Breakfast host Aaron Kearney says ABC Newcastle serves Hunter well

Staff at the station are still reeling after learning this week that nine of 27 employees will lose their jobs because of a federal government budget cut.

The government will reduce the budget of ABC by $254 million and SBS by $25.2 million over the next five years.

ABC managing director Mark Scott told staff on Monday morning that nine jobs would go from the Newcastle station.

Carol Duncan’s popular afternoon show will be cancelled as part of the cuts and will be replaced by content broadcast from outside the Hunter.

Mr Kearney told the Mercury last week, before Mr Scott’s announcement, that he did not believe there was any fat to trim from the Hunter arm of the ABC.

He said yesterday that the cuts would result in fewer voices advocating for the Hunter.

“Here we are one of very few voices and that makes us relatively important,” Mr Kearney said.

“Much of what we do is beating the drum and stamping our feet.

“Every single one of us can cite dozens of examples where the phone call we’ve made has made a quantifiable difference to people’s lives.”

The government flagged possible cuts when it handed down its budget in May, despite Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s pre-election promise that the public broadcasters would not lose funding.

Mr Kearney said staff members had supported each other as best they could since Monday’s announcement.

He said the team was a tight and affectionate group.

“As with any event like this, it is responsible for some terrible scenes and some beautiful scenes,” Mr Kearney said.

Paterson MP Bob Baldwin wrote to Mr Scott on Tuesday to point out savings that could have been made by improving efficiencies in back offices at the ABC rather than cutting staff from Newcastle.

Hunter MP Joel Fitzgibbon said he believed that an ideological agenda had driven the government’s cuts.

OPINION: Local ABC radio not gone, but largely diminished