The US economy returns to growth and Wall St had a good session, up 200, while our own market was up 70.
The dumbing down of Radio National
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Just three days ago I was telling a family member how proud I was of the role The Media Report has played in Australia’s media debate. It’s been there through the advent of the internet, cable TV, multi-channelling and myspace. It was on-air as the Howard Government gutted the cross media laws, as all the TV networks changed hands and as new publications emerged and others died. The Media Report has popped up in Hansard, the indexes of books, the curricula of university courses and the ipods of listeners. It has kept on keeping on for fifteen years with informed intelligent debate about the state of the nation’s media. Not bad for a half hour show that’s staffed by one and a half people and costs much less to produce over a year than just one episode of almost any TV program you’d care to mention. So please forgive me for being a little upset at the news that the show is one of the nine specialist programs to be axed by the network. Others to go include The Religion Report, The Ark, In Conversation, Perspective, Sports Factor, Radio Eye and Street Stories. If there’s anything that listeners of The Media Report would know, it’s that casualties in the media industry are inevitable. But it is equally true that the quality of our media is in steady decline and that any loss of thought-provoking journalism is especially depressing. As Fairfax loses its way, Radio National had been cementing its place as one of the very last refuges for civility and fresh inquiry in the media landscape. For example, as The Media Report went to air this morning, the Nine network’s Today show was flogging to death a B grade Hollywood movie and prattling on about celebrity gossip. It seems to me that with the constancy of change in the media and with no other radio network capable of analysing the industry with Radio National’s credibility or depth, there is a strong rationale for retaining it. So what will we get in the place of these programs? There are reports of a new technology show and a program called The Futures Report, which hopefully won’t be about the stock market – because that would be too depressing. There’s also talk of moving local radio’s Sunday Profile over to RN. Radio National says that listeners are migrating on-line and therefore the emphasis should shift in that direction. I don’t share the faith that on-line happens in a vacuum, disconnected from a strong on-air presence. It is the live-to-air broadcasting of RN’s programs that give them the critical mass and the relevance they need to prosper on line. When I was on staff at RN, it was arguably a boutique network, serving less people than it ought and struggling to compete with the metropolitan or local stations. Now it is actually hip to be an RN listener with an audience which is loyal there because it can’t stomach the asinine talkback-on-pets’-names nonsense that clogs the airwaves of the ABC’s other networks. The dread I have is that Radio National will edge closer to banality. There are many hundreds of thousands of us who don’t want the Canberra press gallery take on the world and book-tour driven celebrity interviewing as our staple. We are looking for media that starts where current affairs reporters finish and which challenges us with new ways of thinking about issues or which introduces us to ideas that we’d never thought to consider. These wonderful Radio National programs did this regularly and their loss is a huge blow to the diversity of our media. Andrew Dodd was the founding presenter of The Media Report and has freelanced for Street Stories, Radio Eye and Sports Factor. |
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35 Comments
Luke, Interesting post. Your claims (and they were unsupported assertions) about the relative expense of specific RN producers and presenters is off the mark. I know from first hand experience. The reality is more varied and complex than you suggest. Check out what some of the “stars” in ABC Local Radio receive. Although there is some real “slave labour” in the casualised producer cohort there. But there is some substance in your description of long staying broadcasters preventing renewal. These other points should be taken more seriously especially your comments about “sound” and style (form meeting content etc) and the chronic lack of succession strategies at RN (will Robyn Williams live for ever?). Yes it is all very thin and seemingly barely thought through this latest announcement but hey, nothing new there from the plodding thinkers who manage at RN. What is more surprising is that MD Mark Scott accepts this shoddiness and even defends such sub-standard process. That is the real ongoing tragedy - very poor and under-skilled management at RN and higher with some honourable exceptions. And talking of change-management and re-designing the style and form of programming, there seems to be virtually nobody in-house to handle that continuing and critical task who has the knowledge and weight to do it creatively and successfully. And there is precious little culture to support the kind of process you do find in many other cutting edge creative entities: a process that ensures creative renewal, and high quality. I hope one day the whole Valerie Geller (American talk radio “guru”) story can be told in relation to RN and ABC Local Radio. Another example of buying an off-the-shelf “solution” rather than forging a home grown and relevant approach from within to ensure an authentic distinctiveness. I don’t object to using consultants. I do object to making them the continuing touchstone thereby letting everyone off the hook from doing the heavy lifting themselves
Sent this to ABC Complaints after your articles on the changes to ABC specialist broadcasting
Your Comments:So now it comes to radio national. Lets go dumb and dumber al la BBC news in recent years.
