Samuel's Blog

ATTN: Ismail

I have a one word answer for your constant pointless requests to date…no

Samuel

February 21st, 2007 at 09:51pm

Another Yellow Warning – Storm Alert

Another Yellow Warning has been issued for Canberra, it was current until a few minutes ago, but the storm is just hitting now.

The Bureau’s severe storm warning does not cover Canberra, but the wind, hail and rain are enough for me to issue my own warning!

For assistance with storm damage, call the SES on 132 500

Samuel

1 comment February 21st, 2007 at 08:06pm

The Radar Is Back

And the view is glorious

From the Bureau

And from Weatherzone

It seems a faulty or failed part was to blame for the outage. Now that the radar is back, both of the radar links on the right hand side of this website’s homepage now work!

Samuel

February 21st, 2007 at 07:13pm

How Can Anybody Listen To 666 ABC Canberra?

Yesterday I decided to try and work out why 666 ABC Canberra rates well in this town. What is on there that is worth listening to, is there interesting discussion and debate of current issues, events and affairs? Are the presenters particularly interesting? What about the callers?

My plan was to listen for an hour between 10am and 11am…here’s what I heard.

News, bad song, droning on and on and on and on about a dead author with some local author, promo for Clean Up Australia day with really bad jingle set to the tune of Waltzing Matilda, presenter being smarmy about breaking the news of James Hardie chairwoman Meredith Hellicar resigning…a whole fifteen minutes after Lawsie broke the news (yes, I flicked back to 2CC during the bad song), another bad song, chatter between presenter and sport reporter who somehow managed to be at the Canberra Capitals breakfast whilst answering phone calls from the public about Basketball, and attending the Brumbies training session, whilst taking more phone calls from the public (does he give out his mobile number or something) and somehow making it back to the studio to take calls from ABC sycophants who claim that commercial radio don’t provide sport scores. Promo for a CD of the bad music they play on the air. Interview with a shareholders’ association representative telling us all how wonderful Meredith Hellicar is. Promo explaining that the ABC will play the emergency siren if there is an emergency. More bad music.

It was 10:45 and I had heard enough. It was the worst 45 minutes of radio I have endured in a looooong time…and that Alex Sloan couldn’t keep a straight face if it was superglued…and she t–a–l–k–s…..s–o…..s–l–o–w–l–y and constantly says um and er. I don’t mind the occasional um and er, but when they become a vital part of every second sentence it is downright annoying.

All the while, Lawsie was focussing on real issues, such as basic services for schools which seem to be sadly lacking in so many places, and the crazy outsourcing system which NSW schools have to go through to get things repaired…adds about 30-40% to the cost of the repair and they end up with the local repair person anyway. (Yes, I had to flick back during the bad music to save my ears).

So why do people listen? Clearly it has something to do with the sheer amount of people who are either Chief Turnip Stanhope admirers, require warning signs on clothing to remind them not to iron shirts while they are wearing them, or both. The other 666 listeners have me baffled as I can’t see how anybody else can put up with that crud for any length of time.

Clearly they come from a different planet and don’t visit this one…which begs the question, if Chief Turnip Stanhope lives on another planet, why must he issue directives for this one, seeing as he is never here?

I may try them again on a different shift with a different presenter (not breakfast…Ross Solly, combined with morning presenter Alex Sloan represent just about everything that is wrong with talk radio)…perhaps Drive has some decent programming, surely it couldn’t be any worse than the assault on my ears and intellect that came through my radio yesterday morning!

Perhaps while the ratings period is still on I will randomly review an hour of each radio station in the ratings race, now that would be some fun (and possibly burn my ears out…but fun).

Samuel

10 comments February 21st, 2007 at 05:06am

Yellow Warning Issued

The ACT Emergency Services Authority has issued a yellow warning on the back of a severe storm alert from the Bureau of Meteorology.

The Bureau advises the storm may produce large hailstones, damaging winds, very heavy rainfall and flash flooding over the next several hours.

The YELLOW LEVEL warning covers the period from 5pm to 7:30pm today (21st February 2007).

If you require assistance with storm damage, give the SES a call on 132 500.

Samuel

February 20th, 2007 at 05:24pm

Expensive Drama!

The dream starts with me walking up to a reception desk, the receptionist starts yelling that the quote will be ready when it is ready and escorts me out of the office…so I find a different way into the building, via a side entrance. After I enter the receptionist appears with a piece of paper, which just happens to be the quote to get my car serviced…$3,219.72…I try to explain that I no longer want the service and will take the car elsewhere for a second opinion, but can only utter words such as “wait”, “but” and “hang on” before I am pushed out of the building once again by the receptionist.

