So having lost almost 50 per cent of the Radio National breakfast show audience that listened to Fran Kelly for years, her replacement Patricia Karvelas is leaving after just three years as chairman.
Enough damage has been done, it’s time to find a new host. The search is apparently ongoing.
It’s hard to really know whose decision it was for Karvelas to move on. The official line is that the new host wanted to leave the role she coveted for so long.
And new ABC chairman Kim Williams has made no secret of his desire to take the deteriorating performance of ABC radio programs to the next level.
At the very least, Williams is clearly not distraught over the loss of Karvelas from the lineup looking to improve ABC Radio’s performance in the coming months and years.
ABC’s dwindling audience need not worry, however, as Karvelas will continue to host the (no longer) weekly television program QandA, even though ratings have also fallen from what they were when Tony Jones led lively and interesting discussions.
The ABC has reduced the number of episodes per year from 40 to just 24.
It returns on October 21. I’m sure a handful of Australians have the date marked in their diaries with anticipation.
Patricia Karvelas is leaving after three years as presenter of ABC Radio National
I always enjoyed listening to Kelly when she hosted the RN breakfast. I’m part of that 43 percent drop in ratings.
Kelly was an unapologetic southpaw when she hosted, but she was an equal-opportunity interviewer when grilling politicians.
And her style was the perfect start to the day: easy to listen to, with quality analysis and guests.
More importantly, she led nuanced discussions, avoiding preaching to listeners and telling them what to think.
The tone of the program at the time was informative and pleasant to listen to.
That all changed when Kelly left, much of her audience moving on as well, seemingly uninterested in her replacement’s lesson.
While the ABC likes to claim that it offers analysis, not opinion, in its on-air offering that explores politics, that is simply not the case with some of its next generation of hosts.
The lines blur, the lectures begin, absolutism about what is right and wrong is rammed down people’s throats – as if having an alternative opinion is morally unacceptable.
Listeners therefore choose to get their news elsewhere. Where they do not feel like an inferior being because they occasionally disagree with the certainty of the opinions offered.
Opinions are encouraged on commercial radio, and these can be tabloid in nature. But at the ABC, where the opinions are left-wing and not mainstream, they are sometimes irritated.
Karvelas’ style is more titillating than most, which is probably why she couldn’t keep those of us who never missed an episode of what Kelly previously served up every morning.
New ABC chairman Kim Williams has made no secret of his desire to take the deteriorating performance of ABC radio programming to the next level. Above with Communications Minister Michelle Rowland
When Karvelas started in the role, Radio National’s then political editor Alison Carabine also moved on, which would not have helped the new presenter retain the programme’s audience.
Like Kelly, Carabine was fair and balanced, whatever her personal views.
She had been in the parliamentary gallery for decades and knew her trade. It was a great loss for the program.
If the ABC wants to get Williams’ view on what the broadcaster should be right, management will have to take action.
It must take the blame for putting the wrong people in the right jobs to make ABC programming a success.
News director Justin Stevens — who was brought in after Karvelas was installed in the role but saw her ratings plummet — was lackluster.
And the outgoing director, David Anderson, led from behind, letting the inmates run the asylum instead of showing the backbone an ABC boss needs.
Otherwise the proverbial tail is wagging the dog at the public broadcaster.
If the ABC is to find a way to return to the high standards it previously set, clearing out management is as important as clearing out presenters who are not rating well.
After all, it is the management that made the decisions to appoint the hosts that failed. They should be as responsible for poor performance as a football coach.