Lets not strain our listeners with an extended thought or argument.
Lets cater to the mob with shattered attentions that need 120 edits a minute to stay engaged.
Its all so bloody depressing.
Bad enough that we lose our beloved John and Singers of Renown to natural causes, now the cretins want to kill off everything else and turn the bloody joint into Radio New Weekly.
Actually the rot started years ago when Baroque and Beyond was shafted, I seem to recall some bright-spark trenzoid manager at the time thought we had to have the news every half an hour, I wonder where he disappeared to.
God knows the newspapers have become light weight and becoming lighter by the day. Please DO NOT DESTROY the last place where the intellect is stimulated and truly interesting ideas are explored by people that are specialists in their fields. There may not be all that many of us but to many of us Radio National reflects a particular aspect of Australia that is informed, compassionate, aware, serious but still irreverent. Please don’t bugger it up completely. Our sanity depends on it.
Good article doddsy,
RN is regrettably a somewhat marginalised and niche station, catering for the concepts ignored by the market. If it were not for programs such as Poetica, there probably would be no radio or TV coverage of poetry in Australia.
RN’s costs are laughably small and its influence far exceeds its budget. In an age of ridiculously high costs for popular entertainment production, it’s a pity government doesn’t see it fit to assist the most cerebral of radio stations.
As a dedicated listener living in a remote area, RN is a lifeline - keeping me in touch with current issues, interesting and informed comment and analysis, cultural shifts and alternative viewpoints. It would be a great and lasting shame for Australia to lose such a unique and wonderful resource - and would isolate people like me, as I would not listen to the “more of the same” crap that is currently available on other radio stations.
Good on you Crikey for following this, and giving it some prominence!
I listen to RN for the same reason I subscribe to Crikey - the search for varied and intelligent commentary that doesn’t pander to the lowest common denominator; and packs some punch.
While not being religious, I occasionally find myself listening to the Religion report, and can appreciate the quality of the program. Indeed with all the specialised reporting, its the very fact that I don’t know much about these fields that I tune in. If I wanted ideas that reflected my own opinions I would talk to the mirror.
Its great to stumble on an RN program you might not normally follow, and be given a new insight or perspective that your wouldn’t have otherwise had. What a shame this looks set to end!
Crikey, please continue covering this!
My children have grown up on a steady diet of RN. Over the years their teachers have marvelled at the broad expanse of their general knowledge and their ability to converse on a wide range of issues. Often, in latter years, programs such as The Religion Report, The Media Report and The Law Report have been sources of reference for school projects and assignments. And right now my daughters aged 16, 19 and 20 and my sons aged 13 and 18 are out in the garage rustling up the placards! I can hear their indignant debate from where I sit.
“This is OUR ABC!”
“Dumbed Down and Dumber?”
“ABC-RN: A Bad Call-Radio Numbed”
And NO! They do NOT want to just be able to access it online. They want to be able to cook toast in the kitchen, travel in the car, sit in the garden, have a shower or just plain sit on the loo and not miss a beat of what they affectionately refer to as ‘The God Report’, ‘Loston Legal’ or ‘Media Mash’.
