Jacko, the Broadcasting Kookaburra

I suppose you've thought you've heard just about everything on the blog.  Well, now you're going to hear a broadcasting bird.  No, it's not the "Hartz Radio Canaries". In this post, a 78 rpm release from Australia, a children's record featuring the story of "Jacko, the Broadcasting Kookaburra".  This famous bird became an audio "call sign" for Australian broadcasters.  Yes, there really was a Jacko and he was rather famous, even making a tour of the country.

Jacko was the subject of a children's book - you can read Jacko's story here and see sample pages scanned from the book.  I managed to dig up a nice copy of the book for my collection and highly recommend it as a charming and delightful piece of early radio memorabilia.

The disc was recorded August 29, 1933. Our mp3 was dubbed from an original copy of the Regal Zonophone/Columbia Graphophone 78 rpm 10" shellac record.  The matrix numbers are G21805 (WT1272 and WT1273).