Apart from the thousands of people who were listening to Lawsie over the airwaves across the country this morning, his online audience exceeded expectations quite significantly. The 2SM webstream peaked at 523 listeners (well in excess of the original limit of 300) and stayed around that number for most of the final hour of the show.
Lawsie also rattled off a list of countries which had open connections to the webstream. I didn’t jot them down but I did count at least eight.
Lawsie’s signature theme music also accompanied him. Both El Presidente at the top of the show and Roger Miller’s Less Of Me at the end.
I honestly can’t tell you how great it is to have Lawsie back on the air. Since his departure at the end of 2007, the radio landscape has (with no disrespect to anyone else in the industry, because nobody can be expected to replace Lawsie…everyone who has tried has done their own show, but Lawsie is irreplaceable as he is a legend in his own right) had a gaping hole in it. Something just feels right about the world now that John is back.
I know that a lot of my readership is in the US (and I know that some people in the US were listening to John this morning), so to draw a comparison for you, John Laws leaving radio would be like Rush Limbaugh leaving radio. It just isn’t the same without them.
Also a big hello to Frankster who offered to help me out when I wasn’t one of the lucky 300 people on the original 2SM webstream.
Anyhoo, I must toddle off. Much like the day on which Lawsie left 2UE all those years ago, I have to go to work at a different time of the day to when Lawsie’s show is on…and time, right now, is of the essence for me. I have a backlog of other stuff to write about which I’ll try to get to tonight. No promises, except a promise that I’ll try.
Samuel
January 31st, 2011 at 12:26pm
The king of Australian radio, John Laws, is back on the air today, with his new home being 2SM in Sydney. John is being heard on Bill Caralis’ Super Radio Network and a few other stations.
Unfortunately I missed the start of the show as 2SM’s webstream was at capacity for quite some time and I wasn’t one of the fortunate 300 people who had tuned in to their stream at that time. 2SM have since increased the capacity of the stream to 1000 listeners so I am now enjoying Lawsie’s dulcet tones.
It’s a great day in Australian radio. Having Lawsie back on the air proves that sometimes when you lose things which you treasure, you’ve really only misplaced them, and they’ll be just as great when you find them again.
Samuel
January 31st, 2011 at 10:47am
Jim Ball quit 2GB yesterday afternoon. Warren Moore, who is unexpectedly sitting it for Jim right now, delivered the news as an off the cuff “Jim’s decided not to be a part of the program this year” as he threw to an ad break…which is a bit less than Jim deserves. Ben Fordham heaped praise on his predecessor Jason Morrison when he took over the Drive show last week, but Jim only gets a few seconds of “he ain’t here no more”…doesn’t seem fair really.
Jim has put an announcement up on his website, sighting both the overnight hours and the fact that Ben Fordham got the Drive Show gig over him as reasons.
2GB’s popular overnight host Jim Ball, due back on air Monday morning, has resigned from the station, effective immediately.
Ball who has been off on holiday after filling in for Ray Hadley over the summer break was due back on air at midnight. He says he was trying to catch a few hours sleep on Sunday afternoon after prepping his program for Monday and just couldn’t nod off.
It was then, at that moment, after 11 years on overnight radio including 2 years at 2UE, he just decided that he didn’t have another overnight program left in him, rang the program director, Ian Holland and delivered the bad news.
“..The hours are the toughest on the station apart from breakfast. I suppose working Ray’s shift over summer spoilt me a bit. Not only were the hours civilised but also I had a great team of people helping put the program together. On overnights, I do all my own research, writing and prep, panel and presentation and eventually after 11 years you just hit the wall, and think what the hell am I doing this for?”
Ball has constantly produced high ratings for the station in the mid to high twenties and low thirties.
Another factor that pushed him to make the decision was the appointment of Ben Fordham to the Drive program several weeks ago. “..Appointing someone to a prime shift with little or next to no experience in talk radio, except on a fill in basis, or someone without any demonstrated or proven ability, or ratings success in talk radio does seem rather odd to say the least..”
It seems that years of delivering results counts for nothing, and the Fordham decision crystallised Ball’s thinking that he’s wasting his time. The hours, the slog and the sacrifice seemed to have been for nothing.
I hope that this is only a temporary vacation from radio and that Jim pops up on the dial again in the near future (perhaps in a nicer timeslot, eh Jim?). Jim is too good a talent and too clear a thinker for him to not be on the air.
This certainly leaves a gaping hole in my radio listening with both Jim Ball and Mike Jeffreys absent from the overnight shift this week. Jeffreys is on the 8pm to midnight shift on 2UE at the moment and is due back on overnights next week, but that doesn’t really help me this week.
Good luck Jim. I hope to hear you on the air again soon.
Samuel
January 31st, 2011 at 12:34am