AUSTRALIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION

How much longer will one be able to listen to ABC radio and/or watch ABC television?

Day by day conditions deteriorate and the quality of service reaches almost rock bottom.

Where to start with listing all the problems?

Well of course the root of most of the difficulties arises because of the funding. Funding has been reduced by all governments for the ABC over many years until it has reached the stage that it will soon no longer be viable for what is left of the funding to run a national broadcaster.

The next part of the problem is the political control. This has now almost reached the level of dictatorship - what is or is not allowed and what is deemed acceptable or is politically beyond the pale.

The control by the board has become extreme for one side of politics only and gradually the horizons are shrinking.

The person who is the managing director or whatever her title is is a government appointee and if her politics don't measure up to the government's she wont be able to stay, so she ensures that conditions deteriorate day by day.

On top of everything bad is the new graphics for ABC's 7.00pm news. We now have stroboscopic images which, for older people such as us in this house of two over 90-year-olds, is almost blinding and the cause of migraines.

If this is the best ABC news can do, we will try alternatives or not at all.

So far we have only been on about television.

What about radio? What about the endless promotions? What about the fact that listeners have been complaining for at least the last 40 years - and it has got significantly worse recently - that the endless promos have always got some loud noise going by the misnomer of music over what some person or persons are saying as to make it unintelligible to be able to interpret any words? and the noise over is also intolerably loud.

Nobody at the ABC takes any notice of complaints - we are treated with contempt, and again as far as we are concerned - why waste time and effort trying to get things rectified when nothing is ever done?

"I am --------- and you are listening to ABC Classic FM" non stop throughout the day and night.

Promotions of programmes anounced by Julian Day (?) have the voice drowned out by music over - or the music is what we are intended to hear and the voice is drowned out.

Graham Abbott used to have a programme at midday each Sunday called "Keys to Music". For reasons known only to management and programmers, this has now been moved to something like 7pm on Monday nights - or elsewhere.

On top of all this demolition we now have the demolition of a young person expressing views about ANZAC day, and national hysteria audible from one end of Australia to the other because she dared to express views contrary to the nationalist psyche!

Which brings us to 18c about free speech and ability to insult people, but only if you are elderly, white, anglo and similar!

ABC classic FM - try and find out who is presenting the overnight music and you will look on the ABC classic fm pages and search them with no chance of success whatever. Is the ABC worried we might find out who the presenters are and they don't want us to know?? If this is so, why???

And the interruptions with promos go on and on and on and...................................!!!

This is Mannie De Saxe and he is ready to give up listening to ABC classic FM for ever!!!!!