612 ABC radio has hit back after one of its listeners complained about an increasing number of "giggling females" on its programs.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The radio show shared the comment, received via email from a female listener, to its Facebook account on Tuesday.
"Today on 612 all the programmes were presented by poor-quality female presenters," the listener wrote.
"Other Brisbane stations employ male presenters but 612 are increasing their number of giggling females whose poor-quality voices and speech show how far 612 standards have fallen."
The station responded to the remark by celebrating its broadcasters, regardless of gender.
"In 2016 we weren't even aware having an all-female presenter line-up was worth talking about. So we won't," the station responded.
"Except to say that we are incredibly proud of all of our talented broadcasters, even the blokes.
"Thank you Terri, Kelly, Katrina, Emma, Sarah and Rebecca."
ABC Drive presenter Emma Griffiths said she only noticed on Monday there was an all-female presenter line-up for this week and hadn't thought twice about it until the complaint came through on Tuesday morning.
"To find out it was from a woman as well, it is not great whoever it comes from but to come from a woman makes you think, oh, that is a bit hard," she said.
Ms Griffiths said since taking the reins of the 3pm weekday program last year she had faced similar comments.
"It is not the first time, but it is not common," she said.
"Now and then I have had text messages come in saying 'sick of all this giggling', another text message that we got was 'this show is just women talking to women' and well, we wear it as a badge of pride most of the time.
"Women have a voice and have issues they need to talk about that probably only women are going to push to talk about.
"We are very happy to be doing what we are doing."
While the ratio of female-to-male presenters is not evenly split at the station, Ms Griffiths said 612 was leading the way compared with its counterparts.
"It's not 50/50, I don't know many stations where it is and compared to our commercial cousins we are streets ahead," she said.
"We want to have a laugh, don't we? People have always got the option to turn off but I am not going to be something that I am not.
"We talk about serious issues, we talk about news of the day, we talk about the lighter watercooler discussions being had."
