Sydney’s 2CH has brought back the radio serial to daytime broadcasting this week with the launch of the classic soapie The Castlereagh Line in the Bob Rogers Morning Show.
2CH Program Director Ian Holland has told radioinfo the move has been in response to the huge audience reaction 2CH had to the serial in the evening program over the past several years:
“We’ve been thrilled with the huge and positive response from our listeners who loyally follow the storyline every night, so much so that we decided to start the series right from Episode 1 in Bob’s show this year”
Holland fondly remembers how well received The Castlereagh Line was when it first aired in Sydney in the early days of 2WS, when it was a Western Suburbs AM station.
“If we ever missed an episode, we’d be inundated with calls from listeners complaining, and the same thing happens here at night-times…so it was obvious that our listeners still love a good radio serial – and The Castlereagh Line is most certainly that!”
The Castlereagh Line was produced by legendary radio syndication company Grace Gibson Productions, whose history goes back to the launch of ‘soapies’ in Australia in 1934 when 2CH’s owner Macquarie Radio Network brought Miss Grace Gibson over from Hollywood to introduce Australian-made serials to the fledgling industry. She came for 6 months and remained here for a lifetime. The company she founded is the only company still syndicating radio serials in Australia.
Current owner of Grace Gibson Productions Bruce Ferrier says The Castlereagh Line is Gibson’s most successful drama in all its history, despite having been produced in the 1980s, well after the advent of TV:
“It’s got all the elements of a truly great serial – action, romance, intrigue all happening at a great pace.”
The Castlereagh Line is set in 1880 with the establishment of a Coach Line in northern New South Wales. The partners in the venutre are Lottie Long, Jacke Seager and Mat Gore. The second generation of characters is completed by Allison, Jack’s daughter by his wife Grace, and an illegitimate daughter Meredith, whose mother Edwina Hamilton, plays a very strong party in the story.
After her breakwith Jack Seager, Lottie starts a hotel chain, buying them in towns where The Castlereagh Line is being established. Jack and Lottie go on in their own way occasionally meeting as their Empires develop. Jack eventually goes into politics and is knighted by Queen Victoria.
There are 910 episodes in the series, each running about 6 minutes.
The Castlereagh Line airs in Bob Rogers Morning Show on 2CH at 10.40a.m. each day Monday to Friday from this week.
Find out more about the serial or contact Grace Gibson Productions at the link below.