The Radio Planet
Yes What?
Yes What?
Yes What? cover art
Radio

Yes What?

Australian commercial radio

Australian commercial radio · 1940–1950

Broadcasts

175

Cadence

Fortnightly

Rated

PG

Since

1940

The run

Network
Australian commercial radio
Years active
1940–1950
Surviving broadcasts
175
Genre
comedy

Yes, What? was an Australian radio comedy first broadcast in 1936, and is one of the best known examples of Australian radio drama. Originally called The Fourth Form at St Percy's, it was a comedy set in a school classroom. The program ran for 520 episodes and was written, produced and directed by Rex Dawe. Yes, What? began its life as The Fourth Form at St. Percy's. It was based on the radio serial The Fourth Form at St. Michael's by Will Hay, which aired in the 1920s. Rex Dawe, a young Adelaide broadcaster, decided to write the program. 5AD Programme Manager Morrie Chapman granted a fifty shillings budget for the show as well as an additional ten shillings for the writer / producer. The cast were mostly chosen from a youth production group The Kangaroo Club. Fifteen-year-old Ralph Peterson was hired to play the larrikin Bottomly and is often described a being a classroom rebel himself. Digitised by the Old Time Radio Researchers and streamed from the Internet Archive item “0225-yes-what-episode-225-poets-and-their-phone-numbers”; these recordings are in the public domain.

Source collection

Internet Archive audio collections

Rights

Public domain — no renewed US copyright

Cataloguing

Air dates and notes from the Archive item record

Every broadcast below carries its own provenance sheet — transfer quality, file source and rights.Archive record: 0225-yes-what-episode-225-poets-and-their-phone-numbers

The shape of the run

What survives, year by year

0 dated broadcasts across 11 years on the air, with 11 years where nothing is known to survive. Brightness is transfer quality; empty cells are months lost to time.

JFMAMJJASOND
1940
1941
1942
1943
1944
1945
1946
1947
1948
1949
1950
Clean transferListenableRough but complete No surviving recording

Episodes

Start here

Listen to the run in order

Restored broadcasts from NaN, in original transmission order.

  1. 1. 0003-Yes What Episode (03) · Date unknown
  2. 2. 0219-Yes What Episode (219) Fishing Tackle · Date unknown
  3. 3. 0248-Yes What Episode (248) Greenbottle's Orange · Date unknown
  • 01

    0003-Yes What Episode (03)

    Date unknown · 12 min

  • 02

    0219-Yes What Episode (219) Fishing Tackle

    Date unknown · 13 min

  • 03

    0248-Yes What Episode (248) Greenbottle's Orange

    Date unknown · 13 min

  • 04

    0287-Yes What Episode (287) The School Fete

    Date unknown · 11 min

  • 05

    0520-Yes What Episode (520) The Last Episode

    Date unknown · 11 min

  • 06

    0211-Yes What Episode (211) Chemistry

    Date unknown · 13 min

  • 07

    0237-Yes What Episode (237) Bottomly Is Caught Cheating

    Date unknown · 13 min

  • 08

    0282-Yes What Episode (282) Latin

    Date unknown · 12 min

Also on Australian commercial radio

Australian commercial radio in 1940–1950

Other series the network carried while Yes What? was on the air.

Same seasons

comedy on the air then

Series in the same genre whose runs overlapped this one.

If you liked this

More to explore

Chosen by the same editors.