I think a class act like either one of those two would be perfect to fill Faine’s shoes.
He’s been a giant of the airwaves in Melbourne for so long, and very good at it for the most part, but certain episodes in recent times have suggested his time was coming anyway. A good thing for the ABC and for Faine to ‘mutually separate’ at this time, methinks
He also seemed as pains today to point out he’s not retring, just not doing this anymore. Sounds like the door might be slightly ajar for another role.
Great news, can you hear them hooting and hollering over at 3AW?
One only wonders whether the ABC shares that view
Regular interruptions throughout ABC Radio Hobart and Northern Tasmania with the bushfire emergencies. Cut off mid-sentence during Conversations just after 11:30 to go to coverage as the number of emergency warnings went up to 5 included reading each of the warnings and crosses to the fire service. Not sure who it was as it didn’t sound like a regular presenter, possibly a producer or newsroom person.
I guess it may not necessarily be with them, a lot of water still to flow under the bridge.
I have a feeling the bushfire updates are now being presented from interstate as some of the place names are certainly not correct and are ones which all Tasmanians would know.
For example “Learnee” instead of Liawenee (Lie a wee nee)and “Patina” instead of Poatina (Po a Tina).
Liawenee is well known around the state as it frequently gets mentioned in the weather reports for their extraordinarily cold weather in winter.
Ring Hobart ABC and ask. It’s likely that on the shoulder of summer holidays they’ve been caught short and the plan kicks in to present the updates remotely. Audiences deserve better.
After filling in on the Statewide weekend program over summer, Bill McDonald is now presenting Breakfast on the Sunshine Coast for the next few months. The regular presenter Rob Blackmore is on leave.
Also Matt Webber has returned as host of the ABC Gold Coast drive program. He spent the later part of 2018 in an off-air capacity. Still on the Gold Coast, and Breakfast presenter Bern Young is now doing a 4 day week. Saturday Breakfast presenter Julie Clift is now doing the Friday editions of the show also.
Julie Reynolds, who has worked on various Adelaide radio stations including FiveAA, Triple M, Mix 102.3 and Cruise is now breakfast host on ABC Mildura-Swan Hill as of this week.
Abc Radio Tasmania in full emergency broadcast mode today with rolling coverage statewide because of extensive bushfires.
Yep, regular breaks into Conversations and then complete local coverage from 12pm even though it was The Country Hour. No cricket coverage at all and the Australia Day programming tonight has been replaced too which they alluded to regularly from the morning that it was likely to not be on tonight.
I think cricket and Australia Day programming is still available on digital radio and online.
EDIT: the final session of today’s Gabba test was broadcast live on News Radio while Local Radio broadcast the Australian of the Year Awards from Canberra.
Yep, they kept mentioning that the cricket would be online, didn’t help me in the car though.
Tasmania is now returning to intermittent national programming. Not sure how early in the evening it occurred but the first one I heard was at 9:40pm when Louise Saunders finished up her shift (she started at 7pm) and Leon Compton is going from 10pm to 2am where he said they would then hand over to Perth to continue the regular updates overnight. The last cross to Leon has just finished about 10:50pm with the next one due at 11:15pm so they’re running about every half an hour now and have been shortened to around 5 minutes or so.
Interesting to note that ABC Sunshine Cooloola Coasts have the ‘new’ version website yet the Gold Coast does not.
Newcastle updated some months ago.
Frenzal Rhomb’s Lindsay McDougall began the new local drive shift in Wollongong and it seems the ABC is continuing with ex musicians on air. Powderfinger’s Jon Coghill is listed as presenting Saturday mornings from their Maroochydore studios:
The 1pm NSW news was just broadcast on ABC Radio Melbourne. I understand there will be some national bulletins today due to Australia Day public holiday, but to air a NSW bulletin with weather forecast for Sydney - into another state - is not acceptable.
Agree, all five metro newsrooms should be running two shifts of staff.
Of course, not the case at ‘their’ ABC who choose to cut from programming and news rather than the many in management who should be cleared out for adding little if anything to the final product.
As the 1pm AEDT program began from Brisbane, the Brisbane newsroom was still open and a local weather forecast aired for Brisbane and Qld.
National bulletins usually have a cap city list or rarely none at all.
Email your complaint to ABC Melbourne.
Meanwhile, 3AW remains local with news bulletins around the clock and save for the three hours prior to Nightline, local programs all the rest.
Despite a “ABC Melbourne” Station ID just before the top of the hour, there was yet another Sydney/NSW-centric news bulletin & weather update at 2pm, at least going by the online stream. 
Hopefully the ABC will be hammered with complaints from Melbourne listeners!
In fairness, he was a mainstay of triple j for many years