Daily Telegraph airs its first live radio broadcast
The world’s big appetite for content has encouraged traditional media outlets to put together a diversified collection of media assets and platforms, in a bid to adapt to the new media landscape.
The Daily Telegraph yesterday evening made its first foray into internet radio with ‘Miranda Live with Miranda Devine’, an hour-long broadcast which will stream via the Daily Telegraph website and mobile site on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesdays, hosted by columnist and broadcaster Miranda Devine.
Live from the Daily Telegraph Studio One in the Surry Hills headquarters, the first show featured guests Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, Managing Director of the Australian Christian Lobby Lyle Shelton, and clinical psychologist and author Bettina Arndt.
First up was the PM, who remarked ‘this is a radio first with the Telegraph. I just want to congratulate you on this, a brilliant idea.’
The atmosphere between Devine and guest was amiable, and Turnbull opened with a yarn about his maternal grandfather, Oscar Lansbury, an opera baritone who sang on Sydney radio station 2FC and provided sound effects for radio serials.
In keeping with the theme of ‘radio firsts’, Turnbull described 2FC as Australia’s first radio station (though Australia’s first commercial radio service was 2SB, which preceded 2FC by a few weeks).
Listeners are encouraged to communicate with Devine via the social media hashtag #MirandaLive, with listener Brennan asking ‘if you reach 30 lost newspolls, are you going to do the honourable thing and step down?’
The PM, who is now close to a similar string of Newspoll defeats, said he was ‘committed to delivering for the Australian people’, but said he regretted using the polls as a justification for going after Tony Abott.
‘I do regret having said it,’ he conceded.
Daily Telegraph National Political Editor Sharri Markson (who will be a regular on the show) provided commentary on the PM’s interview, while editor Christopher Dore discussed some of the columns Tele readers could expect to see the following day.
This evening’s program features Treasurer Scott Morrison, Carlotta on ‘sex-change kids’, and psychologist Taveer Ahmed on ‘white flight from the suburbs.’
With its big audience numbers and the expansive reach of both its print and online formats, Miranda Live with Miranda Devine is a significant moment for radio, and the Daily Telegraph should expect that this will be a popular segment.