Being a single mum I could not afford to give the kids a private school education but RN has been an excellent substitute. Perhaps even superior in some aspects. They have all developed a strong sense of social justice and an ability to see people, cultures, issues and events from a broader perspective than many of their peers.
I would like to know why Australia should not adopt the public media (radio, TV etc) that is used in the UK. The annual licence fee model would provide a great and prey certain level of income to the ABC and would prevent the gagging and starvation of Our Broadcaster as usually occurs under the Liberal National coalition. The current period of crisis in financial markets should be used as an opportunity to push some genuinely reformist legislation through the Parliament. Please start a petition to this end. All Australians with two neurones and a synapse would support it because Our ABC is the best thing going in terms of current affairs, Australian documentaries and commedy (at the very least). Great article. Thanks. Glenn Crichton
I listen to nothing but RN and in particular to the programs that are to be axed. Why do I like them? Because they’re run by experts and I know I’ll find out stuff it would not be possible to learn elsewhere. This is a serious blunder by ABC management and Stephen Crittenden is to be applauded for sticking his neck out and blowing the whistle on them. It’s time to march on Ultimo. If the banks can be nationalised then it’s high time our ABC was re-claimed by its owners.
Does one arm know what the other arm is doing?
If you subscribe to Radio National email newsletters, you will have been asked (on Oct
to participate in an online survey at
http://www2b.abc.net.au/audienceresearch/RNweb/content/rnweb.asp
to subscribe:
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/subscribe/
let them know!
I am furious about the axing of these valuable programs. Local ABC and commercial radio is useless in my area. We can’t all sit online all day to gather our information. RN is a family friend in our household.
Pick up your game ABC - axe a few useless executives, Canberra Press Gallery journos and the like and keep the 8.30 am programs.
I adore Radio National but feel it does need a bit of freshening up. Rachel Kohn has obviously contributed a great deal to Religion but perhaps the show could have survived if someone else was allowed to present it. The same goes for Norman Swan, Robyn Williams, Geraldine Doogue and Philip Adams — how long have these people owned this station for? I went away from Australia for five years and switched on RN and nothing had changed.
Those 8.30am programs are important to me too. I did the online survey last night, thinking that it was going to ask about programs, content, values etc. It’s all about the website, which is not what RN is about. The main ABC website is a good source of news when you’re overseas. But for everyday listening (yes, while doing dishes, showering etc as well as while driving or enjoying a quiet cup of tea) RN is an important part of my quality of life.
It would have been good if you had supplied an appropriate ABC email address for a message to be sent directly to express our thoughts on RN. I am a Northern Territory resident and listen to RN every day.
Kevin Diflo
Can we take some sort of collective action on this? I don’t think any RN listener (or staff) is happy about these developments. At the very least we need to demonstrate that they can’t do this to us again without ramifications, or I’m sure there will be more of such changes in the future
(Does someone want to set up an external message board so we can throw some ideas around? We’ve needed one for years anyway)
Luke is not a reactionary - he likes fran kelly! And I worship Ghengis Khan.
But can someone direct me to the URL where the ABC MD announced these changes?
And like others, apart from emailing many friends and acquaintances about these undesirable cuts, I would like to locate an effective focus for lobbying for the reversal or modification of this decision.
Perhaps Getup! http://www.getup.org.au/ ??
Luke,
you sound like you work for Radio management or ABC local radio but had an unsatisfactory stint at RN. Could you be one of those ungenerous people who crack jokes about RN being “Nursing home radio”?
You characterise RN as “stodgy” “old” “poor value”. You are obviously unaware it was RN ( their unsung heroes John Jacobs, Natasha Mitchell ,and several others) who introduced podcasting to Australian radio.
Before that, they were the only ABC network to take up streaming audio with gusto. Like so many good ideas at the ABC this came from the talented pool of staff, not from management.
Online content and on-air content are two sides of the same coin - you cannot diminish one without diminishing the other. I agree that some tweaking is necessary but wholesale cuts like this just waste precious energy on needless animosity. And besides, Crittenden didn’t deserve this if ratings were the only consideration, even if some of the other shows might have.
