Firstly, to James, yes it was me you saw in the background.
Secondly, to make this make sense for everyone else, this morning one of the highlights of my trip was a visit to Martin Place and Channel Seven’s Sunrise program. If you spot a promo for Sunrise tonight, the chances are that you will see my in the background in a blue jumper. They recorded two promos, I am clearly visible in the second one. People watching Seven’s 4:30 news would have seen it.
(I should note that it was screened during the 4:30 news in Sydney. I don’t know what time it was screened elsewhere).
I thought that when john Howard came to Maitland I was quite cranky that he went to the grammer school isnt our public schools good enough for him in our area . well do something about it and fix the schools .
What message does it send to the people of maitland only rich peoples children are important . Also He said their would be no funding for Energy Australia Staduim because the money had to go to the freeway well thats not good enough gosford has has major road works of the last and a new staduim why are we different . the money was there for the freeway before but they spent it . The Newcastle Knights have been good for nsw they get the crowds and the fans pay good money to see them we all deserve a new staduim.
Instead of pay rises to the pms they should all take a cut in wages they say we should tighten our belts but the they get a pay rise that they dont even need the money .
Our After Hours GP Service at Maitland hospital has to use rooms that are for day specialist appointments by day and after hours GP at night we need our own rooms that are at the entrance of the hospital we have to walk half way through the hospital to get to AGP which is a huge risk to patients in the hospital and is not fair on the doctors who work in the AGP Give Maitland Money.
We also need our Maitland sports stadium upgraded kurri has a beautiful sports statium like a lot of other places why is MAITLAND being overlooked
JOHN HOWARD WAKE UP TO YOUR SELF LABOUR ONLY JUST WON THE LABOUR SEAT FOR MAITLAND BY A THREAD AND LIBERAL DID NOT GET A LOOK IN WE ARE SICK AND OF BEING THE FORGOOTEN TOWN
CHEERS ANNE FROM RUTHERFORD
This letter was originally posted as a comment and is now being reprinted as a Letter To The Editor at Anne’s request.
This is your chance to set the agenda on Samuel’s Blog, all you have to do is send a Letter To The Editor to letters@samuelgordonstewart.com. Your letter can be about almost anything, and it can be from any part of the opinion spectrum, as long as there is some point to your letter. I don’t have to agree with your letter, but I am moderating, so the usual no defamation etc rules apply. For more details click here.
I’ve had a few people ask me why they can’t receive MyTalk’s Digital TV station despite being in a coverage area, and a few more people have landed on this blog by asking Google the same question, so I thought I should probably provide a public answer.
Some newer digital receivers seem to automatically pick up new stations belonging to an existing group of stations (for example, Southern Cross Ten in Canberra has in their group the main channel, a high definition channel, and the MyTalk channel), which means that you can tune in to the new stations without any hassle.
Older receivers, and many of the current cheaper receivers, do not perform this function, on them you need to scan for new channels manually. Exactly how you do this will depend on your receiver, so you should consult your instruction manual if you’re not sure, but in most cases there is a menu option available for this. If your receivers allows you to rescan the current channel, then tune to any other station in the group (for example, if MyTalk is 55 in your area, tune in to 5) and rescan the channel, this is a lot quicker than performing a full channel scan.
I’m going to be up in Sydney for the rest of today and most of tomorrow, mainly for John Kerr’s 2UE Listener Lunch (there are still a few spaces left if you want to come, see the linked article for details). John Kerr, Stuart Bocking and over a hundred of their listeners will be there, and it has even been rumoured that Tim Webster may turn up…we’ll wait and see.
I have a flight up to Sydney later this morning, it is the first time I’ve been on an aeroplane and I’m looking forward to it.
With any luck I’ll have far too many photos for your enjoyment on Wednesday, although I suspect Thursday is more likely.
I haven’t had enough time to prepare much blog material for the next few days, however you do have an episode of Samuel’s Persiflage waiting for you to enjoy.
If you happen to be in Sydney and spot me, feel free to say hello. For security reasons I am not publishing details about my itinerary.
This week I have decided to do something a little bit different with the Musician Of The Week award, I am dedicating it to someone, someone who is appealing a lenient court ruling, someone who on Friday was fined $1000 and placed on a nine month good behaviour bond, someone who will undoubtedly talk about it a fair bit tomorrow morning on 2GB. Yes, this week’s Musician Of The Week award is dedicated to 2GB breakfast presenter Alan Jones, the feature song is the one he uses for his theme music, and the award goes to Laura Branigan.
