I just noticed what appears to be a new addition to the service lineup on the Fairfax Syndication website: state based weather forecasts from The Weather Channel.
The service is aimed at automated radio stations, with three weather bulletins being provided for each state per day. The service is similar to a well-established service run by the US version of The Weather Channel where they provide individual radio stations with forecasts relevant to their broadcast area which stations then add to their schedule. KXNT Las Vegas are a good example of this, as they receive multiple updates per day from The Weather Channel, and have their newsreader provide the current temperatures at the end of the forecast:
[audio:https://samuelgordonstewart.com/wp-content/KXNTWeatherExample.mp3] Download MP3
Whilst KXNT do this in a live environment, I can see how this would work perfectly in an automated environment where a local presenter could record a bunch of temperature announcements and the automation could play the relevant temperature announcement straight after the Weather Channel forecast. The only issue I see with this Australian version though is that, with the exception of the ACT, a state/territory forecast is not going to be very locally relevant, and wouldn’t be an ideal replacement for the local forecast.
It will be interesting to see how many stations pick up this service, and how they use it. I can only assume that, at some future stage, more specific forecasts will be available by request as the service probably won’t have a high adoption rate otherwise.
As easily predicted yesterday morning, Alan Jones was all over the television last night. On the Nine network he was featured briefly on Nine News, and then got a lengthy story dedicated to his return on A Current Affair prepared, ironically, by 2UE fill-in Ben Fordham.
Apologies for not posting this sooner. I had little time to do anything this morning before co-hosting breakfast with James Scott on 1WAY FM. The plan at this stage is to co-host breakfast for the rest of the week and to host the morning shift tomorrow and Thursday.
Ian Craig is retiring. It was bound to happen eventually, but it is sad to see the various voices of racing disappearing.
AFTER 45 years entertaining the racing world with his dulcet tones and classic calling Ian Craig has announced his retirement.
Craig, the longest serving fulltime racecaller in Australia, said the decision to hang up his binoculars was quite an easy one.
“I have been planning to pull the pin for some time now,” Craig said.
[..]
“I have called 35 Golden Slippers and AJC Derbys and thought the time was right to hang up the 10-by-50s.”
Craig, 67, started at 2UE in 1965 before moving to 2KY in 1968. He will call his final race meeting at Gosford on June 24.
He could not single out one performance as a career highlight but rates Kingston Town, Luskin Star, Sunline and Octagonal among the best thoroughbreds he has called.
One wonders who will fill Ian’s shoes for Sky Channel and 2KY. Regardless of who it is, I get the distinct feeling that the days of “personalities” calling races are all but over.
Jon Stewart’s “Daily Show” is quite popular and, at times, amusing, however when people tell me all about its greatness as a news program, I can really only snort with mild amusement as it really isn’t a news show. What it is, is a comedy show dressed up as a news show, placing an emphasis on comedic value over news value. Calling it a news show is akin to describing my opinion pieces as news articles.
Want an example of what I’m talking about? Here’s an example of Jon Stewart twisting the words of a Fox News reporter in order to have some fun (and well lets face it, what comedian doesn’t like to have fun with the odd perception that Fox News is some far-right cuckoo organisation?)
Amusing? Yes. News? No.
Jon Stewart has his place, and is quite successful, but on the rare occasion where he mentions a story which I have missed, I have to find the original source because, quite frankly, I can’t trust a comedy program to provide me with the full story.
Hopefully this clears up a bit of confusion amongst those who have been on the receiving end of my amused snorts and chuckles.
The State Government has confirmed New South Wales police officers are leaving the force at a rate of two a day, but describes the figure as low.
[..]
The state’s Police Minister Tony Kelly says the state has a low rate of attrition.
“The figure is correct, there are 50 leaving a month, but that’s down from 90 a month and it’s a lower rate than the rest of the public service,” he said.
1. Your comparison is not fair Tony. The rest of the public service does not have a similar number of staff to the police force.
2. In the police force, a healthy turnover isn’t a healthy turnover. Whilst new recruits are a wonderful thing, merely replacing experienced staff who are quitting, not retiring, with inexperienced staff is not a plan for success.
3. Tony, is the New South Wales government really in such a bad shape that you’re proud of these numbers? Oh, never mind, I forgot who I was talking to for a minute…you’re lucky that the entire public service hasn’t quit fifteen times over. After all, ministers doing just that (great role models) is precisely how you got your job.
Not only are AAP not including mugshots in their stories, they’re also leaving out vital bits of identifying information.
