The ABC’s history is usually dominated by tales of management and on-air personalities, but nothing would happen without the national broadcaster’s extraordinary technical staff. Legendary among them is Stan Bancroft, who was tinkering with radios as a young boy in the 1920s and went on to become a PMG technician, where he jumped at the chance to work on a new radio station established by the fledgling Australian Broadcasting Commission. Stan worked at the ABC for some four decades until his re...

Thirty years ago, long before HRH Prince Charles’s interest in organic gardening and farming became widely accepted, Sharon Carleton travelled to the UK for a profile about his brilliant (and eccentric) horticultural adviser, Miriam Rothschild (later Dame Miriam). In the process, she scored a rare interview with the Prince himself. Continuing our ABC 90th Anniversary series, Sharon recalls the program she made for Radio National’s internationally renowned The Science Show.By Sharon Carleton / 3...

Working in volatile countries can be challenging, but with a network of contacts built up over many years, producer Vivien Altman achieved remarkable access to stories for which she has been recognised by many awards. Continuing our 90th Anniversary series, and in the week celebrating 30 years of Foreign Correspondent, Vivien here gives an anatomy of a difficult and potentially dangerous assignment in the Latin American country of Colombia, which was a powder keg when she was there but will soo...

With conflicts across the globe, including in our own region, ABC’s flagship international program has never been more important. And the credit goes to reporters, producers, researchers, camera crews, editors and other skilled staff who have kept the program prominent, even in times when the ABC itself showed scant support. Former executive producer Greg Wilesmith has this tribute.It’s been a wild ride for Foreign Correspondent By Greg Wilesmith / 27 July 2022 For many years at the start of th...

As several commentators have noted this week, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp outlets have gone ‘rogue’ on election coverage, making no attempt to comply with one of the media’s primary obligations to a democratic society — the provision of truthful news coverage. Instead, the dominant commercial media player has become a truth-distorting propagandist for one side, the Liberal-NLP Coalition, and has blatantly attacked Labor, Greens and independents, often without a shred of evidence. Both the Press ...