James Cridland

Emergency radio broadcasting - ABC Radio Brisbane excels in Cyclone Alfred

Listening to 612 ABC Brisbane

This time last week, I was looking forward to travelling to Radiodays Europe; but - no such luck, after tropical cyclone Alfred hit Brisbane, cancelling flights.

(As a fun fact: it was going to be called Tropical Cyclone Anthony, but with a pending election here in Australia, it was wisely felt that PM Anthony Albanese might not be too impressed with the country talking about the destruction caused by Anthony, so it was officially changed.)

At first, we felt that we’d got away with it - the cyclone calmed down a little, and we didn’t get the scarily high winds that we were first expecting. But then came the rain, and a surprise set of high winds about 24 hours later, and as I write this, much of South East Queensland and Northern New South Wales are coping with flooding, torrential rain, and uprooted trees. More than 300,000 households are without electricity - some will be without for many days.

ABC local radio is well-practiced at emergency broadcasting, with a clear format that it slips effortlessly into. The output is tight, clear and unsensational - not built for drama, but instead, built for human connection. It’s a mix of regular communications from authorities, information from elsewhere, and plenty of “call us and tell us your story from where you are”. Imaging is built to be reassuring; little pre-recorded segments tell us how to prepare.

All the more impressive, when you note that the ABC was doing the entire radio coverage from the boardroom of a local hotel, rather than its normal offices. The ABC’s studios are built on the side of the Brisbane River, and during the last floods, the building’s basement was flooded out - and with it, the electricity supply. They were taking no chances - so a hotel was chosen that was 57 meters above sea level, rather than the ABC, which is less than five meters above the river.

And the ABC had planned ahead. Most of this emergency coverage was simulcast across three ABC local radio areas; and as a tacit acknowledgement that everyone doesn’t have AM radio receivers any more, 612 ABC Radio Brisbane also took over ABC Classic’s transmitter on 106.1FM in the city. A wise move, it turns out, since for almost two hours on Sunday the 612 AM transmitter fell silent, after a failed generator (and just before it came up, 106.1 also fell silent for two minutes for some reason too! The power of multiplatform radio means I could keep listening.)

Radio’s place in times of emergency is a bit of a trope - and, in many cases, isn’t really a given, with many broadcasters eliminating local broadcasting altogether. (At least one Brisbane commercial broadcaster thought it was fine to just broadcast non-stop music between 9pm and midnight.) But in this case - as hundreds of thousands of people were left without power and without internet - the ABC was their only connection to the outside world. It’s brilliant broadcasting.

Here’s an hour so you can take a listen to learn about how the ABC does what it does - this is the 11.00am hour on Sunday morning, as the after-effects of the cyclone were being felt. It’s hosted by Kate O’Toole (who did a five hour shift). Expect a five minute news bulletin first, then (5’) a recap, (10’) a reporter to the north of the region, (13’) texts and calls, (15’) a mobile phone company, (20’) calls, (29’) the deputy Gold Coast mayor, (35’) calls, (44’) the Health Minister, and (55’) calls.


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RCS

  • I was on BBC Radio 4’s Feedback this week, talking about the closure of BBC Sounds internationally.

  • Some fascinating stuff from the UK’s C&MA consultation about Apple and Google’s mobile ecosystems - it turns out that Radiocentre and the BBC both submitted their concerns and thoughts. Much of the BBC’s response is very interesting; though being fair, some of the BBC’s response is trying to have their cake and eat it.

  • I’m currently having to deal with 20x the podcast download traffic for my daily Podnews podcast. According to the rules, they’re all valid downloads, so perhaps I should be claiming them; but they’re not, all coming from either Malaysia or Indonesia. Weird. Still can’t quite work out where they are from.

  • Last month, on World Radio Day, I was on BFM in Malaysia.. The World Radio Day segment starts at 12'15" - and brilliantly, World Radio Day was all about climate change (see above). They asked me to record something, so I did (directly into WhatsApp, oddly).

If you’re reading this in Athens, have a lovely time. I’m waiting for this rain to die down a little, and going a little stir-crazy (but at least I still have power). Sorry I can’t be with you - but make sure to see the session about marketing (at the end of day 2, in track 3). I’ve bullied Wade Kingsley into doing that for me.

Want to supercharge your radio show? Here’s a £1 week-long trial of Show Prep - from a world class radio consultant and the best show-prep writer in the UK. Great for UK stations, or for English-language stations everywhere, too. (ad)

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