ABC Country Hour – longest running radio program

Later this year The ABC’s Country Hour celebrates 58 years on air, amking it the longest running radio program in the world.

ABC Rural Radio is unique in the extent of the area its reporters cover and the number of media outlets to which it contributes news, stories and features.

In December 1945 the radio program The Country Hour was inaugurated as part of a special post-war programming strategy introduced to support the government’s push to improve agricultural practices and increase the country’s food supply. Other programs introduced as part of this strategy were the Rural Report and the drama serial The Lawsons which after a few years morphed into Blue Hills. In these serials the plotlines provided a context for information about agricultural procedures.

The characters of Blue Hills tied up their loose ends back in 1976 but The Country Hour and Rural Report have taken on a life of their own.

In 2003 the ABC Radio’s Rural team has approximately 70 specialist journalists and cover a diverse range of topics and areas.