The Channel | 2008 | Issue 1

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People are not
terribly worried about
political struggle any
more, they aim for a
better life. They are
very worldly in terms
of how to handle
information pouring
in from western
broadcasters like
ourselves
“
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16 | JANUARY08 | THE CHANNEL
THE CHANNEL | IN CONVERSATION
you get it right it will work. I am
not sure there are any lessons that
bigger broadcasters can learn from
Radio Australia because our
situation is quite unique.
Would you like to see
technology suppliers making
what you are doing on cross-
media platforms easier?
At the moment, we are not ahead of
technology, we are behind. We are
still not fully capable of utilising a
lot of the existing technology. And
it's not just the technological side,
we are also facing a management
structure that is not very adaptable.
Sometimes I feel frustrated that we
are coping with a fairly traditional
mode of thinking, and that applies
to IT matters and editorial protocol.
A lot of these things will be decided
at a level above mine, change is
going to be very slow.
Is India somewhere you are
looking to expand to?
We are thinking of spreading the
English content there, we won't
have a Hindi service like the BBC or
anything like that. Sport would
give us a foot in the door and then
we have to think about the content
because it is a very sophisticated
audience. We haven't got a
comprehensive strategy worked out
yet but we take heart with the
progress made by our sister
network, Australia Network, who is
doing very well in having their
cable TV shown in India.
Is there a synergy between Radio
Australia and Australia Network?
Cross-promotion is something that
we have started to do, and in
technical terms there is great
potential in piggy-backing on their
signal in India.
In the future could Radio
Australia and Australia
Network news producers be
one and the same, working
across both platforms?
At the moment a review is in
progress which looks at the
operation of the two newsrooms –
to see how the two could work
together to avoid duplication, to
cross-fertilise, all those things. We
should have some concrete plan by
February or March 2008.
So it is a time of immense
potential change?
Yes, the fact that both the radio and
TV network will come together
under the same umbrella if you
like, ABC International, will make it
a lot easer for branding and that
kind of thing - exciting times. I
think we are going to combine our
resources, produce a lot of multi-
media material, so 2008 will be an
exciting year.
What about the future – any
wishes?
What I would like to do is to
become a really well recognised
brand name among our audience.
People would see us as the first
port of call when they look for
information on study opportunities
in Australia; in times of crisis in this
region they will rely on us as an
honest broker of information. And I
would like us to be a little bit more
adept at producing multi-media
content because eventually that will
replace the radio platform. I'd like
to extend the network of FM
rebroadcasters, and that gives us
the look and feel of someone who
has a lot of local knowledge
because when you go to the
internet it does not have that local
feel. It's about trying to create that
intimacy between Radio Australia
and the audience.
Hanh Tran, thank you for
talking to The Channel. ■
▼
Radio Australia
advertised on a
tuk tuk in Phnom
Penh