A small moment yesterday in Melbourne of why live radio matters.

3AW’s Neil Mitchell was on air yesterday morning when Peter called in to say his black Mercedes van had allegedly been stolen from Glenroy.

Now, you can imagine how many lost, stolen and missing items Mitchell’s producers must have to vet, and again in praise of live radio, they must have felt the urgency and immediacy of incident and decided to run with it.

Seven minutes later, year 10 student Xavier rang Mitchell to say he’d seen the van in the CBD.

It’s school holidays. Teenagers by and large don’t tune into 3AW, although that demographic 10-17 was up 1.1 to 5.2 in the latest radio ratings, probably due to situations exactly like Xavier, who was in the car, with his Mum, listening in.

What I love most about this story, for radio and for younger people listening, is that within seven minutes of Peter’s call, Xavier had looked out for and spotted the van, taken a screenshot, loaded a map of the location, and rung Neil Mitchell.

Exactly an hour after Peter’s first phone call, police had arrested three men and a woman.

True crime podcasts continue to boom in Australia, and have a real impact on cold cases as we’ve seen in the instance of Chris Dawson and NZ’s GUILT, which has just launched season three. This genre appeals all age groups, genders and profiles.

While Mitchell won’t want to spend his days on air finding lost cats and stolen vehicles, there is something fantastic about how everything came together here, live on radio, and the resulting outcome. It also demonstrates the attention teenagers are paying to radio too and the technology smarts they bring with them.

I’d call this a win all round.