Charles Sturt University's (CSU) National Radio News (NRN) service will present its first-ever national coverage of a federal election on Saturday 24 November 2007.NRN, which is produced and broadcast from CSU’s Bathurst Campus, will transmit The National Decision, a four hour ‘live’ coverage of the election results to nearly 200 stations nation-wide in a joint venture with the Community Broadcasting Association of Australia (CBAA) network.
Mr Peter Hetherington, the manager of NRN, said “this will be a very significant initiative for NRN because it is unique to have national coverage of a federal election from a regional location.
“It will be a real challenge for us because NRN’s core business has always been the four minute news bulletin, but this election coverage will involve co-ordinating four locations - the NRN newsroom in Bathurst, CSU’s Outside Broadcast Unit and the National Tally Room in Canberra, and the CBAA head office in Sydney.
“It will also be a great ‘one off’ opportunity for NRN’s full news team of three journalists and six cadets to broadcast for four hours, ‘live and national’.
“The staff are so enthusiastic about being involved in the broadcast they all volunteered to work.”
NRN’s news editor Ms Shannon Kirkwood will anchor the broadcast which will focus on 16 marginal seats across Australia and the issues relevant to those seats. There will be expert comment from political analyst Dr Richard Stanton in the NRN studios on the night, as well as pre-recorded interviews with candidates, ‘live’ interviews, statistical information and continuous updates, as well as NRN’s regular hourly news bulletin.
The 5pm to 9pm broadcast, titled ‘National Radio News brings you the National Decision’, could be extended if the decision is close and still be called at 9pm.
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