It took me a little while to work out why Alan Jones is appealing his lenient sentence for broadcasting the name of a juvenile involved in a court case, but my crystal ball worked that out*.
He is always advocating a “get tough” approach on crime and wants to set an example. He won’t be happy until he gets the maximum sentence. Then his fill-in presenter will campaign to have the “insufficient” maximum sentence raised, his campaign will be successful, Jones will appeal again and get an even longer sentence.
2GB, by now suffering in the ratings, will buy the jail and set up an internal radio station, which will by some amazing coincidence get simulcast on 2GB weekdays from 5:30am-10am. ACMA will have another enquiry, 2GB will be found to be in breach again, Jones will be found guilty of some offence to do with conducting business from jail and will get an extension on his jail sentence and a revocation of any parole period.
* Crystal ball may be foggy.
Anyway, the feature song is “Gloria” by Laura Brannigan, and I’m really quite surprised that people haven’t taken more cheap shots at Jones using the lyrics of his theme song over the years. I personally have nothing against Jones, I haven’t really heard enough of him to form much of an opinion, but I really did think he was smarter than to appeal a very lenient sentence. For what it’s worth I don’t always agree with Jones, but it can not be denied that he will go down in history as one of the big players in Australian radio.
Gloria, you’re always on the run now
Runnin’ after somebody, you gotta get him somehow
I think you’ve got to slow down, before you start to blow it
I think you’re headed for a breakdown, so be careful not to show it
You really don’t remember, was it something that he said?
Are the voices in your head, calling Gloria?
Gloria, don’t you think you’re fallin’?
If everybody wants you, why isn’t anybody callin’?
You don’t have to answer
Leave them hangin’ on the line, oh-oh-oh, calling Gloria
Gloria (Gloria), I think they got your number (Gloria)
I think they got the alias (Gloria) that you’ve been livin’ under (Gloria)
But you really don’t remember, was it something that they said?
Are the voices in your head, calling Gloria?
A-ha-ha, a-ha-ha, Gloria, how’s it gonna go down?
Will you meet him on the main line, or will you catch him on the rebound?
Will you marry for the money, take a lover in the afternoon?
Feel your innocence slippin’ away, don’t believe it’s comin’ back soon
And you really don’t remember, was it something that he said?
Are the voices in your head, calling Gloria?
Gloria, don’t you think you’re fallin’?
If everybody wants you, why isn’t anybody callin’?
You don’t have to answer
Leave them hangin’ on the line, oh-oh-oh, calling Gloria
Gloria (Gloria), I think they got your number (Gloria)
I think they got the alias (Gloria) that you’ve been living under (Gloria)
But you really don’t remember, was it something that they said?
Are the voices in your head, calling Gloria?
Samuel’s Persiflage Episode Number Thirteen has arrived at long long last, and is ready for download . There is also a low quality version for the bandwidth impaired here.
(Update: Links corrected, sorry about that)
This month we solve the mystery of Frog from Songland Records and chat with Frankster from The Frankster Archives Library.
The episode starts with Frankster, we talk about his radio and television archive, copyright laws, strange programs on Channel Nine and a few other things.
Frankster’s website can be found at http://frankster.zanyspace.com/ and he may be able to assist with transferring your old memories from tape (of just about any sort, even waterlogged) to DVD.
Frankster can be contacted by email. archiveslibrary at optusnet dot com dot au
Just about everyone in Canberra has heard of “Frog from Songland Records”, but why is he called Frog, and just why is Songland Records the “home of the hard to find”. I chatted with Frog to find out the answers to these questions and more in the the first ever on location Samuel’s Persiflage interview.
Songland Records is located opposite Coles Supermarket in the Tuggeranong Hyperdome and would love to help you find that hard to find bit of music. They can be contacted by phone on (02) 6293 4677 or by email, songland at protel dot com dot au.
The classic ad this month is one that is very well known in Canberra and still on the air after at least a decade and probably more, and I have an anecdote to accompany it.
There is also plenty of feedback from the last two episodes, and even some for episode four.
All listeners are invited to send in more feedback, both in written and audio format. As per usual feedback can be sent to podcast@samuelgordonstewart.com (text, MP3, Wave or Ogg Vorbis), spoken feedback by clicking here or on the button below would be great, or leave a comment below.
You can also send feedback by post
Samuel’s Persiflage
PO Box 1272
Dickson ACT 2602
Australia
The Samuel’s Persiflage #13 file itself is available here, and is 56:00 in length (51.2MB) at 128kbps stereo. The 128kbps format is used so as to provide you with a high quality and good sounding podcast. I do, however, acknowledge that this is just unreasonable for dial-up, so a 16kbps mono file is also available here. The sound quality isn’t as good, but is much better for those on dial-up or with small download limits. The low quality version is 6.41MB
For those of you who are using podcast software to receive your podcasts, the feed can be found here and if you are using iTunes you can subscribe to Samuel’s Persiflage by clicking here.
