Australia’s longest-running radio program, The Country Hour, celebrates 75 years on air this week with special editions of all seven of its state and territory shows.

The ABC has announced upgrades to its emergency services in preparation for this year’s emergency summer season.

The ABC’s Managing Director David Anderson has launched the broadcaster’s new Emergency website which aggregates information from key national and state emergency services.

The website allows users to search for nearby incidents; check on emergency events in other locations around the country; and connects the user with their nearest local ABC Radio station.

In his first appearance before the Senate estimates committee since early March, ABC Managing Director David Anderson told Senators:

ABC employees have voted against deferring their pay increases this year.

ABC Managing Director, David Anderson, has paid tribute to Geoff Duncan who passed away recently.
 
Geoff’s long career in broadcast media included his role as GM of 2GB during the 1980’s before taking on the role of General Manager for the Macquarie Network in 1987/1988.
 
He moved into television as the station manager of Channel 10 Sydney, and then Managing Director of Capital Television.
 

The Labor Party says the Morrison Government's "inaction and buck passing" in relation to emergency broadcasting in regional Australia is putting lives at risk, while the Nats are "missing In action."

The ABC has been moving ahead with its redundancy process, with the final change proposals sent to staff on 21 July. 

With the expressions of interest in redundancy process now complete, and positions identified for redundancy, the national broadcaster is currently consulting on the proposals with employees and their representatives.

ABC Managing Director David Anderson has worked his way up at the national broadcaster since 1989, when he first joined the organisaton as a switchboard operator.

He spoke at the National Press Club this week to push the point about the national broadcaster's value to Australia and also discussed the need for the ABC to be paid by the tech titans for content that appears on facebook and google. Highlights form his speech are below:
 

Up to 250 jobs will go at the ABC as the broadcaster undertakes the biggest shake-up in its 88-year history.

The proposed savings initiatives include:

The Age is reporting that the ABC has offered hundreds of permanent roles to casual staff even as it prepares to make more than 200 staff redundant because of a budget freeze imposed by the Morrison government.
 
The positions have been offered as the ABC moves toward unveiling its five-year strategic plan, which could be as early as tomorrow.