“But he has health reform on his agenda on Washington. We have health and hospitals reform on our agenda here in Australia. He has a thing called a troublesome Senate.

“I have a troublesome Senate as well.”

Kevin Rudd was commenting on how he understands the reason for Obama’s delayed visit and how “Australia would fit in with the President’s timetable”. So does Kevin really think that bowing to Obama (that would make a change from Obama’s habit of bowing to everyone…maybe we can have a bow-off) and insulting his own Senate will make the Senate more likely to agree with him, or is his plan to somehow make Obama the new Australian Senate?

Samuel

This pushes Obama’s Canberra visit back from Tuesday the 23rd of March until (presumably…Gibbs hasn’t released an updated itinerary yet) Friday the 26th.

The president was expected to leave Thursday for the six-day tour that included Guam and Australia. He has pushed it back until next Sunday.

The White House made the announcement on Press Secretary Robert Gibbs’ Twitter.
[..]
On Wednesday, Gibbs hinted that the president wasn’t planning on delaying his travel to negotiate the sticking points among House Democrats in accepting the Senate health insurance reform bill.

“If we have any changes in the schedule, we’ll certainly let you know, but the president believes it is an extremely important trip with — it’s an important region of the world and these are important partners,” he said.

Gibbs added that “if it takes a couple of days extra” to get the bill passed, the president would be fine with missing the March 18 deadline he set for lawmakers “even if he’s already gone.”

This makes me wonder what we’re going to do with our own politicians. Parliament finishes its current session on Thursday the 18th and we were going to have a special session on Monday the 22nd, presumably to justify the cost of keeping them all here over the weekend so that they could be addressed by Obama on the Tuesday. Surely we won’t keep them here for a whole week of nothing, so I suppose this means that we’re sending them back home on Thursday the 18th and flying them back for the visit on Friday the 26th.

If that’s the case, then so be it. As much as I may dislike the man, I won’t begrudge him his visit…it does after all present me with an opportunity to protest against him. Seriously though, I understand the need for foreign leaders to visit, but given the cost to their country as well as our country, I do have to wonder why we can’t replace many of these visits with teleconferences…and that’s for all world leaders, not just the ones I dislike.

Anyway, as strange as it may sound coming from me, I am actually looking forward to Obama’s visit. I will be very interested to see how our domestic politicians react to his visit when it happens as, pleasantries aside, their reactions and comments will say a lot about their own policy agendas. Tony Abbott’s reaction will be particularly interesting as I’m hoping that Obama will be asked for his views on Abbott’s parental leave policy…being a massive tax increase on business and a redistributionist policy that Mao could be proud of, it should get Obama’s full support…one can only hope that such a thing would bring Abbott to his senses, even if it’s too late to regain any credibility on that issue.

That to one side (as it’s a topic which needs it’s own blog post), I do hope that Obama visits Canberra on the Friday as this will give me the opportunity to watch his plane leave in the afternoon. I didn’t see Air Force One when George W. Bush visited and seeing it in person would actually be the highlight of the trip for me. I’ll probably protest and be glad to see Obama leave…but I’ll be happy that I’ll have seen the plane. The trip is worth it if I can see the plane.

Samuel

Anyway, with that in mind, you can probably understand how something like this disturbs me in more ways than I dare to count.

An investigation is underway after a child was heard giving instructions to a pilot from the air-traffic control tower at one of America’s busiest airports.

In a recording that has been confirmed as genuine by the Federal Aviation Administration, the child makes five transmissions from John F Kennedy International Airport — with the pilots in each case all responding enthusiastically to him.

The child is clearly under supervision and being fed lines, but even so, should not be in that position. Whilst the fact that a child was in a position to give orders to pilots is a concern unto itself, the fact that the child speaks, like most children, in a not-entirely-clear voice, is a bigger concern to me due to the increased likelihood of a misunderstanding.

