Preserving Audio Heritage: Keith Ellison's Passion for Vintage Radio - Life Bursts Episode 58

In this fascinating episode of Life Bursts, hosts Matthew Carratt and Sarah Freeman sit down with Keith Ellison, a passionate collector and curator of South Australian radio history. Keith shares his journey of preserving and showcasing his father's extensive collection of vintage radios, tape recorders, and other audio equipment.

Keith's story begins with his father's involvement in the radio manufacturing industry during the 1950s and 60s. Working for Jack Ferry at Ferry Sound Industries, Keith's father was part of a thriving local industry that produced radios and tape recorders. In his retirement, Keith's father began collecting these vintage pieces, eventually amassing over 400 items in a registered private museum within their family home.

After inheriting this collection, Keith has taken on the mantle of preserving this important piece of South Australian history. He now curates pop-up exhibitions in libraries across the state, sharing not just the physical artifacts but the stories and memories they evoke.

Key Moments:

Keith's childhood memories: "There was always reel to reel recorders and record players and all those sort of things in the house."

On the significance of South Australian manufacturing: "I think South Australia has a rich history of manufacturing a lot of different areas, not just radio, you know, even washing machines and all sorts of things. And there is no museum to celebrate that other than the Sir Thomas Playford (Museum). It's a Retired Employees association museum, which is only open once a week. But that's got quite an interesting collection of things that were made in South Australia. So that's something I'll be working on in the next five years. Probably is, trying to get something established."

Describing the Jack Ferry collection: "The Jack Ferry collection is a very specific collection. The History Trust of South Australia said to me at the time when I was packing up the museum, this is significant collection for South Australia."

On the importance of preserving this history: "Even though I'm only there for a short period of time setting it up and packing up... People come past, typically parents with their kids or grandparents with their children and their grandchildren and just seeing this equipment tricks off stories and, and things between generations that wouldn't have been tricked off if they didn't see it now."

Keith's advice for life: "As your life develops and your, your working career evolves, it's just be prepared to roll with the changes... Be prepared to evolve and change and consider it as an opportunity rather than a, a brick wall."

FAQs:

Question: How did Keith acquire this collection?
Answer: Keith inherited the collection from his father, who had collected and repaired vintage radio and audio equipment, creating a registered private museum in their family home.

Question: Where can people see Keith's collection?
Answer: Keith curates pop-up exhibitions in libraries across South Australia, usually during the History Festival in May each year. He also has his entire collection catalogued on radiomuseum.org.

Question: What's unique about the Jack Ferry collection?
Answer: The Jack Ferry collection consists of about 30 items specific to South Australian radio manufacturing from the 1950s and early 1960s. It represents a significant piece of local industrial history.

Keith's dedication to preserving this slice of South Australian history is truly admirable. His pop-up exhibitions not only showcase the technological advancements of the past but also serve as a catalyst for intergenerational storytelling and memory sharing. As we move further into the digital age, efforts like Keith's become increasingly important in maintaining our connection to the past and understanding the evolution of communication technology.

Learn more about Keith and his radio preservation efforts here: https://www.radiomuseum.org/collection/keith_ellison.html

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Episode Transcript:

**Sarah Freeman:**

Welcome to Life Bursts. I'm Sarah.
**Matthew Carratt:**

And I'm Matt and well, a bit of South Australian radio manufacturing history coming up.
**Sarah Freeman:**

Yes, welcome to Life Bursts with Matt and Sarah. My name is Sarah.
**Matthew Carratt:**

Oh well, and I'm Matt. Sarah. But in the studio we have a guest today to share a passion of his but also a little bit of his life. So welcome Keith, welcome. Yes Keith, take us back. Life for all of us started somewhere.
**Keith Ellison:**

Where did it start for you in the Unley area? I've always lived in Adelaide, went grew up through the schools, through around the Unley area and headed off. Well, I worked for John Martin's for a number of years in the 80s before they closed and then toured with a theatre company nationally in 1985 which is another whole story in itself. And then came back to Adelaide and started in the audio sound production PA area and developed on into working for in musical instrument area for a number of years without Allen's Music and then on into the commercial audio visual industry with a two different companies for 20 plus years. And now I'm just starting to wind back after 37 years in that career. But along the process my father worked in the, in the radio industry in Adelaide in the 50s and 60s.
**Sarah Freeman:**

Yeah. So tell us about your family growing up, who was around you, what's your family made?
**Keith Ellison:**

