{"id":76747,"date":"2025-08-18T06:09:16","date_gmt":"2025-08-18T06:09:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/76747\/"},"modified":"2025-08-18T06:09:16","modified_gmt":"2025-08-18T06:09:16","slug":"being-seen-as-well-as-heard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/76747\/","title":{"rendered":"Being seen as well as heard"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>                                    <img src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Screenshot-1472-2.png\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>In an increasingly networked media landscape \u2013 where connection is the buzzword and the argument persists that great radio has little to do with geography \u2013 the ABC continues to demonstrate the power of being not just live and local, but up close and personal.<\/p>\n<p>Since January this year, 774 ABC Radio Melbourne has hosted more than 28 outside broadcasts.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-132486 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Screenshot-1476.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1020\" height=\"721\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>The most recent was held last Thursday in one of Victoria\u2019s fastest-growing regional towns, with ABC Radio Melbourne hosting a Green Drought Special from the Terang Mortlake Football Netball Club, around 200 kilometres south-west of Melbourne.<\/p>\n<p>It was the second Drought Special<a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.abc.net.au\/listen\/programs\/melbourne-drive\/drive\/105635172\"> for the Drive program<\/a> led by Ali Moore and the ABC Melbourne team.<\/p>\n<p>Emotions ran high as more than 100 local farmers and local football and netball supporters packed the club\u2019s function room to share the impact of the ongoing drought, with local Mayor Kate Makin calling on the government to declare a natural disaster.<\/p>\n<p>Not only were they heard. They were seen.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-132484 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Screenshot-1474-1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"348\" height=\"481\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>And radio\u2019s ripple effect came into play.<\/p>\n<p>City listeners learned that looks can be deceiving. There\u2019s been just enough rain to give the ground a tinge of green. But underneath, it\u2019s still bone dry.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s hope, but there\u2019s no security. Without follow-up rain, nothing is guaranteed.<\/p>\n<p>With Lake Corangamite half-empty, Victorian Farmers Federation President Brett Hosking told Moore \u201cStorages at the end of winter should be running over. They\u2019re not. We\u2019re very much in the grip of a drought still.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>So desperate is the situation in Victoria, fodder is being trucked in from interstate by an army of volunteers in the Northern Territory and WA.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-132485 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Screenshot-1475-1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"561\" height=\"743\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>Friday\u2019s OB also featured Warwick Long from Country Hour, which has been sharing the stories of drought affected farmers for the past 18 months.<\/p>\n<p>Melissa Irving \u2013 General Manger of the Terang Mortlake Football Club \u2013 praised the local farmers for being brave enough to share their stories on the radio.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/radiotoday.com.au\/radios-true-power-comes-to-the-fore-as-abc-melbourne-shines-a-light-on-drought-crisis\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">In May this year<\/a> Jason \u2013 a struggling dairy farmer from Colac \u2013 broke down on-air as he told ABC Mornings host Raf Epstein he was no longer able to feed his livestock:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s really, really bad. And I just need everyone to know.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>*Images supplied<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In an increasingly networked media landscape \u2013 where connection is the buzzword and the argument persists that great&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":76748,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[64,63,134,136],"class_list":["post-76747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76747"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76747\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}