The Melba Story
Australian commercial radio
Australian commercial radio · 1930–1960
26 EpisodesTwice weeklyPGSince 1930
The run
- Network
- Australian commercial radio
- Years active
- 1930–1960
- Surviving broadcasts
- 26
- Genre
- docudrama
A Collection of Aussie Radio Shows No 46 The Melba Story was a wonderful production by Crawford Productions in Melbourne which dramatized the life and career of Nellie Melba. Nellie Melba (19 May 1861 – 23 February 1931). She had a wonderful career on the Worlds stage and her final performance ironically was at Covent Garden on June 8th 1926. In 1946/7 Crawford's decided to immortalise her in a 26 part series of programs for Radio. It was produced by Dorothy Crawford, Hector Crawford co-produced, Directed and Conducted the orchestra. The Announcer was David Reid and Narrator was Curteis Crawford or Eric Pearce. Melba's singing voice was by Glenda Raymond (wife of Hector Crawford) and spoken Public-domain transfers from the Internet Archive.
Source collection
Internet Archive audio collections
Rights
Public domain — no renewed US copyright
Cataloguing
Air dates and notes from the Archive item record
The shape of the run
What survives, year by year
7 dated broadcasts across 97 years on the air, with 96 years where nothing is known to survive. Brightness is transfer quality; empty cells are months lost to time.
Episodes
Start here
Listen to the run in order
Restored broadcasts from 2026, in original transmission order.
- 1. The Last Train Out · 10 Feb 2026
- 2. Night Broadcast · 17 Feb 2026
- 3. The Case of the Missing Hour · 24 Feb 2026
Night Broadcast
4 Aug 2026 · 1h 3m
A quiet beginning that turns, halfway through, into something else entirely.
The Last Train Out
28 Jul 2026 · 26 min
The one everybody argues about.
Signal at Midnight
21 Jul 2026 · 41 min
Recorded on location, with the room left in.
A Room Above the Street
14 Jul 2026 · 56 min
New tape, a reluctant witness, and a timeline that finally stops making sense.
The Long Silence
7 Jul 2026 · 19 min
We go back to the beginning and read everything again.
Dead Air
30 Jun 2026 · 34 min
Three interviews, one archive reel, and a question nobody wanted asked.
Sign Off
23 Jun 2026 · 49 min
Recorded on location, with the room left in.
The Case of the Missing Hour
16 Jun 2026 · 1h 4m
New tape, a reluctant witness, and a timeline that finally stops making sense.
Also on Australian commercial radio
Australian commercial radio in 1930–1960
Other series the network carried while The Melba Story was on the air.
Same seasons
docudrama on the air then
Series in the same genre whose runs overlapped this one.
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