So just one older brother. My mother and father are living in a small house in Unley and just lots of memories of my father being actively involved in not quite video broadcast like this, but audio recording and PA and all sorts of things professionally for a period up to his retirement with the Department of Agriculture. But there was always reel to reel recorders and record players and all those sort of things in the house. And as I got into my teenage and into my 20s, I started to realise more about his history from the 40s and 50s and especially when he retired and started collecting a lot of radio and audio recording equipment which eventually led to a registered private museum and the family home in Unley which was static in that location for 20 years and then he left all that to me when he passed in 2008 which is now a pop up exhibition I do in libraries and I think I've done 18 libraries now over the last five or six years, usually during the history festival in May and it's been an interesting side hobby to my career in the audio-visual industry.
**Sarah Freeman:**

Yeah. So was your mum on board with this as well?
**Keith Ellison:**

I think she just tolerated. And when my brother and I both got married and moved out of the Family home, she often said, told the story of my father saying, what are we going to do with the front room now? And my mother saying, well, it's not what I'm going to do with it, it's what you're going to do with it with your collection. And yeah, he grew it to around 400 items in that registered private museum while it was static in that location.
**Sarah Freeman:**

So was there one thing growing up that you like, weren't allowed to touch?
**Keith Ellison:**

Well, interestingly, a lot of the equipment, including the recorder that's in the front shop, the reel to reel recorders in the front shop are driven by valves and valves required a fairly high voltage. And our father never actually showed me or my older brother about how to work with valves, presumably because of the high voltages and the potential to, you know, do injury and potentially kill yourself with them. So did that stop you though? It did with valves, yes. But, you know, I had lots of interests through school and things too, sport and all sorts of other things. So electronics was not really my core area. But being a musician as well, playing drums in bands and things, it was a natural progression to get into sound reproduction, PA work, public address work and with bands and things and through into working for Allen's Music with musical instruments for 11 years. And that led me into all sorts of different areas with all sorts of different clients.
**Sarah Freeman:**

And what about your brother, does he into that as well?
**Keith Ellison:**

Yeah, so he's worked in that area too. He's now self funded retiree and I'm heading towards that retirement path. But yes, he's more in the electronic side and did all sorts of things in.
**Matthew Carratt:**

Yeah, yep, yeah, that's good. So you, I mean you mentioned too that you had this little path as a whole story in itself. Going off with a drama trip, was it? So there's a bit of creativity to you as well. Was it more the audio side of things that drew?
**Keith Ellison:**

Well, it was a production in 1985 called Regardless that toured Australia for International Youth Year and it was put together by Fusion Australia and they had started the tour. I think they'd actually asked me in late 8084 whether I would join and I'd said no at the time. And then in about March 85, they were coming through Adelaide on the way to Perth and their drummer was having to leave because his wife was having a baby. So they needed a drummer and I could also drive their truck and drive their bus and help focus their lighting rig and improve their sound system and do all sorts of other things. So I went off for about a year with that tour through to the end of 85 and then a little bit into 86 as well. And then came back to Adelaide and started in, you know, that career as an income.
**Sarah Freeman:**

Okay, so life on the road, tell us about that. Tell us some adventures.
**Keith Ellison:**

It was large theatre production. So in Adelaide, the performance was at the. Or the season was at the Arts Theatre for a week, probably eight or so performances, seven or eight performances. It was a full troupe of, you know, 30 odd people backstage cast, backstage support people cast. The lead character at that stage was Clyde Nicholas and he was still doing Humphrey at the time. So he had an understudy, a chap called Peter Grey, who I know from Melbourne. And there was quite a few Adelaide people in that tour. But it was large theatre, theatres, you know, two to 400 seat type houses. And yeah, it was a good experience.
**Sarah Freeman:**

So a lot of stress, a lot of pressure.
**Keith Ellison:**

Yeah.
**Sarah Freeman:**

How did you deal with that?
**Keith Ellison:**

Just, in fact, it was a repeat show, so it was the same show every night. So you get into a routine. But you know, it was a team effort too, full cast and crew and. But also running on the smell of an oily rag, financially wise, with Fusion Australia funding it and we were billeted out and paid an honorarium type thing. It was quite an experience. But that's coming up to 40 years next year. So I've just started to contact some of the original cast and crew to float the idea of a get together gathering.
**Matthew Carratt:**

Okay, that could be interesting. Won't do the whole show again? No, just. Just for old time's sake.
**Keith Ellison:**

Yeah, yeah.
**Matthew Carratt:**

So back in schooling, you know, but before you got to these paths, did you have some sense, you know, with all your interests, what you might love to be when you grew up?
**Keith Ellison:**

No, no, it was really, I think just in the teenage years getting involved with some local bands that were playing in pubs and recording and all those sort of things. And Rod Boucher was around in Adelaide at the time and running his home studio just up the road from me and Duthie Street. So some of my earliest bands recorded up there. And that just led to more involvement in live music and recording and then eventually into it as a career.
**Matthew Carratt:**

So there's quite a bit of recording around the place with you in the background.
**Keith Ellison:**

