About Us
AM is ABC Radio's flagship current affairs program. For 40 years AM has been setting the day's news agenda with concise reports and analysis from journalists around Australia and around the world.
About Program ProductionTony Eastley
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Award winning journalist, Tony Eastley, is one of the ABC's most experienced and respected journalists and has done an extraordinary range of reporting and interviewing in the 25 or so years he's been with the ABC.
Eastley, 52, joined the ABC in 1979 after completing a journalist cadetship with The Examiner newspaper in Launceston. He was an ABC foreign correspondent based in Singapore (1988-1990) and Hong Kong Bureau Chief (1990-1992). Tony won a Logie and a Gold Medal in the New York Television Festival for reporting the crushing of student riots in Bangkok, and was a Walkley Award finalist for his coverage of Tiananmen Square demonstrations in Beijing.
Returning to Australia, Tony presented First Edition, the ABC's breakfast TV news show (1993-1995) from Melbourne, and then moved to ABC Radio Current Affairs in Sydney where he hosted The World Today (1995-1997). In 1998 he was appointed presenter of the TV news program, World At Noon, which had a strong political, economic and international focus and required Tony to do a wide range of live interviews.
Eastley also presented the 7:00pm TV News in NSW and moved back to radio in 2004, when he replaced Linda Mottram in the AM chair.
He is married with two children and when not reporting and presenting can be found sailing on Sydney Harbour in his old wooden sailing boat that turns 70 this year.
Elizabeth Jackson
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Elizabeth Jackson produces and presents Saturday AM and Correspondents Report.
Elizabeth has had a long career with the ABC ranging across television news and current affairs to radio and online.
Elizabeth lived in Canberra for several years where she presented the breakfast show on ABC Radio 666. Now she is a senior member of the News Division.
In 2008, Elizabeth won the Donald McDonald Reuters Scholarship to Oxford University. She studied Freedom of Information law at Oxford.
Elizabeth lives with her husband and three sons. She likes to come to work for a bit of female company!
Peter Ryan
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Peter Ryan is the ABC's Business Editor, contributing to a range of ABC News programs including the flagship radio current affairs program AM.
With more than 25 years of journalism experience, Peter rejoined the ABC in 2003 as Executive Producer of the ABC Television's Business Breakfast program.
In 2006, he oversaw the development of two new business programs - Lateline Business on ABC Television and Business Today on the ABC's Asia Pacific television service, Australia Network.
Peter's previous journalism career included three years as the ABC's Head of TV News and Current Affairs in Melbourne; more than four years as Bureau Chief and television correspondent at the ABC's Washington Bureau; a year as a producer at the BBC in London; and a range of ABC reporting and producing roles in Melbourne, Sydney, Darwin and the South Pacific.
In addition to journalism, Peter Ryan spent four years in the corporate communications sector as a Director at Weber Shandwick Worldwide and then as a Principal at Porter Novelli in Melbourne.
Peter began his journalism career in newspapers at Sydney's Daily Mirror and he worked in Sydney commercial radio before joining the ABC in 1984.
Program Production
Behind the informative airwaves that make up Radio Current Affairs, works an essential mix of editorial and technical talent that together makes sure you hear what you need to hear to stay informed and in touch.
The production process stretches across the country and the production team deals with every stage of that process. A press conference in Melbourne will be patched to Perth to become part of the story there; audio of an event in country Queensland will be sent to Adelaide; staff at archives will provide audio from decades past; a policy announcement in Tasmania will be sent to political correspondents in Canberra; newspaper clippings and press releases will be faxed to correspondents abroad; listeners' comments, suggestions and irritations will be received and logged; transcripts and streaming audio will be put out on to the world wide web; and of course the broadcast of the programs themselves from the current affairs studios in Sydney.
As air-time looms, the hub of activity is the current affairs lines room where stories and scripts are filed from around the world and around the country via satellites, internet connections, ISDN and phone lines. The pieces are edited, mixed and checked, often re-edited, re-mixed, and edited again; scripts are then subedited, printed, copied, and finally distributed to the presenter and on-air team.
Focus then shifts to the control room and studio as the on-air team - made up of the Executive Producer, Studio Producer, and Technical Operator - prepare to broadcast the final program. As a medium, radio's greatest asset is its immediacy and nowhere is this more evident than in the studios during broadcast. As stories break and develop the current affairs studio is able to keep pace, letting you stay up to date.
It's the production team that's charged with ensuring that the stories of the day get to your ears quickly and cleanly - and while the technology at our end might constantly change, it's hoped the appreciation at your end won't.