There is no Persiflage Puzzle this month as the overwhelming feedback for it so far has been negative. I would like more feedback on the issue before making a final decision on whether to keep it or discard it. Do you want the Persiflage Puzzle to be a part of Samuel’s Persiflage? Let me know.
The next episode of Samuel’s Persiflage will be next month, I apologise for the long delay between the last episode and this one.
Despite the fact that the new weekly poll is a couple weeks late, it is effectively early as I’m not waiting until tomorrow morning and the start of the new week, mainly because Samuel’s Persiflage will be released shortly and I want it to have the top spot for most of tomorrow.
Should the United States adopt gun control laws similar to Australia’s gun control laws?
It will be interesting to see people’s views on this. It has been one aspect of the debate following the Virginia Tech Massacre earlier in the week, and in my view the most important aspect of the debate. I would certainly welcome your comments on the topic.
Fresh from pulling the plug on Channel Nine’s day time chat show “The Catch Up” and overnight gameshow “Quizmania”, owner of WIN Television Bruce Gordon says he would like to pull the plug on Nine completely, and could do so as soon as June.
According to The Australian, Bruce Gordon spent 35 years at Paramount Pictures, mostly as head of international television sales, and in doing so built up a more than impressive list of contacts, enabling him to easily source enough quality programming to run an independent network.
Just the other day Sunraysia Television, owners of the Nine affiliate in Perth, recommended that their shareholders accept a buyout by WIN Television instead of a PBL buyout. WIN, apparently, also have their eye on another Nine affiliate, NBN Television.
The Australian reports that part of the reason for the push towards independent programming is stalled negotiations with Nine over the renewal of the affiliation deal. WIN are not happy with Nine asking for fifty percent of WIN’s gross revenue which is a large increase on the current deal of 34.25%, and an awful lot more than the 29% that affiliates of other networks are paying.
An anonymous WIN source told The Australian that they were happy to pay the higher rate when Nine were consistently winning the ratings.
One thing is for sure, an independent, near-national WIN Television would change the television landscape considerably.
2UE News is reporting that Queensland police have found the deceased body of holidaying ACT chief police officer Audrey Fagan. This appears to have come from an AAP report about half an hour ago.
This is terrible and tragic news, Assistant Commissioner Audrey Fagan has done a fantastic job during her time in charge of the ACT police and will be greatly missed.
The only good aspect of this story is that Assistant Comissioner Fagan’s death is not being treated as suspicious.
My thoughts and prayers at this time are with her family and all of the ACT Police force.
Update 10:26pm: MyTalk News have a different AAP article to the one that crossed the wires about an hour ago. It is roughly the same but gives a bit more detail, including information that AC Fagan was found dead in her Queensland holiday apartment, and that a press release from the Australian Federal Police provided no information about the cause of death. End Update
Update 10:32pm: AFP Press release. It looks like AAP just rewrote the press release to make the details a bit clearer. End Update
Update 11:02pm: 2UE’s 11pm news reports (via 4BC) that AC Fagan’s body was found on Hayman Island, one of the 70 islands in the Cumberland Island group on the Great Barrier Reef. End Update
Update 11:26pm: The Daily Telegraph is reporting the sad news that Queensland police are “considering the possibility of suicide”. This is a very sad revelation and I can only hope it turns out to be a fruitless line of investigation. End Update
Samuel
Image Source: Australian Federal Police/Commonwealth of Australia
Well I don't know what I did to my left foot but I can't put any weight on it at all at the moment as my heel is in agony. It feels like it's been hit with a hammer.
Also I was watching some of the AFL on Channel Seven not long ago and after a goal they didn't take their usual ad break…they stayed with a bit of an argument on the field and one of the players used the F word. Seven quickly muted the umpire's microphone and took their ad break with a commentator mid-sentence, and when they came back the commentator mumbled something about the conversation being heated. How come you have to use a delay and they don't? Surely they are more likely to need to cut off naughty words.
This week’s Friday Funny is from Irene in Brisbane.
An elderly couple had dinner at another couple’s house, and after eating, the wives left the table and went into the kitchen.
The two gentlemen were talking, and one said, “Last night we went out to a new restaurant and it was really great. I would recommend it very highly.”
The other man said, “What is the name of the restaurant?”
