Tony Barrell (broadcaster) - The 1990s

The 1990s

In 1993, Barrell produced a radio documentary, Cheers, about the Sydney Swans football team of which he was a passionate supporter.

In 1994, in the immediate aftermath of the genocidal massacres, Barrell travelled as field producer for ABC's Foreign Correspondent on assignment to Rwanda (with reporter Peter George).

In 1995, he visited Tokyo to record interviews for a feature to commemorate the 9–10 March 1945 bombing which destroyed much of the city with incendiary bombs and was, arguably, the first strategic use of napalm against civilians. The Tokyo's Burning feature broadcast by ABC Radio National's Radio Eye won the RAI special prize at the Prix Italia that year in Bologna. Barrell also produced the story of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki that year—Don't Forget Nagasaki won a UNAA (United Nations Association of Australia) Media Peace Prize for radio. The fire-bombing story was central to the book written with Rick Tanaka Higher than Heaven (published by Private Guy International).

In 1996, the two made a new kind of radio program, a survey of the world's cities still running trams or light rail systems. They invited citizens of Tallinn, Estonia, New Orleans, Nagasaki and Mainz in Germany to send cassettes of their rides on local trams. The result was broadcast in a feature by Radio Eye, but what made it different and special, was that it was accompanied by a dedicated website titled 'Trammit!', the wider story of light rail trams and street cars throughout the world. It was designed by Rick and Eddy Jokovich from ARMEDIA. Sadly, 'Trammit!' was removed in 2005, but it was probably a first of its kind (a radio show with a website), if not in the world, certainly in Australia. That same year Barrell and Rick Tanaka visited Okinawa to make more radio programs for the ABC and research their book Okinawa Dreams OK (published in 1997 by Die Gestalten Verlag, Berlin).

In 1997, Barrell visited the northern Japanese town of Maki in Niigata to record a story about the town's decision to vote against the siting of a genpatsu (nuclear power station) nearby, the first such referendum to successfully block a genpatsu. The story was broadcast by ABC Radio National's Indian Pacific program.