tag:theconversation.com,2011:/es/topics/abc-radio-13655/articlesABC radio – The Conversation2018-09-24T09:01:53Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1037522018-09-24T09:01:53Z2018-09-24T09:01:53ZMedia Files: ABC boss Michelle Guthrie sacked, but the board won’t say why<p>The major question following the sacking of ABC managing director Michelle Guthrie is why? Why did the ABC board move so decisively and why now? </p>
<p>Was it just about tension between her and the corporation chair, Justin Milne, or was it about strategic direction for the national broadcaster? </p>
<p>In this special edition of Media Files, Monash University’s Margaret Simons and former ABC staff-elected director Matt Peacock talk to Matthew Ricketson and Andrew Dodd about what it might mean for the ABC - particularly in the lead up to a federal election. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/constant-attacks-on-the-abc-will-come-back-to-haunt-the-coalition-government-98456">Constant attacks on the ABC will come back to haunt the Coalition government</a>
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<p>Media Files is produced by a team of journalists and academics who have spent decades working in and reporting on the media industry. It’s about how journalists operate, how media policy is changing, and how commercial manoeuvres and digital disruption are affecting the kinds of media and journalism we consume.</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/au/podcasts/mediafiles">Media Files</a> will be out every month, with occasional off-schedule episodes released when we’ve got fresh analysis we can’t wait to share with you. To make sure you don’t miss an episode, find us and <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/media-files/id1434250621">subscribe on Apple Podcasts</a>, in <a href="https://play.pocketcasts.com/">Pocket Casts</a> or wherever you find your podcasts. And while you’re there, please rate and review us - it really helps others to find us.</p>
<p>You can find more podcast episodes from The Conversation <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/podcast-3738">here</a>.</p>
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<p><em>Producer: Andy Hazel.</em></p>
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<p>Theme music by Susie Wilkins.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/media-files-what-does-the-nine-fairfax-merger-mean-for-diversity-and-quality-journalism-102189">Media Files: What does the Nine Fairfax merger mean for diversity and quality journalism?</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/103752/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew Dodd receives funding from the Australian Research Council. He is a former ABC employee.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Margaret Simons is working on a book about the ABC. She is a member of the Public Interest Journalism Foundation, a not for profit that advocates on journalism-related issues. She received industry and philanthropic funding for research into journalism futures. It was not from the ABC.
</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matthew Ricketson receives funding from the Australian Research Council as a chief investigator on two projects. He was appointed by the federal government in 2011 to assist Ray Finkelstein QC in an Independent Inquiry into the Media and Media Regulation, which reported in 2012. Since 2016 he has been the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance's representative on the Australian Press Council. He is president of the Journalism Education and Research Association of Australia.</span></em></p>ABC managing director Michelle Guthrie was sacked today, despite being less than halfway through her five-year term. The major question is: why? Today on the podcast, we explore the possibilities.Andrew Dodd, Director of the Centre for Advancing Journalism, The University of MelbourneMargaret Simons, Associate professor, Journalism, Monash UniversityMatthew Ricketson, Professor of Communication, Deakin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/599872016-06-29T19:47:13Z2016-06-29T19:47:13ZVideo didn’t kill the radio star – she’s hosting a podcast<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/127444/original/image-20160621-8861-1qg30pe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Are we in the midst of a podcasting revolution?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/9778048@N06/5768245798/">Mikael Nyberg</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Podcasters P.J. Vogt, host of <a href="https://gimletmedia.com/show/reply-all/">Reply All</a>, and Starlee Kine, host of <a href="https://gimletmedia.com/show/mystery-show/">Mystery Show</a>, addressed sold-out sessions at the Sydney Writers’ Festival last month, riding the wave of popularity engendered by <a href="https://serialpodcast.org">Serial</a>, the 2014 US true crime podcast series whose 100 million downloads galvanised the audio storytelling world. </p>
<p>Over 12 weeks, using a blend of personal narratives and investigative journalism delivered in ultra-casual conversational style, host Sarah Koenig examined the case against Adnan Syed, a Baltimore high school student who had been convicted of murdering his ex-girlfriend, Hae Min Lee, in 1999. </p>
