An email to 2GB’s Andrew Moore and the rest of the Continuous Call Team
G’day Andrew,
I’m shattered about last night, but about the Jarryd Hayne incident…even as a die-hard Dogs fan, I don’t see any problem with it, there was no malice, and I’ll be ropeable if he gets suspended.
Have a great night guys. I’m not overly fussed about the season now, but I reckon the Broncos will be premiers, although if it’s Eels V Storm next week then it’ll be an Eels premiership.
Regards,
Samuel Gordon-Stewart
Canberra
Footnote: An article about the Jarryd Hayne incident can be found here.
Rush Limbaugh made a guest appearance on the Jay Leno show on Thursday US time, while he was in California to finish voicing a part on an upcoming episode of Family Guy. Here’s Rush on politics, the economy, diets…and running over Al Gore.
Update: NBC have forced YouTube to remove the videos, and at the moment the only other ones I can find are almost inaudible. The version on Rush’s site has had its audio problems fixed, so for the moment, to see the video, visit rushlimbaugh.com. I’ll update this page when I find some useful embeddable videos later. End Update
Buddy, I’m honoured that you hate me enough to flip me off two days in a row…but seriously, racist? If you don’t have the guts to tell Alan why I’m racist, then email me and tell me what I said that was racist.
samuel@samuelgordonstewart.com
Use a fake email if you must…just tell me what I said, because right now, I’m at a loss to work out when I said something that was even remotely racist.
I struggle to comprehend a situation where this would be acceptable. Surely this is why we have national anthems, so that children sing about their pride in their country, and not about their political leaders.
A video posted on YouTube appears to show a New Jersey elementary school class being taught to sing praises of the “great accomplishments” of President Obama.
The video shows nearly 20 young children taught a song overflowing with campaign slogans and praise for “Barack Hussein Obama,” repeatedly chanting the president’s name and celebrating his accomplishments, including his “great plans” to “make this country’s economy No. 1 again.”
The video identifies the kids as students at the B. Bernice Young Elementary School in Burlington, N.J., with taping taking place last June.
The song quotes directly from the spiritual “Jesus Loves the Little Children,” though Jesus’ name is replaced with Obama’s: “He said red, yellow, black or white/All are equal in his sight. Barack Hussein Obama.”
There are two songs in the video, lyrics in linked story and quoted below.
(The Fox video is identical to the YouTube video except for the Fox logo. I choose to embed the Fox video because it’s more likely to stay online. The YouTube video is linked above if you don’t want to take my word for it.)
Song 1:
Mm, mmm, mm!
Barack Hussein Obama
He said that all must lend a hand
To make this country strong again
Mmm, mmm, mm!
Barack Hussein Obama
He said we must be fair today
Equal work means equal pay
Mmm, mmm, mm!
Barack Hussein Obama
He said that we must take a stand
To make sure everyone gets a chance
Mmm, mmm, mm!
Barack Hussein Obama
He said red, yellow, black or white
All are equal in his sight
Mmm, mmm, mm!
Barack Hussein Obama
Yes!
Mmm, mmm, mm
Barack Hussein Obama
Song 2:
Hello, Mr. President we honor you today!
For all your great accomplishments, we all doth say “hooray!”
Hooray, Mr. President! You’re number one!
The first black American to lead this great nation!
Hooray, Mr. President we honor your great plans
To make this country’s economy number one again!
Hooray Mr. President, we’re really proud of you!
And we stand for all Americans under the great Red, White, and Blue!
So continue —- Mr. President we know you’ll do the trick
So here’s a hearty hip-hooray —-
Hip, hip hooray!
Hip, hip hooray!
Hip, hip hooray!
One word: indoctrination.
Just to be clear, nobody, least of all me, is claiming or implying that Obama knows about or endorses this activity. The blame here appears to lie squarely on the shoulders of the teachers involved.
Your “Jerk of the Week” submission
Channels Seven and Nine in Sydney
Why should this person be the “Jerk of the Week”?
Channel Seven for their detailed report about what Aussie Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Bill Clinton had for breakfast when they met. Channel Nine for dedicating a whole 30 minutes of their nightly news to a dust storm on the day Rudd addressed the UN, and his failed immigration policies delivered another boatload of illegals to Australian shores, putting our detention centres at breaking point.
Your Name (Optional)
Samuel Gordon-Stewart
Jerk Of The Week airs at 6:09pm Thursdays on Newsradio 840 KXNT in Las Vegas, which this week and next week equates to 10am Friday in Canberra. It will be pushed back an hour in Canberra due to daylight saving after this, and a further hour a few weeks later when the US come out of daylight saving. You can nominate somebody, anybody, for Jerk Of The Week via the KXNT website.
