Late Night Live is a radio program broadcast by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Radio National and podcast and streamed over the World Wide Web. Since 1991, the program has been hosted by farmer, writer and public intellectual Phillip Adams, who refers to the program by its acronym 'LNL', which during 2016 morphed into 'FNL'. Previous hosts include publisher and journalist Richard Ackland, and Virginia Bell, now a judge of the High Court of Australia. Recent guest hosts include: Tracey Holmes, Richard Aedy, and Paul Barclay. Often the setting for a serious and learned discussion of politics, science, philosophy and culture, the program aims to host cutting-edge discussion of public debate, and present ideas and issues not yet covered by other Australian media. The programme is broadcast from 10:05 pm until 11 pm Mondays to Thursdays, and is repeat broadcast at 4:05 pm from Tuesdays to Fridays. During January of each year, selected segments from the previous 10 or 11 months are re-broadcast, in lieu of fresh programming. In 2011 a special online retrospective was compiled to celebrate 20 years behind the LNL microphone, called "In Bed With Phillip". Over 200 of the best interviews from these years are now available to listen and download.
Include high-profile thinkers, writers, journalists and players from the literary, cultural and political world. Over the past 21 years guests have included Henry Kissinger, Christopher Hitchens, Gore Vidal, Madeleine Albright, Gerry Adams, Jessica Mitford and former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev.
Format
Most programs are divided into three segments, each segment delineated by a sting, a short piece of instrumental music lasting about 30 seconds, though occasional one-hour conversations involving one or more guests are becoming more frequent. Adams' style is conversational and casual, not adversarial. He introduces his guests using their first and last names, followed by their qualifications and notable positions and achievements, and subsequently addresses them by their first name. When a guest is a university professor occupying a named chair, Adams usually asks the guest to briefly explain who or what the chair is named after. The pace is relaxed. Adams generally exerts subtle but firm control over the conversation's direction. For many years, Adams has referred to his audience as "Gladys", the joke being that only one person is listening and that is her name. With the advent of podcasting and web streaming, Adams has since added "Poddies" to his listenership, and will often talk or refer to his "Gladdies and Poddies". He also has Noddies and Maddies, and now "Tweethearts" to include those who follow him on Twitter.
Production
The program has a staff of four: Adams, an executive producer, and three producers Technical producer also puts the program to air each night. Though Adams may make suggestions, the producers decide on the topic and guests, and they suggest questions, which Adams may take or leave.
Audience
In 2010 the estimated cumulative audience was 350,000, and the show was downloaded 217,463 times in August. Seventy five percent of downloads are to Australia, 6% to the US and 3% to Britain. It is the second most popular of all ABC radio programs, following Richard Fidler's Conversations. Sixty five percent of listeners are university graduates; 90% are forty or older; 40% hold "AB" jobs while 45% are not in the workforce, and 55% are women.
Theme music
The current theme music is the first movement of Brescianello'sviolin concerto no. 4 in e-minor, Op. 1. Until March 2016 the theme was the Eliza Aria from the Wild Swans ballet by Elena Kats-Chernin. This replaced Russian Rag also by Kats-Chernin, which Adams jokingly referred to as the 'Waltz of the Wombats'. Several different arrangements have been used: Clarinet, trumpet, marimba, harp, violin, viola, cello, double bass; Flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn, 2 violins, viola, cello, double bass; Flute, piano, cello; Bassoon with piano; Clarinet with piano; Violin with piano and unaccompanied Piano. The previous theme, adopted soon after Adams took over as host, was the third movement of Johann Sebastian Bach's Concerto for Violin and Oboe, BWV 1060.
