunk test rooms and via the local regional studios.

The central announcer operates a key. Three seconds after the final time pip, the opening notes of the fanfare introducing the news blare across the nation.

Thousands of miles of program lines are involved, hundreds of amplifiers, and dozens of men, all engaged in bringing the listener those “three seconds of silence.”