Tag Archives: Australia

“The Gutting of Radio Australia”

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ABC-Radio-Australia(Source: Inside Story)

We’re sitting on the grass in the village of Matangi on the island of Futuna. This is one of the more isolated communities in Vanuatu, a small group of houses on a small island at the southeastern extreme of the archipelago.

“We rely a lot on Radio Australia when there’s a cyclone coming,” says Miranda, a member of the island’s Community Disaster Committee. “We have no telephone on this side of the island and we often can’t hear Radio Vanuatu.”

As Australia debates budgets, debt and deficits, we rarely hear the views of communities affected by planned cuts. Whether it’s the size of the aid budget or the resourcing of the international services of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, or ABC, our neighbours have little input into decisions that affect their lives.

The latest blow is the planned redundancy of eighty staff from ABC International following the Abbott government’s decision to take Australia Network television away from the ABC. Revoking the $250 million TV contract – with just ninety days’ notice – has had an impact well beyond television. Given the integration of TV, radio and online services within ABC International, the decision affects not only Australia Network but also the other international services providing crucial information to the islands region.

Continue reading at: http://inside.org.au/the-gutting-of-radio-australia/#sthash.4cwXhev9.dpuf

View other posts related to Radio Australia cuts by bookmarking the tag RA Cuts.

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Lynley Marshall defends ABC overseas broadcasts

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Lynley Marshal (Source: ADNews.com.au)

Lynley Marshal (Source: ADNews.com.au)

(Source: The Sydney Morning Herald)

“The chief for the ABC broadcasting into the Asia Pacific insists the taxpayer funded network has a growing audience with better programs on the way – despite reports the service is for the chop in the May budget.

ABC International boss Lynley Marshall stoutly defended overseas broadcasts as a way of promoting Australia, saying the spread of social media and mobile devices in Asia has vastly extended the potential audience.

She told a Melbourne audience on Monday evening the service had more than 1 million supporters on its Facebook page for learning theEnglish language.”

[Continue reading…]

While this article doesn’t mention shortwave radio per se, it’s most interesting to see where Marshall must both defend Australian international broadcasting as a form of diplomacy while also defending the news agency when its reports are critical of the government.

There’s an inherent tension all international broadcasters face–at least, those that are tax-payer supported–as many try to transition from being purely a mouthpiece of the government to an example of free press and democracy.

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Radio documentary on history of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation

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ABC reporter, and later RN documentary maker, Tim Bowden on patrol with a US Marine squad near Da Nang in Vietnam. (1966) [Photo: ABC ]

ABC reporter, and later RN documentary maker, Tim Bowden on patrol with a US Marine squad near Da Nang in Vietnam. (1966) [Photo: ABC]

(Source: John Figliozzi via InternetRadio Digest)

ABC Radio National will broadcast a weeklong series highlighting the history, development, key moments and future of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on the occasion of its 80th Anniversary, from December 24-28.  Details from:

http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/specialbroadcasts/abc-80th-anniversary/4373618

There is a 16 hour difference between New York and Melbourne during our standard time winters; 19 hours between Los Angeles and Melbourne.  “Live” broadcast, therefore, will be at 2 am, Dec. 23-27; repeated at 9 am, Dec. 24-28.  No word yet on whether or for how long a podcast of this series will be made available.

John Figliozzi

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Bob Padula’s history of Australian shortwave broadcasting

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Bob Padula at Warrandyte State Park, near Melbourne, Australia

I recently discovered that Bob Padula, long-time shortwave radio enthusiast and publisher of The Australian DX Report, has an online project entitled The History of Shortwave Radio In Australia. It’s a thorough and informative read and is available free of charge.

Check it out on Bob’s website.

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ABC video highlights the Dooen transmitter on World Radio Day

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The Dooen tower "hat" (photo: ABC)

(Source: Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Standing 201-metres tall with a 19-metre wide capacitive ‘top hat’, the 3WV mast in western Victoria stands out in the vast flat landscape that stretches below it.
Celebrating 75th years of service, the occasion of World Radio Day seemed a worthy time to pay tribute to this impressive technological structure.

“It really meant a lot to us. It must’ve been a big undertaking in 1936 to build it because cranes and things that are about today weren’t even heard of,” says long time Horsham resident James Heard.

And while the locals are proud of the trusty Dooen mast, its power reaches far wider than just this wide brown land.

In fact 594 AM has even been heard as far as Canada, Japan and South Africa.

The staggering reach is aided by the distinctive ‘top hat’ and the low frequency of the AM band. While obviously a success, the antenna was the first of its kind in Australia and acted as a prototype for other services.

“It’s the first solid-state 50-kilowatt broadcast transmitter installed for the ABC and it was the test bed for the installations across the rest of the country,” says Tim Hughes, Transmission Coordinator for ABC Victoria.

So whether you’re tuning in from snowy Canada or just down the road, thanks be to the 3WV transmitter.

I’m sure many an ultralight DXer would like to snag this transmitter! Watch the 3+ minute video on the ABC website.

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