This disturbs me too much to think about, so I’ll turn my attention to something more palatable: the TV news set in the video.

Admittedly at this size it doesn’t come up all that brilliantly, but it’s an interesting set due to the way that it’s designed to have many different angles which all look vastly different, unlike many news sets which are designed to look like you’re stuck in one corner of a room.

I’ve highlighted the important bits here. The Red box shows the female anchor who is presenting to the camera in front of her. The view has changed changed from the camera in front of her to this overview camera, and in a moment it will zoom in on the green box where a reporter is standing in front of another camera and is about to present to it. In the yellow box, a male anchor is standing by for his next appearance.

Given the shape of the set, it wouldn’t surprise me if off-screen there is another part of the set which is used as a backdrop for some other locally-produced program. It’s not uncommon for sets to be used for multiple shows, but it is fascinating to see a single set used for the one program but with a completely different “look” depending on the angle, and especially fascinating to see the overview of the set.

Or maybe I’m just easily distracted in an effort to not be disturbed by the news story.

Samuel

Thankfully such torture was not used on me…although if it had been, I might be able to explain this sudden urge to support Ban Ki-moon’s campaign to become the first President of his namesake satellite.

So where have I actually been, well for the most part I’ve been working. Work, sleep, eat and procrastinate pretty much sums up the last few weeks, although I did have a day off for Lord Monckton’s Canberra lecture (I didn’t fact-check the CT article did I? Another one for the pile of stuff I really should get around to doing I suppose) in the middle of one of the weeks where I was working more hours than usual.

I’ve also discovered that, since the concussion from my robbery and assault last year, I have needed more sleep than I used to require. It used to be the case that I could still be mostly functional on almost no sleep in a four day period…alas those days appear to be gone and I now struggle if I’m awake for a 24 hour block. The upshot of this is that I am awake less by necessity, and something on my list of commitments therefore had to fall by the wayside. That something, especially when I was working more hours for a few weeks, was this blog.

I’m not satisfied with that though and thoroughly intend on continuing this blog, just probably not as actively as I used to.

As for that announcement which I was going to make…well it ties in with this really. I’m leaving 1WAY FM and this coming Sunday night will be my final shift. I have a few reasons, but the most important one is the fact that I just can’t continue to work on Sunday night, struggle to get to sleep when I get home, and then work again in my “day job” on Monday morning. It does help a bit that my “day job” shifts have been altered so that I no longer work a full day on Mondays, but it doesn’t solve the problem of me working on auto-pilot zombie trance mode and needing to go back to bed after work.

I’ve enjoyed volunteering at 1WAY FM, but I just can’t continue with it…not when it is eventually going to result in me falling asleep at my desk and spilling coffee on equipment. This decision was not easy, as I quite enjoy what I do at 1WAY FM, but it is the right decision.

Where I’ll next pop up in radio land I have absolutely no idea and, at this very moment, I’m not really looking. I do need a bit of a break, although as usual I have some ideas (rarely do I ever run out of ideas) and it will be interesting to see which ones make their way in to reality.

Samuel

SBS’s director of television and online content Matt Campbell has painted a grim picture of the broadcaster’s operating situation, blasting the Nine Network’s deal to secure the popular Top Gear programme and saying that the coffers are near-empty.
[..]
A $4 million increase in funding from the Federal Government would be insufficient to cover the decline in advertising revenue, leaving the corporation “in the s**t”, he told the conference. Depicting the situation as “dire”, he said that “we have no money for online; we have no money for SBS TWO”.

Well SBS, welcome to commercial reality, welcome to the real world. Whose fault is it that you didn’t build any exclusivity in to your Top Gear contract? Yes, that’s right…yours.

Putting that to one side, you are a commercial operation, and your advertising revenue reflects your ratings. You are airing hour after hour after hour of programming which almost nobody wants to watch…we have a World Movies Channel on pay television which does pretty well for itself covering much of the same ground as you…the difference is that the people who want to see it, pay to see it.

