I am looking forward to seeing Mary Kissel, a member of The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board, addressing The National Press Club this afternoon.
Mary usually writes very insightful pieces on things happening in the Asia-Pacific region, as well as in the United States. One piece in particular stands out in my mind and will, I hope, act as a preview for her address today.
Wayne’s World
September 24, 2012 11:27 a.m
BY MARY KISSEL
Liberal attacks on the tea party are nothing new, except when they come from a cabinet member of an allied nation—in this case, Australia. In a speech Friday in Sydney, Labor Party Treasurer Wayne Swan said “the biggest threat to the world’s biggest economy are the cranks and crazies that have taken over a part of the Republican Party.” Mr. Swan, like many Democrats, just wants to spend more taxpayer monies.
(The use of the word “liberal” is used in the way Americans use it, and not as a reference to Australia’s Liberal Party. More can be read on wsj.com, but a subscription is required)
I am very much looking forward to being in attendance for Mary’s speech this afternoon, and I am hopeful that some of you may decide to watch what will, I’m sure, be a very interesting speech, live on ABC News 24 from 12:30pm (it is always nice and unusual to find something as interesting as this on ABC News 24, so that alone makes it worth tuning in).
If I get a moment, I may try to post a photo from there as the speech gets underway, but that will depend entirely on whether it seems appropriate.
The NRL folk still haven’t made an official announcement about this, but 2GB and Triple M have made their match lists for round one public information, and it can be deducted from this what the general arrangements are for the year.
Please note that I am not including the ABC here. ABC coverage remains virtually unchanged from previous years.
2GB and Triple M have retained the commercial radio rights, with an expansion in the number of games being covered by Triple M. 2GB have retained the games to which they had rights last year: Nine’s NSW Friday night match, the 5:30pm Saturday match, the 7:30pm Saturday match and one Sunday afternoon match (which appears to be the 2pm match, although it’s unclear what they will do about this when that match occurs at midday Sydney time due to it being played in New Zealand).
Triple M, have picked up rights to almost every non-2GB match except Saturdays. Triple M have exclusive access to Thursday night and Monday night matches. Triple M will also call the 3pm Sunday match as well as the Sunday night match. At this stage it is unclear what will happen when there is no Thursday night match and the NRL returns to having two Friday night matches. For as long as Thursday night matches exist, Triple M have exclusive access to Thursday night, however it is unclear whether, when there are two Friday night matches, 2GB and Triple M will call the same match or different matches, or if 2GB have exclusivity (in Sydney at least) to Friday nights. 2GB appear to have exclusive rights in Sydney to Friday night as long as Thursday night matches exist. There is also a little bit of confusion surrounding what happens when there are two 7:30pm Saturday games at the expense of a Sunday game. Logic would say that Triple M will call the non-2GB match, but given that logic seems to have very little to do with broadcast agreements, I’m not going to hold my breath on that one.
Precise details of what can be expected will, at this stage, probably remain known on a week-by-week basis, at least until the NRL decides to make a proper announcement about the radio rights.
For regional markets, there are a few other changes. Stations owned by Southern Cross Austereo will no longer take 2GB’s coverage, instead taking Triple M’s coverage. Also, not that it’s regional, but it seems that 4BC Brisbane have opted out of covering NRL this year. Triple M Brisbane will be covering matches though, with every Broncos game and the majority of the matches called by Triple M Sydney. This means that Triple M Brisbane will be covering the Friday night match which 2GB are also calling. 4BC Brisbane will be taking 2UE Sydney’s Saturday and Sunday afternoon sport-based talk show with John Gibbs and Paul Vautin.
Other regional changes will depend entirely on the stations in the area and with whom they are affiliating themselves.
2GB’s commentary team remains unchanged with the possible exception of 4BC’s Peter Psaltis not returning due to 4BC’s decision to drop NRL coverage. They have also shuffled their commentator lineup a tad by the looks of things.
Triple M will be sharing primary calling duties between Dan Ginnane, who has been their chief Monday night commentator for the last few years, and Anthony Maroon who filled-in for Dan last year during the Olympics. Triple M have retained the services of Peter Sterling, Andrew and Matty Johns, Steve Mascord, and Mark Geyer (I’m 99% certain that MG was part of Triple M’s team last year…I’m running off memory here so I could be mistaken), and have added a bunch of people to their coverage including Ryan Girdler, Wendell Sailor, Gordon Tallis, Nathan Hindmarsh (something in the back of my mind remembers hearing him on Triple M last year…again, I could be mistaken on that one), Bill Harrigan, Paul Gallen, Robbie Farrah, Willie Mason, Brett Finch, Tony Squires, Ben Dobbin, Andrew Webster, and Brent Read.
The bottom line on all of this is that almost every game, every week, will be available on commercial radio, which is fantastic news for those of us who do not have Foxtel and are not overly enamoured with ABC Radio’s NRL coverage.
It all starts on Thursday night. How wonderful it is to have NRL back!
