SHOCK! ABC News unbiased!

Well colour me completely unsurprised.

As we all knew, ABC News is NOT biased. The new ‘Director of Editorial Content’ AKA the Chief Censor Paul Chadwick has completed a recent study into the accuracy of three of the ABC’s key news pogrammes: AM, The World Today and PM.

He found that 95.3% of stories were wholly or substantially accurate as to facts, while 97.3% were wholly or substantially accurate as to context.

So there you go.

Meanwhile, we are still waiting for ANY evidence from the ABC detractors (i.e. their chief competitor, News Ltd)  as to the presence of bias. But it seems that this will not be forthcoming. Instead, News Ltd is content to continue their weekly articles simply declaring the existing of bias throughout the organsiation. Interesting form of ‘argument’, isn’t it?

ABC Local Radio Awards Winners

Below is the complete list of winners from this years ABC Local Radio awards. Congratulations to all the winners!

Station of the Year (Metropolitan)
666 ABC Canberra

Station of the Year (Regional)
630 ABC North Queensland

Broadcaster of the Year
Red Symons – 774 ABC Melbourne

Rural Reporter of the Year
Kim Honan – ABC Mid North Coast

Sports Broadcaster of the Year
Quentin Hull – general coverage

Online Feature of the Year (joint winners)
Fiona Churchman & Ping Lo (for Stolen Generation)
Kim Honan for – Eating Close to Home: The Locavore Challenge 

Website of the Year
Nick Kittel & Ping Lo for abc.net.au/canberra

Local Program of the Year (Metropolitan & Networked)
Mornings with Madonna King – 612 ABC Brisbane

Local Program of the Year (Regional)
Drive with Roisin McCann – ABC Northern Tasmania

Outstanding Coverage of a Local Story or Emergency (by an Individual, Program or Station)
1233 ABC Newcastle for (The June Long Weekend Storms 2007) 

The Paul Bodington Award for an Outstanding Radio Feature/Package by an Individual
Phil Ashley-Brown, 702 ABC Sydney for (Stella’s Lung Transplant) 

Outside Broadcast of the Year (Metropolitan)
Breakfast with Adam Spencer, 702 ABC Sydney – World in Sydney

Outside Broadcast of the Year (Regional)
Northern Territory Country Hour – Outback Odyssey

Community Event of the Year
Heywire in Canberra 2008

Promotions Producer of the Year
Andrew Taylor – 774 ABC Melbourne & ABC Local Radio Victoria

Producer of the Year
Brad McCahon – 720 ABC Perth

Best New Talent on Local Radio (joint winners)
Andy Muirhead – 936 ABC Hobart
Ping Lo – 666 ABC Canberra

Marketing Campaign of the Year
Natalene Muscat & Felicity Greenland, 774 ABC Melbourne (100% Pure Footy Finals)

Vale John Cargher

The incredibly talented and much loved ABC Radio presenter, JOhn Cargher, has passed away at the age of 89.

Mr Cargher had only just recorded his final edition of ‘Singers of Renown’, the hugely popular music programme on Radio National which he had hosted for more than 40 years.

He will be much missed. May he rest in peace.

ABC: 2020 Vision

On the eve of the 2020 summit in Canberra, the ABC’s Managing Director, Mark Scott, has unveiled his vision for the state of the National Broadcaster in 2020.

Mr Scott aims to have 6 television channels, including the previously announced ABC3 children’s channel, ABC4: a 24/7 News Channel, ABC5: an educational channel and ABC6: a ‘best of’ channel.

Expansion of the radio networks is also planned, with new stations focussing on Country, Jazz, Swing, Hip-Hop, Metal, Childrens, Rural, Sport and Health.

Further expansion of online services is also advocated.

The central aims of the Corporation will be under the following banners: Universal, Local, International, Quality and Diversity, Innovation and Australian.

Of course all this is only possible if the ABC funding is increased to an adequate level, with July 2009 the date of the next triennial funding agreement starting.  

The full vision is avaialble to read here: http://abc.net.au/corp/pubs/documents/2020_ABC_in_the_Digital_Age.pdf

Farewell, John Cargher

It is a sad day for ABC Radio, with the announcement that John Cargher, presenter of Radio National’s ‘Singers of Renown’ is to retire, after 50 years at the National Broadcaster.

Mr Cargher began presenting his signature programme in 1966, and it was supposed to last for just 13 weeks!

He was also well known for presenting ‘Music for Pleasure’ on ABC Radio for more than 30 years, ending in 1997.

