''AM'', the
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is the national broadcaster of Australia. It is principally funded by direct grants from the Australian Government and is administered by a government-appointed board. The ABC is a publicly-own ...
's flagship current-affairs radio program, is one of Australia's longest-running productions. Its tagline is ''Ensure you are informed.''
History and timeslots
''AM'' was created in 1967 for what were then ABC Radio 1 and Radio 3 (now
ABC Local Radio
ABC Local Radio is a network of publicly owned radio stations in Australia, operated by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
ABC Local Radio stations broadcast across the continent using terrestrial transmitters and satellites. Its programm ...
). Aired every morning at 8 am (after the 7.45 am news bulletin), it soon became Australia's most-popular morning radio current-affairs program.
Two years later, ABC Radio's evening current-affairs program,
''PM'' was created as a companion program. It is now the ABC's flagship evening current affairs program.
''AM'' was later introduced to ABC Radio 2 (now
Radio National
Radio National, known on-air as RN, is an Australia-wide public service broadcasting radio network run by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). From 1947 until 1985, the network was known as ABC Radio 2.
History
1937: Predecessors an ...
) with a new early edition at 7.05 am after the 7 am news. In recent times, the 7 am news was lengthened from the standard 5-minute duration to 10 minutes, meaning that Radio National's edition of ''AM'' had to be truncated to 20 minutes in length. As a result of this, the early edition carries one or two fewer stories than the full 25 minute long 8:05 am edition, still broadcast on ABC Local Radio.
The Radio National edition of ''AM'' is broadcast during Radio National's ''
Breakfast
Breakfast is the first meal of the day usually eaten in the morning. The word in English refers to breaking the fasting period of the previous night.Anderson, Heather Arndt (2013)''Breakfast: A History'' AltaMira Press. Various "typical" or "t ...
'' program, which is presented by journalist
Fran Kelly
Fran Kelly is an Australian radio presenter, current affairs journalist and political correspondent who hosted the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Radio National program ''Radio National Breakfast, Breakfast'' from March 2005 to early Dece ...
.
''AM'' is also broadcast on Saturday mornings at the same time on Radio National, 7.10 am, as ''This Week''. Like its weekday counterpart, ''This Week'' is also presented at 8 am on Local Radio. ''AM'' is not broadcast on Sundays.
The programme is compiled every morning at 5 am for its early bulletin at 6.05 am. It is presented live three times a day - 6.05 am, 7.10 am and 8:05 am with live updates for other states as required.
The 6.05 am edition, known as ''Early AM'', is a 10-minute program broadcast on Local Radio networks after the 6 am news. Like the Radio National edition of AM, the early edition features fewer stories than the complete edition at 8 am and features three reports at most.
The Local Radio edition of ''AM'' is broadcast during Local Radio's Breakfast in
Sydney
Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...
program, along with
Triple J
Triple J (stylised in all lowercase) is a government-funded, national Australian Radio in Australia, radio station intended to appeal to listeners of alternative music, which began broadcasting in January 1975. The station also places a greate ...
's breakfast program in the studio as a part of the youth network.
Transcripts, streaming and podcasting
The ABC's
streaming
Streaming media is multimedia that is delivered and consumed in a continuous manner from a source, with little or no intermediate storage in network elements. ''Streaming'' refers to the delivery method of content, rather than the content it ...
links and
MP3
MP3 (formally MPEG-1 Audio Layer III or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III) is a coding format for digital audio developed largely by the Fraunhofer Society in Germany, with support from other digital scientists in the United States and elsewhere. Origin ...
podcasts have allowed people to access and listen to the latest ''AM'' programme for 24 hours after it was first broadcast as streaming
Windows Media Windows Media is a discontinued multimedia framework for media creation and distribution for Microsoft Windows. It consists of a software development kit (SDK) with several application programming interfaces (API) and a number of prebuilt technolo ...
or
RealAudio
RealAudio, or also spelled as Real Audio is a proprietary audio format developed by RealNetworks and first released in April 1995. It uses a variety of audio codecs, ranging from low-bitrate formats that can be used over dialup modems, to high-fid ...
. In addition to this streaming capability, MP3 podcasts are available of both the full programme and selected individual reports.
MP3s and streams of reports dating back up to two years are also available. Transcripts of reports dating from 16 June 1999, too, are available online.
Presenters
Past presenters include:
* Robert Peach (1967-1974)
* Brian Wright (1968)
* Bill Dowsett (1973-1975)
* Hamish Robertson (1976)
*
Kel Richards
Kelvin Barry "Kel" Richards (born 8 February 1946) is an Australian author, journalist, radio personality and lay Christian.
Richards has written a series of crime novels and thrillers for adult readers which includes ''The Case of the Vanishi ...
(1977-1978)
* Steve Cosser (1979-1980)
* Red Harrison (1981-1986)
* John Highfield (1986-1987)
*
Peter Thompson (1988-1993)
*
Ellen Fanning
Ellen is a female given name, a diminutive of Elizabeth, Eleanor, Elena and Helen. Ellen was the 609th most popular name in the U.S. and the 17th in Sweden in 2004.
People named Ellen include:
*Ellen Adarna (born 1988), Filipino actress
*Ellen A ...
(1994-1996)
*
Peter Cave
Peter Cave (born 1952) is an Australian journalist. He retired as Foreign Affairs Editor for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in July 2012.
Early life and education
Peter Cave was born in 1952 in Newcastle, New South Wales. He grew up in ...
(1997-2001)
*
Linda Mottram
Linda Mottram is a British former professional tennis player.
Active on tour in the 1970s, Mottram is the daughter of tennis players Tony Mottram and Joy Gannon. She has an elder brother, Buster Mottram, who also competed professionally.
Mottra ...
(2001-2003)
*
Tony Eastley
Tony Eastley is an Australian newspaper journalist and radio and television newsreader and host
Journalism career
Eastley began his journalism career in the 1970s with ''The Examiner'' newspaper in Launceston, Tasmania before joining the Australi ...
(2004-2014)
*
Chris Uhlmann
Christopher Gerald Uhlmann (born 24 June 1960) is an Australian former journalist and television presenter.
Career
Uhlmann was formerly a seminarian, a security guard, and a journalist with ''The Canberra Times'' before joining the Australian B ...
(2014-2015)
* Michael Brissenden (2015-2016)
*
Sabra Lane
Sabra Lane (born c.1968) is an Australian journalist and radio presenter, best known for her work at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
Lane currently hosts the current affairs program ''AM (Australian radio series), AM'' on ABC Local Radi ...
(2017–present)
This Week (Saturday)
In August 2021, ''Saturday AM'' was renamed to ''This Week''.
* Linda Mottram
*
Elizabeth Jackson (2004-2018, also producer)
* Thomas Oriti (2018, also producer)
Musical signature themes
The original 1967 signature was "Crossbeat", a 30-second electronic music piece sourced from the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
. The current themes for both ''AM'' and ''PM'' are two of the most recognisable in Australia. The two themes, composed by Tony Ansell and Peter Wall (who composed many themes for
in the 1980s). The similarity between the themes represents a significant link between the sister programmes.