This week ABC Radio’s Melbourne stations RN and 774 ABC lost transmission for 45 minutes (Mon 18th Nov).

Since the present government sold the national transmission network, the ABC has been “forced to deal with a commercial provider to meet its transmission needs,” according to the Friends of the ABC, which criticised the outage as a symptom of bigger problems.

“It is outrageous that for 45 minutes the country’s national broadcaster was off the air,” said Friends of the ABC spokesperson Terry Laidler.

“Transmission of the national broadcaster is too important to leave to commercial operators. If a public broadcaster is to be truly independent, it must control and ensure the delivery of its message.”

“The reliance of Radio Australia on commercial operators to rebroadcast its programs since the sale of the Cox Peninsula shortwave transmitter system, and today¹s failure of ABC broadcasts at home have demonstrated this,” said Laidler.