Australia’s longest running radio show celebrates 75 Years
The program launched on 3 December 1945 – just months after the end of the Second World War – with these words: “Hello everyone, this is Dick Sneddon of The Country Hour , with a program for the farm families of Australia.” And so began an Australian rural tradition that has been covering the people and events that have shaped rural Australia for the past 75 years.
The ABC’s Managing Director, David Anderson, said there was no other ABC program that has had such an impact on Australian life over such a long time. “The story of life on the land is in many ways the story of Australia itself. The Country Hour and ABC Rural have covered every aspect of everyday country life since 1945 – from droughts and floods to cyclones and bushfires, from locust plagues to cycles of boom and bust.
“Today, The Country Hour and our rural programming remains essential listening in regional and rural Australia and our reporters continue to break stories that not only have huge impacts on rural life but on the life of the whole nation. Congratulations to all past and present contributors to both The Country Hour and the ABC’s Rural department for continuing to uphold the very highest standards of ABC journalism over seven-plus decades,” Mr Anderson said.
The Director of ABC’s Regional & Local services, Judith Whelan, said The Country Hour and the ABC’s rural programming had successfully moved with the times, expanding its coverage of regional and rural events onto digital and social media platforms from the mid-2000s.
“Today The Country Hour and ABC Rural bring their audiences stories on multiple platforms. Our producers and reporters are creating daily content for radio, audio-on-demand, online, social media and video for digital and television.
“One of the most important aspects of the program today – and over its 75-year history – is its ability to bring rural and urban people together and inform them of what is going on around Australia.”
Ms Whelan said the recognition of being the longest running radio program was a remarkable achievement not just in Australia but in a world context. She said the work by ABC Rural was complemented by other ABC programs and services including the ABC’s 56 regional bureaus; Back Roads, now into its seventh season; the regional youth initiative Heywire , now in its 23rd year; and Landline – which will celebrate its 30th anniversary next March.
The Country Hour will broadcast the following 75th anniversary editions on Thursday 3 December from midday local times:
QLD
The Queensland Country Hour will dig into the archives and explore the state’s rich agricultural history with a broadcast from the John Oxley Library in Brisbane.
NSW
The New South Wales Country Hou r returns to the site of its 60th anniversary celebrations when it broadcasts from Cumnock in the central west.
TAS
Picking will be underway when the Tasmanian Country Hour broadcasts from a cherry orchard in the Derwent Valley, west of Hobart.
VIC
The Victorian Country Hour will celebrate the state’s cropping history broadcasting from Birchip in the Mallee.
NT
The NT Country Hour will be coming from the Noonamah Tavern in Darwin, located between a mango farm and a live export facility.
SA
The South Australian Country Hour will broadcast from the University of Adelaide’s Waite campus, home to the largest concentration of agriculture and wine research in the country.
WA
The Western Australian Country Hour will be treated to a week of mini anniversary broadcasts.
I think @TV-Expert noted that 97.3 ABC Illawarra mentions Braidwood in its weather updates. Well, coverage in the town is in fact pretty poor, as there’s a big rise in the direction of Knights Hill. I was trying to listen to the cricket yesterday; 97.3 didn’t get strong until the Doughboy rise (Goulburn turn off).
She needs a better Twitter handle.
At least it’s not Yumi Stynes.
Further detail from Facebook:
Paula is stepping away from her presenting role but she’ll still stay with the ABC in an exciting position working to develop new talent across the organisation. And she isn’t ruling out a return to the airwaves in the future.
Georgia is already a familiar and much loved voice to many Canberra listeners and from January 18, 2021 you’ll be able to hear her Monday to Friday 12:30pm to 3:30pm.
All the other voices you love will stay in the same timeslots.
According to Facebook - ABC Radio Brisbane’s lineup in 2021 remains unchanged (including the QLD Statewide Afternoons and Evenings programs):
The annual Giving Tree appeal by ABC Radio Hobart and ABC Northern Tasmania is this year in its 32nd year I think and unfortunately had to change quite a bit this year due to the COVID restrictions.
Unfortunately, no presents could be given as they are usually left by the tree at the Hobart and Launceston studios and there are also fundraisers and quiz nights, many of which couldn’t occur this year.
They made the entire campaign this year for financial contributions to be distributed to the various charities to distribute as they see fit. The target for this year they were hoping to raise $100,000. Today they had a give-a-thon radio drive throughout the day which ran until 7:20pm (so they could provide the figure in the news bulletin) and they have raised over $200,000. There’s still another 6 days and already it’s apparently over $210k which is pretty impressive.
Some Summer programming commencing on ABC Radio next week. In Brisbane -
Breakfast with Kelly Higgins-Devine.
Mornings with Kat Feeney.
Afternoons with James Valentine (Sydney).
Drive with Cathy Border (Gold Coast).
Mary Gearin (who normally presents ABC’s 7pm bulletin in Victoria) filling in for Rafael Epstein on drive in Melbourne this week.
Some other Summer notes from Sydney.
Simon Marnie presented Sydney Breakfast last week, with Wendy and Robbie on holidays.
Josh Szeps took over Sydney Breakfast from today and will continue until mid-January.
Rebecca De Unamuno presented Sydney weekends last weekend.
Sarah McDonald is presenting Sydney Drive this week, with Richard Glover on holidays
ABC Radio Melbourne
Matt Preston is hosting Mornings this week whilst Virginia Trioli is on holidays.
Suzanne Hill commences filling in on Nightlife from tonight whilst Philip Clark is on holidays until the new year.
And Michael Pavlich is in for Trevor Chappel for Overnights, who is also on holidays until the new year.
Radioinfo reports ABC has confirmed its radio line-up for 2021. There are no changes in Sydney, Melbourne or Adelaide. The Perth and Canberra changes have already been shared here - but here are the rest.
Mel Bush joins the Evenings show in Hobart, replacing Louise Sanders who retired this year and Joel Rheinberger will present Breakfast on Fridays and across the weekend.
Kate O’Toole moves into the Weekends slot in Brisbane presenting Saturday Breakfast from 6.00am and Sunday Breakfast from 10.00am.
Sirine Dimachkie presents the networked Evenings show each Friday, with Christine Anu presenting Saturday Evenings and Craig Quartermaine Sunday Evenings .
In ABC regional stations, Annie Gaffney moves into the presenter’s chair for the Southern Drive program covering South East Queensland.
On the Gold Coast, Bern Young will present the Friday and Saturday Breakfast shows.
In Longreach, Dan Prosser is new to Breakfast.
No mention of who the presenter of the NSW Statewide Drive program will be as yet - following Fiona Wyllie leaving the ABC earlier this year.
I wish ABC program guides would outline their sports coverage on the weekends better. BBC does an excellent job. It’s impossible to know what’s on when which is quite frustrating.
Mel Bush who used to be with 7LA, 7AD, 7BU and 7SD in the 90’s and 00’s. She’s also been doing that show for several months now already, I had wondered what had happened to Louise Saunders as she had been around for a very long time in Tasmania.
Following on from last week’s ABC Tasmania Giving Tree, the fundraising closed at 5pm tonight with a huge total (the biggest in history) collected, although it is hard to gauge when usually it’s toys as well as cash.
I recall reading somewhere that she was also on HOFM (now 7HOFM) in Hobart later in the 00’s.