Across four weeks in March and April, the ABC will put a special focus on stories and issues affecting Sydney’s southwest region, with a ‘pop-up’ newsroom in Liverpool and live broadcasts from the Casula Powerhouse and Liverpool Municipal Library.
The joint newsgathering and community engagement initiative will see reporters, presenters and program makers from ABC Radio Sydney and ABC NEWS NSW provide additional local coverage for ABC television, radio, online and social media.
ABC Radio Sydney local manager, Melanie Withnall, said the ABC had a long and rich history of local news coverage in southwestern Sydney.
“We are always looking at ways to better serve our outer suburban audiences and tell their stories,” Withnall said. “Over the coming weeks our presenters, producers and reporters from all our programs will be in the community talking about the issues that matter most to local audiences.”
The ABC’s NSW news editor, Mark Davies, said the embedding of key newsroom staff in the Liverpool area gave the ABC the opportunity to deepen its newsgathering capabilities.
“We’ve already tripled our news team dedicated to covering west and southwest Sydney and this initiative will further build on that work,” he said.
“The connections and contacts we make in the next four weeks will further strengthen our ability to report on the topics and issues that are important to local communities.”
The ABC’s temporary pop-up newsroom will be located at 33 Moore Street, Liverpool from Monday 22 March to Friday 16 April. The space has been provided by the Liverpool City Council.
To kick off the four weeks focus on Liverpool, ABC Radio Sydney’s Drive host, Richard Glover will present a live broadcast of Thank God It’s Friday! from 5.00pm on Friday 26 March from the Casula Powerhouse. The show will feature regular panellists Jean Kittson and Tommy Dean, along with Breakfast co-host Wendy Harmer and music from singer/songwriter, Dami Im.
Cassie McCullagh will host two live broadcasts of her mid-morning Focus program from the Liverpool Municipal Library on Monday 29 March and Friday 16 April.
Over the coming year, the ABC will continue to take its news and program teams into outer suburban communities and will look at returning to Liverpool and the southwest of Sydney at regular intervals.
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