His final broadcast, before a series of retrospective highlights programmes, will be 4:00pm Saturday, 26 April.

A great loss to the ABC, and to his many listeners. May he enjoy a long and happy retirement, surrounded by beautiful music.  

Well Done Ms Jackson!

 

Mark Scott, Managing Director of the ABC has announced that ABC Radio journalist Elizabeth Jackson (not to be confused with Liz Jackson) has been awarded the 2008 Donald McDonald ABC Scholarship to the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism in Oxford.

Elizabeth has worked for the ABC for 16 years, and hosts Correspondents Report on Radio National, as well as being the host and Executive Producer of Saturday AM.  

As part of her Oxford studies, Elizabeth will investigate international Freedom of Information legislation as a fundamental part of investigative journalism. Elizabeth will have the opportunity to study the FOI laws in the UK and Europe, and closely analyse the ability for this legislation to allow journalists to break significant national and international stories. 

The award has been given each year since 1999, and was renamed in 2006 in honour of Donald McDonald, the former Chairman of the corporation.
 

“You’re watching ‘Breakfast’, on ABC2″

 

Not quite, but as part of the previously mentionned ‘Continuous News Centre’, the ABC is planning to launch a breakfast news service on ABC2. This service, which will be quite distinct from ‘Sunrise’ and ‘Today’ will essentially use new means to deliver existing news content to the channel.

An example would be broadcasting an interview whcih aired on ABC Radio’s ‘AM’ programme. This type of delivery will be essential, as the ABC is funding all its new ventures from existing revenue.

Regardless, it will be an interesting development, and could be a stepping stone to a fuller service down the track. 

Channel explosion!

 

The ABC today has begun the process of launching some brand new channels.

First was the launch of ‘ABC playback’. ‘ABC Playback’ allows internet users with fast (ADSL2) download speeds access to tv quality downloads of ABC programmes.

 Second is the ‘ABC Shop Player’, which allows internet users to purchase programmes which are on sale at ABC Shops. This service bridges the gap between the old style of retail, and genuine online trading. This service will expand in time and include many archived programmes.

Finally is ‘ABC Real’, which will allow users to watch the ABC’s huge natural history documentary archives, in all their glory.

A further, and some would argue more interesting development has also come to light – the ABC is launching a 24 hour news service….but only internally. Not in any way a traditional channel, more of a resource, however it lays the groundwork to enable a future news channel to operate. Something which would be most welcome by many people.

In addition, the local radio website relaunches, as mentionned in previous blog posts here has launched today, though with errors on most pages. Working to a deadline for a massive project can do that. No doubt the web development team will be hard at work over the coming weeks fixing the errors. Regardless, it is a fantastic addition to the ABC’s online presence. 

Coming Soon…

 

Fresh from renaming ‘JTV’ to the cumbersome ‘Triple J TV’, Triple J have launched a brand new website. www.triplej.net.au now utilises far more flash animation, and integrates all of the Triple J operations.

A facelift for the ‘4 Corners’ website, which has a new producer, Sue Spencer, and has increased its viewers this year, is in the works. The model will be that of other news sites such as the ‘7.3O Report’ site, with greater emphasis on video.

By far, though, the biggest facelift will be for local radio. www.abc.net.au/local will be launch pad for the biggest web development task the ABC has undertaken. Each local radio station will get a new site (Perth being first) and each site will offer not only local radio details, but specialised local news and information pages. As well as a greater emphasis on podcasting and streaming. The red colour scheme will be retained for the radio stations, but the overall look of the local sites will be green and black.

The ABC is also close to launching a website where viewers can download or stream classic ABC programmes…for a fee. The need to raise revenue coupled with the demand for archival material is behind the move. New programmes will continue to be free to watch online, for the time being.

The ABC has received more than 2400 formal complaints since the introduction of the new ‘prominant’ watermark last month. Changes have already been made, and there are suggestions that more radical changes are on their way in response to the complaints.

The ABC has joined with a consortium which includes Deloitte, Intel and the Australian Interactive Media Industry Association in a bid to find new and unique digital content and concepts. The group sought and gained the input of the ABC, due to its unrivalled success in the digital and new media environment. More information is available at the group website www.aimia.com.au/innovatives 

Franno’s back!

From Tuesday morning at 6am, Fran Kelly makes a return to Radio National Breakfast. RN Breakfast is regarded as the breakfast programme for the movers and shakers. It’s the place to go for a substantial round of politics, business, international affairs…and a bit of fun.

It’s great to see Fran back this week…best of luck to her for 2008.