''PM'' is one of the

Australian Broadcasting Corporation The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is Australia’s principal public service broadcaster. It is funded primarily by grants from the federal government and is administered by a government-appointed board of directors. The ABC is ...

's flagship current affairs radio programs. It is also one of Australia's longest-running productions, having been first aired on 7 July 1969. It is the sister program to '' AM''. As of 2025 it is hosted by Samantha Donovan and broadcast on both

Radio National ABC Radio National, more commonly known as Radio National or simply RN, is an Australian nationwide public service radio network run by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). From 1947 until 1985, the network was known as ABC Radio 2. ...

and

ABC Local Radio ABC Local Radio is a network of publicly owned radio stations in Australia, operated by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. ABC Local Radio stations broadcast across the continent using terrestrial transmitters and satellites. Its programm ...

History and timeslots

''PM'' was first broadcast in 1969 for what were then ABC Radio 1 and Radio 3 (now ABC Local Radio). Launched on 7 July 1969, two years after its sister program ''AM'', with both names created by ABC general manager Talbot Duckmanton. It originally aired every weekday at 6:10 pm (after the 6:00 pm news bulletin), becoming a popular afternoon radio current affairs program. ''PM'' was later introduced to ABC Radio 2 (now ABC Radio National) with a new early edition at 5:10 pm after the 5:00 pm news. ''PM'' was originally 20 minutes long before expansion to 50 minutes in 1987. In 2018 it reduced to a 25 minute format, which matched ''AM''.

Description

''PM'' complements ''AM'' and other ABC News and Current Affairs radio programs, namely '' The World Today'' and '' Correspondents Report''. the program is usually presented by Samantha Donovan. ABC's

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links and

podcasts A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. Typically, a podcast is an episodic series of digital audio files that users can download to a personal device or stream to listen to at a time of their ...

allow listening to ''PM'' after its broadcast time.

Past presenters

''PM''s first presenters were Lawrence Bryant and John Highfield, who hosted on alternate nights. Other presenters who have hosted the show include Iain Finlay, Paul Murphy (1983 to 1993), Monica Attard, and Ellen Fanning, and reporters Ray Martin,

Bob Carr Robert John Carr (born 28 September 1947) is an Australian retired politician and journalist who served as the 39th Premier of New South Wales from 1995 to 2005, as the leader of the New South Wales Labor Party, New South Wales branch of the A ...

Kate Baillieu Katharine Jean Baillieu (born 17 January 1946) is an Australian former journalist. Early career Baillieu worked as a journalist and later as a personal assistant to Kerry Packer. In 1977, Baillieu was awarded the Douglas Wilkie Medal by the An ...

and Maxine McKew.

Mark Colvin Mark Colvin (13 March 1952 – 11 May 2017) was an Australian journalist and radio and television broadcaster for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), and worked on most of the flagship current affairs programs. Notably, based in Sydne ...

hosted the program from 1997 to 2017. In December 2017, Linda Mottram was announced as the new host of ''PM''. Some time after July 2019, Mottram was replaced by David Lipson.

Musical signature themes

The original 1967 signature was "Crossbeat", a 30-second electronic music piece sourced from the

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, composed and realised by David Cain of the

BBC Radiophonic Workshop The BBC Radiophonic Workshop was one of the sound effects units of the BBC, created in 1958 to produce Incidental music, incidental sounds and new music for radio and, later, television. The unit is known for its experimental and pioneering ...

. This was replaced by new themes for both ''AM'' and ''PM'', composed by Tony Ansell in the 1980s, both based on a similar theme and performed in a similar manner on a synthesiser using a brass-type patch. The similarity between the themes represented a significant link between the sister programs. The music was used from the 1980s until January 2017.

References

External links

* {{official, https://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/pm ABC News and Current Affairs Australian Broadcasting Corporation radio programs 1969 establishments in Australia Australian news radio programs 1960s Australian radio programs 1970s Australian radio programs 1980s Australian radio programs 1990s Australian radio programs 2000s Australian radio programs 2010s Australian radio programs 2020s Australian radio programs