Archive for November 4th, 2005

More 2UE Updates and Possible 2CC Ramifications

A closer look at the Southern Cross Syndication website shows that the 2UE gardening show has also been removed from the product list, the remaining garden show is the 4BC Brisbane Garden show.

However, the 2UE garden show and real estate show haven’t disappeared, they have simply been moved into the Glen Wheeler Weekend Afternoon show, although nobody seems to know the times that they will be on. Surely this is madness, outside of Sydney, who really cares about Sydney garden conditions or the price of the house in a Sydney suburb based on a telephone description.

Up until now network stations have been able to avoid the Sydney garden show if they wanted to by simply running local programming during it, but now it is a segment of another show, meaning that if a station wants to avoid it, they are going to need to run SIX HOURS of local programming to avoid it and sound “normal”. It would sound very odd indeed if at, for example, 1:59pm Glen Wheeler was heard to say “After the news it’s time to do solve those gardening problems with Jennifer Stackhouse”, and then the 2PM news played, followed by some local “Hits from way-back-when” show until the 3PM news, which would be followed by a return to Glen Wheeler who could very easily have “Just one more garden caller for Jennifer.”

Apart from which, people love George Moore and Paul B. Kidd, and you hear other shows being flooded with “I’m so glad George and Paul are back” in the weeks leading up to their returne after the football season (incidentally, I’m baffled as to why 2UE don’t offer George and Paul during the football season as Macquarie’s 2GB have the football…although 2SM just got the rights to one game per week…another story, another time). The worst part about these changes is that they are too drastic and too early in the year for them to be temporary summer changes, apart from which, George and Paul were the summer afternoon syndication goldmine, so a change like this wouldn’t have been made on a temporary basis.

As for Canberra, this is surely the thin end of the wedge…I really think 2CC will suffer if they take Glen Wheeler in the afternoon, don’t get me wrong, Glen is an excellent host, but I just don’t think the people of Canberra really want to hear 2CC contradicting itself. Canberra’s local gardening expert, David Young, has criticised interstate garden shows on many occasions for just not being relevant in Canberra, how then do 2CC expect to retain credibility with the gardening community if they have David Young saying what I have already mentioned, followed by Jennifer Stackhouse with the “Sydney suburban garden hour”?

As I have already mentioned, people love George Moore and Paul B. Kidd, they are easy to listen to, and they are good fun. They will take a couple weeks to get used to mornings, but they will do it (I know I previously said moving them to mornings is a mistake, which it is…the entire schedule blender is a mistake, but they will adapt). The people of Canberra love George and Paul…so what to do? Well, here’s my plan which I think will save 2CC from a terrible disaster at the hands of 2UE programming.

Currently 2CC have local programming from 6am to midday on weekends, I suggest they change that. Lets have George and Paul from 6am to midday, followed by some local programming. At midday we could have The Trading Post for one hour, it works for two hours before midday, but I don’t think it would do the same after midday as people will start to lose interest in visiting unknown houses to buy stuff by then. At 1pm you could have David Young’s Garden for an hour or two depending on the day. After this, there are some things that could be done, perhaps a local talkback show on Saturday and the “Best Ofs” on Sunday, and then there are a few gaps to fill, so lets take a look at my draft schedule.

Saturday

  • Midnight: George Gibson (2UE)
  • 6am: George and Paul (2UE)
  • Midday: The Trading Post
  • 1PM: David Young’s Garden
  • 2PM: The Travelling Fisherman
  • 3PM: Saturday Afternoon with (Kane Bond? Mike Frame?)
  • 5PM: The Best Of The John Laws Week
  • 6PM: Mike Williams (2UE)

Sunday

  • Midnight: George Gibson
  • 6am: George and Paul
  • Midday: The Trading Post
  • 1PM: David Young’s Garden
  • 2PM: Toyota Outback Club
  • 3PM: Sunday Afternoon With (Kane Bond? Mike Frame?)
  • 5PM: The Best Of The Mike Jeffreys Week
  • 6PM: Mike Williams

I would be willing to bet that most 2CC listeners don’t even know that there is a “Best Of Mike Jeffreys” show early in the morning on Sunday (I think it’s Sunday) or that the Outback Club show or the Fishing show even exist. All of these shows deserve a higher prominence than what they currently get.

What I have drafted here would, in my view, bring 2CC extra listeners on the weekend. People would enjoy listening to George and Paul in the morning, and would most likely welcome the interesting and constantly changing afternoon lineup. I would suggest that the Saturday and Sunday Afternoon shows could be a mostly relaxed talkback program, with a special emphasis on the things which happen in and around Canberra on weekends, combine that with the usual Canberra based talkback formula and you would have a very good show.

This also brings up the question of news. I would suggest keeping the current system of bringing in a different weekday newsreader each day of the weekend for six hours, and supplement it with a dedicated weekend newsreader to take the other six hours, therefore providing localised news during the 6am-6pm period every day of the week.

Of course this wouldn’t work during the football season, so during the football season I would have a lineup as follows:

Saturday during football season

  • Midnight: George Gibson (2UE)
  • 6am: The Travelling Fisherman
  • 7am: David Young’s Garden
  • 8am: The Best Of The John Laws Week
  • 9am: Saturday Morning with (Kane Bond? Mike Frame?)
  • 10am: The Trading Post
  • Midday: Football (2GB)
  • 8PM: Mike Williams (2UE)

Sunday during football season

  • Midnight: George Gibson (2UE)
  • 6am: Toyota Outback Club
  • 7am: David Young’s Garden
  • 8am: The Best Of The Mike Jeffreys Week
  • 9am: Sunday Morning with (Kane Bond? Mike Frame?)
  • 10am: The Trading Post
  • Midday: Football (2GB)
  • 6PM: Mike Williams (2UE)

The trading post does seem to work quite well in a two hour timeslot during the morning. 2CC could probably get away with just one six hour newsreader on weekends, perhaps the dedicated weekend newsreader that I mentioned before.

Anyway, I think that this would enable 2CC to avoid the superbly avoid the Sydney centric garden and house shows whilst attracting new listeners with an exciting and interesting new lineup on weekends. It would also allow 2CC to continue the programming during the football season without affecting the football coverage.

Samuel

November 4th, 2005 at 11:17pm

Have 2UE Lost Their Collective Minds?

I cannot beleive what I heard on John Stanley’s show about 45 minutes ago. 2UE are moving George Moore and Paul B. Kidd to weekend mornings.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, they have completely dumped the entire weekend schedule and made up a new one.

It would appear that the new schedule has dumped their gardening show, the other weekend “specialty” shows like their real estate show, the psychic show and whatever else they had. Murray Olds is gone, so is Stuart Bocking. Coming in to the new lineup, Mike Williams has taken over weekend nights, and Glen Wheeler has taken weekend afternoons.

The new schedule is the same on Saturday and Sunday and is as follows (according to the 2UE website)

  • Midnight-6am: George Gibson
  • 6am-Midday: George Moore & Paul B. Kidd
  • Midday-6pm: Glen Wheeler
  • 6pm-Midnight: Mike Williams

The Southern Cross Syndication website doesn’t seem to have much, if any information on this bizarre shakeup, the only change I can see on there is that George Moore and Paul B. Kidd have disappeared.

Why 2UE would make these sudden changes to programs that work and rate fairly well is beyond me…do 2UE management have some loose marbles doing the rounds?

I suppose the even more important question is how are the network stations going to handle this change. A lot of stations take the 2UE garden show, which has naturally disappeared, maybe 2CC should syndicate David Young….

Samuel

4 comments November 4th, 2005 at 01:52pm


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