Knowing that I need to stop the servicing before it starts I find another side entrance and visit the manageress who calls “Tim” the service man and arranges for me to retrieve my car, I then turn around and spot 2UE’s John Stanley standing in the middle of the corridor, about to re-enter a small room where he is running his show from. We briefly say hello before I watch him go back into the room and finish his show for the day.

The dream then ends.

Samuel

February 20th, 2007 at 03:16pm

The Horrible Noise on the Weekend

Thanks to Loadedog’s article on the event, I now know that the horrible disturbing loud noise wafting over Inner North Canberra on the weekend was Canberra’s Tropfest gathering.

Based on what I saw on the television news of the winning film, and assuming that it was the highest quality film on offer, they should all give up because there is no way in 12 types of dry cement that I am spending one single cent on their visual crud.

Samuel

9 comments February 20th, 2007 at 01:47pm

Monday Morning’s Storm

In the wee hours of Monday morning there was a rather noisy storm with a fair bit of rain in Canberra. Nattie was not impressed and decided to take up residence under my bed.

The storm vaguely woke me up and I had half a dream about Paul Makin (who was on the radio at the time) getting out the buckets to save the water and being overrun by rabbits and dogs (he was talking about Chinese astrology on the radio) before an incredibly loud, nearby thunderclap woke me up, and got Nattie barking.

I invited Nattie up on to the bed and gave her a little cuddle and decided to let her sleep with me during the storm. She seemed quite pleased with that deal and slept with me for the rest of the night.

The rain, whilst very heavy, didn’t seem to last for long, which is a pity because we could really use some drenching rain. Storms and rain are predicted all week, hopefully at least one of them brings a good sustained downpour.

Samuel

February 20th, 2007 at 10:39am

Proof that 2UE and 2GB don’t care about Sunday night after 8pm

As if extending Sharina’s show by an hour wasn’t enough proof, here is the candid honest truth on the 2UE website:

20:00 – 23:59
Sharina’s Psychic Encounters
Sharina
Spencer Kirk will join Sharina as she gets the vibe and delves into her loyal listener’s love and professional life.

She only has one loyal listener…it must be Spencer seeing as he has come back to that awful show!

As it happens, 2GB don’t care about Sunday nights after 8pm either…otherwise they wouldn’t let Reverend Bill Crews run a four hour “melting-pot of spiritual, topical, and personal discussions”. I think the only things melting are the poor transmitters that have to listen to this stuff. If I were a transmitter, I think I’d have fun by having “technical difficulties” during those shows.

Samuel

1 comment February 20th, 2007 at 08:23am

New Radio Station for Canberra

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) have auctioned off a new High Powered Open Narrowcasting (HPON) licence for Canberra. The purchaser of the licence is ANC International Holdings Pty Ltd, who have paid $200,000 for 1323 kHz on the AM band.

Apparently there is an association between ANC International Holdings and BoardRoomRadio.com which appears to be some sort of “communicate with your shareholders” podcasting service. At present it is unclear whether the new radio station will have anything to do with this partnership, but if it does, then it will obviously be a business/stock market station.

Unfortunately the ACMA press release makes no mention of what restriction this station has in order to make it a narrowcast station…being high-powered it has to be a subject restriction, so being a business/stock market station is certainly a possibility.

According to ACMA’s transmitter list, the station’s transmitter will be located on the Broadcast Australia facility (ABC, SBS, RPH transmitters) on the Barton Highway and will have a transmission power of 400 watts, 100 watts higher than 2KY Racing Radio which runs a HPON racing service on 1008 KHz (AM), 4,600 watts less than ABC Local Radio in Canberra, 2CA and 2CC and 9,600 watts less than Radio National in Canberra.

Unfortunately ANC Holdings haven’t informed ACMA as to what their restriction or on-air ID will be as yet, but they’ll have to do that before going on-air.

Currently their is no carrier on their frequency.

The new radio station must be up and running by June 21, and I’ll be following the progress of the station. More information as it comes to hand.

Samuel

5 comments February 20th, 2007 at 03:17am

The number one reason that the Sci Fi Channel can’t cancel Stargate SG1

We might need them in 2036…according to New Scientist magazine Apophis, a nasty alien that SG1 killed, has come back to life (I hate it when aliens manage that) as an asteroid, and is headed straight for earth…well there’s a 1 in 45,000 chance of him hitting earth and wiping out half the planet.

