ABC axes programs, cuts staff

The Director of Television at the ABC, Kim Dalton has blamed “financial pressures” for the axing of more in-house production and staff redundancies that were announced yesterday.

ABC has issued redundancy notices to staff around the country as it winds down production facilities in Perth and Adelaide and axes long-running shows The New Inventors and Collectors, weekly series Art Nation (presented by Fenella Kernebone, pictured) and the production of documentaries under the Artscape banner.

In an email sent to staff yesterday, Mr Dalton said

"ABC TV management recognises that this can be a very difficult time for some staff and will ensure all the appropriate support is offered.  However in the face of an increasingly competitive broadcasting environment and increasing financial pressures, ABC TV must ensure it uses its Government funding as efficiently and effectively as possible to deliver maximum value to its audiences and the Australian taxpayer."

Mr Dalton has said that arts programs will now mostly be sourced from independent producers, or from overseas, rather than in-house – while prime-time programs At The Movies and First Tuesday Book Club will continue.

The Australian reports that production staff for the Sydney-based The New Inventors will be redeployed or may be made redundant, while staff behind the Tasmanian-based Collectors will be shifted to a new series, Auctions.  The Age reports that Mr Dalton has denied suggestions that as many as 100 staff will be made redundant but would not offer a more precise figure.

The Age also reports that Mr Dalton has said that the announced changes will have no impact on the construction of new studio facilities at Southbank in Melbourne.

The Community and Public Sector Union, which represents ABC staff, has branded the axing of Art Nation as “cultural vandalism” and has warned that the wider cutbacks will lead to a breach of the ABC’s Charter, while the Friends Of The ABC has claimed that the broadcaster "is being transformed into a platform for carrying commercial content. This is privatisation by stealth."

In recent times the broadcaster has also cancelled Talking Heads, Can We Help? and The Einstein Factor.

The New Inventors will make its final appearance with its series Grand Final on 17 August, while the Sunday afternoon Art Nation will continue until late November.

This round of cutbacks at ABC comes after recent changes at the Ten Network, where 60 positions were being targeted for redundancies and the axe was put to the long-running Video Hits.

Source: The Australian, The Age, CPSU

Obituary: Norman Hetherington

Norman Hetherington, the man who created iconic children’s TV character Mr Squiggle more than 50 years ago, has died in Sydney at the age of 89 after a long illness.

After serving in World War II, Hetherington worked as a cartoonist for The Bulletin magazine in the 1940s and 1950s.  He also had an interest in puppetry, presenting a puppet show on the opening night broadcast from ABN2, Sydney, in 1956, and created early children’s television productions in the late 1950s.  Then in 1959 he created the character of Mr Squiggle, a pencil-nosed puppet who created drawings based on scribble patterns (or “squiggles”) sent in by children. 

Mr Squiggle, who also had friends including Bill Steamshovel, Gus the Snail and Blackboard, started as a six-week guest spot on ABC’s Children’s TV Club but soon was given his own show which ended up running for 40 years.

The program, which entertained generations of children, went through various formats and titles but ended up as Mr Squiggle And Friends, making its last appeared on ABC in 1999.

Some of Mr Squiggle’s on-screen assistants have included Miss Gina (Gina Curtis), Miss Pat (Pat Lovell), Miss Jane (Jane Fennell), Miss Roxane (Roxane Kimmorley) and Hetherington’s daughter, Rebecca (pictured, with Mr Squiggle), who appeared alongside Mr Squiggle in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

In the 1980s, Hetherington and wife Margaret, who wrote all of Mr Squiggles scripts, won two Penguin awards for the program.  In 1990, Hetherington was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia for his contribution to children’s television.

In July this year, he appeared in a segment on the ABC program Collectors, paying tribute to the long-running Mr Squiggle.

The passing of Hetherington comes after the death of two other children’s TV character creators, Rex Heading (Humphrey B. Bear) and Tedd Dunn (Fredd Bear).

Norman Hetherington is survived by wife Margaret and children Rebecca and Stephen.  His funeral is expected to be held next Monday.

Source: The Eclectic Omnibus, Wikipedia, ABC, ABC