winter of discontent made glorious spring

I was sorry to read radio MTR is in a bit of trouble, with its audience sinking to around a two percent share. Melbourne Talk Radio is the new kid on the radio block in Melbourne, established less than two years ago.

I don't listen to it regularly, talk radio is a little strident for me in the mornings and MTR's afternoon schedule was Sydney-centric, the last time I did. I hope MTR's format continues under new ownership because it provides an Australian voice that might otherwise go unheard.

Australian media audiences have been fragmenting for at least two decades. New entrants to a broadcast media market find themselves on a playing field that is anything but level. The broadcasters with the most channels will do best because they can deliver a diverse range of programming simultaneously. New Digital television multi-channels are revitalizing a television industry that commentators were writing off a decade ago.

Two percent is about the audience share of so-called for-and-by programming - MTR"s morning schedule is described as in your face conservative by conservative commentators - in all the Australian capital cities. The only way a single channel can make inroads into a new market is by capturing pent up demand for the type of programming it offers at the expense of other more established broadcasters' audiences.

Modern media markets offer more media, more choice, more competition for smaller audiences and more programming tailored for those smaller audiences. Smaller per schedule audiences mean smaller revenues per schedule, and perhaps MTR's failure to capture a larger market share reflects those market realities. Politics is not a favourite of Australian audiences, and media organizations must look to subsidizing news and political comment from revenues derived from other programming with greater audience appeal.

It has been a big couple of weeks for the Australian mass media. The media convergence review is finally underway, with the Australian Press Council kindly stepping up to offer to regulate blogs, and the Australian Communications and Media authority basically recommending it had failed its mission to regulate Australian broadcasters and should therefore be wound up in favour of another body with greater regulatory powers over a larger proportion of Australian media.

A relentless campaign against News Limited and its founder Rupert Murdoch continued with a ferocious attack on the Australian newspaper by Robert Manne In the latest edition of the Quarterly. I would review the essay but it cost ten bucks and an hour and a half of my time to read that I'll never get back, a price I wouldn't wish upon anyone else.

I wrote about broadcaster Alan Jones' attack on working journalists at an anti-government protest rally in Canberra a couple of weeks ago. Following up as best I could I found out that Mr Jones' friends had been delayed at the NSW/ACT border for about three minutes while they sought directions from police. The kindest comment was "Mr Jones appeared at the rally as a private citizen". Everyone else seemed rather exasperated with the eponymous broadcaster. "It was misinformation", one protest organizer offered.

Three journalists were sacked, and one resigned, from the Nine television network's Brisbane newsroom over the so-called choppergate affair. "We rightly demand accountability and high standards of others and we must meet those expectations ourselves", Nine general manager Jeffrey Brown said, adding that the newsroom had failed to meet its own standards.

Spring in Melbourne is as always a wonderful assault upon the senses. Bright sun like honey dripping from pink and white and orange-yellow blossoms, everywhere the scent of Jasmine and budding fig, olive, cherry and pear. Spring brings a promise of renewed hope, and this year's spring seems especially abundant after years of watching gardens parched by unremitting drought struggle to survive. No matter what size a plasma screen is, or how high fidelity, the media's dim glow can't compete at all with the bright promise of abundance and growth finding its way through the heaviest curtains and warming the most shadowed corners.