In addition to the above changes, Lindsay McDougall (ex-Triple J now ABC Illawarra Drive presenter) is presenting Nightlife tonight.
ABC Radio Sydney EPG says that Laura Tchilinguirian is hosting Saturday Breakfast and Statewide Weekends this week.
And Mike van Acker (ex 97.3 Brisbane Breakfast) is filling in for Mel Buttle on the Sunday Afternoon digital weekends program.
theres a name that takes me back to my teens - Frenzal played my first BDO
Wendy and Robbie are off today - along with the whole Breakfast team. One of their producers was a close contact to a positive COVID-19 case, making the rest of the team secondary contacts. The team will be back tomorrow, pending negative results.
Who is filling in?
Josh Zepps.
He is great!
Alice Zaslavsky is hosting Sunday Afternoons on ABC Local Radio from today for the next few months.
Sheâs hosting the 4-6.30pm drive slot on digital radio.
ABC Radio Brisbane and Queensland afternoons presenter Kat Feeney broadcasting from home at the moment due to being in home quarantine.
A road trip coming up for some ABC Melbourne programmes.
Geelong is a tricky one, probably deserves some of its own local programming but hard to see it happening whilst being so close to Melbourne.
Iâve always said it deserves a local station that may just simulcast 774 most the time but add in local breakfast on weekdays and Saturday morning at least.
91.9 was allocated for ABC Geelong years ago, but sadly has never seen the light of day.
Geelong could sustain itâs own TV and Radio if it became the hub for the South West coastline of the state. Sadly, all of that is done out of Ballarat.
Was there any particular reason that Ballarat never had a Local ABC Station from back in the day, 2003 seems a bit late?
The localised ABCs on CBD fringes seem to not do very well in general - I donât think people would want a âregionalâ ABC for Geelong with a fairly cheap breakfast opt-out rather than getting the Melbourne content. Especially if it was on a frequency with poor coverage vs 774.
I think the ABC would be better served by spending the equivalent amount on journalists - covering the local stories for the web, and in the longer news bulletins/TV.
That way you could also work to delver reporting from the outer suburbs that are also places with very little to no local media, let alone decent local news coverage.
Would Geelong befit from it though?
(Seeming that Geelong is like the Central Coast to Sydney, or the Gold/Sunshine Coast to Brisbane?)
As a Geelong resident, I wouldnât mind having local shows if done properly but I donât see that happening and I canât see it rating as 774s signal is so strong and rates well here
Well thatâs the question - whatâs the use of resources that gives locals the best outcomes. Is it setting up a separate frequency to run whatâd probably be a lightweight fluffy breakfast show chatting about football half the time; or would it be an investment in upping the amount of coverage of local issues on the existing platforms.
The ABC should build out a whole bunch more âABC Localâ pages - even if the radio stream is ABC Radio Melbourne - have a page for Geelong with local stories. Record a bulletin people can stream, maybe a weekly local issues podcast or something.
That would achieve as much as a local frequency, but be far more cost effective, and could be a model expanded to other similar cities, like Ipswich or Mandurah; and in my view importantly, for the suburbs within the major cities as well.
Just as some regional centres are underserved, so are places just as far from the CBD but considered part of Melbourne or Sydney. The ABC supposedly have efforts to up their âWestern Sydneyâ focus - there should be a Parramatta ABC Local page, etc.
Not sure where else to put this one but for people on Facebook it seems that last week when ABC Brisbane tried to claim Ariarne Titmus as a Queenslander it triggered ABC Hobart big time⌠They are now constantly trying to pick a fight with Brisbane with many of their posts - itâs happened fairly frequently in the past and often thereâs some collateral damage with ABC Canberra and Darwin copping a few blows at times too.
I think it dates back to when the strong am signals of 2CO, 3WV and 3GI covered most of the state along with 3LO. Other regional stations didnât come online until the late 80s-90s with Ballarat being the last.
