I’ve only ever worked as a producer and online feature reporter with the ABC, so I never had much to do with the 7.45am radio bulletin.

Except for when Kalgoorlie Police and a JP decided to keep a 13-year-old Aboriginal boy in an adult police cell for 3 nights.

The boy was on bail, he’d been charged with stealing a car (he later completed case conferencing and the charges were dismissed by the Children’s Court) and the police had decided it was important, on Friday night, to check this kid was complying with his bail conditions.

He had no prior convictions.

Police caught him out in town after his curfew. Scared, he lied about his name to the police and so they arrested him and took him to lock up for the night.

The next morning he was seen by the ALS lawyer, who represented him in front a JP in the magistrate’s court. The lawyer had confirmed a place was available in the local youth bail hostel, but the JP decided this boy needed to spend another two nights in an police cell instead.

I went to court on Monday morning, where the magistrate immediately dismissed the bail breech charges and set him free, telling the boy it must have been a horrible experience.
The lawyer couldn’t speak on the record. I rang the WA Children’s commissioner, who was very concerned

It wasn’t much, just the bare facts and a phone interview.
But that’s where the 7.45am bulletin comes in, because you don’t need too much for a strong radio story, just a few lines and decent grab and I had that.

At that stage regional online stories only went on regional ABC websites and didn't attract much interest. But the 7.45 radio bulletin goes statewide. And so people in Perth heard about it, including other media outlets.
https://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2011/05/10/3212474.htm

We’ve heard a lot in recent weeks about the importance of local journalism to regional communities. It is important. But the brutal reality is that when it comes to getting anyone to pay attention to awful things happening to First Nations people, local reporting is not enough.

ABC Alice Springs reported on what happened to Dylan Voller months before Four Corners did their story on Don Dale, but their reports attracted far little notice. That's how it goes. You need the capital cities for a story about mistreatment of Indigenous people to take off.

Anyway the story about the child locked up in a police station all weekend.
It aired on the 7.45 radio news. Other journos heard, followed up. The West wrote a story, TV networks did a story, ABC Radio Perth did a story.

A month later, in response, the President of the Children’s Court effectively took away the power of JP’s to arbitrarily refuse bail to children in WA.

https://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2011/06/09/3239735.htm

I’m not saying this story couldn’t be told without a 7.45am bulletin. The ABC is very different in 2020 to 2011, especially when it comes to regional coverage. It’s better.
The ABC does need to better reflect the diversity of the community and to better serve audiences.

People are shifting online, radio audiences are declining. I do a lot more podcasting and on-demand viewing than I do radio listening. Services can’t stay the same forever.

But radio still has such an important role. It’s fast, you can get a story out really quickly and concisely, without much more than a phone. I could never have got a TV story up on this boy, and the online story made no impact. Look at the recent bushfires – radio was everything.

People in the regions want to hear what’s going on the city and a city people want to know what’s going in the country. A concise, informative 15 minute radio bulletin is an effective and efficient way to do that.

This is what we're losing, along with a lot of other things, and a lot of good people are losing their jobs. That's what ongoing cuts do, they can't be just be absorbed without cuts to services.