Hello from the coalface. Yep, I’m back reporting, back at SBS in the Melbourne office, working for World View, the “cross cultural meeting place” of feature-style radio reports and some news/current affairs. It’s on nationally 6-7am and 5-6pm weekdays, and truly is a whole lot of fun… when one can come up with enough ideas, and the time to produce it, to fill 2 hours of radio every day.
Darling Sue and I have now nested with much new furniture, kitchenware (ever heard of a ginger grater?!), vests and blooming flowers. The cold Melbourne nights are held at bay by the sheer might of the “Bombay” space heater. But mornings find the remarkable Sue getting up in the dead cold of (what I assume to be) night and going to the gym. Madness. And she’ll surely kill me using the image, right.
And I’m sure many of you are still recoiling at the idea of me returning to radio, he who can rail endlessly on about new media, new formats, etc. Well, one thing you can never discount is the relevance of one medium over another. Radio is still incredibly powerful, as are ALL media, and in this instance at SBS it is the undisputedly main channel to the multicultural population in Australia. And when you think about that, in comparison to white-bread Australia, who would you rather speak to? And inform? And listen to the amazing range of stories on offer from the peoples of far-off and sometimes chaotic circumstance? It’s refreshing, and more than anything else, it’s absolutely more relevant that a whole bunch of contemporary Australian society and cat-up-a-tree stories. In a nutshell, it’s great.
I hope everyone is well. And those in the northern climes — we pine for your heat. Bring on summer.
