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I felt so strongly about Ms Meade’s blog that I felt I needed to add my comments to it in brackets below.
By Amanda Meade
ABC Radio National's plans to suffocate (replace) Ramona Koval's daily The Book Show (with a better program perhaps) has made international news in the literary world. (This is not at all surprising……it’s the “literary world” after all.)
In her blog on the Canadian website for The Globe and Mail, Linda Leith says Australia has "long been a beacon in the literary world for its daily Book Show". (Perhaps there aren’t too many show’s such as this on the main airways as they could be a little limited in both style and content for contemporary use of the radio medium. I am sure there is a place in the download world.)
"ABC Radio National has now announced plans to replace the hour-long daily show focused on books alone to a mixed arts/culture/books format, which will reduce the time devoted to writers and writing," Leith writes. (Maybe not, it’s a longer show. There may be more time devoted to books in the new mix.)
On Monday Media revealed management (which consiste of a range of people almost exclusively made up of successful past producers and presenters) also proposed to cut the daily 9am program Life Matters by 25 per cent, as well as rolling arts and books together in a new program to replace Koval's The Book Show. (It is just possible that the new show will be a vast improvement!)
The Globe and Mail article was preceded by a story in The Australian about acclaimed novelist Christos Tsiolkas writing an open letter to the ABC Board about the planned change to The Book Show. (This is the same Australian, the one which employs Amanda Meade, which today cancelled it’s entire Literary Review supplement without so much as a squeak! It should be noted that the supplement’s editor, Luke Slattery, took a similar approach to that which RN management are adopting with their weekday mornings. About the ALR Slattery says “When I took over in 2006 this publication was focused pretty much on literature. I took over a little more than 12 months ago with a variation on that brief to tap more deeply into the knowledge resourses of the university sector and so peruse what is often termed the public intellectual agenda”. (The difference of course is that the universities can’t pull their funding on Radio National mornings.)
But so far the outcries have fallen on deaf ears. (Perhaps they are limited to self interested writers who don’t understand the needs of a wider intelligent audience.) On Sunday Radio National program manager Michael Mason told Media the schedule would be formally commissioned on 17 October.
It's sounding a lot like Koval herself won't even be offered the hosting position on the new Arts and Books show. (Seriously Koval has had her time. She has been around long enough. When you listen to her program you feel as though you need to be a member of her family to be welcome. Of course this will move on from Ms Koval to the Melbourne thing again - Victoria verses the country. I suspect the PM will get a knock on her door!! To be fair there are more changes needed in the presenter line up. Many have been there too long and have program ownership problems. Many are national treasures. But someone has to take a look at the network and progress it. The smallest tweak results in disproportionate noise from the affected few with good media contacts - especially writers!)
My colleague Errol Simper and I have joked we may be the only ones who listen to Radio National, because many people are confused about what service it even provides. (I suspect this is precisely why these improvements are being made.)
But for those of us who have discovered the treasure trove of content on RN, it is irreplaceable. (I totally agree. It’s my very favourite too.)