The first man thought and thought and finally said, “What is the name of that flower you give to someone you love? You know… the one that’s red and has thorns.”
“Do you mean a rose?”
“Yes, that’s the one,” replied the man.
He then turned towards the kitchen and yelled, “Rose, what’s the name of that restaurant we went to last night?”
Do you have something you would like to contribute to Friday Funnies? If so, email it to samuel@samuelgordonstewart.com. All contributions welcome!
Time for another weekend of footy tips. We have a short round in the NRL this week, and a standard round of AFL.
NRL Round 6 Storm v Panthers Sharks v Raiders Sea Eagles v Titans Eels v Bulldogs Knights v Broncos Cowboys v Rabbitohs
AFL Round 4 Richmond v Western Bulldogs Collingwood v Port Adelaide St Kilda v Essendon Adelaide v Sydney Kangaroos v Brisbane Hawthorn v Geelong Melbourne v Fremantle West Coast v Carlton
I’ve had some time to digest the updates to the ACTION timetables which I mentioned not that long ago. As expected the updates are paltry and minimal, but probably the best that can be done without creating an entirely new timetable.
The good news is that these changes are, according to my sources, interim changes, and a completely new timetable with proper service levels is on the way. I don’t really have a timeframe for it yet as these sort of changes always take quite a bit of wrangling between ACTION’s relatively incompetent timetabling system, ACTION management and the Transport Workers Union.
At an educated guess, I’d say late November or early December, and considering that my last educated guess was only twenty minutes out, I’d rate my guess a 90% chance of being accurate.
The change is supposed to happen this year, one can only hope.
Listeners to any of Southern Cross Broadcasting’s talk radio stations and viewers of any of their television stations would by now be aware of the “MyTalk” website, a hub for news, discussions, and the websites of their TV and radio stations.
All of the talk stations now have a live video webcam which is clearly still having the bugs ironed out of it. From the 2UE webcam, Paul Makin this morning (not actually on air at the time as the red light (little black thing under the monitor he is looking at) is not on):
Viewers of Southern Cross television stations would probably have seen the ad for MyTalk featuring John Laws by now. It mainly consists of Lawsie signing off from his show by saying “that’s all we have time for” (has he ever actually said that on-air?) and then explaining that there is only a limited amount of time on the air, but there is all the time in the world to discuss whatever you want on MyTalk, and if you sign up or update your details before May 11 you could win $100,000. The terms and conditions have me a bit concerned though.
6. Inaudible, incomprehensible and illegible entries will be deemed invalid.
Well, that makes all of the entries invalid, as you can’t record your entry audibly for them. It’s a standard web form, and the last time I checked, it didn’t speak.
Also peculiar is the fact that the MyTalk television commercial omits any mention of the digital television version of MyTalk. For some peculiar reason it is also available as a “datacast” station with the latest news headlines, local and nearby weather and a few other bits and bobs (which this morning contained a short looped show of some bloke talking about pets in the State Focus studio).
MyTalk datacasting on digital channel 55 in Canberra
If the digital television version of datacasting is using up the bandwidth of a standard television service to display a screen with a bit of writing and a couple pictures, which can’t be manipulated by the viewer in any way, then I say bring back teletext! Actually I think Seven’s digital broadcasts still have proper teletext, but only some set top boxes support it. I’ll have to find that spare set top box and see if there are any teletext services associated with MyTalk. I know the local station, Southern Cross Ten, were running a test teletext service on their analogue station a couple years back, so it’s certainly not impossible.
MyTalk datacasting runs on channel 55 in most areas, and either 66, 77 or 99 in others. Of course if you don’t have a Southern Cross station in your area, then you don’t get their datacasting. They have a list of places and stations here.
It’s good to see traditional broadcasters making a genuine effort at getting in to the online arena, and MyTalk is fairly impressive and will probably prod 2GB to expand their offerings, and push the ABC to finally become serious about having two-way discussions rather than guestbooks. I’m a bit skeptical about the point of having the digital television version of MyTalk, but it’s a start and I’ll give it some time to develop. These things always seem to take someone to take a risk and launch something new and bold, and much to my surprise, it looks like Southern Cross Broadcasting have paved the way. Now we just have to wait and see what the others do.
Just went up again! And on public service pay day too.
Was
Unleaded: 126.9
Diesel: 130.9
LPG: 61.9
Now
Unleaded: 133.9
Diesel: 130.9
LPG: 61.9
I wouldn’t be surprised if diesel and LPG go up shortly. Surely if this really was part of a discounting cycle the petrol companies would have gone broke earlier in the week.