<p>In risky but inspired innovation, the series launched without a conclusive ending. It invited listeners to veer with Koenig through the unfolding evidence – a departure <a href="http://www.cjr.org/the_kicker/serial_sarah_koenig_journalism.php">hailed</a> as making journalism more transparent, in a genre not without <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/01/25/dead-certainty">ethical conundrums</a>. The show fomented raucous chatrooms online and Koenig featured on the cover of Time magazine. </p>
<p>“Hosting” is at the heart of the vaunted <a href="http://www.globaleditorsnetwork.org/press-room/news/2016/02/podcasting-trends-for-2016/">podcasting revolution</a> that has seen comedy, “chumcasts” (friends riffing on a theme) and deeply <a href="http://loveandradio.org/2013/02/jack-and-ellen/">personal</a> storytelling vie with established radio documentary, feature and interview formats for audience share. In radio institutions such as the ABC or BBC, programs have “presenters” and the organisation adds further brand identity. In the <a href="https://medium.com/@slowerdawn/how-podcasts-have-changed-in-ten-years-by-the-numbers-720a6e984e4e#.vysqmaul9">ever-expanding podsphere</a> (over 350,000 podcasts are listed on iTunes), “hosts” speak directly into our ear. </p>
<p>This seductive intimacy affects both the <a href="http://ro.uow.edu.au/lhapapers/2358/">form and content</a> of the audio storytelling genre. It appeals to listeners from hitherto untapped demographics as well as to rusted-on audiophiles – a development being watched by both <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/27/business/media/ads-for-podcasts-test-the-line-between-story-and-sponsor.html?_r=0">advertisers</a> and activists. </p>
<p>In the predominantly English-speaking <a href="https://www.academia.edu/14504222/The_Second_Age_of_Podcasting_reframing_Podcasting_as_a_New_Digital_Mass_Medium">12-year-old podsphere</a>, producers and consumers of podcasts used to be mainly young, white, educated, affluent males. But, in the last two years, female listenership has <a href="http://www.edisonresearch.com/the-podcast-consumer-2016/">doubled</a>. Female hosts are storming the studio (or bedroom, where many an indie podcast originates, or garage, where US comedian Marc Maron famously conducted a deeply revealing <a href="http://www.wtfpod.com/podcast/episodes/episode_613_-_president_barack_obama">interview</a> with Barack Obama last year). </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/126220/original/image-20160612-29205-eonlia.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/126220/original/image-20160612-29205-eonlia.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126220/original/image-20160612-29205-eonlia.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126220/original/image-20160612-29205-eonlia.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126220/original/image-20160612-29205-eonlia.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126220/original/image-20160612-29205-eonlia.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126220/original/image-20160612-29205-eonlia.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">President Barack Obama discussed racism, gun control, his family and his fearlessness in a conversation podcast from comedian Marc Maron’s garage in LA.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">WTF Podcast with Marc Maron</span></span>
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<p>“Hosts are really forming relationships in new ways with their listeners,” says Julie Shapiro, CEO of <a href="https://www.radiotopia.fm/">Radiotopia</a>, “a curated network of extraordinary, story-driven shows” founded in 2014. It now has over ten million downloads a month of its 14 shows. </p>
<p>Radiotopia’s recent “Podquest” competition attracted 1,537 entrants from 53 countries. The <a href="https://www.radiotopia.fm/podquest/">finalists</a> propose shows that feature marginalised voices and quirky perspectives, delivered as engaging crafted narrative.</p>
<p>Radiotopia and <a href="https://gimletmedia.com/">Gimlet</a>, the independent US network that hosts Kine and Vogt, have been created by former public radio broadcasters. They still proclaim the editorial values and lofty mission <a href="http://current.org/2012/05/national-public-radio-purposes/">articulated</a> when National Public Radio (NPR) was founded in 1971. </p>
<p>The podsphere is unregulated – open slather for hate speech and religious rants, with the medium already exploited by groups like ISIS. But minorities are also <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/19376529.2015.1083373?journalCode=hjrs20">colonising</a> the space, with growing audiences for shows on <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-02-24/wollongong-locals-create-transgender-podcast/7196704">transgender</a> issues, gender, sexuality and race. </p>
<p>In Australia, both public broadcasters are developing podcast-first formats. SBS has <a href="http://www.sbs.com.au/programs/true-stories">True Stories</a>, unusual tales of multicultural experiences, and the ABC offers <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/radio/firstrun/">First Run</a>, which ranges from comedy to entertaining history. </p>