Demon Internet has sent out a spreadsheet containing the personal details of thousands of customers with one of its new ebills.
[..]
The Excel spreadsheet – which isn’t password protected – contains more than 3,600 records. It includes the full name of the customers, email addresses, telephone numbers and names of the customers’ businesses. Police forces, NHS trusts and government officials are among the email addresses listed in the database.
The file also includes two unidentified fields which adopt the same format as the username and password for the ebilling system that was sent to the PC Pro reader.
[..]
Demon Internet is blaming “human error” for the security breach.
Apparently they have since changed the passwords of affected customers…I doubt that they’ll offer to change the phone numbers of people with silent numbers though.
The mind boggles as to what all of this information was doing in a spreadsheet to begin with.
Originally filed at 12:13am, September 24 Updates are now complete. All ratings data is below.
Nielsen will release the 2nd and last Canberra radio ratings for 2009 later today and, as usual, I’ll post the results here when they come in.
The figures were sent to radio stations yesterday and some details have leaked. According to Jock’s Journal, 104.7 leads the pack on 18.3% and Mix 106.3 is in 2nd place on 18%. This means that 104.7 have retained first place, but lost audience share, dropping from 20.5%. 666 ABC Canberra have been bumped from 2nd place and have lost audience share, they were on 19%. Mix have climbed from 3rd to 2nd and gained audience, jumping from 16% to 18%.
Unlike the ratings for “metropolitan markets”, the publicly released ratings for Canberra are only overall figures and not shift-by-shift and age group figures, which means those figures get selectively released in the press releases from the stations…and in leaks. So far all that I have heard is a figure which relates to 2CC…apparently the Mark Parton breakfast show, the Steve Price morning show and weekends all increased their audience share, while the Mike Welsh drive show lost audience share. I’m awaiting confirmation of this. (Update: Breakfast audience share didn’t move but the number of listeners went up, and evenings went up as well)
More details to follow.
Update: The ratings are in, and we have shift-by-shift figures as well.
1st: FM 104.7 18.3% (down from 20.5%)
2nd: Mix 106.3 18.0% (up from 16.0%)
3rd: 666 ABC Canberra 16.1% (down from 19.0%)
4th: JJJ 13.5% (up from 8.8%)
5th: ABC Radio National 7.5% (up from 6.9%)
6th: ABC Classic FM 7.4% (down from 7.7%)
7th: 2CC 6.3% (up from 5.6%)
8th: Combined unlisted 5.4% (down from 5.5%)
9th: 2CA 4.1% (down from 5.9%)
10th: ABC NewsRadio 3.4% (down from 4.1%)
Summary since Survey 1, 2005
Gains and losses this survey
JJJ +4.7
Mix 106.3 +2.0
2CC +0.7
ABC Radio National +0.6
Combined Unlisted -0.1
ABC Classic FM -0.3
ABC NewsRadio -0.7
2CA -1.8
FM 104.7 -2.2
666 ABC Canberra -2.9
Gains and losses since Survey 1, 2005
Leaderboard positions since Survey 1, 2005
Click here to download the full Nielsen summary including shift-by-shift and demographic data. (link fixed…my usual trick of uploading to the wrong folder, sorry)
I’ll come back and update this with further details, including a summary of shifts later on. Unfortunately I don’t have any time to do so right now.
Update 3:23pm: OK, back again, and time to go in to detail about the ratings, and as I’m in the unusual position of having a metro-market style report in my possession, I might as well cover the shift-by-shift and demographic figures, albeit without graphs as I’m not going to drastically alter my spreadsheet for what is probably a once off occurrence. This will take a little while so I’ll update the page every few minutes as I go.
