Stop dumbing down, ABC told by Friends of the ABC

THE Friends of the ABC's Victorian president has accused ABC of "dumbing down" local radio 774 Melbourne.

THE Friends of the ABC's Victorian president, David Risstrom, has accused ABC of "dumbing down" local radio station 774 Melbourne in its broader quest for "lightweight programming".

The FABC wrote to Radio National acting general manager Michael Mason expressing its concerns about a current review of Radio National.

Mr Risstrom wrote of FABC's interest in any changes to RN, particularly due to the "many phone calls to FABC in Victoria" coming from listeners who were "refugees from local ABC Melbourne radio".

"FABC is no longer surprised that this group now includes many older rural and regional Victorians who FABC previously assumed were wedded to local radio and discovered RN only after they were no longer able to tolerate the extent to which ABC 774 has been 'dumbed down', presumably in an effort to draw audiences from commercial stations," he wrote.

Mr Risstrom told Media that ABC 774 had moved away from being an information source into a light entertainment venue.

"We want to see local radio keeps providing useful information and doesn't have competitions, talkback and other fill-in type material that substitutes for actual information," he said.

"People are getting exasperated" with ABC 774, he said.

The FABC letter said "RN listeners have observed a decline in the quality and specialist content in some RN programming in the past 15 years, and so would welcome change if it is for improvement".