<p>But other organisations, from <a href="http://fbiradio.com/podcast/all-the-best/">community radio</a> to independents, are now able to compete for listeners. Longtime ABC star Andrew Denton <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/tv-and-radio/andrew-denton-is-back-with-better-off-dead-a-podcast-about-the-right-to-die-20160218-gmxr1j.html">partnered</a> The Wheeler cultural centre in Melbourne to launch his excellent podcast series on euthanasia, <a href="http://www.wheelercentre.com/broadcasts/podcasts/better-off-dead">Better Off Dead</a>. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/126221/original/image-20160612-29229-cvkysu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/126221/original/image-20160612-29229-cvkysu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126221/original/image-20160612-29229-cvkysu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126221/original/image-20160612-29229-cvkysu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126221/original/image-20160612-29229-cvkysu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126221/original/image-20160612-29229-cvkysu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126221/original/image-20160612-29229-cvkysu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Media personality Andrew Denton chose the podcast medium for his euthanasia series, Better Off Dead.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Edwina Pickles</span></span>
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<p>Other veteran radio journalists are going solo. In 2015, US producer John Biewen, whose work has featured on prestigious outlets including This American Life, NPR and the BBC, launched his own show, <a href="http://podcast.cdsporch.org">Scene On Radio</a>. He told me:</p>
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<p>Liberation from broadcast gatekeepers and formats outweighed the advantages they bring … the only downside … is the loss of audience numbers. [But] the freedom to produce work in the tone and at the length that I choose is priceless.</p>
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<h2>Podcasts can be as long as a piece of string</h2>
<p>Thrillingly, podcasts can be as long as a piece of string. Audio producers can focus on a natural narrative shape rather than artificially moulding a story to a pre-ordained duration. This enhanced Serial’s appeal and opens new structural possibilities for the form. </p>
<p>At one end, we may see podcasting develop further as a form of literary journalism: a poetic or narrative audio genre long established in Europe and articulated by the <a href="http://www.britannica.com/topic/New-Journalism">New Journalism</a> of the 1960s and ‘70s. It incorporates qualities such as immersive reportage, scenes, evocative writing and a subjective point of view.</p>
<p>At the other end of the spectrum, cheaply produced podcast panel-fests are proliferating. The topics range from the <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/two-grumpy-hacks-australian/id1112778096?mt=2">elections</a> in Australia and the US to <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/series/token-podcast">race</a> and popular culture. Some of these sound clunky and turgid – print journalists operating in a medium they don’t yet get. Others, such as Buzzfeed’s <a href="https://soundcloud.com/anotherroundwithhebenandtracy/episode-58-the-job-of">Another Round</a>, have the chemistry and the tone spot on, snaring big names such as Hillary Clinton along the way. </p>
<p>This rapidly evolving podcast ecology is coming under increasing <a href="http://www.intellectbooks.co.uk/journals/view-issue,id=3091/">academic scrutiny</a>.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/126219/original/image-20160612-29216-2b8dm7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/126219/original/image-20160612-29216-2b8dm7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=315&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126219/original/image-20160612-29216-2b8dm7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=315&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126219/original/image-20160612-29216-2b8dm7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=315&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126219/original/image-20160612-29216-2b8dm7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126219/original/image-20160612-29216-2b8dm7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126219/original/image-20160612-29216-2b8dm7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Sarah Koenig, host of Serial podcast.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.mirror.co.uk</span></span>
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<p>Meanwhile, the race continues to find the next Serial. The <a href="https://serialpodcast.org/2015/12/season-two-welcome">second season of Serial</a>, about the troubled Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, a US soldier held captive by the Taliban for almost five years, didn’t quite manage it. Canada’s CBC got close with <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/radio/sks">Somebody Knows Something</a>. </p>
<p>The best candidate yet is <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/in-depth/bowraville">The Bowraville Murders</a>, unexpectedly well produced by The Australian newspaper, in which rookie podcaster Dan Box investigates the unsolved murders of three Aboriginal children from the same small town 25 years ago, bringing raw pain and kneejerk racism directly to listeners.</p>