Weekends 5:30am-Midnight
1st: Mix 106.3 (16.9%)
2nd: 666 ABC Canberra (15.7%)
3rd: JJJ (15.1%)
4th: FM 104.7 (13.6%)
5th: ABC Classic FM (8.9%)
6th: 2CC (7.6%)
7th: ABC Radio National (7.1%)
8th: 2CA (5%)
9th: NewsRadio (3.1%)
Unlisted: 7%
Demographics (age groups), 5:30-Midnight every day 10-17yo
1st: FM 104.7 (47.1%)
2nd: Mix 106.3 (27.2%)
3rd: JJJ (13.8%)
4th: 666 ABC Canberra (3.3%)
5th: 2CA (2.4%)
6th: ABC Radio National (1.8%)
7th: NewsRadio (1.5%)
8th: ABC Classic FM (0.4%)
9th: 2CC (0.3%)
Unlisted: 2.2%
18-24yo
1st: JJJ (40.7%)
2nd: FM 104.7 (37.5%)
3nd: Mix 106.3 (10.2%)
4th: 666 ABC Canberra (2.4%)
5th: 2CC (2.3%)
6th: NewsRadio (1.3%)
7th: ABC Radio National (0.7%)
8th: ABC Classic FM (0.3%)
9th: 2CA (0%)
Unlisted: 4.6%
25-39yo
1st: FM 104.7 (29.6%)
2nd: Mix 106.3 (23.5%)
3rd: JJJ (22.8%)
4th: 666 ABC Canberra (8.6%)
5th: NewsRadio (3.5%)
6th: 2CC (2.7%)
7th: ABC Radio National (2.5%)
8th: 2CA (1.6%)
9th: ABC Classic FM (1.4%)
Unlisted: 3.8%
40-54yo
1st: Mix 106.3 (29.1%)
2nd: 666 ABC Canberra (18.9%)
3rd: FM 104.7 (13.4%)
4th: ABC Radio National (8.3%)
5th: 2CA (6.6%)
6rd: JJJ (6.2%)
7th: 2CC (5.5%)
8th: ABC Classic FM (3.7%)
9th: NewsRadio (3.4%)
Unlisted: 4.9%
55+yo
1sy: 666 ABC Canberra (27.2%)
2nd: ABC Classic FM (18.9%)
3rd: ABC Radio National (14.3%)
4th: 2CC (12.4%)
5th: Mix 106.3 (6.3%)
6th: 2CA (6.1%)
7th: NewsRadio (4.4%)
8th: JJJ (1.6%)
9th: FM 104.7 (1%)
Unlisted: 7.8%
Music Vs Talk Music 61.3% (up from 58.9%) Talk 33.3% (down from 35.6%) Combined Unlisted 5.4% (down from 5.5%)
Music Vs Talk since survey 1 2005
Music Vs Talk: Average per station Music 12.26% (up from 11.78%) Talk 8.325% (down from 8.90%)
ABC Vs Commercial ABC 47.9% (up from 46.5%) Commercial 46.7% (down from 48.0%) Combined Unlisted 5.4% (down from 5.5%)
ABC Vs Commercial since survey 1 2005
ABC Vs Commercial average per station ABC 9.58% (up from 9.30%) Commercial 11.675% (down from 12.00%)
AM Vs FM AM 34.0% (down from 37.4%) FM 60.6% (up from 57.1%) Combined Unlisted 5.4% (down from 5.5%)
AM Vs FM since survey 1 2005
AM Vs FM average per station AM 8.50% (down from 9.35%) FM 12.12% (up from 11.42%)
Company Results
This is a new rating which I have introduced for this survey and produced backdata for, comparing the audience share of the companies who own the radio stations. Participating in the Canberra Ratings are:
Canberra FM Radio (Mix 106.3 and FM 104.7)
Capital Radio (2CC and 2CA)
ABC (666, Radio National, NewsRadio, Classic FM)
ABC 47.9% (up from 46.5%) Canberra FM Radio 36.3% (down from 36.5%) Capital Radio Network 10.4% (down from 11.5%) Combined Unlisted 5.4% (down from 5.5%)
Company Results since survey 1 2005
Compan Results average per station ABC 9.58% (up from 9.30%) Canberra FM Radio 18.15% (down from 18.25%) Capital Radio Network 5.20% (down from 5.75%)
The Victorian Police have issued a blunt warning to drivers attending the AFL Grand Final on Saturday…you will be breathalysed.
Every driver will be tested as they leave the MCG carpark with the aim of removing drunk drivers from the road.
“We’re putting the message out early – if you’re planning to drink and drive, think again because there is a very high chance that you will be caught,” Superintendent Leane said.
“It’s a simple thing to avoid. If you want to have a few drinks on the day, organise a designated driver, take public transport or hop in a taxi.”
There will also be a higher-than-usual number of random breath tests conducted throughout Melbourne on Saturday night, and a large police presence at the Grand Final.
So, how many people will be arrested? Do Centrebet have a market on this?
Farms are losing valuable topsoil in a rare dust storm across NSW and southern Queensland that has also raised concerns about an increase in carbon emissions.
[..]
“That’s a problem because that (the topsoil) is where most of our organic carbon is stored and carbon is a big issue in terms of emissions and sequestering carbon,” Dr Cattle said.
Dr. Cattle, whose sentences are as elegant as those written by cattle, is apparently a “soil scientist and dust expert at the University of Sydney”…yes, a dust expert. Did you ever know that such a thing existed?
