I’m honestly pretty shocked by Pickering. It’s like some sort of ‘pulling off the mask’ moment. Who knew he was so right wing? Probably one of the most conservative people at the ABC if he’s willing to interview such a person at all (not on air, but it’s still associating with a neo-Nazi). It shows a real lack of judgement. Not only is his comedy naff as all hell, he’s also a Zionist? Who knew. I do also believe that the ABC’s response would’ve been rather different if the tables were turned - e.g. a Palestinian ‘activist’ being interviewed and pro-Israel comments were criticised. The double standards are staggering.
I agree ,it was super awkward. More of a promotion than anything else.
Interview was great. But would have been cool to see some analysis off the back.
Did you watch the interview? Avi wasn’t interviewed on-air but after Charlie had stepped outside the ABC building in Melbourne. The interview wasn’t broadcast on the ABC.
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The ABC responded a little differently when Antoinette Lattouf shared some content on her social media account regarding the Israel-Palestine conflict (she got the sack vs the ‘nothing to see here’ statement the ABC gave regarding Pickering).
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I’m not on social media (where I’m assuming this interview is?), so this forum is where I first heard about the interview in question. I’ve edited my initial post. All of my points re: Pickering still stand; the double standard is plain to see.
So it sounds like what really happened is Avi was picketing the ABC and pounced on Charlie as he came out, whereupon he agreed to talk on camera and made the comments about Grace. Which is still bad. But he didn’t interview Avi as such and it wasn’t on ABC airtime or property
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Doesn’t explain why he would talk to a known agitator and wife-beater.
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I know. I don’t get that either. Surely he knew who he was. It seems pretty out of character to be honest.
Former ABC Radio Sydney presenter James Valentine has been posthumously made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in the 2026 King’s Birthday honours list.
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Richelle Hunt said on ABC Melbourne breakfast today that the station would broadcast the state funeral for Neale Daniher live from the MCG. The broadcast starts at 1pm AEST and can be heard on 774AM, ABC Listen and channel 25 on your digital TV.
But not DAB+?
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It was on DAB+ too. I caught the end of it in the car this afternoon
For whatever reason, the ABC don’t seem to like to mention DAB+ on air. It’s as if it doesn’t exist. Which, to be fair, is also the world most normal people without mediaspy accounts live in
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I know it’s completely baffling. The ABC have done everything they can to deny the existence of DAB since it started. They will rarely if ever even speaketh its name
But I disagree about the latter statement. There are a lot of people listening to DAB, and a lot of it is the older demographics listening to AM stations like 4BH, 4BC and the like via DAB. Yet ABC with their struggling AM “flagship” stations refuse to even acknowledge it as an option. It’s just weird.
There’s got to be something going on behind the scenes with the ABC. They have to have made a conscious decision to ignore it. I get they want to drive people to the listen app but why limit themselves? They’ve got a whole swathe of ABC stations on DAB in the capitals that they refuse to promote.
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I’m pretty sure that they used to say that you could listen “on your digital radio” a few years ago. At least on 3LO in the Jon Faine era.
Speaking of, the promos are getting so repetative:
On 774 AM, and on the ABC Listen app, this is 774 ABC Radio Melbourne. Drive with Charlie Pickering. Call now on 1300 222 774 or text on 0437 774 774"
What was that frequency again? 
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It was much cleaner when the branding didn’t include the callsign.
When there are maintenance shutdowns overnight, Philip Clark will mention “if you’re in Melbourne, you’ll lose your digital radio between 1 and 2am” in that context. But that’s it.
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It’s strange as well because they are definitely pushing the app, but also recently rebranded all their stations to re emphasise the AM frequency. Maybe they have just given up on DAB+?
It’s not like they could ever go app only anyway. How would that work in emergency situations? From a certain lens, the local radio programming is nice to have but the real purpose of all that infrastructure becomes evident once something goes wrong - disasters that often involve power and internet outages.
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They do mention it when they run split programming: eg Evenings with David Astle versus live AFL coverage