<p>Having received scant attention for his other crime reportage, Box was astonished by the reaction to the podcast: it has probably been instrumental in <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/may/23/australias-serial-dan-box-on-the-making-of-true-podcast-bowraville">launching a fresh trial</a>. Its power lies in fundamental aspects of the audio medium: its capacity to convey emotion and evoke empathy, imagination and intimacy. When those strengths are harnessed, podcasting becomes a formidable force for social engagement.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/59987/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Siobhan McHugh produces podcastable radio documentaries on a freelance basis for ABC Radio National. She is currently researching a radio documentary on relational aspects of the production of Aboriginal art, funded by the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p>The mobile-first delivery of podcasts has created a powerful relationship between listeners and host that bypasses traditional broadcast gatekeepers. Could this format trigger new narrative genres and promote social engagement?Siobhan McHugh, Senior Lecturer, Journalism, University of WollongongLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/362542015-01-18T19:20:35Z2015-01-18T19:20:35ZHappy birthday Triple J: Australian radio’s enfant terrible turns 40<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/69093/original/image-20150115-3013-15s7hmg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Double J staff in the early days. The station's been going strong for 40 years.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">ABC Radio</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Australia’s public youth radio station, Triple J, turns 40 today. On January 19 1975, Triple J’s AM predecessor, Double J, infamously burst onto Sydney’s airwaves with the track, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfLNjDSfkcY">You Just Like Me Cause I’m Good in Bed </a>by Australian band Skyhooks. Commercial stations had refused the song airtime because of the salaciousness of its content. With this gesture, Double Jay staked its territory as the <em>enfant terrible</em> of Australian radio. </p>
<h2>Rebel with a cause</h2>
<p>Double J was established for a youth audience whose tastes were not met by either the pop floss of commercial radio or the middle-class, middle-aged fare found on the ABC. </p>
<p>Double J appealed to this audience with its overt rejection of some of the more conservative broadcasting practices “enslaving” Australian radio. </p>
<p>The station in its earliest years made a point of privileging raw sound over slick production; improvisation over formula; experiment over populism; participation over hierarchy; bad taste over propriety; and left over right. </p>
<p>The announcers on Double J, including female DJs, played rock music in place of Top 40, as well as complete albums, retrospectives and music from across genres and cultures. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/69095/original/image-20150115-3013-stphyv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/69095/original/image-20150115-3013-stphyv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/69095/original/image-20150115-3013-stphyv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/69095/original/image-20150115-3013-stphyv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/69095/original/image-20150115-3013-stphyv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=511&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/69095/original/image-20150115-3013-stphyv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=511&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/69095/original/image-20150115-3013-stphyv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=511&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Double J presenter Keri Phillips.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">ABC Radio</span></span>
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<p>The Double J programmers built a music library from the extensive back catalogues of independent labels like Island Records, enabling much of this music to be played on Australian radio for the very first time. </p>
<p>The station’s sound technicians trawled the pubs and music venues to bring the fresh, raw sounds of live music to an audience reared on polished production. </p>
<p>Double J made room in its weekly schedule for comic programmes and series like Gayle Austin’s Horny Radio Porn Show, the Naked Vicar Show, Colonel Chuck Chunder of the Space Patrol and Nude Radio from the Aunty Jack team. </p>
<p>The journalists pursued stories of relevance to its demographic, which were at times provocative and leftist. In its second month Double J ran The Ins and Outs of Love, a candid exploration of the sexual proclivities and encounters of Sydney’s youth. The documentary generated enough controversy for conservatives to call for the station’s closure. </p>
<p>Double J’s coordinators also fought to democratise and diversify the bureaucratic strictures of the ABC to better suit the new youth outfit with its consciously inclusive and democratic organisational style. </p>
