ABC board demands director of radio explain Radio National cuts

Extract from The Guardian

Exclusive: Sources say Michelle Guthrie did not brief board before documentary and music cuts announced

The ABC studios at Ultimo. The ABC board has asked the director of radio to explain the rationale behind the cuts to music and documentary programs at Radio National. Photograph: Tracey Nearmy/AAP

Amanda Meade
Wednesday 7 December 2016 12.45 AEDT


The ABC board has asked the director of radio, Michael Mason, to explain the rationale behind the cuts to Radio National at a monthly, two-day board meeting in Sydney on Wednesday and Thursday.
Guardian Australia understands the managing director of the ABC, Michelle Guthrie, did not brief board members before the announcement last month of severe cuts to documentary and music programs.
The board’s discontent over Radio National cuts comes as Guthrie seeks their approval for a restructure of the ABC that would see some directors in her executive team demoted and a new, powerful position of chief content officer added.
Sources say executives at the ABC have been kept in the dark as Guthrie worked closely with chief of staff Sam Liston on a restructure and then hired outside consultants Jim Rudder, a veteran of Rupert Murdoch’s Sky, and Deb Frances to design the new corporate structure.
Liston, who often chairs executive meetings for Guthrie, has made all the executives sign a non-disclosure form to try to prevent leaks.
The cuts to the $23m Radio National budget will fund in part an expensive new layer of senior management introduced by Mason in April, including a new head of spoken content, Judith Whelan, a former editor of the Sydney Morning Herald.
The board has been “agitated” by the outcry from staff and the arts community and has called for a detailed explanation, sources say.
ABC board member and merchant banker Simon Mordant has been lobbied by dozens of heavy hitters from the arts establishment in his new role as chairman of the ABC’s arts reference panel.
In March the board established the panel – which includes Sydney festival director Wesley Enoch, Melbourne Theatre Company executive director Virginia Lovett, Museum of Contemporary Art director Elizabeth McGregor, Queensland Ballet’s director Li Cunxin, Opera Australia chief executive Lyndon Terracini, National Gallery of Australia director Gerard Vaughan and many other luminaries – to assess and provide recommendations on the ABC’s arts coverage.
But members have privately expressed outrage that the cuts were made without their knowledge and before a report into the ABC’s arts coverage had been finalised.
“Putting in Mordant on behalf of the ABC board was intended as a signal of serious intent,” one panellist told Guardian Australia. “It has led nowhere. I think these talkfests are meant to quell the (legitimately) cranky and noisy arts community and talking is so much easier than a genuine and visible commitment to arts programming. Someone else refers to the ABC management as staffed by the ‘program prevention officers’. I couldn’t put it better myself.”
The board will also receive a letter from a group of concerned RN listeners and musicians who formed the Save RN Music group and have collected 16,000 signatures including many prominent musicians opposed to the cuts.
In the letter the group told the board it had a responsibility to uphold the ABC charter, which calls for the “innovative and comprehensive broadcasting services of a high standard” as well as “programs that contribute to a sense of national identity and inform and entertain, and reflect the cultural diversity of the Australian community”.
“We have received thousands of letters, emails and comments from some of the most influential people in Australia’s music industry, numerous festivals, events organisers and from the listening public,” the letter said.
“We ask the question, ‘Has this change been managed effectively or explained sufficiently thus far?’ If it’s the case that Radio National management has made a value judgment that music is peripheral to the new roadmap, the alternative being offered should at least match what is being lost.
“Suggesting that Double J might provide a suitable channel is demonstrably incorrect and we challenge management’s judgment.
“We would enthusiastically embrace the opportunity to connect the ABC board and management to primary stakeholders and major industry representatives before these changes are cemented.”

Programs which have been axed include half of the Earshot documentary program stream, The Daily Planet, The Inside Sleeve, The Live Set, The Rhythm Divine and the removal of Jazztrack from Radio National’s linear schedule.