The demise of the ABC

I'm a bit slow off the mark, but yesterday Stephen Crittenden began his Religion Report programme with a devastating revelation. Of course it hasn't been reproduced on the ABC's website. But you can read it below or listen here;

This week a new line-up of Radio National programmes for 2009 was announced. The Religion Report is being decommissioned along with the Media Report, the Sports Factor, the Ark, Perspective, In Conversation, Street Stories and Radio Eye. These programmes are all going in order to make room for, to quote "more inter-disciplinary work" on the network. The 8.30 time slot is being remodelled to give it, quote "a more consumer focus".

The decision to axe one of this network's distinctive and important programmes has been approved by the director of ABC Radio, Sue Howard and it will condemn Radio National to even greater irrelevance. The ABC's specialist units have been under attack for years but the decapitation of the flagship programme of the Religion Department effectively spells the death of religion at the ABC.

That such a decision has been taken in an era when religion vies with economics as a determinate of everything that's going on in the world almost beggars belief. But you have to remember that just a couple of years ago, they axed the Environment Programme.

The ABC Religion Report has always been fearless and I don't have to tell you that it has put many powerful noses out of joint. This is a signal to the churches that the ABC has decided to vacate the field.

If you care about this programme and what it represents may I suggest that you might consider writing to the ABC or the Managing Director, Mark Scott.


So who exactly is Radio National now planning to service? It isn't anyone with an interest in religion, sport, media or the arts. It must be our friends that listen to commercial talk-back radio who not only have a consumer focus, but also manage to blend news, opinion and consuming so that you don't even know the difference.

What a disgrace.