True, staff costs are high at RN but everything else is run a shoe string. You only have to look at the stained carpets and op-shop furniture to tell that. Not so long ago all RN staff were briefed on their network’s “online future” and effectively asked to produce additional online content with no extra resources. With a few reservations, they agreed. What does that say for the “lazy broadcasters”?
Wy are w bailing out executives while integrity gets axed. shame on the ABC and those decision-makers. Oh I guess it’ll be a re-run of the goons!
Radio National is the only station that I can listen to…..because I love the diversity
and quality of their productions.
Please do not subject me to more talk back .(Such a cheap way of filling the airwaves).
It is the station you can rely on. Always interesting, searching, with both feet in the real world.I am happy to podcast, but want to be able to leave my radio on 5.76 and know that I am going to be treated respectfully, and like an intelligent human being.
Andrew is there something we can do? Those 5 1/2hr programs each morning are precious - insightful, thoughtful and intelligent. If 3 are to go I imagine it won’t be long before the other 2 follow. Health and Law watch out !The Religion Report is covering subjects and people not normally given a voice. Different religions are covered in such a respectful and inquiring way. To understand faith (or lack of) is something most of us try to do. To listen to a religion report without any agenda is, I would imagine, rare. Is there anything similar in Australia let alone the world? Re the Media Report - you said it all.
Sports factor again is on a different level to most of the garbage we are served up. Not a sports nut but I thoroughly enjoy the width and breadth of sports covered,each of interest in a special way. Don’t get me started on the axing of Perspective and In Conversation. So much of our listening or viewing is conducted in 5 minute grabs, never long enough to ask the questions so we can actually grasp the subject. Can we start a petition? - where are “Friends of the ABC?
Well said Andrew Dodd! How do we stop the rot at Radio National? I doubt very much that Mark Scott will listen to us.
Thank you Crikey for following up when things are happening at the ABC. Thanks to Andrew Dodd and Stephen Crittendon for bringing this out into the light of day.
Radio National doesn’t need to be dumbed down in any way. The current programming schedule works well and doesn’t seem to have too many gaps in the sort of intellectual content that is provided. Most doesn’t appear anywhere else in the Australian media.
Radio National is unique in radio broadcasting in Australia, as is ABC FM.
I am seriously concerned at the apparent dumbing down of programming. I’m furious that the 8:30 morning line up is to be scratched out. I love what is there. I’m not religious but I love to hear the wider views that the presenters of the Religion Report and other Religious programmes provide. The Sports Factor has always given a view of “real” sport in real life with some sport history that isn’t well known.
I don’t think I got an offer to contribute to the survey although I get emails for some programmes like Background Briefing. I’m not on the RN mailing list.
What can I do? I will send an email to the address noted on the webpage but I’d rather know the email address of the programming director. Does anyone have these details please. Don’t the ABC have a feedback page somewhere on their Website?
Back to paper and posting a letter I suppose.
I couldn’t agree more with Andrew Dodd on the further dumbing down of Radio National through axing those great specialist programs, and especially the Media Report. What will be next in this relentless stupidity that plagues the ABC? But what to do about it? A few of us will get around to writing letters of protest but most won’t find the time. Can we recruit Getup to run a campaign for us, or maybe even Crikey can do it.
Getup gets many thousands to sign its petitions via its email-based campaigns and the sheer numbers of supporters must make an impression. How about it, Crikey?
Eric Lawson
I sent this today to: Nicola Fern, Marketing Manager ABC Radio National
PH: (03) 9626 1758 or 0418 494 252
E: fern.nicola@abc.net.au
It is not entirely clear to me what RN programs are to be cut for 2009. From your media release of the 15th at http://www.abc.net.au/corp/pubs/media/s2392190.htm I can identify that planned closures include the Religion and Media Reports, Sports Factor, Radio Eye and Street Stories. Are there others? All of the planned closures I consider to represent a significant loss, and will be missed by many of your listeners. I suggest you run a survey to check attitudes.