There are some. Yes, yes.
**Matthew Carratt:**

Okay, fantastic.
**Sarah Freeman:**

So you didn't have any idea when you were a child what you wanted to be, even though your father was doing all of this?
**Keith Ellison:**

No, it was, it wasn't. It wasn't firm in my mind, really. What he was doing. I knew what job he was doing for the Department of Agriculture with audio-visual. But that was the early days of. Well, VHS had just been released at that point and he was running a photographic studio as well. And they had the first national VHS editing suite in the southern hemisphere.
**Sarah Freeman:**

Ooh, yes, There we go. Well, we will be back with more Life Bursts with Matt and Sarah straight after.
**Matthew Carratt:**

Welcome back to Life Bursts with Matt and Sarah. And we are chatting to Keith, who has brought in these amazing.
**Sarah Freeman:**

What are you doing? It's not even on.
**Matthew Carratt:**

Some microphones, some recording equipment and all this is a part of that collection, the museum that your father had begun to collect and that you hadn't. You now carry on. So tell us a bit more of that story.
**Keith Ellison:**

Yeah, sure. So, in my father's retirement in the 80s, he started collecting a variety of different things. Some equipment he was involved in manufacturing in the. In the 1950s, a brand called Ferry Sound Industries. It was developed by a guy called Jack Ferry who passed away in 1966. But then he sort of went on to collect all sorts of other things and the front room of the family home was. Was empty and available. So.
**Sarah Freeman:**

Because you moved out, right?
**Keith Ellison:**

Yeah. So it. It progressed to shelving on every wall with a lot of equipment. And when we finally catalogued the collection and packed it up, there was over 400 items. So there's about 30 items in the Jack Ferry Collection, Ferry Sound Industries collection.
**Sarah Freeman:**

Where did he get these from? Like, did he buy them? Was this given to him?
**Keith Ellison:**

Some of them. He actually chased up the people that originally bought the equipment or. I mean, there's one recorder I've got that was in the Loxton Drive in theatre for a long time as a background music player and that closed. I don't know what year, but it closed and somehow someone knew Nev and it came back into the collection that way. So, yeah, there's probably. In the original collection of 400, there's probably close to 200 radios, mostly valve radios, some transistor radios, generally 1930s-80s. But there's also a lot of recorders, audio recorders. So reel to reel, like is down the front there.
**Matthew Carratt:**

We do have one, yeah. So for our audio listeners, we've. Yeah, it's definitely a reel to reel. That's exactly what it looks like.
**Keith Ellison:**

Heavy thing that was made in 1952, which was about their second or third version of Recorders. I have got one that's 1949, was one of their first.
**Matthew Carratt:**

How long would the tape on Those reels work for, you know, depends on.
**Keith Ellison:**

The speed you run at and the faster you go, the better the quality. The slower you go is more suited to speech, voice only, not music. Okay so yeah, that doesn't make much sense.
**Sarah Freeman:**

What do you mean slower and faster?
**Keith Ellison:**

Okay, so the actual. How fast the reels. The reels turn, turn and the tape goes past.
**Matthew Carratt:**

So they're quite large these reels. So a fair bit of tape.
**Sarah Freeman:**

Yes, it's a rectangular box of the tape on top and the controls on the front and on the top the.
**Keith Ellison:**

Well so just for voice oral history or something, you could get three or four hours on a tape at a slower speed. So but there's all sorts of other recording formats. So before tape, which reel to reel tape was followed by cassette, compact cassette which Sony were, which are a little bit smaller, made their millions out of. But prior to reel to reel tape there was recording on wire, a really thin wire on spools for a number of years which continued on into use in black boxes actually in planes for a long time and was.
**Sarah Freeman:**

How does that work?
**Keith Ellison:**

So it's still a magnetic impression. So you're taking audio through a microphone and a voltage and recording it onto a medium that has a magnetic substrate. Like there's, there's metal in it somewhere. So wire was able to do the same thing. But there's also a whole lot of dictation devices and things. Records that were magnetic substrate with a groove and a record play head that tracked across the record that was used for dictation and a lot of those sort of things. So there were a whole bunch of formats, some that didn't last very long and amongst all of those there's eight track cartridge, cartridge players that were in cars for a while.
**Sarah Freeman:**

What's that?
**Keith Ellison:**

So a square cartridge with a tape inside it that you could put into this, put into the dash of your car and it would play music.
**Sarah Freeman:**

So not like a cassette but similar.
**Keith Ellison:**

Concept but it actually had four tracks. So you could have a whole album on the tape and it would play continuously.
**Sarah Freeman:**

And how would that work? I know these things fine. And this would be. People watching may not know how this works or what you're even talking about.
**Keith Ellison:**

Yeah, so it's all about a. Yeah, a type of some format, whether it's root, a real or cassette or whatever passing over a record play head and in the record mode you're putting electrical currents in and. And impregnating things into the tape. And then on the playback you're bringing it back out into a Speaker.
**Sarah Freeman:**

