One thing I have learnt about Radio National since Stephen Crittenden spat the dummy about losing his show is that they don't update their presenters' photos often. (Have a look at Stephen's unflattering unhappy photo in the News.com story on this compared to his RN bio.)
I am being needlessly bitchy, I suppose, as in fact I would prefer The Religion Report stay. He doesn't do a bad job, I reckon, and I occasionally get to listen to it.
However, there is a lot of dross on RN and, apart from Crittenden's show and (perhaps) the Media Report, the other ones mentioned for axing will not be missed by more than a handful of listeners.
The really great presenters of the Radio National are, I reckon, Alan Saunders and Norman Swan. Both just come across as good natured polymaths, and don't wear their political ideology on their sleeves as do so many other Radio National presenters.
If you have a spare half hour, you could do much worse than listen to Saunder's "By Design" show of last week which featured Paul Keating and Elizabeth Farrelly talking about Sydney's Circular Quay. Quite entertaining in parts.
It's a shame at least that The Ark and The Religion Report are going.
ReplyDeleteI listen to them as podcasts so I'm usually a week behind and hadn't heard any of this.
Crittenden is a relentless interviewer (and much older than I thought as the Ipod downloads his ABC picture which must be from 20 years ago!) and would be useful on general current affairs. His show compares very favourably with its BBC equivalent.
The Ark could be folded in to The Spirit of Things if that is to continue I suppose.