I forgot to check FIVEaa’s website this week until last night Stuart Bocking reminded me of the news I mentioned a few weeks ago, the former federal foreign minister and current member for Mayo Alexander Downer is hosting the afternoon show on Adelaide’s commercial talk radio station, FIVEaa.
I had wondered how FIVEaa were going to get around the problem of their afternoon host being in Canberra every Friday, and it looks like rather than illegally rebroadcasting parliamentary proceedings in the hope that Mr. Downer says something, they have taken the sensible option of involving his wife as the co-host and (on Fridays) only host.
After the furore last week about Alexander Downer missing question time so that he could have lunch with somebody whose plane was late, not missing parliament for the sake of a radio show is a good idea.
When I wrote the original article about Alexander Downer hosting FIVEaa afternoon show, I raised the prospect of a biased program being in breach of the Commercial Radio Australia codes of practice…well FiveAA have negated that. Have a look at the “coming up” section of the screenshot above (click it to enlarge the image if you can’t read it). Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan is joining their morning host today for a while.
I also raised the prospect that it would be interesting to see how capable Mr. Downer is of running an interesting program. I haven’t had a chance to listen to his show properly yet, and the snippets I heard last night were mainly of him being grilled by the electorate, but if his performance whilst being interviewed by Steve Price last week is anything to go by, he is one of the few politicians I have heard who seems to be more than capable of thinking on his feet and giving as good as he gets…and pulling an interesting distraction trick.
I will try and find some time to listen to his show tomorrow, but for now his show is on the air as this post appears, so if you’re interested, visit the FIVEaa website and click the Listen Live link.
I first noticed this on the weekend but only now have had a chance to record it.
2UE have changed the intro for New Day Australia. So far I have only heard the new intro on John Kerr’s show, but it could very well be altered for all of the presenters which would probably be a good idea considering that there have been two different intros used since Stuart Bocking hosted the show…although I don’t remember if his new intro fist graced the airwaves in 2005 when he took over the weekend shift, or 2006 when he took over weekdays.
The old intro had been in use for as long as I had been listening (mid 2003) and as far as I can tell it was used from the time John started hosting New Day Australia in 1994 (Update: Davky points out in the comments below that John used a song by Basia prior to the music I’m used to). I’m sure that I have a better copy of the old intro around here somewhere (I just don’t know where), but that’s irrelevant as I have found a good enough copy from a couple years ago. Here are the old and new intros for New Day Australia:
Last week I mentioned a peculiar incident involving traffic cones scattered across one of Canberra’s busier streets at night and how I called the Police for assistance with moving the cones off the street as they, with their flashing lights, would be able to make the job much safer, and this would avoid any chance of me being blamed for the problem if the Police turned up half way through me moving the cones off the road.
I believe calling the Police was the right thing to do, but others have argued that I wasted police resources. So, my question for you this week is as follows:
See https://samuelgordonstewart.com/weekly-poll-results/ for results
Last week’s poll was:
If your income could be tripled by doing so, would you live in an area which is affected by regular cyclones?
This week’s award goes to The Kinks, and the feature song is “A Well Respected Man”.
‘Cause he gets up in the morning,
And he goes to work at nine,
And he comes back home at five-thirty,
Gets the same train every time.
‘Cause his world is built ’round punctuality,
It never fails.
And he’s oh so good,
And he’s oh so fine,
And he’s oh so healthy,
In his body and his mind.
He’s a well respected man about town,
Doing the best things so conservatively.
And his mother goes to meetings,
While his father pulls the maid,
And she stirs the tea with councilors,
While discussing foreign trade,
And she passes looks, as well as bills
At every suave young man
‘Cause he’s oh so good,
And he’s oh so fine,
And he’s oh so healthy,
In his body and his mind.
He’s a well respected man about town,
Doing the best things so conservatively.
And he likes his own backyard,
And he likes his fags the best,
‘Cause he’s better than the rest,
And his own sweat smells the best,
And he hopes to grab his father’s loot,
When Pater passes on.
‘Cause he’s oh so good,
And he’s oh so fine,
And he’s oh so healthy,
In his body and his mind.
He’s a well respected man about town,
Doing the best things so conservatively.
And he plays at stocks and shares,
And he goes to the Regatta,
He adores the girl next door,
‘Cause he’s dying to get at her,
But his mother knows the best about
The matrimonial stakes.
‘Cause he’s oh so good,
And he’s oh so fine,
And he’s oh so healthy,
In his body and his mind.
He’s a well respected man about town,
Doing the best things so conservatively.
