ABC Radio Adelaide tweaks its 2019 line-up
After a difficult ratings year, ABC Radio Adelaide is keeping the faith in its current line-up but will make some incremental changes next year, including a new arts-focused show hosted by Peter Goers.
Peter Goers will host a new arts show on weekends.
Goers will continue hosting his Evenings show but will add the statewide 10am to midday shift on Sundays, with the first hour being devoted to the arts and dubbed “Smart Arts”.
The ABC argues the show will fill a long-standing hole in local broadcast coverage of South Australian arts.
The Drive program has been somewhat fragmented, with Jules Schiller hosting Monday to Thursday and Goers on Fridays, so that Schiller could host a weekend sports show – Grandstanding – on the station.
Next year, Schiller will take Drive through Monday to Friday, giving up the sports show. That show will be taken over by a new host – as yet unnamed.
The ABC’s Evenings show on Friday is a syndicated show hosted from interstate by Christine Anu.
The other weekday shifts are unchanged, with Ali Clarke continuing in Breakfast, David Bevan in Mornings and Sonya Feldhoff carrying on with her long run in Afternoons. Clarke and Bevan will continue to co-host the 8.30-9am slot.
Goers has had a long career in the arts as a director, actor and reviewer and is about to end an eight-year term as a member of the Adelaide Festival Corporation Board.
The manager of ABC Radio Adelaide, Graeme Bennett, said the broadcaster reviewed its programming every year to “try to best match what we offer to what our audience wants and expects”.
“Jules Schiller has steadily built his weekday audience in the past two years and we’ve taken the opportunity to consolidate that growth by asking Jules to take on the Friday Drive program to ensure listeners have a consistent offering throughout the week,” he said.
“Peter will bring his decades of experience as a critic, administrator and performer to take a look behind the curtain at the unseen world of Adelaide’s renowned and notoriously secretive arts administration scene. His program will feature a weekly extended feature interview plus all the news from Festival City’s latest shows, greatest performers and most influential backroom brokers.
“In framing the program, we were struck that Australia’s premier arts capital doesn’t have a single major broadcast network program dedicated to South Australian arts and artists. Peter is excited he’ll finally present such a program….it’s been a long-held ambition.”
ABC Radio Adelaide has had a mediocre ratings year, including a mid-year slump which put the station behind every commercial rival in Adelaide.
The final ratings survey of the year will be released on December 18.
