It's your ABC

Q:  Dear Dorothy
Which community radio station should we be listening to, or is ABC local radio up to date? 

A:  Dear Chris P.

What a fabulous question!

Sadly, with both being run by well-meaning amateurs, there’s not a great deal of difference between your local ABC radio station and your local community radio station. In my opinion both can safely join the ranks of ACMA & ACCC and be classed as nothing more than a glorified Hobby Farm for all concerned rather than a profitable, professionally run enterprise – but I suppose when one can suckle the public mammary gland, then one can drink deeply! Oh now that was a little harsh... on the local community radio stations - many of which probably out rate the ABC.

Let's face it the only real difference between ABC (television and radio) and community (television and radio) is that the ABC has had around 70 odd years experience, and yet somehow, they still can't manage to get the simplest of processes right. Admittedly though, not all is bad with the ABC, they have made some fantastic programming decisions in the past, just ask Channel 7 (or Sloven as I prefer to call them). Sloven haven't had an original programming idea for some time, and many of the old ABC programs have managed to find their way from the bulk erasing room to the Sloven Studios where they are no doubt being promoted as 'all new' or 'for the first time'. Good grief Charlie Brown, the only people that haven't seen Heartbeat, Are you Being Served, Love Thy Neighbour or Keeping Up Appearances are those that were born yesterday (quite literally). What are they going to run next the Liver Birds?

Let’s be honest for a moment, we have become a ‘we want more for less’ (value for money) consumer driven society. If the ABC was your local Safeway or Coles Supermarket run by ineffectual staff that allowed it to fumble, flounder and cost more money to run than revenue it raised, do you really believe the organisation would retain it?  Of course not! The business would be given the flick faster than a Hooker with the Clap and the money would be redirected and reinvested in other more profitable areas.

With all that being said, I think the real question for the Australian public is now not one of should we be tuning in to ‘your ABC’ or Community Stations?, but rather a question of should we, the tax payer, continue to provide the ABC with the funding it has come to expect for low grade, repeat programming, that has already been rejected by geriatric television viewers in England. Or do we take some of that government funded $2.85 billion, and share the love with SBS along with our community radio and television stations - the poor media relations that have come to represent a wide cross section of our multi-cultural country -, the ones capable of providing quality, thought provoking and interesting programming alternatives?

When you next reach for the dial or remote to select another station – radio, television, commercial or otherwise -, I want you to ask yourself this simple question; ‘if it is my hard earned money that is being spent to prop up the ABC each year, when was the last time I was consulted about the allocation of those funds?’ After all, don’t you think that’s only fair given that with each election that takes place, we choose to vote politicians in or out based on their policy and performance, but never once have we been asked which publicly funded broadcaster should receive the lions share?

As adults life is about freedom of choice; freedom to live where we want; eat what we want; and watch what we want. We have no doubt all heard variations on the expression ‘if you don’t like it change the channel’, but you know I’m not going to ask you to do something as foolishly simple as change the channel, don’t you! My suggestion instead is; if you don’t like the ABC don’t turn it off, and don’t change the channel. I want you to take the time write down everything you dislike and despise about the ABC, and then I want you contact your local Member for Parliament; Petition your neighbours and harass ACMA, giving them your list of grievances and get them to show just cause as to why the world can’t change. Let’s level the playing field some more and get equality for the little guys. 

Dorothy Dix