There we go. So just be simple. Push it into your car.
**Keith Ellison:**

Yeah.
**Sarah Freeman:**

Press play.
**Matthew Carratt:**

So that mustn't have been. That mustn't. It was a very short season.
**Keith Ellison:**

Yeah. There were even record players in cars.
**Matthew Carratt:**

Oh wow.
**Keith Ellison:**

For a short period. Very. Lots of springs and, and things. But yeah, lots of different formats. So within the collection there's at least a couple of hundred audio recording devices, some quite rare, some that only last a very short period of time. And you know, most people know compact cassette because it was around for the longest. Yes, they're the most successful.
**Sarah Freeman:**

Tiny little record. Tiny, tiny little plastic, rectangular. I know there's Gen Z's out there that don't even know what we're talking about, right?
**Keith Ellison:**

No, they don't even know what a CD is.
**Sarah Freeman:**

They don't know what a CD is.
**Matthew Carratt:**

You see them on retro T shirts.
**Sarah Freeman:**

You know, you do, you do.
**Keith Ellison:**

And if you wanted to wind them on, you'd put a pencil through.
**Sarah Freeman:**

Yes.
**Keith Ellison:**

Turn the pencil and turn the sculpts.
**Matthew Carratt:**

Rake inside the car. Anyway.
**Keith Ellison:**

Yeah.
**Matthew Carratt:**

Memory. So you've got. So I mean a lot of these things through their eras would have been just thrown away when they broke by people. So you've been able to preserve with your dad's help.
**Keith Ellison:**

Yeah.
**Matthew Carratt:**

A number of. Of specific items.
**Keith Ellison:**

So he collected and repaired and everything in the collection was working by the end of the 80s and it stayed open as a registered private museum through to his passing in 2008. And then he left the whole lot to me and I kept the whole front room set up the way it was through until 2018. I did have it open during some history festivals, had people come from all over South Australia to see the collection. But when my mother passed in 2018, my brother and I decided to renovate and sell the property, the family home. So I started cataloguing and packing and sorting and all those things. And about the same time I was given some portable cases that were used for transporting lighting equipment and I started fitting those out as portable display, transport, storage cases for some of this equipment. So I can now just roll it into a library, stand it up, open the doors and I've got an exhibition behind Perspex. So I think in the last six years, yes, I've curated 18 pop up exhibitions in local libraries across South Australia, usually for a month or more, usually during the history festival which is always May every year. And amongst that is four cases of the Jack Ferry story and the equipment. And I have a PowerPoint presentation and I do oral history talks typically in the libraries as well, so why do you like this? Partly part of it is continuing my father's passion and vision. Secondly, that it's a good, strong Adelaide, South Australian story. Thirdly, that there's still people around that remember some of that stuff. Not for too much longer, but probably the key to it is in the library exhibitions. Even though I'm only there for a short period of time setting it up and packing it up, I don't sort of go back every week and stand around to chat to people even while I'm setting up packing up. People come past, typically parents with their kids or grandparents with their children and their grandchildren and just seeing this equipment tricks off stories and, and things between generations that wouldn't have been tricked off if they didn't see it now. And it can be. That's exactly the radio my father had and my grandfather had and we sat down around, you know, listening to Blue Hills or whatever through to. I think that's the one. But here's this story that's attached to that memory.
**Matthew Carratt:**

Yeah, that's fantastic. Well, we've got a few more props here and things that may be steering those memories for our listeners or our viewers. So we're going to come back and hear more of Keith's story and introduce you to some of these right after this.
**Sarah Freeman:**

Welcome back to Life Bursts with Matt and Sarah and today we're chatting with Keith and we've been learning a lot about radio history here in South Australia and Australia and now I'm not being cheesy like Matt and holding one of the microphones from the 1940s or 50s, but there's. You can do that though.
**Matthew Carratt:**

Yeah, we've got some great props here. We'll come back to those. Yeah, But Keith, the part of the story and this history you've mentioned someone called Jack Ferry.
**Keith Ellison:**

Yeah, yeah. So my father worked in a small factory in Mitcham or Clapham on Springbank road through the 50s pretty much from 50 through to very early 60s where they started making valve radios, then moved to wire recorders for a short period and then reel to reel tape recorders initially just as audio recorders and then with radios built in the front. And in the later part of the 50s they built school pas and all sorts of other bits and pieces until basically Japanese manufacturer and depression lifted and things. So Jack Ferry was someone my father met in the 40s, in the late 40s and started making some things for him, winding some transformers and things like that in our at home.
**Sarah Freeman:**

What's a transformer? That's not the Movie.
**Keith Ellison:**

Something that handles voltage, usually Steps voltage from 240 volts to a different voltage and has to be hand wound and, or on a winder. And is, is basically in every device that we connect to the power will have a transformer in it of some sort and it has laminations and.
**Sarah Freeman:**