Thankfully though, Dr. Cattle did admit to the ABC that the storms will occur whether we like it or not, and so didn’t blame global warming for dust storms which are now to blame for global warming…wouldn’t that be an interestingly vicious cycle?
“So to an extent we can control the severity of these storms, but at the end of the day nature will always win.”
I was most interested by your story about Californian students performing better when they were only taught English.
I’m not sure about the rest of the country, but here in Canberra our primary schools (K-6) have a bilingual program with a second language being taught for about an hour a week. At my primary school we were taught Japanese. From seven years of Japanese I learned how to count to ten, how to say “hello”, “goodbye”, “thank you”, “yes”, “away” and “welcome” and make the noise of a few characters of one of their alphabets.
I continued Japanese in the first year of high school because the education system forced me to. I did no work and got 100% on the first test based on my primary school knowledge, and failed every other test, except for the one where the teacher didn’t notice that the test I handed in was full of her own handwriting…she had given me the answer sheet by accident and I just put my name at the top.
Basically, eight years of my education was wasted on bilingual education, most of which consisted of the class sidetracking the teacher who could waffle on for hours about Japan if prompted, instead of presenting the planned lesson.
English should be the only language mandatorily taught in public schools both here in Australia, and over there in the US. Other languages should either be an optional extra for students old enough to make that decision for themself, or taught outside of school if the parents so desire.
Regards,
Samuel Gordon-Stewart
Canberra, Australia
WIN’s Canberra bulletin (which looks like it has as much useful news tonight as my left sock) is going to air at the “special time of 7pm” tonight. Why do I get the awful feeling that this means Nine News will run for an hour due to a dust storm.
Strangely, I could be sure that I saw a promo for A Current Affair “tonight at 7pm” in the preceding ad break.
I won’t be home to watch it…I’ll set up a recording to cure my curiosity.
Update: It’s 6:09pm and Seven are still banging on about how the dust killed the wonderful and picturesque views of Sydney. Meanwhile Nine are having a 60 minute bulletin…they might be able to mention something other than the dust. Whether A Current Affair will screen on WIN…who knows? It wouldn’t be a bad thing if it didn’t. End Update
Update 6:11pm: Seven Dust has finished for the night. Seven News after the break, followed by Today Tonight where their lead story is “Sydney and Brisbane covered in dust, earthquakes in Melbourne. We’ll find out why and what’s next in a special report”. Matt…if you can do it without misplacing your script and having to look around the set like you did the other night…your report still won’t be credible. End Update
You’ve probably heard the ongoing series of ads from Commerical Radio Australia, starring Mark Mitchell as the numbling interviewer who is trying to convince you to advertise or keep advertising on radio. It’s a good campaign and it seems to have worked quite well for them, and as such, if they take the idea from my dream for their next campaign, they’re completely nuts.
The dream started with me being in a studio in a cupboard opening a package…when I opened the package a CD started making noise (without a CD player). The opening monologue from Neil Mitchell (yes, Neil…somebody in dream casting stuffed up and got the wrong Mitchell) told me all about how radio is the perfect medium to let the world know when you lose or find something. This was followed by three callers rambling about how they lost a cat, a tin of sardines and a fruit shop respectively while the Big Brother theme music played in the background. Neil Mitchell then came back on with “Commercial Radio, you lose it, we find it”.
At this point, the dream ended.
With dreams like this, is it any wonder that I have trouble sleeping?
2GB and the ABC will continue to broadcast Friday night, Saturday night and Sunday afternoon matches, with the ABC having access to a few Monday night matches for restricted broadcast, while MMM retain the exclusive commercial rights to Monday night matches.
The big change is that 2GB will be forced to pump the webstream of their NRL coverage through the NRL website and Telstra’s dodgy servers, bringing NRL webstreams in line with AFL webstreams which, it must be noted, have failed a number of times this year. There is no word on whether 2GB will be forced to switch their own webstream off during NRL matches, although it is probable that they will.
It’s not a loss for 2GB though, as having their webstream available directly from the NRL website, in the same manner as ABC and MMM broadcasts have already been available, will boost their audience, whilst for the NRL it makes their website a more authoritative “one stop shop” for NRL news and information.
Facebook is starting to drive me nuts. Every six hours something else breaks, whether it be the inbox claiming to have an unread message everywhere except for the inbox page, comments appearing and disappearing at random, mysterious event notifications that just don’t quite seem to be on my plane of existence yet, or the far-too-common “sorry, can’t post what you just wrote, try again later” messages.
Facebook is having problems and they have been going on for a while now…and it’s not just me, I have confirmation of these problems from friends in various corners of the (not round if it has corners) globe. It would be nice of Facebook could provide some sort of explanation…even if it was just “we know, we’re working on it”.