<p>The impact of Double J on the Australian music radio landscape was almost instantaneous. Within two weeks of its launch the station’s key competitor, 2SM, which had previously rejected this new rock music, broadened its playlist and even changed its jingle to include the word “rock”.</p>
<p>The immediacy of this shift was remarkable given the years of resistance to these new musical styles from the commercial stations. What is arguably more striking about the birth of Double J, however, is who was responsible for its establishment.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/69096/original/image-20150115-3038-ivt1x7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/69096/original/image-20150115-3038-ivt1x7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/69096/original/image-20150115-3038-ivt1x7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=727&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/69096/original/image-20150115-3038-ivt1x7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=727&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/69096/original/image-20150115-3038-ivt1x7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=727&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/69096/original/image-20150115-3038-ivt1x7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=913&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/69096/original/image-20150115-3038-ivt1x7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=913&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/69096/original/image-20150115-3038-ivt1x7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=913&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Chris Winter in the archive.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">ABC Radio</span></span>
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</figure>
<h2>Whitlam’s enfant terrible</h2>
<p>Double J was the impish child of Australia’s first Ministry for the Media under the Whitlam government. That ministry was created in response to the rapidly changing nature of media technology and in recognition of the growing importance of media both as a tool of communication and an outlet for cultural expression. Its primary objective was to reconfigure and broaden Australia’s media landscape after 23 years of conservative government. </p>
<p>To this end the minister for the media, Doug McClelland, and his department worked to create space in the print and broadcasting environments for a plurality of voices – and in particular for Australian voices – to be seen and heard. </p>
<p>These efforts to win this space met with multiple obstacles, which reduced the reforms to less than originally envisaged. Importantly for this story, however, a few stations were pushed through in 1974, including a Sydney “youth-style” station for development under the guardianship of the ABC. </p>
<p>Only a year after the Double J experiment was initiated, however, Fraser replaced Whitlam and the ABC came under intense scrutiny. Even with the station’s early ratings successes, Double J staffers were never sure whether they would see out 1976, or 1977.</p>
<p>Some 40 years on and Double J’s descendant, Triple J, still occupies Australian airwaves.</p>
<p>The youth station has moved to FM, gone national, survived multiple political changes and challenges, and developed a comfortable middle-age spread with the introduction of digital stations Unearthed (for new Australian talent) and a new Double J (for older fans who’ve outgrown the station’s youthful style but not its musical palate). </p>
<p>Triple J is still subject to critique, although these days this critique is levelled at the station’s populist tendencies rather than its radicalism. Some even argue that Triple J has outlived its purpose. </p>
<p>For me, the station still fulfils its original role, most particularly by providing Australia’s regional youth, in the absence of a decent national broadband network, with connective tissue to youth culture and youth issues in Australia and the wider world. </p>
<p>If Whitlam were alive today I am sure he would raise a glass in honour of the many rich and playful contributions that his <em>enfant terrible</em> has made not only to Australian youth but also to culture in Australia more broadly. </p>
<p>Happy birthday, Triple J. </p>
<hr>
<p><em>Editor’s note: Cathy will be answering questions between 3–4pm AEDT on Monday January 19. You can ask your questions about Triple J in the comments below.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/36254/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Cathy Hope does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Australia’s public youth radio station, Triple J, turns 40 today. On January 19 1975, Triple J’s AM predecessor, Double J, infamously burst onto Sydney’s airwaves with the track, You Just Like Me Cause…Cathy Hope, Lecturer in Communication, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/346992014-12-01T03:18:58Z2014-12-01T03:18:58ZA gift adrift: what the loss of RN’s Poetica means to poets<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/65899/original/image-20141201-20594-1jn2vyo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Australia's long-running poetry program, Poetica, is one of the victims of the cost-cutting at the ABC.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Yasunari(康就) Nakamura(中村)/Flickr</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Australia’s long-running literary flagship program – <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/poetica/">Poetica</a> on Radio National (RN) – is <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/nov/24/abc-news-division-axe-100-jobs-budget-slashed-top-tv-programs">slated for axing</a> in 2015. It’s one more casualty of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/abc">cuts to the ABC budget</a>, announced last week.</p>
