Archive for January 1st, 2007

The sound of silence…and the sounds of silence

I know people at 2CC read this site, and I would like to let you all know that I am now at breaking point. Today has been an unmitigated disaster, with a strange attempt to fill in breakfast air time when the network programming didn’t come through, and now a complete failure of the automation and a constant repeating of the emergency tape’s copy of Simon and Garfunkel’s “The Sounds Of Silence”, not to mention yesterday’s failure to broadcast orange warning emergency information.

As for this afternoon, John B1_B5 made these comments a short time ago in the Rain, Hail, Blue and Orange Alerts post.

But let me just say this – I’m getting sick and tired of hearing them play “The Sound of Silence” every time they come back from a news break !

I’ve heard “The Sound Of Silence” being played 15 times in the past 2 hours !
They’re now playing it whenever thay go to an ad break as well.

Somebody obviously needs a swift kick up the rear end !

I then wrote:

It’s the emergency tape John…I hear it every now and then during New Day Australia, but today has been an absolute shocker for 2CC.

They obvious haven’t bothered to employ a panel operator today, they are automated, and either the pulses aren’t coming through from Sydney, or somebody killed the 2CC computer, or forgot to program the ad breaks…but that’s irrelevant, 2UE traffic and weather are coming through during the news, they need a panel operator for this show, and don’t have one.

I thought it was bad when they scheduled half the Christmas day ad breaks to be a minute overtime, drowning out 2UE with a cacophony of noise, but today is clearly worse.

I’m very disappointed with 2CC today, and for a fair bit of the last week, I’m surprised that the program director (whoever it is these days) didn’t recognise the need for a panel operator today.

In my opinion, senior staff should be monitoring the station, and the emergency tape should be setup to send a text message off to someone if it gets started…and if something like this happens, somebody should go to the station and fix things up.

In all seriousness, if I was a panel operator for 2CC, I would be making my way into 2CC right now (well, about two hours ago) to either panel until 6pm, or fix the automation.

2CC have been doing very well for the half a year or so, with minimal problems, and a strong commitment to making the station sound good…they should be ashamed of this latest effort…or lack thereof.

And I’m sorry, but the irony of “The Sounds Of Silence” being on an emergency tape triggered by 15 seconds of silence has well and truly worn off.

The only good thing about this afternoon is that we haven’t heard yesterday’s weather report since Murray Olds started, but I would prefer to hear it than yet another repeat of the bloody sounds of silence.

The bottom line on this is that if we have a repeat performance of today’s disaster, 2CC risk losing me to the horrid local ABC station…it might be filled with insane people, but at least they have local weather, don’t play yesterday’s weather, and aren’t going to play the same song 500 times a day.

If I, as a staunch supporter of 2CC, am considering switching station, think about how many people you have already lost.

Samuel

Update 6:12pm: The normally automated shows appear to have scheduled ad breaks…Sports Today has ads! Hooray! End Update

31 comments January 1st, 2007 at 04:42pm

Canberra Storm Update

It would appear that the Bureau Of Meteorology aren’t overly fussed about the chance of storms in the next few days:

Current Weather Situation and Future Developments
A high pressure ridge in the Tasman Sea combined with a low pressure trough over NSW is resulting in a moist east to northeast airstream and unstable conditions with showers and isolated thunderstorms forecast over the local area. This moist airflow and instability is forecast to persist for the next few days with continued shower and isolated thunderstorm activity through to the middle of the week. A ridge of high pressure should bring a return to fine weather towards the end of the week.

Forecast for Monday
A few showers and the chance of a thunderstorm. Mild and partly cloudy with moderate east to northeast winds.

Forecast for Tuesday
A few showers and the chance of a thunderstorm, mainly during the afternoon. Mild and mostly cloudy with moderate east to northeast winds.

Hopefully they are right.

Samuel

January 1st, 2007 at 01:34pm

Music and New Years Eve Cleanup

G'day Tim,

I'm not a baby boomer, and I don't need to be to enjoy the music you're playing, keep up the good work!

By the way Tim, we spent $4 million on the Sydney fireworks, and I wouldn't be surprised if we spend more money on the cleanup…how many tonnes of rubbish did Clinton Maynard say had been left behind? Why can't people use a bin?

Happy New Year Tim!

