ABC Local Radio

Not a hater but aside from her duets segment as an occasional listener, I’ve never been able to warm to her.

Alister Nicholson said on Grandstand this afternoon that from next weekend, ABC’s A-League coverage would move from Local Radio to ABC News on Radio for the rest of 2017/18 season. I think it’s due to the cricket and Commonwealth Games commitments.

I miss the great partnership of Jim Maxwell and Tim Lane on ABC Grandstand.

Tim’s great at 3AW footy now, a good replacement for Brian Taylor (who replaced Rex Hunt) both joined in 2010.

But I can’t listen to AW’s cricket coverage, ad breaks, no analysis after overs. When I’ve listened to call/play, it’s been good, but the rest isn’t really.

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To be fair, Maxwell and Gerard Whateley as a partnership are just as good

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Agreed. It may be the Geelong boy in me coming out, but I really like Gerard Whateley as both a footy and cricket commentator. He’s a bit more the thinking man’s caller which I like

Mind you, it is hard to compare when you look at the ABC of years gone by where in addition to Jim the likes of Tim Lane, Glenn Mitchell, as well as the late Drew Morphett and Peter Roebuck were regular cricket callers. There was some serious depth

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Enjoyed Neville Oliver too, cricket was probably the only thing was decent at calling.

Lane and Mitchell also did AFL, so did Drew Morphett. Peter Walsh has done both cricket and AFL, so has Wally Foreman.

Conversely, I don’t think any of the ABCs rugby league callers have ever called cricket.

Warren Boland, David Morrow, Craig Hamilton, Andrew Moore, Tim Gavel …?

David Morrow and Andrew Moore tend to call one day matches based in Sydney and NSW Sheffield Shield matches.
I guess the B team in a way. In Victoria, once Lane moved to radio, Smokey Dawson, Peter Booth, Dwayne Russel, Clinton Grybas, Dan Lonegan, Whately (before Morphett was made redundant) and now Al Nicholson have those duties.

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Was the ABC radio coverage of the Qld election up to standard this year?

It was a direct simulcast of the TV coverage

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no,

it was a simulcast of the TV and that was the problem. they were talking about graphs and due to it being radio you could not see them. I know the ABC needs to cut costs but this was a pathetic performance. do the ABC not relise there is a big diffrence in communication between the radio and TV?

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Good grief, what were they thinking?

Meanwhile they invested so much into the social media coverage which was just talking about lollies and democracy sausages from what I could see. Surely it wouldn’t have been that hard to have some resources for the radio coverage.

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Former test great and current NSW bowling coach Geoff Lawson has lashed out at the ABC after he was dropped from its cricket commentary team. In a News Corp podcast, Lawson said his name was omitted from the roster after 22 years without even an acknowledgment from the broadcaster. He described the current ABC cricket commentary as “unlistenable”.

I think Red Symons just announced that he won’t be back on 774 next year.

Edit: the ABC didn’t offer him a new contract it seems

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That’s a bit crap. Better not get Libbi Goor replacing him, couldn’t hack a year of her.

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He was told he wouldn’t be doing breakfast, was offered another role but declined so is leaving.

This is clearly a ratings performance decision?

Yes, Breakfast with Ross & John is a juggernaut, but until the past year or two perhaps, it was competitive enough.

We know Jon Faine regualrly beat Neil Mitchell for a few surveys until a year or two ago as well.

Once ABC’s biggest station, 774 is going for a complete refresh it seems. Richard Stubbs also left a year ago and now his successor Claire Bowditch is leaving :open_mouth:

I thought ABC execs said they weren’t so interested in the ratings? Perhaps another reason(s)?

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According to The Guardian, PM & The World Today will halve in length, therefore reducing from 1 hour to 30 minutes.

More: https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/dec/05/abc-radio-programs-pm-and-the-world-today-to-be-halved-in-length