Police are warning the public to stay away from four prisoners on the run after escaping from a Parramatta jail.
[..]
John Harris, 18, and three 19-year-olds named Ricky Kincheila, Isaac Haines and Jay Williams are described as being of Aboriginal appearance, while Harris has the name ‘Lauren’ tattooed on the left side of his chest.
So anyone reading or hearing an AAP based report of this story is left guessing as to what most of the escapees look like, and can only identify one of them if he isn’t wearing a shirt…great!
Effectively the message AAP are spreading here is “beware of teenage Aboriginal people”.
The New South Wales Police press release is much more helpful, but it’s sad that people have to dig for the information which the Police have released in an effort to protect the public:
*** Editor’s note: Images of the four men are available by contacting the Police Media Unit on (02) 8263 6100. ***
[..]
The first escaped man is 18-year-old John Harris who is described as being of Aboriginal appearance, with a dark complexion. He is approximately 180cm tall, thin build and brown eyes. He also has a tattoo of the name “Lauren” across his chest.
The second man is 19-year-old Ricky Kincheila who is described as being of Aboriginal appearance, with a light complexion. He is approximately 178cm tall and of medium build. He has brown hair, brown eyes and a beard and moustache.
The third man is 19-year-old Issac Haines who is described as being of Aboriginal appearance, with a light tanned complexion. He is approximately 190cm tall with a thin build. He has black hair and brown eyes.
The fourth man is 19-year-old Jay Williams who is described as being of Aboriginal appearance. He is approximately 175cm tall, medium build with black hair and brown eyes.
AAP, I know that lengthy descriptions don’t make for exciting copy, but some things are more important than that. This is one of them.
Welcome back Alan, it’s great to have you back on the airwaves and in good health. You’re sounding great.
Best wishes,
Samuel Gordon-Stewart
Canberra
Update 8:43am: Expect to see Alan on the TV news bulletins tonight. The studio has been filled with cameras and boom microphones all morning: End Update
Originally published May 1, 3:32pm. I’m republishing this because it deserves a wider audience than what it probably received when originally published late on Friday.
An ACTION bus driver is in a critical condition in hospital following an accident at the Belconnen bus depot a bit over a week ago.
Samuel’s Blog has learned that on Tuesday April 21, a bus driver was walking between buses when a bus being driven by an ACTION refueller reversed rapidly, crushing the man between two buses. It is believed that the man suffered extensive internal injuries, including multiple broken bones, as well as having his head forced through the windscreen of the stationary bus.
The man was conveyed to hospital, where he remains in a coma more than a week after the accident.
The two buses involved in the accident, which did not have bumper bars, received significant panel damage.
Samuel’s Blog understand that the incident has revived concerns inside ACTION about the lack of reversing beepers on the buses, and has resulted in drivers being asked not to reverse park buses where other options are available.
It is not known why the incident has been kept quiet by ACTION officials.
I note that Rush Limbaugh, the most listened to radio host in America, heard by approximately 13.5 million people on 590 radio stations, has made his way on to Time Magazine’s “Time 100” list of the world’s most influential people, apparently in position number 38 (although I can’t find an in-order list of the people, just category listings).
Rush’s entry in the listing is written by fellow broadcaster Glenn Beck:
When Rush wants to talk to America, all he has to do is grab his microphone.
He attracts more listeners with just his voice than the rest of us could ever imagine. He is simply on another level.
[..]
Rush, 58, saved the spoken-word radio format from obscurity and paved the way for thousands of broadcasters, including myself. His career serves as the most successful stimulus package in radio history. All without a government dime.
Knowing firsthand just how hard it is to hold an audience’s attention for a few hours makes it that much more amazing to have seen Rush do it for more than 20 years. To say that he has set the standard for success in broadcasting would truly be an understatement.
Barack and Michelle Obama also made the list (the former I understand, the latter, other than people furnishing their wardrobes based on what she wears, I don’t), and I find it interesting that Sarah Palin made the list, but John McCain did not. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, Sarah needs to run for president again.
Democratic Senate majority leader Harry Reid of Nevada spills the beans…
Everyone knows President Barack Obama can deliver a great speech, including the president himself, according to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
The paperback version of Reid’s book, “The Good Fight,” is coming out May 5 with an epilogue called “The Obama Era.” Reid said he was impressed when Obama, then a freshman senator from Illinois, delivered a speech about President George W. Bush’s war policy.
Reid, D-Nev., writes: “‘That speech was phenomenal, Barack,’ I told him. And I will never forget his response. Without the barest hint of braggadocio or conceit, and with what I would describe as deep humility, he said quietly: ‘I have a gift, Harry.'”
