Report: Radio show TV Club facing axe
Small screen radio show will be one of the victims of sweeping changes coming to Radio National, claim reports.
- Published by David Knox
- on
- Filed under News
Small screen radio show, TV Club will be one of the victims of sweeping changes coming to Radio National, according to a report.
Fairfax reports Afternoons, The Body Sphere and TV Club are to be decommissioned, with the staff redeployed within the network. All music programs will be decommissioned, except for The Music Show, including The Rhythm Divine. The shake-up will remove religion from local radio and has changed the dynamics about how specialist units, such as Science and Religion, work.
Amid reports management are moving towards a digital model, an ABC spokesman, denied Radio National would cease in its current form by 2020, saying there are “categorically no plans to end linear broadcasting on RN. We expect it to be a full linear service way beyond 2020”.
But staff told Fairfax that podcast-led programs undermined the ABC’s public charter as a national broadcaster.
TV Club which discusses programmes at 11:30am on Wednesdays, has been hosted by Cassie McCullagh since the start of the year.
A union meeting will be held for ABC staff on Wednesday.
You can read more on proposed RN changes here.
David Knox is a former TV critic on Breakfast with Fran Kelly.
4 Responses
RN is already a series of podcasts. And ABC TV is series of things you can watch on iView.
There may well be a point when the linear transmitters are turned off, and next to no-one will notice.
While they’re revamping radio, why not move the ABC’s seemingly endless sporting coverage, specially cricket, to somewhere such as RN, so the rest of us can continue to enjoy our regular programs on e.g. 744 or 702, depending where you live. I’m getting angrier and angrier with the ABC’s sporting obsession, it takes over the entire weekend, including night soccer, and of course during the cricket season the entire day/s as well. Cricket obsessives will move to wherever it’s on, so find some obscure network which few listen to, and move it there. Voila – more ratings everywhere !
Try listening to digital radio (you’ll have to buy one but it’s worth it)
On the original topic, I’m a very regular RN listener but I’ve never heard of this programme!
Don’t punish the poor RN listeners with sport. There’s a whole Grandstand station for that. As Chuck128 points out, if you live in a metro area, get yourself a digital radio. It will let you hear how the ABC has solved your problem.
I bought my digital radio for $9 on special at K-Mart.