Thankfully SG1 have experience in diverting asteroids, so this should be pretty easy for them. On the off chance that they get it wrong, or they’re not around to help, “experts” want the UN to come up with a “protocol”…well, that should be more than enough make Apophis shake in his boots, turn around, and head back from whence he came.

If we let the UN make a multi-nation protocol of action, we’ll be buried in paperwork until the next time Apophis destroys a planet…that’s assuming that anybody bothers to listen to the UN in the first place…don’t we just throw money at them so that they’ll make bits of paper and be quiet in their corner while we pretend to be interested in the needs of every other nation?

Just in case you’re wondering, yes, the people who named this asteroid are Stargate SG1 fans…apparently.

Samuel

February 19th, 2007 at 02:41pm

Complete The Story

In an email selling “Viawagra” and “Valwum”, a nice friendly spammer sent me a confused story about gambling.

Boys, said Mr. Weasley under his breath, I dont want you betting…
Thats all your savings … Your mother
Dont be a spoilsport, Arthur! boomed Ludo Bagman, rattling his

Rattling his what? and did the boys end up gambling away their life savings to the delight of Arthur and the dismay of Mr. Weasley and mother? Would anybody like to complete the story?

Samuel

6 comments February 19th, 2007 at 10:15am

Happy 65th Birthday John Kerr

John Kerr with some of his listeners in Terrigal

It’s John Kerr’s 65th birthday, in many ways this is a tough birthday as once you’re 65 you can’t really break out your favourite song of the last 365 days, “When I’m 64” by The Beatles, and you have reached the government sanctioned age of retirement. Thankfully though I can’t see John retiring just yet…he has been mentioning it every now and then for the last few years, and who knows, he may decide to retire at the end of the year…but I think it was radio historian Wayne Mac who said to me that people like John have radio in their blood…so if John Laws is still going at 71, and Bob Rogers is still going at 80, we may have a lot more of John Kerr to look forward to yet!

Happy 65th birthday John, I’m glad you’ve got the day off, and I hope it’s a great day filled with lots of happiness, joy, presents, cake and loved ones.

For the record, I, along with the other members of “The Questionable Trio”, Irene in Brisbane and Charity in Sydney, sent John a mystery thriller book titled “Gone” (Amazon has details) by Lisa Gardner, as well as a card with a picture of a lion on the front, with caption “You’re the mane man”. Inside the card we sent the message “Happy 65th Birthday John, best wishes for the next year, and another 65 to come!”

John got the present a few days early, and said to me on Friday that he is looking forward to reading the book.

While we’re on the subject of birthdays, it was Flash’s birthday on Tuesday last week (February 13)

Kate and Flash

Flash is the three-legged mascot of the John Stanley program on 2UE and 2CC, and lives with John’s executive producer Kate (pictured together).

From memory Flash (a Tenterfield Terrier) was the RSPCA’s “pet of the week” on the show, and Kate fell in love with him, and gave him a new home. He has been the mascot of the show ever since.

I’ve been a fan of flash for about the same amount of time, and have been wanting to get him a present for a while now, last week I did so not realising that it was his birthday. I got him some squeaky food shaped toys…apparently he really likes the hamburger!

Happy birthday Flash!

Samuel

February 19th, 2007 at 12:43am

Samuel’s Musician Of The Week

This week the award goes to Al Martino, and the feature song is “For All We Know”, a song which I think can only be sung properly by him (this is not the Carpenters’ song with the same title).

For all we know
We may never meet again
Before you go
Make this sweet again
We won’t say goodnight
Until the last minute
I’ll hold out my hand
And my heart will be in it

For all we know
This may only be a dream
We come and go
Like a ripple on a stream
So love me tonight
Tomorrow was made for some
Tomorrow may never come
For all we know

For all we know
This may only be a dream
We come and go
Like a ripple on a stream
So love me tonight
Tomorrow was made for some
Tomorrow may never come
For all we know

Samuel

February 18th, 2007 at 08:00pm

Simon and Dale: Sunday Night At The Movies on 2UE

Live now on 2UE, 2CC and other stations up and down Eastern Australia, Simon Foster and Dale Sinden talking movies.

Simon and Dale have been with 2UE since 1995, mostly as presenters of the “Flicks and Things” hour on John Kerr’s New Day Australia, and now, at long last, they have their own show from 6pm-8pm on Sundays.

Let the fun nuttery begin!

(I hope they weren’t serious this morning when they said they were just going to replay Flicks and Things at half speed!)

Samuel

February 18th, 2007 at 06:00pm