Anyway, what's lamination?
**Keith Ellison:**

That's my best.
**Sarah Freeman:**

Okay, what else? Anyone?
**Keith Ellison:**

That's my best description, so I'll leave it there.
**Sarah Freeman:**

Okay.
**Keith Ellison:**

But dad. My father started making some of these things and then ended up working for Jack Ferry. Now, Jack Ferry, from this book my father published in 1988, Adelaide's early radios and Tape Recorders. There's a whole chapter on Jack Ferry. And he was the son of an Adelaide racing identity by the name of Sid Ferry. He went to Scott's college. He went into the AIF as a radar technician during the war. And when peace was declared, he came back to Adelaide and that's when he started making radios and eventually registered Ferry Sound Industries in the very early 50s and started the factory in his garage in his backyard at 99 Springbank Road, Clapham. And my father was one of four people that worked in that factory. And they produced about five machines per week, one a day. So my father wrote a whole chapter in this book about Jack Ferry. And he was an entrepreneur, an ideas man, probably like a lot of, a lot of people copied some things from English machines. And it was Depression period, so everything from overseas was quite expensive. And I suspect, you know, they'd pull their money together and buy one thing and get it here and then pull it apart and reverse engineer it and improve it and all those sort of things. But there was a lot of people involved in the, in the army and the radar units and things who had knowledge and expertise that they then wanted to use after the war. And Australian manufacture was very prominent. And in my father's research for the book, he identified that through the 1920s and 30s there was something like 45 factories in the Adelaide metro area making valve radios. And it was all. It was one way to connect with the rest of the world. I mean, newspapers would be days or weeks behind in what was happening in the world. Radio from the other side of the world caught on long wave was much more instant. Things like, you know, cricket matches in England could be. The broadcasts could be picked up. And there's a story about in Hindmarsh Square, the Healing Radio factory were there on the side of Hindmarsh Square and they had big antennas on the roof and they would pick up the cricket from England. And someone would re announce it through speakers out into Hindmarsh Square. And there's stories about in the evening, you know, people bringing in their little fires and setting up and, and listening to the cricket out there. And it would be re. I've forgotten the word I just used. But re announced, so to speak. And they would use a pencil on the table for the, you know, crack of the bat. The drama.
**Matthew Carratt:**

Yeah, good.
**Keith Ellison:**

All those sort of things. So that was the. So because my father was involved in that manufacture phase in his retirement, he started recollecting some of those machines and putting them into the collection, which is around 30 items, which is very specific to South Australia and quite unique in Australia too. There were audio manufacturers in Melbourne, particularly around the Olympics, which I think was 56 and the Queen's visit at the time there were large outdoor events and things where sound reproduction was starting to be used and a lot of it was developed in Australia. There's a story in the book about, I mean reel to reel tape recorders, you know, record something over a long period of time and then play it back. But there's a story in the book about Jack being asked to make a endless loop tape echo unit which is just a continuous loop of tape and a record head and several playback heads to be used at Elder park where they were doing large concerts with people right back onto Kingdom Road. And the stage would have been the sound shell, the advertiser sound shell at the time. And they wanted additional speakers partway back into the audience. And this endless loop tape echo created the delays for that production of sound so that as the acoustic sound travelled away from the stage, the reinforced sound was in time with it.
**Matthew Carratt:**

Wow.
**Keith Ellison:**

Okay, I don't have, I don't have a picture of that. I don't have a picture of it. I have other endless loop tape echo units. There's one in. In that I've had in display in one of my pop up exhibitions. But yeah, very ingenious things that were developed.
**Sarah Freeman:**

We've had someone else come in before and sort of explain shortwave and long wave. What is, what is.
**Keith Ellison:**

So my understanding is shortwave is for much closer distances and long wave is a really long wave which can travel around the curve of the earth much easier. So you know, to tune into the BBC or whatever. From England you'd be picking up long wave broadcast. Typically in Australia it was at night too when there was cloud cover and somehow that helped the beams refract around the earth.
**Sarah Freeman:**

So for example, way from Darwin to Adelaide would Be a shortwave.
**Keith Ellison:**

I think they were more medium, actually. But, yeah, I think shortwave would be maybe within South Australia and then medium wave across Australia and long wave around the globe, but that's a broad. So the Jack Ferry collection is a very specific collection. The History Trust of South Australia said to me at the time when I was packing up the museum, this is significant collection for South Australia, but they don't have. They have a maritime museum, a migration and a motor, not an audio museum. So.
*Correction: Short wave radio is used for terrestrial long distance international broadcasting, whilst long and medium wave have shorter ranges.*
**Matthew Carratt:**