I think the loss of the Media Report would be unfortunate, given Australia’s obscene concentration of media ownership, but perhaps that is why management has taken the axe to it. Given that it costs the ABC almost nothing, and is valued by so many readers, I can think of no other reason for the Corporation’s short-sighted decision.
And while you’re rethinking your programming, what about bringing the environment back into the mainstream. It is absurd not to have an environmental program in these days when the environment is emerging as the dominant issue of the 21st century.
We had hoped that ABC would do better under Labor - I am sorry to see that this hope appears to have been misplaced.
Rural listeners are again diminshed to indifference to the ABC’s city centric managements contempt. I don’t have the option to switch radio waves to have a cities air waves choice when it comes to diverse intelligence anaylsis. I don’t have well stocked bookshops to purchase first hand opinions. I don’t have speedy internet. What I have is Radio National and its well read and thought through presentors of programmes such as The Religion report etc. I am soo tired of being discriminated against and offered dummed down choices. Where is a National Party political support comment when you need it. Royalities for Regions… tax dollar value. Culture and intelligence standards! Brendan? Barney?
To all those who wanted to see the official press release, its here:
http://www.abc.net.au/corp/pubs/media/s2392190.htm
Email submissions and phonecalls will be acknowledged and read but will not necessarily receive anything but a form response. Emails with attached documents count as letters IF they have name, address, and telephone number. Petitions, particularly email or web based are useless.
The only way to make a worthwhile submission is IN WRITING.
To the board:
ABC Secretariat,
GPO Box 9994, Sydney NSW 2001,
telephone (02) 8333 5312, or email: boardATyour.abc.net.au
To the Managing Director:
Mr Mark Scott,
Managing Director
ABC
GPO Box 9994, Sydney NSW 2001,
telephone (02) 8333 5312, or email: boardATyour.abc.net.au
Sue Harrison re Radio National emasculation.
The ABC’s decision to axe the 8:30 programs The Religion Report, The Media Report and The Sports Factor is hard to understand. Together with The Law Report and The Health Report, these are plum programs presenting intelligent and expert views of important issues that attract a large audience. Could it be that, robbed of some of its most vital and interesting programs, Radio National will become so bland that it will be easy for the ABC to ditch it altogether? Stephen Crittenden is to be commended for having the courage to speak out in spite of the fact that he would almost certainly be suspended; it is to be hoped that his colleagues will follow suit A few years ago the ABC’s decision to axe Radio Eye was overturned when its audience expressed their dismay. Let’s hope the ABC has the sense to realise that their role is not to duplicate what is available on other stations but to provide incisive, expert perspectives on current issues and that, to fulfil this role, they should reverse their decision.
Interesting string. A few ‘muddled’ thoughts:
1. Is it a coincidence that this announcement came just as News Corp announced the front ending of the week with it’s Media Section from Thursday to Monday, following a ferocious head hunting/recruitment for The Australian more generally this last 12 months? The implication being RN has been sidelined by size and arguably quality (The Australian is a much improved newspaper this last 6 months.)
2. Like and trust The Media Report (News Corp manages one out of two on average) but I confess I only drop in rarely though I keep it on the research radar via online. Not for lack of satisfying material - just lack of time on my part. The ABC does remain the standard bearer so are they vacating? Media Watch is hardly comprehensive.
3. Virtually same day the federal minister hits back at Scott’s impudence with staff elected position return and throwing open board to competitive job selection (unlike the ALP dominated general manager job at Addison Road Community Centre in Marrickville!?)
4. As for Luke and his ‘is there enough content for an environment show?’ Man you are real dumb*ss with a comment like that. The Herald has been running 2 pages every week for the last year. Earthbeat used to be 2 hours! Agribusiness gets roughly an hour every day, and Landline on tv on Sunday. Even News Corp had Mathew Warren from the forces of darkness. Real head shaking stuff there Luke. Do your homework, eh?
