Triple J is unlike any other service. Nova is noghting like Triple J, sadly. It is still the home of the US pop pap market.

As for TV - commercial tv does lifestyle better? Really??? You’d argue that ‘Domestic Blitz’ is better tahn Gardening Australia? Hmmm…

And what other areas would you suggest the commercials do better than the ABC? Apart from the ‘mindless pap’ genre (Wipeout, Hole in the Wall, Dancing with the Who? etc) there is not any genre in which the commercials perform better.

And when they try to emulate the ABC, they inevitably fail (think ‘You May Be Right’, the rip-off of Spicks and Specks, which lasted for, I believe, 2 weeks).

As for the commercials production of drama…it is more of a production line of drama. Standard, run of the mill, easily consumed and disposable are the words which i’d use to describe commercial drama. Oh, there are exceptions, such as Underbelly - though Channel 9 has undone any goodwill that programme may have generated for them by parading Roberta Williams on ACA every other night - but for the most part, it is comprises the wasteland of Summer Bay.

As for SBS…despite the appalling mis-managment of Shaun Brown (who couldn’t run a bath, let alone a tv channel) the lineup still offers many excellent programmes whcih otherwise would not see the light of day in Australia, to our detriment.

I wonder why, Bernard, you don’t write an article questioning whether we really need the commercial channels. For at least then you would be able to base your argument on evidence.

Nova!? Nova are to contemporary music what TT and ACA are to journalism: death.

The fact is - despite pokie machines, planning issues, Video Hits, Nova, clueless tabloid media, etc, etc - the Australian contemporary music is a pretty diverse and exciting place. This is to due to a large extent, to Triple J’s existence.

Not that it hasn’t got problems. And not that the community FM radio stations don’t make valuable contributions.

As a broadcaster on one of jjj’s Sydney rivals (FBi 94.5 http://www.fbiradio.com) I’ve seen first hand what an important role radio can play in the community. You only need to see how much more connected and prolific Sydney’s music and arts communities have become since FBi started to see how important JJJ can be at a national level.

There are plenty of young people who would be completely isolated if it weren’t for JJJ, and plenty of bands that might never have made it if it weren’t for JJJ. It definitely still has an important role to play!

From its beginnings the ABC has been defined as a comprehensive broadcaster. The ABC Act still uses that word.

A recent UNESCO publication took a similar view of the role of public broadcasters.

“Universality: Public broadcasting must be accessible to every citizen throughout the country. This is a deeply egalitarian and democratic goal to the extent that it puts all citizens on the same footing, whatever their social status or income. It forces the public broadcaster to address the entire population and seek to be “used” by the largest possible number.”
( http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0014/001415/141584E.pdf)

This is what ABC Managing Director Mark Scott means when he refers to the ABC as Australia’s “town square”. However a town square only works as a democratic meeting place if just about everyone goes there.

At present well over two thirds of the population use the ABC regularly. However with its role narrowed and redefined as picking up the leftovers there would be little left of the “deeply egalitarian and democratic goal” of putting all citizens on the same footing.

Banished to the margins, appealing only the a minority, the ABC would not survive long.

This issue is discussed in more detail at at http://www.friendsoftheabc.org/universality