<p>For the first time since 1946, ABC Radio will be without a dedicated poetry program. </p>
<p>Barry Hill, a poet and radio critic for The Age from 1978 to 1990, placed the blame not with the Government but squarely on the broadcaster’s shoulders: “Shamelessly,” <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/comment/poetry-flagship-show-poetica-struck-down-by-abc-20141129-11vr4z.html">he wrote</a> in The Age, “the Australian Broadcasting Corporation beheaded poetry”. </p>
<p>Hill points beyond the budget to what he sees as the “mega culprits”. These include the ABC’s “managerial corporate ethos” and its “insipid grasp of what might be called a critical culture”. </p>
<p>Even if true, it hasn’t always been the case.</p>
<p>Poetry has had a safe home on radio since the ABC’s inception on July 1 1932 – as Mike Ladd details in his <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/poetica/75th-anniversary-of-abc-radio/3250424">75th anniversary of ABC Radio</a> – when the bells of Sydney’s General Post Office first were broadcast to the nation. </p>
<p>Prime Minister Joseph Lyons <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/nationalinterest/whose-abc/3280026">issued</a> the station with a charter to “provide information and entertainment, culture and gaiety” while serving “all sections and to satisfy the diversified tastes of the public”. </p>
<p>Early on, as Ladd recounts, poetry appeared on ABC radio in the form of (usually Shakespearean) dramas. Douglas Stewart was the first Australian author to have his verse dramas broadcast – beginning with The Fire on the Snow in 1941 and Ned Kelly in 1942 – followed by Colin Thiele, Rosemary Dobson and others. </p>
<p>In 1946 <a href="http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/thompson-john-joseph-11849">John Thompson</a> – poet, editor and moreover the father of actor Jack Thompson – founded Australia’s first weekly program dedicated to poetry. Quality Street ran for an impressive 27 years before being replaced by Sunday Night Radio 2 in 1973.</p>
<p>Founded by Richard Connelly, Julie Anne Ford, and Rodney Wetherell, Sunday Night Radio 2 ran regular, full-length features on poetry, as did its 1981 successor, Radio Helicon, whose executive producer was at one time the poet <a href="http://johntranter.com/00/index.html">John Tranter</a>.</p>
<p>Another long-running program, The Poet’s Tongue, appeared in 1957 and ran until 1986. In the early days the producers drew on actors, Judy Davis among them, to perform the poems. Soon the program employed the more contemporary idea of featuring the poets themselves to read and discuss their work. </p>
<p>In 1986 the Poet’s Tongue was replaced by Richard Buckham’s The Poetry Feature, a 30-minute segment slotted into the Sunday Fictions, which ran until 1994. After a brief poetry-free stint following the axing of Sunday Fictions, a program called Box Seat ran for a couple of years before morphing into Poetica in 1997.</p>
<p>Airing every Saturday afternoon since 1997, Poetica has produced more than 900 programs, 60% of which have featured Australian poets. At its peak it reached 90,000 listeners per week. According to some sources it currently attracts as many as 60,000 listeners per week, with more on the internet.</p>
<p>Produced by <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/mike-ladd/2987890">Mike Ladd</a>, Poetica draws on live readings, studio-based poetry features and on-location recordings. It is admired in the English-speaking world for the way it presents poetry, embedded in rich soundscapes, carefully crafted to enhance comprehension and heighten the listener’s experience of the poem.</p>
<p>Not only has Poetica brought poetry to a broad audience, it has also amassed a free online <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/poetica/past-programs/">archive</a> from which past programs can be downloaded by researchers and the general public. And not to be overstated, it has provided much-needed exposure for poetry publishers and a source of income for poets in the form of copyright fees. </p>
<p>A freelance radio producer, Prithvi Varatharajan, described the axing of Poetica to me as “a huge loss to Australian audiences”. He elaborates: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>George Orwell, in his essay <a href="http://orwell.ru/library/articles/poetry/english/e_poetry">Poetry and the Microphone</a>, spoke about the ‘possibilities of the radio as a means of popularising poetry’. Poetica was doing just this in Australia, and the overwhelming majority of online feedback shows just how appreciative audiences have been of the program. We can only hope that there is some room for poetry on the ABC in the future, after Poetica is gone.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It has been suggested that RN will replace Poetica – along with its axed cousins, Bush Telegraph, Into the Music, Hindsight and 360 Documentaries – with a multi-purpose, weekday feature-slot that will run commissioned 28-minute radio documentaries from freelance producers.</p>
