Confused, I reached for the dial. I must have accidentally changed stations. Because there seems to some navel-gazing, crystal-toting west coast Yank whining intolerably about a host of uninteresting matters, primarily herself.

The horror! It WAS Radio National.

Is it just me? It’s happened more than once

Matilda, if you click on any of the archived categories, there should be an arrow thingie with “older posts” next to it, either at the top or bottom of the page, depending on your browser. That should enable you to navigate the entire archive.

On Thursday morning, heard the Media report’s Antony Fennell say it was the last program. Ditto for Robin Williams – and Perspective (where ordinary people get 5 mins to eloquently sound off about something interesting). So i was thinking: where are the people who might care about this stuff – if they’re on the Oz blogosphere, i can’t find them. As someone who’s passionate about the radio it gobsmacks me that no-one is regularly and exclusively blogging about radio. Come to think of it – where do we go if we want to have a whinge about something we’ve read in the Age?

Maybe it should be pride of place on the F.M. band and Lucky Oceans be allowed to take over the time from the saccharine Rachael Kohn.

And some people still play drums with sticks. Fancy.

For us, listening to the wireless means using the laptop with the wifi card in it!

Unfortunately, the opposite is the case now, in that I only turn to RN when I don’t like what’s on PNN.

Why? Geraldine Doogue is one reason. She was a very good broadcaster 20 years ago, but now is more of a ‘celebrity’ broadcaster than an interviewer in my opinion.

Crap buy-ins like “New Dimensions” is another reason.

Nevertheless, RN still has some terrific audio gems amongst the growing dross. Others have mentioned what they are, so I won’t repeat them here.

He just unilaterally announced the programs he planned to axe on R.N. without explaining what was to replace them. What made it even more galling was that the station had been recently calling on listeners to give feedback about what they wanted, so that the national broadcaster could be made “even better”.

It is interesting to note, with regard to ratings concerns, that R.N. has never had the benefit of cross promotion from the local abc stations and via television. A decent radio signal would also help and should be made available right around Australia. Proper recognition of the importance of, one station, that every individual can tune into, no matter where they are in the country, should at last be made. And definitely not in that creepy ‘Macca’, hyper-patriotic, model.

This wonderful gem is just not being given any where near a fair go by administrators who should know far better. Mark Scott needs to resign immediately and somebody who understands radio that stimulates brains, rather than counts heads, should be brought into the job.