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Friends of the ABC Australia

Snipers be damned, Auntie endures on goodwill

Jon Faine

Here is the news from the ABC - and it's not all bad.

How is it at Auntie these days? I am asked this every second day, usually followed be a knowing and sympathetic pat on the head, the type offered by those enjoying good health while talking to a leper.

Like any decent leper, I am hardly likely to bite the hand that feeds me so if you wanted the whistle blown, stop reading now. Then again, I have never been one for sucking up to the boss, so there are still a few things to say while walking that fine line between sucking and blowing.

Let us clear up a few things first. The ABC has no money. We all know that; it is not even worth dwelling on. There has never been much money in my 10 years with the corporation, and there are but a few examples of waste. Second, let me assure you that everyone who works there - and everyone who watches and listens - has strong opinions about what is right and wrong with Auntie. If only they put me in charge for a day ...

But before you pronounce on the future of the corporation, do you realise how vast Auntie's skirts are? The budget gets stretched around local and national TV, news and current affairs on radio and TV, domestically and around the globe, online services (our ever-growing Internet site, one of the nation's most popular), ABC for Kids and ABC music, local radio (meaning 3LO and equivalent stations in every capital city), Radio National, ABC Classic FM and Triple J, News Radio on the parliamentary network, a zillion rural radio stations that cover every square centimetre of this continent - and what is left of Radio Australia. Still with me? Then there are ABC shops, sport coverage, including the beloved cricket, our loose but important affiliation with orchestras, and I am just warming up here.

So when there is a bit of argy-bargy going on in one part of this immense organisation, it does not mean the entire empire is collapsing. I will not pretend everything is fabulous, nor will I be heroic in airing the corporation's dirty linen. We will (eventually) sort it out, albeit not at a pace that satisfies our critics inside and outside Auntie's extended family.

Beware, however, the critics motivated not by the pursuit of public broadcasting excellence but wanting instead to get their hands on our audience, consumers 'deprived' of the benefit of ads. Every time 3AW criticises 3LO, it helps them make money.

There has been so much sniping, but the last thing we need - and the last thing the audience wants to hear - is endless internal wrangling, often about things that have very little impact on output but are more to do with empires passing from one generation to the next. John Millard is right to raise questions on this page yesterday about outsourcing, but then the public impression is of an ABC in perpetual crisis. It is not. Co-productions have given us Sea Change, The Games and BBC co-produced natural history triumphs, as well as some cock-ups.

Don Dunstan 1926-1999

Don Dunstan, Premier of South Australia in the '70s, was not only a strong supporter of the ABC, he was also a performer on it from time to time. He memorably narrated Saint Saens' Carnival of the Animals from the Adelaide Zoo for an Adelaide Festival, and he was televised performing with Keith Michel on the stage of the Festival Theatre. (The piece was 'We're a couple of tramps'.)

But he might also have become an employee of the ABC, according to Sir Charles Moses, legendary General Manager of the ABC from 1936 to 1964.

Later in 1978 [Sir Charles Moses], interviewed on ABC television about the music in his life by Don Dunstan ... displayed skills of memory as if he had been challenged to a fight with dates as weapons, and the old tyrant still enjoyed if only in imagination the sense of exercising power, saying that if he had known Dunstan early enough he would have made him General Manager of the ABC.

from This is the ABC by Ken Inglis

Fundamentally, though, the ABC is full of dedicated professionals who are busy making quality programs, doing a first-class job for not much money and little thanks. The ABC survives on the goodwill, and the unpaid overtime, of the people who work there.

'But Ellen and Maxine have left,' say the ABC groupies, 'surely that dents morale?' The esteemed Gerard Henderson wrote on this page on Tuesday that losing your best talents smacks of bad management. No more so than commercial outlets losing the odd Ray or Kerrie-Ann or Brian or Stubbs or Martin/Molloy. People come and go, 'stars' and people you have never heard of, all the time. But there are enough people with talent looking for a chance to show what they can do for the ABC to fill whatever gaps arise. Witness Triple J's new line-up for 1999, reported yesterday. So, yes, the ABC is undergoing cultural change, and there are hard bits to come. For example, next year's move for TV news and The 7.30 Report from Ripponlea to Southbank will cause upheaval as it brings new technology and staffing arrangements. But when the dust settles, the output will be better.

Much has been made of the current ratings figures for 3LO. We would like them to be higher, and maybe they will be as we make some changes. But I can assure our audience - the most loyal in the land - that we will not match commercial stations and go down-market to chase ratings. We can't give away money and overseas trips, nor hire teams of script writers to fashion jokes. Besides, if you add 3LO to Radio National, Classic-FM, Triple J and News Radio, the ABC meets the listening needs of almost 20 per cent of the radio market in Melbourne. What is wrong with that?

The effect of all the sniping- most of it ill-informed - is to create a management culture that shies from controversy and offers little reward for taking risks on air. The program makers must continue to put the audience first, because it is the programs that the public treasures. So if there is panic in the corridors - sorry, but I missed it.

Jon Faine presents mornings on 3LO in Melbourne.

This article appeared in The Age, 4/12/98

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