So here’s a novel idea, rather than asking for more money from the government, why not do what PBS do (yes, PBS, the people from whom you buy the Jim Leher show) and ask for donations? This has a number of benefits, the biggest of which being that people will feel more involved in the station and will be more likely to provide you with feedback as to what they actually want to watch. You can then, in turn, use that information to sell more targeted advertising.

I, for one, would be willing to pay for a 112 Emergency marathon. I’m probably the only person in the country with an interest in that, but you would make money out of it…and best of all for us out here in taxpayer land, you wouldn’t be draining our taxes just so that you can show us stuff that we quite simply don’t want to see.

To the same extent, I’d like to see the ABC become commercial and sever ties with the government, although I suspect that with their higher ratings and a massive radio network which is actually broadcast in English, they might have a better chance than SBS of being commercially viable with their current programming.

SBS, in the real world, you have to adapt to changes. If people aren’t watching, and you’re having trouble attracting advertisers because of it, adding additional channels of the same junk won’t fix the problem…you need to adapt to suit what the people want to see. Or you could just hand in your broadcast licence so that we can sell if off to somebody who can actually broadcast something of interest…perhaps an Australian FOX News clone (Sky News, despite being run by similar people, does not count for a number of reasons which I’ll outline in a future post) to balance out the ABC’s impending 24/7 news channel?

Samuel

I can’t remember if I wrote anything about 3AW dropping Rex Hunt from their AFL commentary team. I remember writing that I would not be listening to 3AW if they went ahead with it, but I can’t find any proof that I ever wrote anything after they announced that they would actually be dropping Rex.

At the same time, 3AW and Triple M swapped commentators. Rex will be calling football for Triple M on Saturday afternoons, and Brian Taylor will be going to 3AW (eep, they can keep him). Taylor will be joined by Tim Lane, further cementing my decision to steer clear of 3AW this year.

I was pleased to see Rex sign with Triple M…but I’m even more pleased to see him sign with Crocmedia who, along with 3AW, have the commercial radio relay rights for the AFL. Crocmedia, who will be basing their operation in the studios of 3BA Ballarat, have signed both Rex Hunt and Sandy Roberts.

One of things which disappointed me when Seven regained the TV rights was that they didn’t bring Sandy Roberts back to the commentary box despite Sandy being their prominent sport presenter on Seven News Melbourne and presenter of various highlights programs. This sense of frustration has been increased of late due to the fact that I have enjoyed Sandy’s commentary on the overnight AFL replays on 7Two.

Needless to say, I was therefore absolutely delighted when I found out that Sandy Roberts had signed with Crocmedia along with Rex Hunt. Sandy will call Friday night and Saturday afternoon matches, while Rex will lead the commentary on Sunday afternoons.

Alas, I’m informed that Crocmedia will not be able to stream their coverage online, however they do have a growing network of relay stations which will be taking their coverage. The great news for those of us here in Canberra is that 1053 2CA will be taking the Crocmedia coverage, although I’m not sure at this stage which matches they will be covering. I’m hopeful that they will cover it as much as they did back when they relayed 3AW a few years ago…Friday night, Saturday afternoon and Sunday afternoon. I’ll let you know when I find out more.

(A side note to Capital Radio management: this information was not obtained at the Ray Hadley OB on Friday, which can be confirmed by a quick look back through my Facebook status updates. You will see that I first learned of this mid-last week. I won’t reveal how I came by this information though.)

Image courtesy of Crocmedia

Samuel

Yes I’ve been absent…I’ll explain later when I’m not so tired. I just have a couple things which I want to publish quickly before I have a nap, and then I’ll be able to spend a bit more time later explaining both my absence and that announcement that I was supposed to make a few weeks ago.

I hope you’re all well!

