He is very good. He was great on The Feed and then 7:30. Will he present Afternoon Briefing on the news channel too?
ABC RN announces Drive presenter in new line-up for listeners in 2022
Award-winning broadcaster and journalist Andy Park has been announced as the new host of RN Drive in 2022, bringing listeners home each weekday with a fresh and in-depth perspective on national and international stories.
Park will be part of Radio Nationalâs new line-up in 2022, which will stir the mind and senses with ideas and insights across history, politics, arts, science, religion and ethics and society and culture â including an extended timeslot for Between the Lines and a new show about Australiaâs weird and wonderful plants and animals and new weekend destination for book lovers.
Park, who started his career in radio, will join ABC RN on 24 January from ABC TVâs 7:30 , where he has covered major stories on everything from fires, floods, war games, government policy and politics. He has also reported in the field for the ABCâs Foreign Correspondent.
Prior to joining the ABC, Park was part of the original line-up for SBS Vicelandâs The Feed and a news anchor for SBS World News. He has also worked at The Age newspaper and in radio in Melbourne and regional Australia.
Outside of work, he loves motorcycling, the great outdoors and chasing after his young family. He takes over the RN Drive spot from Patricia Karvelas, who will present the agenda-setting RN Breakfast from January.
âIâm delighted to return to my radio roots on a show of such significance, in such a critical election year,â Park said. â RN Drive audiences expect to be taken beyond the headlines and Iâm excited to bring them the best conversations about politics, news, arts and culture, alongside coverage of the big, complex issues facing Australia and the world.â
ABC RNâs engaging 2022 line-up will also see Tom Switzerâs Between The Lines expanded to an hour, to showcase a greater range of independent thinkers and distinguished Australian and international guests.
âAs conventional wisdoms become increasingly overwhelming and orthodoxies are quickly set into the news and current affairs narrative, itâs important to air a program that puts contemporary events in both a global and historical context,â Switzer said.
âItâs a great honour to be part of RNâs commitment to showcase distinguished Australian and international guests to the world.â
ABC RN Manager Cath Dwyer said the network would offer even more to listeners in 2022. âIn an important election year, ABC RN will continue to bring quality, in-depth journalism and analysis to our listeners, alongside great conversations across a range of specialist subjects, connecting audiences with great ideas, people and stories.â
âWe are especially excited to bring Andy Park to listeners as the new host of RN Drive. Andy is an outstanding ABC journalist with a fresh, engaging take on national and international issues, who will take audiences beyond the headlines to explore the ideas and stories that matter to Australians. PK in the morning and Andy in the afternoon is a perfect way to bookend your day.â
Also in 2022, the irrepressible Dr Ann Jones will present ABC RNâs lively new show What The Duck?!, about the curious and fascinating creatures around us. Each week, she will uncover an astonishing fact about the natural world and unpack it for listeners, with the help of expert researchers and scientists.
Book lovers will turn over a bright new page on weekends next year as The Bookshelf moves to Saturday mornings, with ABC RNâs resident bibliophiles Kate Evans and Cassie McCullagh joined by guest authors and literary types to discuss the books we are reading or dying to read.
Dedicated readers can also come together each month for the ABC Book Club, to enjoy good stories and great discussions about new releases and classic tomes, or for the annual Big Weekend of Books, which will return mid-year.
Other changes to ABC RNâs 2022 line-up include:
- Speaking Out, hosted by Gamilaroi/Eualeyai broadcaster and academic Professor Larissa Behrendt, moves to a new timeslot on Fridays at 12pm.
- Lost and Found moves to a special package of seasonal episodes, focusing on fascinating places around the world.
- All in the Mind moves to Mondays at 1:30pm and The Philosopherâs Zone will move to Wednesdays at 1:30pm.
A complete RN schedule for 2022 will be available in the New Year.
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during the campagin ive made the switch from newsradio to radionational. if newsradio is going to play RN longform programming i may as well listen to it on RN first
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Tuesday 31 May-
Patricia was back broadcasting from the actual studio for Breakfast this morning.
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This is a really interesting look at ABC Radioâs performance and particularly Radio Nationalâs ratings woes considering NewsRadio is attracting bigger audiences in most states:
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I reckon itâs time for NewsRadio to become like BBC 5 live. And RN to become like Radio 4.
Is that a problem? As a younger listener, RN has always struck me as a more specialist network anyway.
The News Radio product is pretty compelling and Iâm not surprised it is doing well. I actually find it superior to BBC Radio 5 Live, which IMO gets bogged down in talkback and tedious panel discussions of experts far too frequently. ABCNR meanwhile keeps a good balance and generally doesnât linger for too long on interviews before moving on. Itâs a true rolling news station that anyone can dip in and out of pretty easily.
Also, a lot of âyoungâ audiences wonât get their Radio National content on radio. Theyâll get it in podcast form. Triple J would also cannibalise that potential audience with Hack and The Hook Up etc.
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Strong disagree on both. Radio 5 is dire.
Iâve never understood the popularity of Radio 4 to be quite honest. Iâm guessing it gains a lot of the listenership in the British market that would usually associate itself with ABC Local Radio here?
Youâre comparing two different services though. ABC NewsRadio is (as you said) a pure rolling news station whereas BBC Radio 5 Live combines ABC Local Radio news/discussion type programming and sports coverage (on weeknights and weekends).
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I love 5live. My favourite radio station in the world. Live news, live sport, live talk. Itâs a great format. Would love the abc to borrow it. It has a more contemporary sound than abc local radio.
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that was the case 10 years ago (i have listened to NR for over 20 years - back when it was branded as PNN (Parliament and news network) and it carried radio australia overnight)
Newsradio is relying more and more on longform programming, especially on the weekend with shows like hoof on the till, the law report and the religion and ethics report.
it has gotten better since they did local bulletins at the top of every hour instead of just 5:30am to midnight, but its a small change against the tide.
newsradio on AM does do sport though - AFL in SYD & Bris and NRL to Vic so its a pretty apt comparison in my opinion
thats my guess - BBC local radio is fantastic but its not like ABC local here - BBC plays more music for example
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Itâs also got a much larger budget, itâs the home of their AM and PM programs and continues to do more âradioâ style programming whereas much of RN is really just the broadcast of podcasts.
I donât agree with all of Burrowsâ analysis and I think thereâs some pretty fundamental misunderstandings of what Radio National does and the role it plays. However, I do hope the new govt and some funding certainty will give the ABC an opportunity to refresh RN a bit. The programming continues to move away from specialist news and analysis (like the Health and Law Report) which is expensive to podcast programming like What the Duck which doesnât require a yearly team of presenters, researchers, producers, etc. Itâs not even clear what the ABC calls the channel anymore, after a strict adherence to RN for a number of years, Radio National is sneaking back in after the last logo and sting update.
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It might be my ears on 2ue on dab sounds great these days.