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.
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!