SA mayors lobby for Spencer Gulf Nightly News service to be reinstated
SA councils will push for updated licence conditions that require regional broadcasters to produce regional content.
- Published by David Knox
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- Filed under News
Local mayors from Upper Spencer Gulf councils are pushing back against Southern Cross Austereo’s recent decision to cease Spencer Gulf Nightly News.
Port Pirie Mayor (and Spencer Gulf Cities Chair) Leon Stephens, Whyalla Mayor Phill Stone and Port Augusta Mayor Linley Shine will be lobbying State and Federal governments and SCA management hoping to have the service reinstated.
Mayor Stephens said each of the Upper Spencer Gulf communities had relied on the service for more than 50 years.
“Credible local news services play a vital role in fostering informed and engaged communities,” Mayor Stephens said.
“Our residents have limited options to stay informed, so this decision is especially concerning, as it leads people to refer to social media and other less credible sources for their news. This can have serious consequences in situations such as emergencies, public health warnings, or community initiatives.
“We strongly urge SCA to find a solution that addresses this issue and ensures regional audiences aren’t put at a further disadvantage.”
SCA ended the bulletin suddenly on April 12, impacting journalists and crew, saying it would undergo discussions for redeployment opportunities.
“This regional news service offered invaluable opportunities for aspiring journalists to get their first hands-on industry experience and develop their skills – current established journalists such as Rosanna Mangiarelli, Will McDonald, Alex Hart and Brett Clappis are just some of the names that had their start with SCA in our region,” he said.
“This opportunity is now lost, which will make it increasingly harder for journalists fresh out of university to kick-start their career.”
Mr Stephens said the councils would be urging the government – including Member for Grey Rowan Ramsey – to not only look at additional funding, but also updated licence conditions that require regional broadcasters to produce regional content.
“A lack of credible news services is a serious issue that affects us all, and it is essential that steps are taken to address it as soon as possible,” he said.
“In the meantime, each of the councils will continue to keep our communities informed via the remaining media channels and our own platforms.
“We also encourage residents to contact their local MP to voice their support for the reinstatement of the news service.”
Southern Cross Austereo has been contacted for comment.
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7 Responses
It would be great to see SCA reinstate the bulletin. If not, another network should step up to the plate. I previously suggsted that Seven should do it, but Nine and the ABC could also throw their hats into the ring.
… but neither 7 nor 9 have a licence for the coverage area so they couldn’t do it … and the ABC has been reducing their regional coverage for decades …
Thats unfortunate. I guess they could produce streaming-only bulletins for the region. It would be better than nothing.
Good to see some action here, rarely happens
Of course it should be reinstated, even though it was produced and broadcast from Hobart. When licences were granted back in the sixties all licencees gave an undertaking to provide X amount of local news. This should be reinforced by the ACMA on the current licencees. This nonsensical rip-and-read with old irrelevant stock footage overlay gaining “points” to add up to X minutes per day to somehow morph into ‘local news’ should be canned.
… no, not really, when the licenses were granted there were all kinds of “undertakings”, but “X amount of local news” was not one of them … the difference in those days was that there was lots of other local content from children’s hostings to panel shows to the almost ubiquitous “women’s” program … sadly all of those bits of localism went by the wayside when “news” became the obsession and now those are disappearing too as television became centralised thanks to the legislation introduced by Bob Hawke in the eighties with reginal aggregation, the abolition of the two-station ownership rule, the abolition of public hearings for licence renewals and the removal of “fit and proper person” from the Broadcasting Act … it’s too late to fix now …
As a kid, I grew up watching GTS/BKN; I remember several shows used to get produced in the Port Pirie studio; with technology changes and cutbacks, it would be a building where very little occurs now. Sad sign of the times…..