The ABC’s new breakfast radio problem
Radio National has a crucial gap in next year’s breakfast schedule. Will the ABC take the opportunity to make bigger changes to address the decline which has seen its share fall to 14th out of 15 Sydney stations, and struggle in every mrket across the country? This post is for Mumbrella Pro members. A version first appeared in the Best of the Week email
Lane gave her listeners a few minutes' notice of her departure
Christmas Eve contained a surprise. ABC Radio National’s Sabra Lane informed her listeners that she was presenting her last episode of AM.
It’s hard to say what led to such a last moment announcement. The Australian’s Media Diary predicted Lane’s departure back in August, then unpredicted it on Monday. The ABC has a sufficiently unhealthy relationship with The Oz that it’s possible that the timing was to deny the masthead the satisfaction of being right.
The handling of the exit did not serve listeners particularly well. With three weeks to go until the next radio ratings season begins, the ABC statement merely said: “The new AM presenter will be announced in due course.”
Like the rest of RN’s schedule, listening to the ABC’s 5.30am to 9am slot is low. In the last set of radio ratings it averaged 50,000 listeners across the five metro capitals. Prior to Covid it was more than double that.
