background briefing 3-1 .............10

Jewel in the crown

Among the most vivid memories of my childhood are recollections of the ABC. In the morning, at seven o'clock on a weekday, my father would be appealing for search party. "Where are my studs?" he would cry. My mother would lead the search until finally they were found - devilish little creatures that connected the separate collar to his starched shirt. And through it all, in the background, came the mellifluous sound of voices and music. Morning Melody was the program. Familiar, and some unfamiliar, classics would fill our lives and start a lifelong journey with the world of music that ABC Classic FM continues to this day. A precious journey, enriching the spirit and reminding us every day of eternal things that remain through all the crises, big and small, of life.

I am not talking here of 25 years ago, when ABC Classic FM and this magazine were launched. I am taking you back to the age of the wireless - the years of the '40s and '50s in Australia. I do not say that these were perfect days, or that the ABC was perfect, at least before ABC Classic FM came on the scene. These were the days of Australia mid-century and the ABC was a reflection of the country, with all its strengths and weaknesses. Hardly a word was spoken about, or by, Aboriginal citizens. Gays had to keep their heads down. And if ever they yearned for liberation they were quickly reminded of what had happened to Sir Eugene Goossens or to Claudio Arrau, when he came to Sydney and was entrapped by police.

Everything changes. Most change is for the better. Nostalgia envelops the past, and the pain of remembering unpleasant things channels memory into pleasing thoughts. Just imagine listening for the very first time to a Chopin Mazurka or to one of Mahler's haunting songs. All Australians of sensibility owe an unpayable debt to their parents and loved ones who turned the dial, in their earliest childhood, to the ABC. They thereby opened the treasure-house of classical music. But they also owe a huge debt to the ABC itself. To the management, the programmers, the announcers, the performers. Where would we be without the ABC? Certainly, we would be a different and much less civilised country.

At about the time ABC Classic FM was born, and I became addicted to a new dimension of sound quality, I toured the United States for a month on an exchange program. I came to know the generosity and hospitality of Americans in their homes. But I missed the ABC. The unyielding diet of corny or trivial broadcasts on radio and television in America drove me to distraction. Public broadcasters seemed to spend half their time begging for money.

I told my hosts that in Australia, and other lands, enjoying quality and varied broadcasts was considered part of a citizen's birthright. A properly funded public broadcaster was an element of the cement that bound the nation together. My hosts were sceptical. "We would never let the government get its hands on broadcasting," they said. I tried to explain the traditions of independence and neutrality. I came to realise that some things, between America and Australia, were just different. By the end of the month, I was longing for a return to advertisement-free, top-quality, ABC Classic FM.

Over the years, I have come to appreciate the unique role that ABC Classic FM plays in public broadcasting. Of how it supports local classical music, symphony orchestras and gifted artists. Of how it encourages local recordings and Australian creativity and composition. Last year I was associated with the launch of Gerard Willems's heroic CD recordings of the entire collection of Beethoven piano sonatas. This, and much more, would not have been possible without the support of ABC Classic FM.

We open the newspaper. It is full of the controversies of the day. Letter writers denounce what they see as cutbacks to the ABC - "the cultural and intellectual backbone of this nation." The writer demands, "Do Australians really not care if there is no alternative to the mindless drivel on commercial stations?" Yet for every letter of this kind, another denounces the "whining of ABC addicts", who have "shown us the type of people taxpayers are providing with entertainment." "There's no one happier than I to see the end of this indulgence," declared a correspondent. "For too long we have funded this untidy rabble of bias and pomposity."

In a free country, we are all entitled to have our views on this and other debates. But through all the clatter, many changes and sadly not a few cutbacks, the ABC sails on. It is still a daily companion for our lives.

Somewhere out there in radioland is a boy or girl whose family turns the dial to ABC Classic FM at seven in the morning. The search for the elusive shirt studs may be no more. But eternal Bach still comes across the airways. Why we love these classics is a bit of a mystery. It is probably some deep genetic search for pattern, order, harmony and occasional cacophony that reflects life itself.

Yet for Australians, it is still our birthright. As we enter the second century of our Federation, we should preserve and strengthen the ABC, our national broadcaster. At the beginning of the second quarter-century of ABC Classic FM, as a citizen and a listener, I express grateful thanks. It is one of the jewels of the first century of Australia's nationhood of which we can be unreservedly proud.

Michael Kirby is a Justice of the High Court of Australia. Reprinted from 24 Hours magazine.