<p>Certainly a new program offers consolation, but in its contraction of scope and expertise the successor looks to be far from commensurate with the cultural gift that was Poetica.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/34699/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bronwyn Lea does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Australia’s long-running literary flagship program – Poetica on Radio National (RN) – is slated for axing in 2015. It’s one more casualty of the cuts to the ABC budget, announced last week. For the first…Bronwyn Lea, Senior Lecturer in the School of English, Media Studies and Art History, The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/345932014-11-24T02:52:28Z2014-11-24T02:52:28ZABC’s Classic FM faces cuts: it’s time to change the tune<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/65294/original/image-20141124-19608-gpbbiu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">ABC Radio plans to cut back on the number of concerts recorded on Classic FM.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/ryaneganau/9268687888/in/photolist-f69CKs-4c7y2z-9WDZ5F-6byeKc-6jhtKS-9BygG9-ixgyNN-f83rZA-f83rXb-f69CMo-f69CLd-f7dcyW-f83rZ5-8QJ4nt-oBdypr-oBdaLS-oREHhQ-oTqTGD-oBdbPd-oREGXw-7QUz5H-oBdbAY">Ryan Egan/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Today, in <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com.au/here-is-abc-managing-director-mark-scotts-statement-on-the-cuts-to-the-abc-2014-11">a statement</a> to his staff, ABC Managing Director Mark Scott said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>ABC Radio plans to cut back on the number of concerts recorded on Classic FM. This is a prudent efficiency measure that still ensures a quality service for the Classic audience. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Classic FM currently broadcasts around 17 hours of “live” classical music a week, in addition to delayed broadcasts; and the fact it’s facing cuts in this area comes as no surprise. </p>
<p>In September this year, TV presenter and Former Staff Director at the ABC Quentin Dempster warned the station was under particular threat. In a <a href="http://www.abcfriends.org.au/news-items/classic-fm-in-danger">post on the Friends of the ABC website</a> he wrote, “Big concerns in Classic FM about the future of the network,” noting that “ABC Classic FM’s [audience] is greater than that for News Radio”.</p>
<p>Given today’s news, it seems timely to ask what the purpose of a publicly-funded classical music radio station is, in particular what that might be in relation to the grander purpose of public broadcasting more generally. Answering that question is no simple task, for it ultimately demands we consider aesthetic and philosophical questions, like what exactly we mean by <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-classical-music-28486">“classical” music</a>. </p>
<p>That we may not have a clear sense of an answer is not a problem unique to Australia. In The Envy of the World, radio broadcaster Humphrey Carter’s 1996 hymn to the British equivalent of Classic FM, BBC Radio 3, the author noted that: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The BBC has never sat down to define ‘culture’ or what a ‘cultural network’ should be doing. Nor has it ever really faced up to the fact that if such a network is to do its job properly it will only have a very small audience …</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/65295/original/image-20141124-19604-n8pnlv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/65295/original/image-20141124-19604-n8pnlv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/65295/original/image-20141124-19604-n8pnlv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/65295/original/image-20141124-19604-n8pnlv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/65295/original/image-20141124-19604-n8pnlv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/65295/original/image-20141124-19604-n8pnlv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/65295/original/image-20141124-19604-n8pnlv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/65295/original/image-20141124-19604-n8pnlv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra’s free concerts at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl have been broadcast on Classic FM.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kieran Krud</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In anticipation of the cuts to Classic FM, <a href="http://www.limelightmagazine.com.au/news/classic-fm-live-broadcasts-likely-casualty-abc-cuts">Limelight Magazine</a> argued last week that live broadcasting was not just about:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>delivering content as it happens. For many who cannot afford the time and cost of travelling interstate to hear major musical events, these programs represent the only way they can hear the orchestras and ensembles … It’s also the only way for regional festivals and arts organisations to get their message out to a wider public.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This is true, though I would suggest we would need also to include the work in this area undertaken by the <a href="http://www.finemusic.net.au/about.html">network of community classical music broadcasters</a> as well. </p>
