![Times Past: June 3, 1938 Times Past: June 3, 1938](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/Yecs3Py5qDsXRaXHGQZdPb/b53baa85-dc9f-47cd-bd47-954390e4bb25.JPG/r0_0_1285_1578_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
This was a big day for Canberra and its fledgling broadcast media scene with the opening of a new studios and transmitter for 2CA Canberra.
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None other than the prime minister, Joseph Lyons, was on hand to open the new Civic headquarters and "powerful'' new transmitter at Gungahlin by way of a flash reception at the Hotel Canberra.
It was quite the to-do, with a party of 45 special guests travelling down from Sydney by train and another 30 coming by car. All would be given a tour of the young city.
Listeners would be treated to the "Tummy Club'' show, broadcast from the railway station, "primarily to quicken the awakening of the sleepers". The front page story reported Canberrans would be treated to the "act and antics of these two Radio Rascals''.
With guests in town back then, it made sense to bring out the big guns to show off - specifically the big guns of the Duntroon Military College.
The radio station bigwigs were shown gymnastics, reconnaissance drills and "occupation of positions with 18-pound field guns".
Of course these drills were only a year or so away from being used in real battlefields as World War II loomed.
See: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/page/662115#