Thank you Andrew, both for your program and for the comments in this Crikey article. I am extremely angry and equally nervous about the axing of these often thought provoking programs. Angry because I’ll miss them, and nervous because I fear the quality of the replacements.
Programs do need to be overhauled every now and again, but they need to be replaced with something of equal or better intellectual content, which certainly dosen’t exist on other live to air radio as far as I know.
People like me who listen to our radios (RN) a lot, would hate to have to rely on good programming solely from the net; we don’t all use pod casts all the time! Please keep up the good fight to avoid mediocrity and retain quality broadcasting. K
As a former ABC Radio National employee myself (I was in fact the first presenter to say “This is Radio National”, because nobody else at the time wanted to be so crass) and the co-founder of an earlier program that broke the mould and continually battled internal resistance (1985: Offspring with the first national talkback - now Life Matters), may I be so Clintonesque as to say to Andrew Dodd, “I feel your pain…”
Andrew captures well the essence of a chronically muddled argument about the evolving and differing relationships between online and broadcast. In this latest move at Radio National,I detect plenty of wishing and hoping but little sophisticated strategy at the top of the radio division. The jargonesque spin in the media release (“inter-disciplinary” … etc) supports that view. The loss of the Media Report specifically is a manifest blunder. Andrew accurately traces the arc of fundamental media happenings and eras since its inception. Now the program is put down just as the “real stuff” is happening. With all its many threads and themes reflecting digital convergence itself and the history of media, communications and journalism, THE MEDIA is a crucial realm of concern and constant exploration for all of us. And it needs a sharp Australian lens. By all means refresh, redesign, reinvigorate a Media Report but kill it off? (BBC Radio 4 has just launched a new one). Another “minor” but significant media death. We mourn it but move on. As always.
Thanks to Paul Collins, Andrew Dodd and Stephen Crittenden for drawing my attention to this silly decision of the ABC to cut back so many top quality RN programmes. I listen to RN everyday and like everyone else whose comments I have read in Crikey today , find it a wonderful source of diverse and fascinating people, ideas, opinions, experiences etc. I have written to the ABC expressing my disappointment with this decision and asked that they reconsider.
And the Stephen Crittenden matter is now under review by ABC management because he dared to comment independently without the knowledge or approval of network management. Thank you Stephen for your courage.
Jane Connors ABC Radio National is quoted as saying that the cancellation was part of a shift from “on-air” which attracted over 50’s to online which drew a younger audience.
Could she be the victim of another dud survey? Or just plain dumb.
We hear continually of the aging of the population – that means more over 50’s. And what about the car driver – not much chance for on-line there, or the housewife with radios on all over the house tuned into ABC – again not much on-line.
And then there’s me; a 76 year old spending much time online but still with RN going full bore in the background.
Tony Blackmore
I too would like to express my profound dismay at the news that ABC RN will be axing these wonderful programs. RN is my constant companion when in the car and at home. I have been an ABC tragic as long as I can remember, certainly more that 50 years.
And while I do use the internet a lot, it is not and will never be a replacement for the types of programs RN currently provides. One of the advantages RN in particular, is you often hear views different to your own and it helps to broaden your own perspective.
There should be more of this type of programming, not less!