Yep.
**Keith Ellison:**

So what you.
**Matthew Carratt:**

Yeah, what you've collected, in a way, is a.
**Keith Ellison:**

Is significant, but I found an outlet through libraries, particularly where they want to activate their spaces. They've got flexible spaces now and they want to integrate with the community and put on events and things that bring people back into their spaces.
**Sarah Freeman:**

It's wonderful learning so much today here on Life Bursts with Matt and Sarah. We'll be back straight after this. Welcome back to Life Bursts with Matt and Sarah. And today we're chatting with Keith, continuing on our radio history journey. What's next in our journey here today?
**Keith Ellison:**

And we've got a few items here that I can refer to, but first I'll refer back to the Adelaide's early radios and tape recorder.
**Matthew Carratt:**

Your dad's book.
**Keith Ellison:**

Yeah, your dad's book that is out of print in hard copy. It is available on DVD through me, where you can put it in your computer and read the whole book, but there are two copies in the state library that you can read on site. I don't think you can take them off site, but that'd be good if people start picking that up. Another thing I forgot to mention was Jack Ferry actually wrote a manual of tape recording, which I'd heard about, but I'd never actually seen. And when we were packing up the family home, I moved a black cupboard out of. Out of my father's shed, which I haven't gone totally through it, but in it I did find a manual of tape recording, a hard copy, which is the only copy I've ever found.
**Matthew Carratt:**

And this is it.
**Keith Ellison:**

And that's it right here. And I have scanned it and scanned it and archived it. But my father refers to it in his book as being a very easy to read, although it was written from a technical. From a technical person's perspective or from a technician. It was written in a very layman's terms so people could read, you know, what. What recording was and how it worked. And I haven't even read it myself properly, which is why I can answer your questions as best as I Could, but. So there's some of the documents. I'm also involved with the Radio Historical Radio Society of Australia which has about eight branches across Australia, one in Adelaide and they do put out a monthly magazine which is a fantastic glossy magazine, has articles about radios and historical things.
**Sarah Freeman:**

And can I have a look while you're chatting?
**Keith Ellison:**

Yellow pages and sell and swap and all sorts of things. So that. That's a useful thing. And the Adelaide club meets once a month and goes out on some trips and visits to individuals homes and things on the table. I've just brought a couple of things. Some early microphones and a static microphone from America.
**Sarah Freeman:**

Yes, I can hold it if you want.
**Keith Ellison:**

Which is a crystal microphone and that's 1938 I think I. I looked up.
**Matthew Carratt:**

So this is for those who are listening. It's. It's a rounded with. With. Yeah, that microphone.
**Keith Ellison:**

Lots of chrome.
**Matthew Carratt:**

Lots of chrome.
**Sarah Freeman:**

Yes, lots of chrome. It is rather heavy.
**Matthew Carratt:**

It's not lightweight. But that's part of the stand. Yeah.
**Sarah Freeman:**

Yes, the stand is quite heavy.
**Keith Ellison:**

Was used in two way radio and early radio broadcast. There's another heavier larger microphone I got on the table, an American Amperite which is a ribbon microphone. The element is a ribbon. That's around the same time, 1938. On the table I've also got a Morse code key which only came into my collection a year or so ago. But the key point. I mean Morse code was used for communication prior to telephone and all sorts of things. But the interesting thing about that is it's branded Clipsal and people are very familiar with Clipsal being an Adelaide. Yeah, Adelaide brand. Gerard industries. And that's 1944. Which Morse code was used before that? I reckon. But it was used through the war. But not particularly rare or expensive or anything.
**Matthew Carratt:**

But there's not too many floating.
**Keith Ellison:**

No, still no. And there's not too many, unfortunately. There's not too many Morse code operators that were trained during the army that are still around. Although I have met some. Okay. There's a ferry turntable arm which is for a record player.
**Matthew Carratt:**

Yeah.
**Sarah Freeman:**

Record player is a bigger thing. Yeah. So black.
**Matthew Carratt:**

Those big CDs here.
**Keith Ellison:**

Definitely 78 records. Big, big bake light type records.
**Matthew Carratt:**

Yeah.
**Keith Ellison:**

And a motor that was used in. In the record players. Right. Something else I'm actively involved with is an international website called radiomuseum.org.
**Sarah Freeman:**

Okay.
**Keith Ellison:**

No AU on the end because it's international. So that's. I think it was established out of Sweden.
**Sarah Freeman:**

It's on the screen right now for people who are Watching on television or.
**Keith Ellison:**

On radiomuseum.org I have all of my 725 items listed on that.
**Matthew Carratt:**

