ABC Radio will resume broadcasting from Brisbane tomorrow after its Queensland headquarters was abandoned due to breast cancer fears. ABC management ordered the closure of the building at inner-west Toowong on December 21 after an independent study found female employees had developed breast cancer at a rate of up to 11 times higher than the general working community. Twelve female employees have contracted breast cancer in the past 11 years, but the cause remains a mystery.
On December 27, staff returned to work at a temporary studio based at the Network Ten studios at Mount Coottha, while some production staff worked out of Sydney. “We’ve had two presenters and a radio producer in Sydney and a television presenter and occasionally a TV producer down there as well,'’ ABC Queensland acting editor Don Lange said today. “We’ve been basically doing the stories from here but presenting them from Sydney.'’
But all the radio staff had now returned and would be working out of Network Ten’s Brisbane site, Mr Lange said. “Radio bulletins will resume coming out of Brisbane from tomorrow.'’ ABC Queensland television news presenter Andrew Lofthouse was still in Sydney for the time being. “Sometime towards the end of February, we are hoping to get him back on site,'’ Mr Lange said.
Some Brisbane-specific local radio content was also being produced at the ABC’s facilities on the Gold Coast, ABC Queensland manager Chris Wordsworth said. “That will be the case for another few weeks and then we will be looking at an interim studio and production centre in Brisbane to get us through until the longer term arrangements are in place at the end of March,'’ he said.
Mr Wordsworth said some male staff were still working at Toowong. “The broadband internet people are still at Toowong but we are just waiting for the technical fitout to be be completed at the ABC newsroom up at Channel Ten. But that is not far off.'’ Female staff from the broadband department had been redeployed into the publishing side of the online division and were now based at Queensland University of Technology’s (QUT) Kelvin Grove campus, he said.
(Source: ABC/R Netherlands Media Network Weblog)