From Blog to Pod Part 3

BUT WAIT! THERE'S EVEN MORE!

.... and it just keeps getting better! While I was festering around the web looking for ways to get my head around podcasting, and software for our techies, I kept hearing these irritating little announcements from the Australian ABC (Australian Broadcasting Commission) Radio National, which I leave on around the clock virtually. They were always to quick and cryptic for me to grasp before I emerged from my web-induced trance state, but eventually I caught a reference to ... "if you want know more, go to our website at ... ... ABC Radio National, podcast .

Guess what? ABC Radio National is getting into podcasting next month. I'm sure the IndyRadio network (That's Independent Radio Network - an internet network of independent radio stations)already doing it.
Nice if NimFM do it before ABC Radio National though ...
For the Mardi Grass. Maybe we'll even let them do a story on it :-)
Ahhh ... synchronicity, sweet synchronicity.

The ABC has been quick on the uptake of new IT technology, and up until recently have used it intelleigently, and in a socially responsible way. The ABC Radio National website has become a major portal. So much so that there are strong moves for the the government to 'privatise' it (read 'sell it off'). It is an amazing educational and journalistic resource. Especially amazing since the web portal was largely initiated by a few enthusiasts, who got it going against management resistance, and finally got a shoestring budget of about $2million a year. So now they want to sell it. Now that its reputation is established ...

This year, a government which will have a Senate majority expected to take over in June this year, has made the first move of stripping down the ABC even further. Thye have appointed as its head a woman who, like the guy appointed by the US government to be its Ambassador to the United Nations, has stated publicly her antipathy to the organisation she has been appointed to be the head. It shows already (hence my earlier rant about Necrophiliac newsrules ... )

The ABC is a unique institution. While many Northamericans are conditioned to believe that anything which is State financed is necessarily compromised, the Australian ABC has, (like the Mexican State run newspaper) attracted the cream of journalistic talent and media people,set the standards of journalistic independence, pioneered new genres, broken stories that the commercial press would not go near, and attracted criticism from both sides of government. This government has finally reverted to the tactic of starving it into submission.

It was one of the first media in Australia to start sniffing around the phenomenon of the ipod and podcasting in an ABC Radion National documentary in October last year on their background briefing program.

So now a mainstream (under strict sufferance) national radio station is going to launch its own podcastting module. It brings to mind Mark's comment during his live to air interview. He said laughingly that slow to develop commercial radio interest in podding was starting to make him nervous.

ABC is not commercial radio. It has, hitherto maintained its independence. But with a new Senate coming up, giving an ultra conservative government unlimited powers, it could be a worry that the future role of the ABC, especially its Internet wing, comes into question. With copyright laws raging globally, the ABC's rich sound database could become tempting pickings for the corporate vultures. Let's hope the ABC does not become a Trojan Horse serving the corporate interests in this war.