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Communication

Opening 6IX, 1933Western Australia's sense of isolation from Australia and the world has been reduced since Federation through improved communications. First telegraph, then radio, television and finally the internet have connected the State with the world.

Radio boomThe inaugural broadcast by a local radio station was by 6WF in 1924. It wasn't until 1933, however, that the first Australia-wide radio broadcast took place. For the next twenty years radio was the only means of national mass-communication. Movie newsreels lacked the immediacy of radio while newspapers were local and daily.

Television arrivesThe first television broadcast in 1959 helped change the perspective of Western Australians as they were open to national broadcasting and international programs, chiefly American and British. Since then more television channels have been introduced. The last commercial channel to begin operating in Perth was channel 10 in 1984, while SBS began broadcasting in 1986. The move to national TV 'networks' has resulted in less Australian program content generated from the West.

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