The Impact of a Bold Three-Month Trial on Australia's Television Industry

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As SBS marks its 50th anniversary, it presents a compelling documentary showcasing the transformation of a daring venture in ethnic broadcasting that paved the way for influential voices in Australia’s contemporary history.

This special episode of Living Black, lasting an hour, chronicles the broadcaster’s journey from its debut as a multicultural radio service to its present position as a forefront authority in Indigenous narratives.

Narrated through the experiences of notable broadcasters, pioneering journalists, and community figureheads like Ray Martin, Rhoda Roberts, Frances Rings, and Catherine Liddle, the documentary is not solely a media retrospective but a chronicle of cultural evolution.

One of the narrators is Living Black host Karla Grant, celebrating her 30th year with SBS. She guides viewers through the emotional landscape of significant reports, from the iconic Sydney Harbour Bridge Walk for Reconciliation in 2000, the 2008 apology to the Stolen Generations, to the recent 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.

This journey began with the establishment of two trial radio stations, 2EA in Sydney and 3EA in Melbourne, where “EA” symbolized “Ethnic Australia”. Initially planned as a three-month trial, the endeavor was extended and continued to thrive.

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.

By 1989, First In Line emerged as the country’s inaugural Aboriginal current affairs program. Hosted by Rhoda Roberts and Michael Johnson, supported by a dedicated team of First Nations journalists and producers, it brought their stories to a national audience 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.