After a big week of bushfires throughout Sydney and in parts of NSW, the fire threat is receeding slightly for now. Refresh this story and scroll to the bottom for the latest contributions from stations.
Radio stations were quick to react this season and have been of enormous help to listeners affected in many ways by the fires.
Sydney’s talk stations ABC702, 2GB and 2UE all mounted continuous programming on the fire situation, with reporters in many areas and listeners calling in from fire spots. The listener contact through talkback and the caring way callers were handled by presenters was one of the highlights of the coverage.
Radioinfo’s ‘Oops award’ for inappropriate coverage goes to the manager of a Community Club speaking on commercial talk radio who said she was having “great fun” while she was live to air describing how the club was looking after evacuees. The second prize goes to the female commercial music presenter who gave the fire reports with the same happy voiced delivery she used for her music backannouncements.
On the ABC, Local Radio presenters Richard Glover and James O’Brien gave particularly insightful and sympathetic coverage. ABC’s News and Current Affairs departments also mounted special coverage. At one stage when ABC Sydney was having power problems due to electricity fluctuations, the newsroom bulletins from Canberra. When necessary, national programs such as PM were dropped to allow local coverage by ABC702 presenters to continue.
2GB had a huge team of reporters and contributors at every location. 2UE’s coverage also featured extensive input from its newsroom and normal programming was suspended to make way for more extensive coverage. A pre-recorded ‘best of’ John Laws program was dropped to make way for live fire coverage hosted by George Moore last Friday.
ARN stations WSFM and MIX, which were criticised last year for not doing enough bushfire coverage, were on top of the situation this year. Coverage included helicopter crosses during traffic reports and regular presenter updates. Austereo and DMG stations also mounted similar coverage and special news reports.
In the community radio sector 2NSB FM99.3 has introduced ‘North Shore Instant News’ to provide listeners with up-to-the-minute reports about bushfires, road closures, traffic delays and other emergencies.
The ‘Instant News’ reports will be broadcast when the news occurs, at least every half hour on the breakfast show from 6 am to 9am, and with live crosses to such organisations as the Rural Fire Service, Police and State Emergency Services to get the latest information on any emergency situation.
In addition, listeners at the scene of the emergency, or those held up in traffic jams, will be asked to call 2NSB on 9419 6969 to act as reporters and provide their own descriptions of what is happening.
The ‘Instant News’ service is bring sponsored by Dick Smith Foods as a community service.
If your station is mounting special coverage or if someone needs particular mention for a job well done (or an ‘Oops award’) please email radioinfo
Contributions so far from stations:
Jason Matthews, Program Director Sea FM Central Coast writes –
Both Central Coast radio stations, Sea FM and 2 GO had around the clock coverage from the moment the fires broke out. The fires at Mangrove Mountain and also Berowra were given priority and so was the F3, which opened and closed more than you can imagine throughout the Thursday, Friday and all weekend.
Andy Maher, Casual production/Panel Op at 2UE writes –
One of the greatest moments I’ve heard in radio happened on Friday evening on 2UE.
On the open line, a truckie called Ken rang up, saying he was stuck in Moonee Moonee on the F3, which was closed. He’d been up since 1:30am, it was now 6:30pm, he was starving with nowhere to go to eat, and there were hundreds more trucks around him, all in the same predicament.
Mike Carlton said, half joking, that they need someone to “firebomb you with McDonalds”.
Before you know it, the marketing manager of McDonalds called and said that the nearest McDonalds restaurant could supply all the food they would need for free. Great, Carlton said, now all we need is a way to get it to the truckies…
Then Steve from the Westpac Rescue Chopper calls, and says he can supply a helicopter.
Within an hour and a half, what had began as a joke became reality to who knows how many relieved truckies, as the chopper landed at Moonee Moonee laden with hamburgers and apple pies. It was one of those magic radio moments when the original truckie, Ken, rang back to let us know the food had arrived and everyone was getting stuck into it.
I would have loved to have seen it, but television couldn’t have kept up with how fast things moved.
To us working at 2UE at the time, it will be one of those stories we’ll be telling mates over a beer in 20 years.
A job well done by the Carlton and Harker programs (of which I was just a helper) and to McDonalds and Westpac.
And this Oops Award nomination from a source who did not wish to be named –
I couldn’t believe 2GB on Friday night cancelled their news overnight and had all of their reporters return from the firefronts. Instead they relied on SKY TV journalists.
Why? It was their Christmas party – in the middle of the fire crisis.