Breakfast at Aunty's

Published: 5th February 1993
Publication: The Age Green Guide
Author: Editor
Words: 1501
Image of article: Shown below

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Breakfast at Aunty's

The first thing different about ABC-TV’s new national breakfast news program First Edition is its set.

The traditional news desk sits in front of a blue backdrop that is slashed by a wide, multi-coloured bang of painted carpet. It flows across the set like a river, complete with waves of plastic edging that conceal fairy lights that could be meant to be city lights – or maybe they are glow worms.

Sitting in an editing booth at the ABC’s Ripponlea studios, First Edition’s executive producer Jill Singer rolls through the opening credits and good naturedly responds to the rather impolite question, “Um, what is it actually supposed to be?”

“We’ve tried to get away from that traditional corporate blue look with city buildings, and so we’ve set up that in the background and then run this, I suppose, organic look across the background – the colours change across the set and we can move the panels around to suit the seasons,” she says, then pauses. “Mmmm. It is a bit bright at the moment, but we’ll tone it down”.

With only days to go before First Edition launches on the national airwaves from 6.30 to 7.30 on weekday mornings, it is Singer’s relaxed confidence in the program’s format, production, and editorial crew and two presenters (Doug Weller and Kate Dunstan) that has given her the time and patience to focus on cosmetic details and colour charts. “We’re actually having great fun putting this together,” she says. Quelling rumours that the new program, although broadcast from Melbourne, is being orchestrated by the power brokers at the ABC’s Sydney headquarters, she adds: “I’ve really been given a lot of freedom to do what I want. There have been a couple of compromises but, on the whole, we’ve been left alone.

Singer has been free to initiate for First Edition a few other differences that go beyond the colourful set. She says this program is radically new for Australian television because it is a serious morning TV news program.

“It won’t be touchy-feely,” she assures. “I don’t mind a human interest element but I don’t want a silly schlock and inane chatter between the presenters.”

“I used to like the banter between Bryant (Gumble) and Jane (Pauley) (on NBC’s Today) but Australian presenters don’t seem to be good at it at all, so it’s better to avoid it. I think the stuff on commercials here, where news is based on the presenter’s personalities, is a lazy, disrespectful approach to TV news.”

From 6.30 to 7.30, First Edition viewers will get three short news bulletins on the half-hour, with a strong emphasis on foreign news and crosses to the weather bureau. Bureau meteorologists will explain weather charts and data (“I just love those guys” singer says, “they’re just so un-TV, they’re really into the weather”). There will be a rundown of what is in the morning newspapers and a five minute business report before the 7am news from economics correspondent Craig Saunders. However, that is where a defined structure ends.

“We want to blur the distinction between news and current affairs. Our reporters and presenters will be doing both. We wanted to loosen the whole format so we’re not tied down to fitting stories to pre-determined lengths. For example, if an interview in the studio with a politician is going really well we can keep it running or go back to it after the newsbreak.”

“If we present some foreign news, we can then have a cross to an ABC foreign correspondent for a looser conversation on the topic. Our studios in Melbourne, Canberra and Sydney are open for us to bring in politicians or commentators for interviews, and we can have vans in other cities for live links. I want us to have a good coverage of rural areas as well.”

Although Singer says this loose format makes First Edition more demanding from a production aspect, it will ensure a better coverage of news, crossing to Canberra correspondent Lisa Backhouse and national reporter Kevin McQuillan in Melbourne for pre-packaged reports or to follow up the morning’s news.

“It will actually be easier for us because I think the hardest thing in news is to reduce everything to the same duration – to give equal time to a colour piece about Australia Day and to what’s unfolding in Iraq.”

This is Singer’s first job as an executive producer of news. While her appointment reflects ABC policy to promote women to senior positions, her news background reveals that this job is not paying lip service to affirmative action. Until last year she was a senior reporter on The 7.30 report, winning a Walkley Award for her “Baby M” story; before that she was a senior reporter on Countrywide and Ten’s Page One. If anything, Singer has had to overcome a reputation as a “difficult woman” – her quirky humour and unpredictable bluntness occasionally costing her the warm embrace of some colleagues and superiors. “I guess they think they are being brave getting me to do this because I am perceived as difficult, and I suppose that’s because I don’t have a huge respect for authority.”

With Singer’s maverick reputation, it probably came as no surprise to ABC chiefs that her choice for the coveted role of chief anchorperson was Doug Weller. While having no prior television experience and with looks that Singer describes as not the “classic TV beauty”, Weller compensates with his abilities as a journalist. Weller, 37, is widely regarded as one of the country’s most tenacious political reporters and toughest interviewers from his eight years woking on ABC Radio’s AM and PM news programs in their Brisbane, Washington DC and most recently, Canberra Bureaus.

Singer describes Weller by miming a head-butt and says “Doug’s really out there. He’s got a great, assertive delivery and a real Australian barging-in approach to getting the information. Politics is his forte and he’ll be handling most of the political interviews.”

Weller says he had never really considered moving into television until he saw a clipping from the ‘Green Guide’ pinned up in the Canberra press gallery, describing the program. He immediately sent off an application.

“I thought this sounds authoritative and credible, and I couldn’t believe that no one had thought of doing it before,” Weller says, “Today and Good Morning Australia shows have their place and their audience, but there is an audience for what this is. Without being to tough and blasting people away in the morning, it will give people the information they need.

“I see First Edition as being the sort of program people will turn on when they get up, listen to or watch while they are having breakfast and, when they get in their car, they’ll turn on AM on their radios.

Weller admits that he initially thought TV was simply radio with pictures, but after a few weeks in the medium he has changed his mind.

“I forgot about the emphasis on appearance, on sets and just the logistics of getting people in and out of a studio – in radio that doesn’t matter. You also have to be a lot more controlled on TV – if you frown or look uncomfortable, your reaction becomes exaggerated.”

Weller may be a departure from the square jawed anchorman, but his co-host, Kate Dunstan, represents the more conventional image of breakfast television. Smooth, professional and sporting the standard issue anchorwoman’s helmet of blonde hair, she brings with her 13 years of experience as a TV reporter and presenter for ABC-TV, Channels 7 and 9 and, before that, as an ‘Age’ reporter.

Dunstan will share the news reading with Weller and, while he concentrates on the political interviews, she will handle other interviews and the crosses to correspondents and the weather bureau. “I just can’t wait to get up and running,” says Dunstan. Even the 2.30am wake-up hour (she has to be in the studio by 3.30) does not dampen her enthusiasm – “I’m a morning person anyway,” she says.

First Edition has been in the pre-production stage since November. When it was announced, there were those in the highly politicised corridors of the ABC who predicted it would not last six months. Some employees and executives in existing news departments are reportedly resentful of the reported $4 million a year First Edition will cost, as well as the money being poured into the new youth current affairs program Attitude. There is a belief that this sort of money should be spent on improving existing services.

One rumour doing the rounds since First Edition was mooted is that it was specifically set up to be sacrificed if the ABC’s budget were cut by a new Coalition government after the coming Federal election.

“I’ve heard that rumour too,” says Singer, “but I think this will be one of the last to get chopped. David Hill (ABC managing director) and Paddy Conroy (Director of Television) are right behind it – this is part of the ABC’s commitment to having a 24 hour news and current affairs service”.

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