Samuel

I haven’t held on to the previous stories about WMDs being dug up in Iraq (nor have The Daily Mail based on the commentary in their article), but I’ll hold on to this one because I’m sure that I’ll have to deal with the silly argument over and over again.

Thanks to KXNT’s Casey Hendrickson and Heather Kydd for bringing the story to my attention.

Samuel

I came to a few realisations last night which have been a long time coming, and I’m rather glad about it because it means that my goals and direction in at least the short to medium term, are now much clearer and more realistic. Alas I can’t explain it here right now because certain formal processes need to be initiated first but I intend on making an announcement on Monday or Tuesday.

Alas between that and my need to sleep, I didn’t actually get any of my three planned tasks (including the promised blog post) done last night…and for the record I’m now existing on about 15 hours of sleep since 8am Tuesday.

I’m working all day today, so I’ll see how I go tonight…assuming that I don’t just crash out after work, that is.

Samuel

Perth – February 9
Venue: Wesfarmers Lecture Theatre, Business School, University of Western Australia
Address: Hackett Drive (off Stirling Highway at Matilda Bay) Crawley Perth WA
Parking: Car Parks 6 & 9, Hackett Drive
Time: 6pm – 8pm [Doors open at 5pm for 6pm start]
Cost: $20 per person. No bookings. Cash payment on entry. [Please bring a $20 note]
Note: Charge is for admission only. No provision of food/drinks.

Sydney – February 12
Master of Ceremonies: Alan Jones
Venue: Hilton Hotel
Address: 488 George Street, Sydney, Australia 2000
Time: 12:30 – 2:30pm
Cost: $20 per person. No bookings. Cash payment on entry. [Please bring a $20 note]
Note: Charge is for admission only. No provision of food/drinks.

As I understand it (and event organisers, please correct me if I’m wrong), all of Lord Monckton’s other lectures have now sold out.

Based on the television footage that I have seen so far, it would appear that Lord Monckton’s presentation was, as expected, almost the same at each venue. To that end, I’m excited to say that a DVD of his Brisbane lecture is apparently in production so there is no need for everyone who missed out, to miss out. I’m going to seek some more details about the DVD and get back to you about it.

Samuel

The CT has sadly gained money from me today so that I could see the extent of their utter misrepresentation of Lord Monckton’s lecture at the National Press Club yesterday. To set the record straight is going to take me more than the few minutes that I can spare right now, so I’ll do it tonight instead.

I suppose I could write a letter to the editor as well, but I don’t really see the point as:
1. Most of the people who read today’s article will not read tomorrow’s letters about it
2. I do not intend on further propping up the bottom line of The Fyshwick Guardian, err, The Canberra Little Red Broadsheet by buying a copy of their squalid rag tomorrow just to check if they publish my letter.

More to follow tonight when I have enough time to actually sit down and write details.

Samuel

Lord Monckton was rather rushed and didn’t have time for an interview but was kind enough to stop for a few seconds for a photo. I’ll be sleeping when the local ABC TV News bulletin goes to air tonight, but I expect to see bits of Lord Monckton’s excellent lecture on there and am recording to see which snippet they decide to run with. Lord Monckton is also, according to Andrew Bolt’s blog, on The 7:30 Report tonight with Kerry O’Brien…it will be interesting to see if Lord Monckton is able to finish many of his sentences in that stage-managed environment.

More later, but for now I need sleep.

Samuel

The interview is up on the new 666 ABC Canberra website or can be downloaded directly by clicking here. I’m not going to embed the audio in this page as I intend on being fair to the ABC.

I didn’t hear it yesterday as I was engrossed in work at the time, but Lord Monckton apparently appeared on 2CC’s Mike Welsh Drive Show. If and when that audio appears on their website (and when I notice it, considering that I’ll be out for much of the afternoon) I’ll post a link to that interview as well.

Samuel

Lord Christopher Monckton is in Canberra today and will be appearing at the National Press Club between 3pm and 5pm, courtesy of the New South Wales Farmers Federation, presenting a lecture entitled “Why a Royal Commission must urgently review climate change science”.