<p>And, as I have <a href="https://theconversation.com/heritage-performing-arts-and-the-case-for-funding-33730">suggested elsewhere on The Conversation</a> in relation to the so-called “heritage arts” more generally, the ultimate reasons for preserving classical music broadcasting is not so we can simply better promote classical music because that helps classically trained musicians, but because such music ultimately asks us to listen differently to our world. </p>
<p>It forms a part of what we should call, without embarrassment, “aspirational culture”, one means by which we can explore what kind of culture we might like to have, as much as the one we find surrounds us already. </p>
<p>We also need to recognise the underlying threat to Classic FM is not just political-philosophical, or indeed ratings-based, it is also technological. In a recent, and otherwise thoughtful and though-provoking essay on the matter, director of The Music Trust <a href="http://dailyreview.crikey.com.au/heres-how-to-let-abc-classic-fm-revive-and-thrive/15575">Richard Letts stated that</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The easiest access to classical music is via ABC Classic FM. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>But that’s simply not the case. Internet music streaming services such as Spotify and YouTube have transformed our ability to access any music we like. When I was young, I would scour the published radio listings in magazines like Limelight looking for music that I could not otherwise access. Now, I can simply Google it.</p>
<p>But the technological threat also returns us to political-philosophical ones. As The New Yorker’s <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/09/15/naysayers">Alex Ross recently observed</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The Internet threatens final confirmation of Adorno and Horkheimer’s dictum that the culture industry allows the ‘freedom to choose what is always the same.’ Champions of online life promised a utopia of infinite availability: a ‘long tail’ of perpetually in-stock products would revive interest in non-mainstream culture. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>And yet, as he continued, the result is that culture appears:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… more monolithic than ever, with a few gigantic corporations – Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon — presiding over unprecedented monopolies. Internet discourse has become tighter, more coercive. Search engines guide you away from peculiar words. (‘Did you mean …?’) </p>
<p>Headlines have an authoritarian bark (“This Map of Planes in the Air Right Now Will Blow Your Mind”). ‘Most Read’ lists at the top of Web sites imply that you should read the same stories everyone else is reading. Technology conspires with populism to create an ideologically vacant dictatorship of likes.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I suspect it is not, and never has been, to the Australian public’s taste to be preached to in matters of culture. But our public broadcasters, like our other publicly-funded arts institutions, ought nevertheless to be funded in part to provide an alternative to this rising “dictatorship of likes”. They should actively mitigate against the danger of us simply wanting more of what we know and like already.</p>
<p>There is, indeed, an inherent sense of the “public” that will be lost once we are all reduced to googling our culture, as much as our news. </p>
<p>As one web commentator recently noted <a href="http://dailyreview.crikey.com.au/heres-how-to-let-abc-classic-fm-revive-and-thrive/15575">in response to Letts’ essay</a>, that’s a risk stations like Classic FM must themselves struggle to avoid:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Just like those who are rusted on to pop music, classical music listeners tend to like what they get to know. The job of programmers who have an agenda of change is balancing the familiar with the new, and of being able to judge what is likely to become loved when it becomes familiar. </p>
<p>This is where Classic FM could do better. The high profile programs, such as the breakfast and drive ones with ‘profile’ presenters, could be used much more effectively to introduce new music, recent commissions by the orchestras, and new music ensembles …</p>
</blockquote>
<p>However it is expressed in programming, the case for public support requires Classic FM to continue to articulate an underlying commitment not simply to support a niche musical interest but to support a broader ideal of public service in public broadcasting. In turn, governments, and the electorates that vote for them, need to remember that the responsibility to preserve and enhance the ABC’s capacity to do so lies ultimately with them.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/34593/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Tregear serves on the Board of ArtSound FM in Canberra.</span></em></p>Today, in a statement to his staff, ABC Managing Director Mark Scott said: ABC Radio plans to cut back on the number of concerts recorded on Classic FM. This is a prudent efficiency measure that still…Peter Tregear, Professor and Head, School of Music, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.