On a week when tragedy has struck, , it is again a reminder of the impact that sport has on the spirit of the nation. It is for this reason that the state of play at the sports department of the national broadcaster warrants consideration.
People are losing their jobs and some well-known voices won’t be heard for much longer. The employees affected are dealing with life-changing and stressful situations.
For the sports broadcasting arm of the ABC, particularly here in Victoria, this truly is the end of an era. Compared to what existed when I arrived here in the late-1970s it is end-of-empire stuff.
Back then, the department was split into television and radio sections manned by about 20 broadcast, production, and clerical staff. Through the next decade, the level of output and staffing increased.
Football, of course, was the winter staple in both television and radio. In summer, even though Kerry Packer’s Nine Network had by now claimed cricket’s TV rights, the ABC continued to provide coverage to regional Australia.
ABC-TV was also the major carrier of golf. And there were other significant television projects. In my first months in the place, I hosted and broadcast an international table tennis tournament, the world fencing championships and the world men’s bowls championships.
Radio headquarters was the base for four full-time broadcasters, including legendary race-caller Joe Brown. When the ABC sought to include female voices on its sports broadcasts, Elaine Canty joined the boys in the mid-’80s.
One day she answered a phone and heard someone, shocked at discovering a female in the sports department, say: “So there’s no one there then?”
Sydney had a slightly larger radio and TV presence than Melbourne, and each of the smaller capital cities had a sports office with somewhere between one and three commentators. They were charged with producing and broadcasting football, cricket, and any other major state events, as well as providing daily news coverage.
The structure and nature of the ABC’s Melbourne sports department is soon to be unrecognisable from its historic design.
On current indications, it will become one of the smallest of the capital city offices. Long-time broadcasters Dan Lonergan and Drew Morphett are earmarked for redundancy and it seems there will be no full-time replacements. Which leaves Gerard Whateley: a young man of great talent and energy, but one whose loyalties are now shared between the ABC, Fox Footy, and the Herald Sun.
The broadcast commitment saving the section from becoming a shell is the Grandstand Digital Breakfast show, normally presented by Francis Leach, with assistance from a couple of producers. Curiously, given that it isn’t a mainstream service, those working on this program will out-number the traditional sports department.
It’s hard to reconcile that this will be the national broadcaster’s office in the sports’ capital of the nation. Clearly sport is not the ABC’s highest priority, nor should it be. Yet if the public broadcaster is to reflect national culture – as its charter directs – it must provide coverage of popular Australian sport. And much of this inevitably emanates from Melbourne.
The Melbourne radio section has always been a proud centrepiece of ABC sports broadcasting. Its history is of some of Australia’s finest output, provided by people working in a collegial environment.
Not that we were all good friends; truth be known there were even enmities. But the place thrived on the basis of collective input; whatever stardom existed was on a first-among-equals basis.
Meanwhile, there is Tasmania. When the ABC gave me a career opportunity in 1973, there were three sports broadcasters in Hobart and plans were afoot for a full-time position in Launceston. But, as of next year, the state will be without an ABC sports department.
The single incumbent, Peter Newlinds, is another targeted for redundancy. Not only is this a pity from the point of view of broadcast sport in the island state, it’s also a case of an untapped resource being wasted.
Newlinds could have made an excellent member of the ABC’s cricket broadcasting team. Self-promotion, though, was never his style and, tucked away in the least-exposed state, his potential was never explored.
The ABC faces many challenges as a result of recent budget cuts. One of them should be to ensure it makes the most of whatever hidden talent it possesses.
Soon there will be a formal review of the ABC’s commitment to the coverage of sport on television and radio. One insider’s prediction is of a finding that major broadcast rights – even for radio sport – have become prohibitive. This, the line of thinking goes, could lead to a future for the ABC without football and cricket.
Some will argue that this is a sad outcome of government targeting of the national broadcaster. Others will say it reflects an out-of-touch management with little interest in sport and little understanding of its place in Australian life.
It would be a sorry day for the organisation and difficult for diehards of its sports broadcasts to countenance. Just as it’s difficult for some of the ABC’s sports staff to understand why they would be shown the door before the forthcoming review is even conducted.
source:theage.com.au
STUDIO 3 NEWCASTLE AUSTRALIA 