So this is a catalogue of your whole museum.
**Keith Ellison:**

So my 725, but I think there's. I don't know how many items there are listed on the site but it's international and there's contributors all over the world to. It was established out of Sweden I think. But that's a massive collection of information on anything to do with radio and audio recording equipment and has been very useful for me to create a website style. You know, you can actually search under what I have in my collection including a picture and sometimes circuit diagrams and manuals and photos. It's very good for identifying things. I do get a lot of people contact me and say I've got this radio, I don't know much about it, there's nothing printed on the back, you know and identifying is half the. Half the work. In some cases people. Well yeah, some people have got things that don't work either and there's members in the Historical Radio Society who do repair things and refurbish things. We get things come out of, you know, sheds on farms that have been buried away for a long time. I've got some in the collection. I've got some Traeger transceivers which were two way radio, early telephone type type thing that was used to farming properties. And Alf Traeger was another Adelaide person who developed the pedal radio for the Flying Doctor. So I've got some of. Not the pedal radios but some of the later ones that were used in farms for. And sometimes with School of the Air they were used.
**Sarah Freeman:**

Yes. I remember going to School of the Air museum and sitting on one of them and pedalling and talking.
**Keith Ellison:**

So there's a whole variety of different things in the collection and I'm involved in quite a few different things. I also get. People come to me with often reel to reel tapes or I've even had someone come to me with a spool of wire from a wire recorder and say this was in my father's collection, I don't know what's on it. And I have got machines that can be played on. But the state library has an audio division with a chap Peter that works in there that is actively involved in recovering audio and digitally archiving the Historical Radio Society I mentioned they have national website and the South Australian Club has a. Has a website and one of the tabs on our website is an oral history page and there's 10 recordings on that page that can be listened to online, that were recorded by the Institute of Radio engineers in the 80s, including a 37 interview, 37 minute interview with my father about the whole Jack Ferry background and things. And that's part of a. I can't remember the name of it now, but it's part of a collection from the state library that they manage or own and we were able to get copies of all 10 recordings and make them available for people to listen to via our website.
**Sarah Freeman:**

So what about you growing up? You shared about people at the library and they bring their grandchildren in and they're saying, oh, I used to sit around and listen in this radio or used to have this recorder. What about if you were to take your grandchildren into the library and see all of that there? What would you point out and share a story about that you could share now?
**Keith Ellison:**

So another group, my father was in the. In the days of tape, tape recording, there was an organisation called the Australian Tape Recorders Association.
**Sarah Freeman:**

Yeah.
**Keith Ellison:**

And they used to have monthly meetings and Jack Ferry and different people were, you know, key speakers and they'd do Q and A panels. So I remember as a child going into some of those and seeing typically cassette, portable cassette recorders and microphones slung over chairs and all sorts of things happening. And I do have some of those recordings, actually. I do have recordings of Jack Ferry talking about different radios and recorders and in Q and A sessions. And even he was involved with UFOs and there were groups across the world, you know, meeting and talking about UFOs and he became a contact person in Australia because of his audio background and the ability to record things, record things and play things back and all those sort of things. And so, yeah, that was my memories of as a 8, 9, 10 year old, being in meetings and in my father's book there's some photos of some of those meetings and. And there's one photo in the book that I only picked five or six years ago that in the front row there's a lady sitting. That was my mother before I was born.
**Sarah Freeman:**

Before you were born.
**Keith Ellison:**

And I've heard audio recording of my father talking before I was born as well, which is quite surreal.
**Sarah Freeman:**

That would be really special to have. Thank you for everything you're sharing so far. We're not at the end of the interview. There's still more to go. This is Life Bursts with Matt and Sarah. We'll be back straight after this. Welcome back to Life Bursts with Matt and Sarah. We're still chatting with Keith and he's still Sharing with us all about radio history but we're going to move away from that a little bit and I'm going to ask the question I always ask most people that come in is how did you meet your now wife Keith?
**Keith Ellison:**

My first wife, still my current wife. Yeah, that's good to know Tanya. We were both involved with youth work with Adolescents at risk in the 80s and met that way and been married 33 years. Got a one daughter, 15 year old daughter and yeah live locally and life's good. Tanya's been in a number of roles. She was a funeral director for 16 years, which is an interesting story and worked with aged care providers and currently working with the Cancer Council.
**Sarah Freeman:**

So how did you like look across the room at each other? Were you working together? How did this romance?
**Keith Ellison:**

Just involved in kids, involved with youth, Youth at Risk and yeah spent a fair bit of time together and it developed.
**Matthew Carratt:**

So as you, you shared a bit at the beginning but you moved on through a series of different jobs and works but a lot centred around audio-visual electronics. So yeah, just run us through your last few years.
**Keith Ellison:**

So that's been the last 37 years has been the focus but that industry has changed a lot and I've changed as got older and my knowledge is some of it's obsolete now. So last year an opportunity came up to step away from that industry in a sales role, full time sales role. So this year I'm doing some, I've done some. Done some volunteer work with the Cancer Council doing some bus driving for a charter company and some bus driving for an aged care provider as well.
**Sarah Freeman:**