If that’s Harry’s definition of humility, I wonder what he thinks egotistical behaviour is?
According to Mike, 2CC have wanted to replace him with Mark Parton since November (which squares with a few rumours which have floated across my desk…that is, rumours about various people at 2CC wanting to get rid of Jeffreys, not rumours about wanting to replace him with Mark Parton. RiotACT got the scoop on that rumour).
Mike responds to a few rumours in his blog post:
It was my choice to leave. Not true. I was called in to the manager’s office last Friday, told I was sacked and asked to return my door key then and there. It was a very brief conversation and came completely without warning.
It was about the ratings. Bullshit. The present breakfast host was on air before and during the most recent ratings period, so any decline in the numbers is as likely to be down to him as me. It may be worth noting that he was on the morning (9am to noon) time slot for an extended period prior to the survey and it really bombed.
It was about the Spalding case. In a way. But it’s the reverse of what has been implied. It’s my belief that if it hadn’t been for the Spalding case I would have been gone back in November as soon as they put Parton on the payroll (RiotACT got it right). But the lawyers told 2CC that success or failure in the case very much depended on my credibility as a witness. With the case out of the way, they fired me.
On the topic of the defamation case, I have to agree with the lawyers. Mike’s comments (for which the station was being sued) were an opinion based on various facts, and a court would have needed to decide whether that opinion was a reasonably held opinion. Mike’s credibility, which in part would have been determined by the support he was shown by the station, would have been a vital aspect in determining the reasonableness of his opinion.
As for Mike’s future, all I can say at this time is “watch this space”, although I would love to be able to say more.
Earlier this week an ACTION bus driver was allegedly caught drink driving with a blood alcohol level twelve times over the 0.02 limit which applies to bus drivers.
Until now, all that has been known about how he was caught, is that police were called to the scene. I have received information from reliable sources which sheds some light on how this happened.
The driver in question is believed to have been working a “split shift”. He completed his morning shift and left work as normal. Later in the day he returned to work for his afternoon shift, allegedly drunk, not that anyone noticed at the time. The driver was apparently on his way to conduct a school run when, for one reason or another, ACTION’s communication centre attempted to contact him via the two-way radio system and received a slurred, garbled and unintelligible response.
The reaction of the communication centre was that the driver must be having a stroke, and as such they dispatched a supervisor to the scene. The supervisor found the driver in an allegedly drunk state, and called the police. The rest is history and documented the police press release.
A federal government pandemic plan suggests Australians should be stockpiling enough supplies to last two weeks, on the back of an increase in the swine flu alert level.
The World Health Organisation raised its flu alert level on Wednesday to phase five out of six, signalling a pandemic is imminent.
Under a federal government pandemic plan, a phase five alert level is the trigger for Australians to stock up on enough food, water, household supplies and basic medicines to stay in their homes for 14 days.
Thankfully though, the government is ignoring its own advice. Apparently chaos is not high on their agenda (unless it keeps our minds away from government scandals, I presume)
A spokesman for the Department of Health and Ageing has called for calm, saying while its own manual may say people should be preparing, but they don’t want a run at the shops.
I’m sure the shops wouldn’t mind. I think it’s been a while since they sold out of everything simultaneously and had a chance to increase prices ten-fold due to demand.
Considering that we’re all being told to wash our hands (and scan each other with thermal scanners) due to the pig flu, perhaps this dream from a bit over a week ago saw it all coming.
In this dream I was intending on walking from home to Fyshwick, but for some reason walked to Belconnen (Lathlain Street to be precise) and found myself on a street which looked like a derivative of Hardinge Street, Deniliquin.
I was standing out the front of a Home Hardware store and noticed that next door to it was a Coles supermarket, and next to that was an unnamed petrol station. In front of the Home Hardware store was a structure which looked like a British phone box but was in fact a dual-purpose hand-washing booth and LPG cylinder dispensary. I went in there and washed my hands, and then decided that I really did need to make a move and go to Fyshwick, only to suddenly realise that I did not have my key on me and needed to go home first, but did not have enough time to do so.
According to the logic of the dream, I was closer to Fyshwick than home, and going home first would double my travel time, which in the real world makes no sense because my house is more-or-less half way between Belconnen and Fyshwick.
A group of concerned on-lookers offered to carry me to Fyshwick, which prompted me to run back in to the hand-washing booth and wash my hands again.
AFTER 45 years entertaining the racing world with his dulcet tones and classic calling Ian Craig has announced his retirement.