Regards,
Samuel Gordon-Stewart
Canberra

Update 6:01pm: It was 45 tonnes of rubbish. End Update

January 1st, 2007 at 01:30pm

Civic Library’s Video Theft

In this dream the Civic Library has been moved to the creamy coloured buildings connected to the underground cabling building, pictured in this photo:
Underground cabling building and imaginary library building

The dream takes place in the library where there is a room filled with videos and DVDs for hire, however the room is closed. I join a group of people trying to sneak into the room to steal DVDs, but the librarian spots us, and decides to open the room with a security guard supervising it.

Once the room is open, we enter the room and find the DVDs and videos we are looking for, I consider sneaking a DVD out under my shirt, but then spot the $2 hire price tag and decide to hire the DVD…also whilst in the room I spot a DVD titled “Stargate SG1: Season 13”, which is just a tad early considering that they have only produced ten series so far.

Could this dream be a preminition? Will the Civic Library move into this building by the time Stargate SG1 has a 13th series? Will I be arrested for petty theft in a few years? Why am I having these weird dreams about theft?

Samuel

January 1st, 2007 at 07:07am

Is that a new Ishmael?

Hi John,

Has the new year sent us a new Ishmael? I can't believe it, he actually spoke some sense…I like this new Ishmael, I hope we get to keep him!

Admittedly I didn't agree with everything he said, but he was being reasonable for a change, and not inflammatory. Well done Ishmael.

And a happy new year to all!

Regards,
Samuel Gordon-Stewart
Canberra

January 1st, 2007 at 03:30am

Rain, Hail, Blue and Orange Alerts

Living in reid, and receiving some mild showers with a nice lightning show, it is hard to believe that only a few kilometres away in the Tuggeranong area there has been a huge hail storm, causing plenty of property (mainly roof) damage, and even a mudslide which has closed the Monaro Highway.

Whilst I have been keeping an eye on the storm situation (this was the third storm in as many days), I was powerless to do anything about reporting on it as I was offline for most of the day.

An “orange alert” was issued by the Emergency Services Authority, and in theory this should have prompted the broadcast of the Standard Emergency Warning Signal (all to familiar from the 2003 bushfire), I didn’t hear it anywhere…I did hear and see the warning being broadcast, but as far as I can tell the SEWS was not used, which should be enough to prompt a reprimand from the Emergency Services Authority.

I unfortunately need to signal out 2CC for a reprimand here, as they haven’t even bothered to update their weather reports to reflect the storm warning. The warning was cancelled at 11:10pm by the Bureau of Meteorology, however a blue warning is still in place from the ESA. Whilst 2UE did their best to keep 2CC listeners informed, 2CC should really have, at the very least, broadcast the warnings with a local presenter or newsreader. They have done well on the other storm days, but the latest effort was shocking and non-existent.

This website does not come under the provisions of broadcast media regulations, and as such I am not required to publish storm warnings, however I do aim to do so when possible. I do, in fact, have the SEWS on standby, and if I had been online I would have recorded the warning and embedded it on the page, along with a transcript of the warning. Whilst I hope to never actually have to publish an orange or red level emergency warning, inevitably it will happen, and I will do my best to bring the information to you. I apoligise for not being able to do so in the latest storm.

As for 2CC, as it was late in the afternoon on new year’s eve when the storm struck, I can understand why they may have had trouble getting someone in to handle the situation. That being said, they have a responsibility as a broadcaster, and I hope they seriously evaluate their response to the storm.

The ABC had a couple interesting updates on the storm, at 8:04pm they wrote:

Emergency service crews have been inundated with calls for help this afternoon as the ACT is pounded by a third severe thunderstorm in as many days.

Police say several houses have been affected by flash flooding in Tuggeranong and there are reports of motorists trapped in their cars by rising flood waters in Belconnen.

A mudslide has blocked the Monaro Highway between Calwell and Royalla.

At 12:18am they wrote:

Canberra’s storm warning has been revised down to a “blue” alert, with emergency services believing the worst of the hail storms that hit the city overnight are behind them.

Emergency services were inundated with calls for help this afternoon as the ACT was pounded by a third severe thunderstorm in as many days.

A mudslide has blocked the Monaro Highway between Calwell and Royalla in New South Wales.

Many of Canberra’s suburban streets were flooded, but the water has since receded.

Tony Graham from the ACT State Emergency Service says they have received more than 140 calls for help.

“The rain was so heavy and some areas, particularly the southern suburbs of Canberra, had a fair amount of hail,” he said.

“It hit so heavily that there was a fair amount of roof damage and then following on from the was some localised flooding.”

Samuel

12 comments January 1st, 2007 at 02:55am

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to you all!

Samuel

January 1st, 2007 at 12:38am


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