Has radio finally gone over the precipice?

Has radio finally gone over the precipice that industry veteran/analyst Brendan Sheedy has been warning about for over a decade? Sheeds, a long-time friend and colleague, has been telling us he's been looking along the radio road and all he can see in the distance is a giant precipice, as the audience ditches the old traditional outlets and switches to a myriad of new-fangled sources to get their music and information.

So today, CBS NEWS – one of the giants of our trade – announces it is closing its radio news operation, ending nearly one hundred years of history. This is the network that gave us Edward R Murrow, one of the greatest journos of them all. It impacts about seven hundred affiliate stations across America who have to find another source for their news. And when does this happen? 2027 to 2028? Nope... The whole thing has gone from May the 22nd. That's this MAY, people... 2026. She's gone bust. All that history is finished. CBS Radio News has definitely gone over that dreaded precipice. And how the CBS announcement sounds so similar to what Brendan was saying all those years back, "The business is changing radically... We have to change and chase our audience into the digital arena if we want to survive." Which leaves us asking the question everybody is desperately trying to avoid... What could happen to Australian radio over the next decade?

An excellent segue into the latest Sydney radio ratings, much anticipated by the industry in the wake of the shock exit of K and J from KIIS FM Brekky. And the result is... A big, fat fizzer. Not a shred of drama to be seen. Okay, KIIS did divest 1% but retains the lead as the top FM-er in the early hours. Go figure! What is interesting this time is that the Old Smoothie, Smooth FM, jumped up to 13.3% to share the joint overall lead with 2GB, which continues to rule the airwaves in Breakfast and Mornings. There is another sign of the times with ABC 702 falling to 4.3%, unknown depths for Aunty.

May I also pause to say a last goodbye to a famous ABC identity, with the death of James Valentine, aged 64. He was everywhere on the ABC forever really, amiable and able to carry the full trust of the audience in whatever shift. My main memory is a bit off the beaten track: I absolutely loved James hosting the movie show Flicks. Just suited him to perfection.

A monumental day for modern Australia, February 26, 1970, the day the mighty "Indian Pacific" rolled into Perth on its first trans-continental journey of 4,352 kilometres. The super train had set out from Sydney three days earlier linking the two great oceans. Passengers spend about 65 hours on board crossing the Blue Mountains, and calling into Broken Hill, Adelaide and Kalgoorlie as well as traveling the longest stretch of straight railway track in the world, 478 kilometres, across the Nullabor. It is one of the world's great train journeys.



The South Australian election has proved the upward curve of Pauline Hanson and her One Nation Party, confirmed as a major player for the next twenty years or so but the outlook is so complex for the opposition parties. Is it possible these three parties will be able to cooperate in order to bring down the Labour Government at the next federal poll? It's tricky. Can the Nationals and One Nation work together to share the rural vote, especially on the key question of preferences? There's no point in the two cannibalising each other at the ballot box. Can One Nation continue to eat into the Labor vote in the fringe seats, the electorates sitting on the edge of the cities? The more peripheral seats One Nation can grab the better and finally – the ultimate issue which will decide the Government, can the Libs start hitting back in the inner-cities, recapturing seats from the dreaded Greals? Can the Libs regain the trust of the inner-city voters, given that the Greals (Greens and Teals) have little or no meaningful connection at the coalface (these buffoons have no idea about Australia... I doubt they'd even be able to find it on a map) but the people who vote for them are pretty much the same... Equally clueless. I mean there's no way One Nation or the Nationals will be able to challenge inside the big cities... So it's over to the embattled libs to do the heavy lifting.

It was just a line or two, a few words really, in an email from daughter-in-law, Jo, telling me that her dad had reminded her that his mum, Dorothy Butler, was a "chute girl" back in England in World War Two. Now, I sat up and took notice immediately. I know the "chute girls": they're one of the legendary groups of women who stayed behind to keep the nation running after their men left to fight in Europe and the Pacific. Hundreds of thousands of men (in truth probably millions is more realistic) had to leave their homes, their wives, families and their jobs to defend the free world. So hundreds of thousands of women headed out into the workforce... From the USA, across to Britain and Australia, they drove trucks, tractors and buses, built and serviced all manner of machinery. Not only did they keep the home fires burning but they kept the factories running and the buses and delivery trucks operating for over five years of war. They were famous, idolised by all. And now we learn that our extended family can boast that we had one of these heroines among us all those years ago... "Dot the Chute girl". The US created "Rosie the Riveter" – they even wrote a hit song about her – while Canada had "Ronnie the Bren Gun Girl".

Well, we're claiming "Dot the Chute girl" for England. She started out just after leaving school, working on maintaining the big barrage balloons that protected the country from air attack, going on to repairing and folding parachutes. You couldn't make a mistake there... If the chute failed the soldier died a horrific death. Finally they moved her out of the parachute division across to building the Halifax and Avro Lancaster bombers. So, in the end she became "Dot the Riveter". These were funny old times after the war. You could be on a bus sitting next to a Battle of Britain pilot without realising it... Or standing in a queue at the grocers next to a famous "chute girl". These were our everyday heroes.

I know I get a bit sidetracked by nostalgia... There are a lot of references about the "good old days" but let me give you a classic example of then and now. Back in 1976 you'd be driving along the road and somebody up front would break down. Immedialy several cars would stop and half a dozen young guys would jump out and help. A couple would direct traffic and the rest would push the car off the road and in to a safe spot, waiting for road service. In 2026 the car would break down and half a dozen young guys would remain seated and start honking the horn until the car managed to move on. HONK, HONK – GET OUTTA MY WAY. That's life on the road these days.

WHERE'S THAT RAINBOW

Where's that rainbow you hear about,where's that rainbow they cheer about.
Where's that love nest where love is King ever after...
Where's that blue room they sing about, Where's that sunshine they fling about.
I know morning will come but pardon my laughter".

— Peggy-Ann, 1927, by Richard Rodgers with the sophisticated and sardonic lyrics of Larry Hart