Editing Radio drama (section)

===Australia===
In Australia, as in most other developed countries, from the early years of the medium almost every radio network and station featured drama, serials, and soap operas as staples of their programming; during the so-called "Golden Years" of radio these were hugely popular. Many Australian serials and "soapies" were copies of American originals (e.g., the popular soap ''[[Portia Faces Life]]'' or the adventure series ''[[The Adventures of Superman (radio)|Superman]]'', which featured future Australian TV star [[Leonard Teale]] in the title role), although these were typically locally produced and performed live to air, since the technology of the time did not permit high-quality pre-recording or duplication of programmes for import or export.

In this period radio drama, serials and soap operas provided a fertile training ground and a steady source of employment for many actors, and this was particularly important because at this time the Australian theatre scene was in its infancy and opportunities were very limited. Many who trained in this medium (such as [[Peter Finch]]) subsequently became prominent both in Australia and overseas.

It has been noted that the producers of the popular 1960s [[Gerry Anderson]] TV series ''[[Thunderbirds (TV series)|Thunderbirds]]'' were greatly impressed by the versatility of UK-based Australian actor [[Ray Barrett]], who voiced many roles in Anderson's TV productions. Thanks to his early experience on Australian live radio (where he often played English and American roles), Barrett was considered better than his English counterparts at providing a convincing transatlantic accent, and he could perform a wide range of character voices; he also impressed the Anderson team with his ability to quickly and easily switch from one voice/accent to another without the sound engineers' having to stop the recording.<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2009/sep/09/ray-barrett-obituary | location=London | work=The Guardian | first=Ronald | last=Bergan | title=Ray Barrett | date=September 9, 2009}}</ref>

The effect of the introduction of television there in the late 1950s had the same devastating effects as it did in the US and many other markets, and by the early 1960s Australian commercial radio had totally abandoned radio drama and related programming (including comedy, soapies, and variety) in favour of music-based formats (such as [[Top 40]]) or [[talk radio]] ("talkback"), and the once-flourishing Australia radio production industry vanished within a few years. One of the few companies to survive was the Melbourne-based [[Crawford Productions]], which was able to make the successful transition into TV production.

Despite the complete abandonment of drama and related programming by the commercial radio sector, the government-funded [[Australian Broadcasting Corporation]] (ABC) maintained a long history of producing radio drama. One of its most famous and popular series was the daily 15-minute afternoon soap opera ''[[Blue Hills (radio serial)|Blue Hills]]'', which was written for its entire production history by dramatist [[Gwen Meredith]]. It featured many well-known Australian actresses and actors, ran continuously for 27 years, from 28 February 1949 to 30 September 1976, with a total of 5,795 episodes broadcast, and was at one time the world's longest-running radio serial. It was preceded by an earlier Meredith serial ''The Lawsons'', which featured many of the same themes and characters and itself ran for 1299 episodes.

In the 1960s and later, the ABC continued to produce many original Australian radio dramas as well as works adapted from other media. In recent years original radio dramas and adapted works were commissioned from local dramatists and produced for the ABC's [[Radio National]] network program ''Airplay'', which ran from the late 1990s until early 2013. In late 2012 ABC management imposed budget cuts and axed a number of long-running arts programs, thereby ending the national broadcaster's decades-long history of producing radio drama (as well as its equally long history of providing daily serialised book readings).