3rd ABC Audit by Graham Mott Released: “reflected the concerns of the community.”

Well respected former Fairfax Radio Network supremo, Graham Mott, has completed the third independent editorial audit of ABC content. The good news is, it has found that ABC radio is in touch with the concerns of the community.

As part of the audit, he reviewed and compared content and issues covered On-Air with key market research across the country. From that collection of research sources (IPSOS/GfK/iSentua),  the Economy, Health, Education and Crime ranked amongst the top for Australians.

In the report goes onto say:

"A careful study of the analysis of the topics combined with listening to every second of the program content showed that the material broadcast was well balanced and not over-represented in any way,"

"In regard to the overall approach to content selection observed during this thorough review process, I believe the material that was broadcast by the metropolitan and regional stations was appropriate to meet the needs of the audience in their respective markets."

Graham Mott did flag a couple of areas for review, mainly centred on the ABC’s regional program content. In the cap cities the ABC interaction from the listeners was stronger with the opportunity of talkback, text and emails.

"In regional markets the participation rate was low even though the presenters were often heard to invite their listeners to provide their feedback via a variety of forms of communication,"

"If this is an important part of the programming philosophy of ABC Local Radio, it requires further work to improve participation rate in the regional markets."

He also noted the difference in staff resourcing of ABC sites, metro compared to the regional operations, then highlighted one of the key strengths of ABC Local Radio:

"In regional markets ABC radio concentrates on local area news and information. This decision works well for the national broadcaster for two reasons. Firstly, these markets which have limited staff numbers are focusing the resources they have on producing local content. By doing this the ABC have established themselves as a reliable source for local news and information, which in turn serves a much needed service for their audience."