Radio National: Survival in the Age of Economic (Ir)rationalism

Abstract

Predicament: How to go about writing a chapter on the monolithic Radio National, relating it to some conception of ‘the public sphere’, while drawing on my own (limited) experience as a broadcaster and writer and ex-student of the sadly missed Bill Bonney? How to address issues raised by Bill Bonney in his 1983 paper ‘Australian broadcasting, professionalism and “national reconciliation”’, where optimistic scenarios for Radio National were expressed, while taking account of the massive political and economic changes currently taking place at Radio National? Resolution: Treat the chapter as I would any radio program, talk with appropriate people within and outside Radio National, and then try my hand at ‘writing’ a series of conversations. Thus the process of transcription and editorial involvement will seek to upgrade the use of quotation common to both writing and radio as public practices. This took me from the quiet of my own living room (minus children, of course) to trekking up and down William Street, in and out of many offices at Radio National, all of them located in different floors of different buildings all in various stages of disarray, spool after spool of tape lying on racks, littering desks and floors, paper flying, phones ringing and deadlines to be met — both mine and theirs.

Professional broadcasters can expect, over time, to enjoy greater autonomy than in the past, expecially as the government’s policy on managerial appointments is likely to place a premium on knowledge and abilities relevant to broadcasting.

(Bill Bonney, Media, Culture and Society 5:268, 1983)

… it should have been foreseen, [that] the Hawke government just behaves like all governments towards the ABC ... remains very suspicious of it and is continually putting pressure on the organization to justify itself, in terms of ratings.

(Allan Ashbolt, 1987)

I’m sure anyone who goes to work at the ABC is immediately struck with how theoretically impoverished debate about the media is within ABC radio. It’s very informed maybe at the level of certain sorts of corporate politics, and maybe these days a bit more in terms of audiences, but in terms of ideas about the electronic media, very few people have done any thinking about it.

(Martin Harrison, 1987)