Update: Sorry, it’s sold out. End update

The cost is $20 per head and afternoon tea and light refreshments will be available. I honestly don’t know if there are any spots left, however if there are any left, I expect that they will go quickly. The people to call in order to book are the New South Wales Farmers Federation on 1300 794 000. I’ll give them a call myself after 9am to check if there are any spots left, and update this post accordingly.

I’ll be there, and I’m still trying to arrange a short interview with Lord Monckton. Somewhere along the line there was a communication breakdown regarding this, so I’m making a last ditch effort to arrange this today. Hopefully I can get this off the ground because I would love to interview Lord Monckton; I have some questions to which I would very much like to hear his answers and, above all else, would like to make short audio interviews a more regular feature of this blog…having Lord Monckton as the first would be an honour and a privilege. Update: Not locked in, but a window of opportunity has been provided. Many thanks to the organisers for their prompt reply this morning. End update

Anyhoo, more details about today’s lecture can be found here, and if you’re attending then I look forward to seeing you. Feel free to come up for a chat.

Samuel

Yes, legendary weather forecasting groundhog Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow and has decreed that winter will last for another six weeks in the northern hemisphere. It’s no wonder that PETA launched a loopy objection to the use of a groundhog the other day and suggested replacing him with a robot (their reasoning included something about how we’ve replaced dinosaurs with robots and people still come to see them)…not enough global warming for them!

Seriously though, does that mean another six weeks of heat down here in this hemisphere?

Samuel

Samuel

Australian of the Year 2010: Professor Patrick McGorry of Victoria
Senior Australian of the Year 2010: Maggie Beer of South Australia
Young Australian of the Year 2010: Trooper Mark Donaldson VC of Western Australia
Australia’s Local Hero 2010: Ronni Kahn of New South Wales

There we go. No need to wait around and endure the painful process of listening to Kevin Rudd talk.

I’m not naming my source but am 100% sure that this information is accurate. I’m led to believe that the media are stuck in some sort of embargo around this information, so if you’re in the media and reading this, it’s not my fault if you decide to relay it and get in to trouble for it.

Samuel

According to 2CC’s Program Director Peter Davidson, this is in response to a large number of listeners asking “Why can’t we hear him [Ray Hadley] on weekdays?” when he can be heard on the weekend. Mr. Davidson also referred to Alan Jones’ return to 2CC as a homecoming of the “king of breakfast radio of the last 20 years or so”, referring to the old Alan Jones Highlights show which aired between 8:30am and 9:00am on weekdays in the early days of 2CC’s life as a talk station.

The station is expecting a lot of feedback today. I’m just glad that it’s not me that’s dealing with the correspondence.

Update: I’ll clarify that last line. I’m glad it’s not me dealing with the correspondence due to the volume…not the content. I’d love it if people flooded me with positive feedback, but I’d probably hate replying to it all because I wouldn’t want to use a form reply.

Anyway, 2CC’s press release follows:

January 7, 2010
EMBARGO – FOR RELEASE 8AM MONDAY JANUARY 11, 2010
RAY HADLEY & ALAN JONES JOIN 1206 2CC

1206 2CC announced this morning to it’s listeners that two of Australia’s most popular broadcasters will join the weekday lineup from Monday January 18.

Ray Hadley’s top rating Sydney morning show will be broadcast in Canberra on 1206 2CC.

Already familiar to Canberran’s through the Continuous Call in NRL season, Ray Hadley presents a morning show that is entertaining and informative. He often puts politicians on the spot to answer the questions his listeners want to know.

The Ray Hadley Morning Show will be broadcast on 1206 2CC Monday to Friday between 9am and 11am.

Alan Jones returns to the 2CC line up with a daily one hour highlights program of his highly successful Sydney breakfast show.

