How Queensland got its first radio station 4QG in 1925
"Hello, hello," were the first muffled words to be heard.
"Station 4QG, Brisbane Queensland radio service. Stand by for tune-in signal."
On July 27, 1925, the Queensland government launched 4QG, which would eventually become ABC Radio Brisbane.
The launch was fraught with technical difficulties, and a speech by premier William Gillies was partially drowned out by microphone distortion and a loud hum coming from the generator.
Despite the hiccups, The Telegraph's front page declared the moment to be a technological leap forward for the state.
"Guests unversed in the wireless method of communication marvelled at the thought of sound being conveyed from one part of the building to another without any physical connection between the sending and receiving instruments," the paper reported.
"But their astonishment grew when they learned that the Premier's message was travelling to the far-flung borders of the State at the rate of 186,000 miles a second, to be caught up on a piece of wire stretched between two gum trees on some lonely farm, or to find its way into the home of a citizen in Cairns or Camooweal."
The radio station was situated inside the top floor of the State Insurance Building on the corner of Elizabeth and George streets and was built in just four weeks.
4QG, the first state-owned radio station in Australia, was run entirely as a not-for-profit public broadcaster for the people of Queensland.
Speaking at the launch, Mr Gillies said Queensland's foray into public radio would set an example for the rest of Australia.
"The Queensland state government considered that wireless should be owned by the people and operated solely for the people's benefit and not for the purpose of commercial gain," he said.
"It considered that wireless was so potential a force for good that it decided it would be against all ethics of right government to permit of its operations and functioning for the purpose of private profit making."
The premier would be proven correct in his predictions that the rest of Australia would follow Queensland's lead.
Seven years later, 4QG became part of the Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC) at its inception on July 1, 1932.
The ABC launched 4QR in Brisbane on January 7, 1938, which had a more national focus in a style which would become Radio National.
4QG retained its local Brisbane focus, shifting across the AM Band on 779.2AM, 760.5AM, 760AM, 800AM, 790AM, 590AM and 580AM, before finding its permanent home on 612AM in 1978.
In 1983, the Australian Broadcasting Commission was renamed the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
To celebrate 100 years of local radio, 612 ABC Brisbane will be broadcasting live from Queen Street Mall on July 25, 2025.
Loretta Ryan, Joel Spreadborough, Steve Austin, Kat Feeney, and Ellen Fanning will be broadcasting their programs live throughout the day.

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