Well, there you go.
**Keith Ellison:**

Which is interesting. Taking people out for scenic two for scenic tour for an hour or two.
**Sarah Freeman:**

And you get to talk about where.
**Keith Ellison:**

It's the only time they get out of facility they're living in. So a variety of different people, so diversity of things. And I'm in the radio collection and the Historical Radio Societies keeps me busy enough on the committee for the Historical Radio Society Adelaide Group and yeah playing a local band sevenfold, which has been on Life Bursts before and we've. We've had three or four performances this year. Also playing drums and music with another local musician, Richard Palmer, who I've known for a long time. So yeah, juggling a number of different balls and just rolling with what comes at the time.
**Sarah Freeman:**

Why do you like playing drums out of all the instruments?
**Keith Ellison:**

Well, I never learned any instrument. There was no piano in the home so it was the one thing it was easy enough to pick up and I've always considered myself to be probably a better sound engineer than a drummer, but I can keep time and that's what Sevenfold predominantly needed and wanted. And when their last drummer was needing, couldn't commit enough time. So, yeah, that's led to some very interesting performances over five or six years now.
**Matthew Carratt:**

Do you still find yourself having to do the technical side of things as well?
**Keith Ellison:**

I try not to try and step back from it now and make sure that there's enough people involved, but, yeah, can step in. I still do some live sound engineering work with a couple of bands. There's a local band called the Fossils, which one of their members is Peter Kum. I've mixed a couple of shows for them and I'm now their preferred sound engineer, but they don't perform very regularly. Yeah.
**Matthew Carratt:**

So sounds like plenty to keep you busy and enjoying life, engage different aspects of life and.
**Keith Ellison:**

And. And the.
**Matthew Carratt:**

The museum. So you've mentioned that that's rolled out into different libraries at the moment. Do you have an opportunity for people to come and visit the collection at other times of the year?
**Keith Ellison:**

No. So no static museum at the moment. That is something I'm planning to try and continue to chip away at the government. I think South Australia has a rich history of manufacturing a lot of different areas, not just radio, you know, even washing machines and all sorts of things. And there is no museum to celebrate that other than the Sir Thomas Playford. It's a Retired Employees association museum, which is only open once a week. But that's got quite an interesting collection of things that were made in South Australia. So that's something I'll be working on in the next five years. Probably is, trying to get something established. People attempted to do this in the 80s and 90s and it didn't happen. But we'll try again.
**Matthew Carratt:**

In the meantime, they can find you at your. At the website again, which was.
**Keith Ellison:**

Yeah, so. Radiomuseum.org if you search for Keith Ellison, you'll find my collection. That way.
**Sarah Freeman:**

It's up on the screen again for everyone.
**Keith Ellison:**

The other thing just to keep an eye on is the South Australian History Festival, which is May every year runs for the whole month of May. There's a catalogue that goes out into Foodland stores and libraries and council chambers and things. Get onto that, see what's in there. There's usually three or four hundred events that are fascinating, including whatever I'm doing at the time.
**Sarah Freeman:**

Yes. Now, in the final two minutes of our show, if you had one piece of advice for the people listening and watching today. To Life Bursts. What would that be?
**Keith Ellison:**

I think as your life develops and your, your working career evolves, it's just be prepared to roll with the changes. I mean, I've worked, I've really only worked with five employers, I think four or five. And some of those have been development from, you know, one business taking over another and continuation of employment and things. But especially in the last year or so is just be prepared to take what comes along next and be prepared to evolve and change and consider it as an opportunity rather than a, a brick wall. Yeah.
**Matthew Carratt:**

Excellent. Well, Keith, thank you for sharing some of your story and your love for this collection. Some great props here, some stories behind them and preserving an important part of history. I can see why you want to carry on your father's legacy and passion and vision. So appreciate you coming in today.
**Keith Ellison:**

Okay, thanks.
**Sarah Freeman:**

This has been Life Bursts. You can cheque us out wherever you get your podcasts from community radio, television and through social media channels. I'm Sarah.
**Matthew Carratt:**

I'm Matt. Thanks for joining us and we'll see you next time.
**Voice-Over:**

Life Bursts is hosted by Matthew Carratt and Sarah Freeman with production by Rhys Jarrett and Keykhosrow Azadegan. For more episodes of Life Bursts, go to https://rawcut.au, this is a RawCut Production.

Life Bursts with Matt & Sarah

Life Bursts with Matt & Sarah

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Each week, Matthew Carratt along with co-host Sarah Freeman will be discovering the fascinating story of someone interesting and giving them the space to tell it in full. Life Bursts will tell the stories of the people you do know, don't know, and the people you should know. Because we live on a planet of 8 billion people, that means there are over 8 billion stories to tell, and 8 billion opportunities to learn from the stories we hear.

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