As radio established and grew in the 1930s, the Australian Broadcasting Control Board expected that radio stations, particularly in regional areas, would contribute to and strengthen their communities.
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At the same time, station owners looked for ways to grow and diversify their audience and lock in audience loyalty.
Before long, children's listener programs were born. By the 1940s some 400,000 children across Australia had joined up and were committed listeners.
Nearly every family in the nation, if they had a radio, also had at least one child enrolled to their local station's club.
And in Tasmania, we took to the trend with gusto.
The first club in the state began in 1935, when the new Burnie station 7BU developed its programming schedule.
It had just been set up by Launceston's Findlay family, and 20-year-old Cliffe Parish offered to run a children's club.
When station manager Arthur Towner agreed, Parish named his program the Sunpolishers Club, with himself as compere "Uncle Cliffe".
He'd just seen a new film featuring a gay quickstep called "Who's polished the sun (and rubbed out the clouds of grey)?" and saw its cheerful outlook as an antidote to the depression then enveloping Tasmania.
It became the signing-off theme song of the show. The club immediately took off.
Children could officially join by sending in a stamp, and receive an impressive numbered membership certificate in return.
Programming was easy, as children loved serial stories, competitions, songs and news, and fell over each other to ring and write in with anecdotes, jokes, messages and requests.
When the Findlay family sold 7BU at the beginning of 1938 and immediately started 7DY, Cliffe Parish moved to Derby as manager of the new station.
There he began a new chapter of the Sunpolishers Club, establishing it as a joint 7BU/7DY enterprise under his stewardship, with 5000 members carried over.
The joint club exploded in popularity, with comperes "Uncle Cliffe" Parish, "Aunty Pam" Findlay (borrowed from 7LA), "Sunny Jim" Trethewie, "Aunt Betty" Raymond and "Uncle Bob". Before long it was said that there wasn't a child under 14 in the North-East who wasn't a member!
This success prompted 7HO Hobart to start their own "Pals Club" a few weeks later.
It rocketed up to 5000 members within weeks, and started many careers in entertainment through its talent quests.
At the same time in Launceston, 7LA began their Juveniles' Club, and later began separate Boys' Club and Girls' Club.
Like at 7HO, these exploded in popularity, particularly under the stewardship of "Aunt Celia" (Edith Pearn) in the 1940s and 50s, when social nights were hosted, and entire radio programmes were filled by children's contributions.
In 1954 the Findlays opened 7SD in Scottsdale to replace 7DY, with a more powerful transmitter, and by 1960 the Sunpolishers alone had around 20,000 members.
They were good times, and far more satisfying entertainment than social media!
- Connect with the past, visit Launceston Historical Society - Facebook.com/launcestonhistory
