The ABC have a new audio on demand project called the Story Stream on the ABC Listen App.

The Stream has been dubbed “the home of the country’s best bite-sized audio stories”.

Listeners can jump ahead, listen back or just hit play. Once a story has been listened to, it drops off the Stream for that particular listener, so they’ll never hear the same story twice.

A small team of regional producers with a range of expertise has been enlisted from within the ABC and externally. Those returning to the ABC to work on the project are Longreach-based Nicole Bond (ex Fox Sports, ABC, Queensland Rural Remote Women’s Network storyteller of the year, InQueensland) and Toowoomba-based Lisa Herbert (ex Nova, GIVIT, ABC Rural, The Bottom Drawer Book).

Lisa says, “The ABC produces some great radio but once it’s broadcast, it’s never heard again. The team aims to find compelling stories with hook and heart and re-package them, getting to the gold quickly, cutting out the unnecessary bits, and getting to know the character or talent so that the listener feels a connection with them.

“Importantly, it’s not catch-up radio. It’s not radio at all. It’s been really interesting trying to forget what we’ve all learned from making traditional radio and instead turn our hands to writing and crafting content for a discerning digital audience with a squillion other listening options.

“One of the really cool things about the Story Stream and an audio on demand audience is that we can see the data. What type of stories are people listening to, what are they skipping? Does face to face contact fare better than phone lines? What length of stories is preferred? Having hard data to determine which content works best is so exciting.

“Already the time spent listening has been way beyond what we expected. That shows that listeners want to connect with others and hear what’s happening in other people’s lives.”