Alan Jones is one of Australia’s most popular and successful broadcasters. With the mind and capacity to make complex issues understandable, Alan Jones sets the agenda with the day’s newsmakers.

The Best Of Alan Jones will be broadcast on 1206 2CC Monday to Friday 11am till midday.

For further information contact:

Peter Davidson
Program Director
Talking Canberra 1206 2CC
Phone: (02) 6241 1911

End Update

Samuel

Some information which has come my way from within the Macquarie bunker at Pyrmont says that Steve Price has signed with Macquarie and will take up a spot on their new talk station. The story goes that Price has moved back to Melbourne. No word yet on whether he will take up Breakfast or not. Also no word on when said station will launch or whether it will bump SEN from 1116AM over to 3MP’s existing 1377AM.

Personally, I’d be confused by having a News/Talk station on 1116 in Melbourne. 4BC have that frequency in Brisbane…and I’d be even more confused if the new station were to steal the 4BC ID and call themself “Melbourne’s News/Talk Eleven Sixteen Three Emm Pee”.

This has been rumoured since before Price left 2UE, so it’s not a shock by any means, but it is nice to have some confirmation.

Samuel

2CC and 2GN’s websites are both promoting the “big announcement” on Monday at 7:45am and don’t show any sign of Hadley or Jones, and 2XL’s site doesn’t contain any more details (Update: See update below). 2GN does at least say that there will be “two big additions”.

It’s obvious what they’re doing with Hadley. That will be 9am to midday. It couldn’t possibly be anything else. Alan Jones on the other hand is interesting. Many moons ago 2CC took Alan Jones’ 2UE breakfast show between 8:30am and 9am but that doesn’t seem like a sensible use of funds to me. I would say that it’s more likely that we will either see a relay of the “Alan Jones Highlights” show between 5am and 5:30am, or the nightly “Alan Jones and Ray Hadley Highlights” show (assuming that said show returns to 2GB’s lineup once they get the summer holidays out of their system).

Update: OK, I might be wrong about how they’re handling Hadley’s show, and also Alan Jones. 2XL, according to their on-air schedule, are taking Ray Hadley from 9am to 11am, and Alan Jones from 11am to midday. The Jones show will probably be a highlights show from that morning…it wouldn’t make much sense to replay a particular hour.

I’m not sure that 2CC will follow this model though. 2XL and 2GN are music stations outside of 9am-midday, whereas 2CC is 24/7 talk and could easily get away with running the full three hours of Hadley and putting the Jones highlights show elsewhere (dump an hour of Webster, please!).
End Update

If it is the evening highlights show, then this will also lend credence to the theory that Macquarie, when they take over 3MP in Melbourne, will relay evening highlights to Melbourne. It will also lend credence to what I have heard today and will share with you later this evening…nothing ground breaking, as it’s already been the subject of heavy speculation, but important for 3MP all the same.

Incidentally, 2GB’s website has not added any of the Capital Radio Network stations to the list on Ray Hadley’s page as yet.

The 2CC press release
I promised 2CC that I would run their existing press release. Originally I was going to do this tomorrow night as a teaser for Monday’s announcement…but I can’t see any point in waiting any more. As such, here’s the press release (original available by clicking here).

January 6, 2010
EMBARGO – FOR RELEASE FRIDAY JANUARY 8, 2010
WHAT IS THE BIG ANNOUNCEMENT AT 2CC?

Canberra’s commercial talk back station 1206 2CC has been telling listeners to tune in this Monday morning for a ‘big announcement’.

2CC has been quietly expanding its operations with the recent launch of Hot Country 97.5FM.

It’s expected that 2CC will announce extra additions to its 2010 lineup.

For the full details you will have to tune into 1206 2CC this Monday morning at 7.45 when breakfast host Mark Parton reveals all the details.

For further information contact:
Peter Davidson
Program Director
Talking Canberra 1206 2CC
Phone: (02) 6241 1911

Samuel