G’day Andrew and Joel,
It’s good to know that you’re there covering both matches live, even if Channel Nine think that A Current Affair and Two And A Half Men are more important. I will cut nine a small break for allowing you to cover both matches rather than just one though.
Go the doggies!
Best wishes,
Samuel Gordon-Stewart
Canberra
And what’s this that Andrew mentioned two seconds after I hit “send”, that he is going to be doing the 3:30am-5am shift? At least he’s used to the early start seeing as he already presents sport during the breakfast news on 2GB.
UpdateEnd Update
July 17th, 2009 at 06:29pm
It’s not that I want to inflict fines on regional stations which carried the John Laws show before John retired, but…read the article, and then I’ll make my point.
Radio host John Laws’ persistent flouting of the on-air advertising laws has cost his radio station $360,000, in a judgment by the Federal Court.
Laws had an agreement to tell Radio 2UE (owned by Fairfax Media) about any sponsorship agreement he entered into to advertise products on air in return for payment, but the court found he did not do that on 13 occasions.
[..]
Before the matter came to court, it had been agreed that Radio 2UE would pay the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) an agreed penalty of $10,000 per breach, totalling $130,000.
But the Communications Law Centre intervened in the case, arguing that a higher penalty should be imposed, and in a judgment handed down in the Federal Court on Friday, Justice Steven Rares agreed, imposing penalties totalling $360,000.
The judge said the breaches were of a serious nature, indicating “a significant failure of Radio 2UE to take proper and sufficient steps to ensure that Mr Laws, in fact, complied and continued to comply with the disclosure standard”.
[..]
ACMA welcomed the Federal Court decision, saying 2UE had flouted the Broadcasting Services Act.
“2UE repeatedly breached its obligations under the Act, even after giving the ACMA an enforceable undertaking, committing itself to improve compliance,” ACMA’s acting chairman Chris Cheah said in a statement after the judgment.
“The court has confirmed that in matters involving serious contraventions, a substantial civil penalty is an appropriate sanction.”
The really important line in that article is “2UE had flouted the Broadcasting Services Act”, so what about the other stations which broadcast the Laws show? If John Laws caused 2UE to breach the Broadcasting Services Act on the air, then surely he caused the same thing of the 70 or so stations which took his show…unless of course his breaches were entirely confined to the local ad breaks on 2UE which weren’t broadcast by network stations unless they forgot to kill the network feed during the breaks.
Community radio stations are responsible for ensuring that everything which airs, regardless of its source, complies with the various rules and regulations which govern their existence…commercial radio stations are supposed to be bound by similar rules, yes?
If I’m right, and ACMA decide to go after the regional stations, can you imagine the amount of court time which will be spent on this? “ACMA vs 70 radio stations”, which in turn would be followed by “70 radio stations vs 2UE”, which would almost certainly be followed by “2UE vs John Laws”. A total circus, but a deserved circus…and it would be interesting to see who would win the final case, as that would hinge on whether 2UE had to keep Laws in line, or whether Laws was under obligations to keep 2UE informed.
I’d rather not see the regional stations put through this mess, simply because I worry about how the money spent on legal matters could be better utilised, but I also would like to see this go the full distance just so that the legal precedent is clear and understandable.
Samuel
July 17th, 2009 at 06:08pm
G’day Jason,
Just in relation to your use of the word “hacker” in relation to amateur photographers, your use of the word is 100% correct. “Hacking” in real programming terms is the art of playing with code until it does what you want it to do…it’s effectively amateur programming.
The use of “hacking” as a term for breaking in to computer systems is technically incorrect, but I suppose the language has evolved to the point that we just accept that the word means both things.
And in reply to “Peter”…I couldn’t agree more…I won’t be watching the bloke eating berries on 60 Minutes either! Who comes out of the bush as clean as that??
Have a great weekend,
Samuel Gordon-Stewart
Canberra
And now I wait for the pedants to decide that they’re not happy with the above definition and to start sending dictionary definitions to me.
July 17th, 2009 at 05:07pm
The NRL starts at 6:30 tonight, presumably because it’s a double header in Queensland and The Powers That Be want the second game to start at 8:30 rather than 9:30. 2GB and ABC Radio have altered their schedules this week so that they can cover the games…both of them, but what do Channel Nine do? Delay their telecast until 7:30 so that they can run A Current Affair and yet-another-episode of Two And A Half Men (regional audiences don’t see Two And A Half Men due to WIN News).
Would it be so hard to make a little exception for a special event and do what you do during the cricket…delay A Current Affair? Do you not realise that the NRL coverage would kill Today Tonight in the ratings?
Such a shame that I didn’t notice this before 11am, as I would have nominated them for Jerk Of The Week.
Samuel
July 17th, 2009 at 04:25pm
You forget what you said when you were interviewed, and only remember the one statement which you wish you hadn’t made. Thankfully that statement isn’t in the trailer of All Talk, and one can hope that it isn’t in the finished product.
All Talk is a documentary by 2CC presenter Mike Welsh and Mike’s former producer (now producing for Ray Hadley at 2GB, if the information on the 2GB site is up-to-date) Michael Thompson, about the people who call talk radio. According to the 2CC website, the documentary is due to be released next month, which is great. Mind you, if it gets delayed, I won’t be surprised, given the number of times I’ve heard the word “soon” used in relation to this documentary.
To give you some idea of how long this documentary has been in the pipeline for…remember that dream I had about people coming to my house and filming green mesh almost two years ago…well that was around the time of filming for this documentary.
In all fairness though, I am aware that there have been a number of setbacks in the production of this documentary, and in many ways I’m impressed that they stuck with it and got this far. I am looking forward to seeing the final result…partially because I’m looking forward to the documentary, and partially because I, for the most part, haven’t got the faintest clue what I said…I just have memories of lots of lights and cameras invading my house around the time of me filling out a form giving permission for it to happen!
Samuel
July 17th, 2009 at 05:01am