Not the turtle bloke ... again!!

Email to Radio National (Australia)

December 18, 2004

Last night I was listening Radio National and that guy came on, the Native American man with the story about "it's turtle all the way down". I groaned. I had heard it three, four, or was it five times before. I had groaned upon hearing it for the third time, too. One repeat does not a groan make.

For a couple of years I have wondered why RN does so many repeats (and I know that over summer it will be worse). The number of programs, many of them fully an hour long, that I hear three or four times in a 48-hour period is really ridiculous. Over a longer period, say two months, I can hear the same program even more often.

Now, at 6:05PM Saturday, the news finishes and there's the damn turtle bloke again!! I swear I must have heard this long program six or seven times. I verbalise with him in unison as I cross the room to turn down the sound. Yes, I know I can turn RN off altogether, but there isn't much choice in the bush.

And I know that the government underfunds the ABC. I'm on your side and I'm a fan. But each time I hear the same story come on for the umpteenth time I ask myself "Why, O why can't the ABC pull something else out of the archives?"

Surely your listeners deserve a bit more respect even if you are broke. Why not play an old Goons Show or some old documentary? I can't be the only one that would rather hear a ten-year-old interview with Barry Humphries, or an antique doco on linguistics or housepainting, than the bloody turtle bloke for the seventh time. Why do we have to hear a wonderful (and I do mean wonderful, at first) LNL three or four times in two days when Mr Adams must have about a million in the can? Surely it can't cost more to play an archived one. Can it? Maybe you'd have to pay for someone to pull it off the shelf but how much could that be?

I have been meaning to write this letter since the fourth or fifth turtle bloke special, but this time it really got to me. I don't like him much anyway, so that's why I suppose. he sounds irate, like someone who's heard the same RN program three times on the same day.

My experience has been when writing letters to the ABC (often at the request of the presenters), that of about 20 or more emails, whether congratulatory, critical, asking for or offering information, only one has ever been replied to. So I don't expect a reply but if my comments could be forwarded to the Turtle Bloke And Other Endless Repeats Coordinator I would be most grateful. ;)

Sincerely, a devoted RN listener,

Pip Wilson



From: RN Enquiries To: Pip Wilson Sent: Thursday, December 30, 2004 2:34 PM Subject: Re: Not the turtle bloke again!!


Dear Pip,

Thanks for your email, and commiserations for having 'that turtle bloke' inflicted on you over and over! He is Thomas King, a Native American storyteller & academic, and his 5-part series of talks (aka the Massey Lectures, from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) has been featured this year on the Awaye! program. It is also currently being re-broadcast for Awaye!'s summer programs, as a result of it receiving such a wonderful response earlier in the year.

Each episode of Awaye! is originally broadcast on Fridays at 1pm, then repeated on Saturdays at both 2am and 6pm. We have found that, in general, listeners are very pleased to have the opportunity to listen to repeat airings of programs that they either can't listen to originally, or don't know are on, or ... just like to listen again anyway!. I'm sorry you keep striking the turtle bloke, though!

Regards, Kate Leavey RN Listener Enquiries


December 31

Thanks, Kate,

I had to laugh. Within 24 hours of my email to you, the same turtle episode was played again!! I didn't think that the ABC could top 6, 7 or was it 8 broadcasts of the same lecture in just a few weeks.

I'm thinking of setting it to music for performance as I have the lyric down pat.

Let's hear some programs from the ABC megavault, please! Radio National has, let's face it, become like barbershop mirrors, a few programs repeated ad infinitum, while sitting on a goldmine of unplayed material.

Having said that, I could listen to Mark Steele more than twice each lecture let's say 5 or 6 times max, OK? What a great find he is.

Happy New Year to you, all the team (especially the Lateline team of whom I am not worthy), and to the Turtle Bloke embedded in our brains.

Pip



Dear Kate,

Six PM, January 1, and for the third time even since your reply, this same turtle story by Thomas King is playing AGAIN. This is about the ninth time that I know of that this has been played in a matter of a few weeks. I can only wonder when RN will decide we've had enough.

Pip