Because it is a cost saving measure and TV is the priority
ABC Newsradio debuted new themes this morning, as well as taking the regular ABC national bulletin at the half hour (by the sounds of things)
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Itās both cost-cutting and reduces duplication. However, if there is a major press conference, it will take priority over regular ABC bulletins.
So in the new format, a typical hour of ABC Newsradio now goes like this:
0:00 ABC National News
0:05 live crosses/interviews/features
0:24 sport
0:29 weather
0:30 news headlines
0:32 live crosses/interviews/features
0:45 one minute headlines
0:46 live crosses/interviews/features
They reduced sport segment from two per hour to one per hour and axed traffic updates from Australian Traffic Network.
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Good!
Any newsworthy sport stories can be covered in main news if necessary.
Another reduction in ATNās reach, the Yanks must surely be getting worried about this trend.
The previous schedule (headlines every 15 minutes with sport at 10 past and 40 past the hour) had been running in various forms since the station began in 1994 and has become stale, so an overhaul was overdue.
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Having a traffic update (whether from the Australian Traffic Network or someone else) on ABC NewsRadio was a waste of time anyway since being a national station, it had to cover all the major capital cities therefore only 1/5th of the segment was relevant if you were lucky.
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having been a 25 year listener of news radio, this is a well needed revamp. if only they would dump the long form programming on the weekend (religion and ethics report, huff on the till, the law report) and keep the rolling news format.
the running of the ABC bulliten at the top of the hour makes a ton of sense. itās not duplicating resources and the alternate voices really stand out when you have it on (as i do) as background
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Exactly and as @JohnsonTV and @Tejas57 wrote, revamp was needed.
It was a hold over from the days when the network extended only as far the original PNN stations, mostly all secondary grade AM allocations.
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interesting to hear they cut to the news at 2pm tody, and didnāt take the qld premiers press confrence at the start - i ended up streaming abc news tv
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I can understand such programming airing on weekends since the news cycle isnāt as busy/packed as it is during the week. However, the station could do a better job getting the balance right and having more rolling news blocks in the schedule instead of relying so heavily on those programs.
Re, the new theme music for ABC NewsRadio: Itās OK but given how similar it sounds to the theme music for ABC News on TV, I donāt know why they donāt just use that across both platforms.
Of course thereād still be the issue of Majestic Fanfare for the hourly news, but why an edit to the rather good 2017 update of the theme (as used in a TV promo for ABC News shortly after the relaunch in April that year) isnāt used for those is beyond me.
I havenāt heard the updated theme but NewsRadio should have been using the ABC news theme since the news channel started, if not before.
Itās not for this thread but the majestic fanfare should have been dropped for consistency too.
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Majestic Fanfare is iconic and a boon for overseas DXers when hunting the high powered ABCs. I donāt support its retirement 
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For those who havenāt yet heard the new theme music to ABC NewsRadio, here is a quick mash-up of the new theme - obviously took a few hours of recording to get enough to compile even just a short clip without any voiceovers!
Youāll probably understand what I mean about it sounding similar to the theme music of ABC News on TV. Obviously a different logo/signature tune but aside from that, I do wonder if itās something Martin Armiger may have composed before he passed away in November last year.
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Well done, the effort is evident.
Thereās enough pops and whizzbangs in the composition for another dance mix derived from ABC news music a la Pendulumās effort.
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ABC News Radio will broadcast this eveningās A-League grand final live (except in Queensland, which is taking the AFL clash between Gold Coast and North Melbourne) from 6pm AEST. Queensland listeners can hear the call via a live stream on ABC website.
UPDATE: Brett Sprigg is calling the match with Paul Wade providing special comments.
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I didnāt realise Sandy was leaving. She was hosting breakfast yesterday.
Sandy was one of the longest presenters on ABC News Radio and will be sadly missed.
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Sandi and sports presenter Chris Glassock finished up last Friday. Both have said it was of their own choosing. Also included a hand over to Thomas Oriti who is the new Breakfast presenter.
Audio tribute for Sandi here: https://www.abc.net.au/radio/newsradio/abc-newsradio-farewells-sandy-aloisi/12725226
And for Chris here: https://www.abc.net.au/radio/newsradio/abc-newsradio-farewells-chris-glassock/12725004
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