For a decade I was on the committee of the Friends of the ABC and the only RN enthusiast in a coven of 3LO (as it was then) listeners. I saw a lot of the continuouse attacks on the ABC from all sides of the political spectrum and I have come to believe that the perception that some people have of the ABC as a cosy haven for left-wing intellectuals is misplaced. The only point in haveing a chartered public broadcaster is to have it holding up a mirror to the nation so that we can see what is going on. The ABC is left-wing only if you accept the original definition as being those who see what is wrong and want to put it right while the right wing sees what is right and want to preserve it. If the ABC is left-wing, then it is so in the best possible way and RN is its flagbearer. My image of the ABC is not as an entertainment provider to keep the masses entertained, but more in the nature of a public library where people go for information. And this is what they do. eighty-five percent of the population visit the ABC in any one year. In this context, the decisions to axe the 8:30am weekly programs without any counterbalancing new ones of similar calibre is an absolute tragedy. We settled in Australia 50 years ago and, coming from England, raised on a diet of BBC programming, we thought the ABC was a wonderful institution which made us feel at home and educated us hugely one what Australia was all about. I cannot make up mind as to whether the current management of the ABC are a lot of ignorant and unfeeling idiots or the creatures of a movement to establish the Brave New World forecast by Aldous Huxley.
To the presenters (and BOH people) of the Health Report, The Media Report, The Law Report, The Religion Report and the Sports Factor - I salute you all and thank you for all the thoughtful material you have placed before me to digest with my morning coffee for many years.
hi peter, thanks for the respectful response, i appreciate it.
you’re quite right, they are assertions. to offer proof would be loosing my anonymity and i cant really do that. but please trust me when i say that en masse, RN costs a lot more than it delivers to the ABC in audience value. and i dont just mean numbers i mean offering new and interesting broadcasting. its stodgy, old and has WAAAAY too much redundancy across the board. Yes, you’re right the richard glover’s of the world cost a moutain-load. but he does connect with an audience - and lets remember the role of the ABC isnt just worthy public affairs programs, its to ‘inform AND entertain’. we desperately need both. However, i digress. my point is that i think other areas of the ABC - ABC 2, Dig, NewsRadio Triple J have all done a far more superior job (within their respective charters) with the significantly smaller resources they’ve been given than RN. its full of presenters who’ve been there too long. Im talkin about people who’ve been entrusted with vibrany interesting topics to cover - religion, sport media - and week after week they fail to make challenging, interesting or engaging radio. its lazy slow paced broadcasting from a dead time.
If handled correctly these new shows could mean the change that RN needs. however, given how poorly this very transition has been handled, i doubt it will be. And of course, like i said - its not like RN have dumped any of these old presenters they’re just gonna shunt them around the grid until they die and no longer require a redundancy payout.
lastly - you’re right we should bust the valerie geller issue right open. personally, i think her principals are (broadly speaking) quite sound, but their ‘practice’ requires personal tweaking.
Oh My God. this is ludicrous. Firstly, let me dispell the rumour that radio national is cheap. The staff required to run RN are extremely expensive, not only do you need more staff-per-minute, but they’re generally obscenely more expensive than almost any other staffmember of their equal status within the abc. The real tradgey here is that there havent been any actual redundancies. See, what they’ll do is simply not-renew any of the short-term contractors (ie the younger people, who tend to have new ideas and actually might contribute something) and all of the crusted-on ongoing employees are just going to be shunted around the network to provide their consistantly bland style of broadcasting in another more mediocre, longwinded format. And as for pushing for a younger audience? well, yes it does make sense. because if you only push for an older audience, your audience doesnt renew. one generation of old people doesnt talk the same the next, they need to update their sound. also on the point of the sadly axed ‘environment report’ - honest to god, do you REALLLY think there’s enough content out there for a full half hour on the environment every week? really? Just because the environment is important doesnt mean that theres enough content to sustain it.
however - there are a couple of points where myself and everyone else here agrees. Radio National management CLEARLY dont have the faintest clue what they’re doing. Announcing a raft of cuts without stating - clearly stating - what you’re going to replace them with?? Only now is mark scott making rumblings about a religion website and pocast-only shows… its like he’s making it up as he goes. the initial press release needed to put it out in one big ‘2009 plan’.
Please dont misunderstand me, im not a right wing philistine, i love fran kelly, i think the CONTENT on radio national is excellent. but it chews up too many resources and needs to renew its sound.
go on, crucify me.