This week’s award goes to country music artist Austin Cunningham for this fun little song which came to my attention thanks to Fox News’ semi-retired senior political analyst Brit Hume.
The feature song this week is “The Girls On Fox News”. (Disappointingly, the video clip is not available on iTunes…probably some copyright issues, sadly).
Well I used to be a Democrat, liberal no doubt
I didn’t think conservatives knew what life’s about
Then I started leaving the Fox News Channel on
If that’s the face of the right, I’ll tell the left “so long”
Oh, I want a girl like the girls on Fox News
Every one is beautiful, any one you choose
Whoever does the hiring knows how to light my fuse
I want a girl like the girls on Fox News
There’s Gretchen, Megyn, and Martha, Harris and Pattie Ann
Janice, Jen and Julie, Maria, Anna and Alisyn
Dana, Ainsley, Andrea, Uma, Shannon, Molly and Heather
(Hey is there even a Heather?)
(Yeah)
(There’s two?)
(Yeah)
(There’s two Mollys too?)
(Yeah)
(Perfect)
Well they make the bad news on TV look a whole lot better
Now please don’t call me shallow, a pervert, or insane
Because who the heck does not love beauty with brains?
I bet you that Bill Clinton, when Hillary walks in, quickly switches back from Fox to MSBNN
Bet Bill wants a girl like the girls on Fox News
Every one is beautiful, any one you choose
Whoever does the hiring knows how to light my fuse
I want a girl like the girls on Fox News
Now to Doocy, Kilmeade, and Bolling, Bret, Shep, and Sean
And all them other hairy-legged Geraldos you put on
I ask you all one question, who would you rather watch…
Cavuto or Courtney Friehl interviewing Koch?
‘Cause honey sure beats vinegar to wash down the news we need
No one else comes close, well except for maybe Robin Meade
They got your blondes and brunettes, even red heads too
Which proves that they’re the only ones with fair and balanced news
Oh, I want a girl like the girls on Fox News
I’d settle for an hour there in Billy Hemmer’s shoes
Can’t help if other network girls’ egos get bruised
I want a girl like the girls on Fox News
More cowbell
And I like Michelle Malkin, she never makes my reds stay blue
And if my wife would let me, hey I’d marry Michelle too
Save some love for Greta, she’s the smartest Y’all
Bet when she’s off the record, she’s the wildest of ’em all
Now I’m a Fox News junkie, I watch it all I can
My liberal days are over, hope Bob Beckel understands
And I believe in everything O’Reilly has to say
Especially when he has Kimberly Gilfoyle on that day
Oh, I want a girl like the girls on Fox News
Every one is beautiful, any one you choose
Whoever does the hiring knows how to light my fuse
I want a girl like the girls on Fox News
Hey, I want a girl like the girls on Fox News
(No honey, I love you, I mean if I wasn’t married to you I’d love them)
(I mean, they’re awesome, but you’re the most awesomest, really, I swear honey)
It is always nice to be able to end a Friday with some good news, and as I received two bits of good news today, I thought I’d share them and an extra bit of good news, just for good measure.
Firstly, I received confirmation today that some things I ordered some weeks ago have just been shipped from the US. As anyone who knows me well would know, I have a bit of a collection of NYPD merchandise. To complete (well, mostly, I’m sure I could buy more stuff if I wanted to) this collection, I placed a sizeable order a few weeks back. I was excited when payment was taken a couple weeks later as this confirmed that the items were all available, and today I received an email confirming that the order has shipped. Even more excitingly, the order has been shipped through a faster service than I expected, and is expected to arrive early next week.
The second bit of good news is that when I checked my post office box today, there was a very flattering and interesting invitation to an event in Melbourne. Alas I don’t think I’ll be able to go, and I’m not sure if the event’s details are public yet so I won’t divulge them, but it was exciting anyway and I will keep the invitation regardless of whether I choose to go or not.
Finally, some good news for all and sundry. The Bolt Report returns to Channel Ten this weekend on Sunday at 10am. For those of us in regional areas, some even better news in that Southern Cross Ten will be taking the show live. No more waiting tensely all day for the 4:30pm replay. Alas, the afternoon replay has been dumped in favour of a condensed replay of the revamped Meet The Press, but that’s understandable seeing as Ten and News Limited have put quite some effort in to making Meet The Press a more interesting and useful program than it was in recent years.
I wish you a good weekend, and hope you will join me in enjoying seeing Andrew Bolt’s insightful program on Sunday morning.
I suppose I might have to share some photos of some of the NYPD stuff when it arrives too…now that’s something to look forward to!
It seems that in areas of Central West NSW where 3G (not 4G) and ADSL1 (not ADSL2 or ADSL2+) services are all that is currently on offer, the National Broadband Network rollout will not occur until 2016.
Wasn’t the whole premise of the NBN that it would ensure that people in regional areas were to receive internet services which would be on-par with their counterparts in metropolitan areas? Wasn’t that the main reason behind the idea of spending $43 billion dollars? NBN Co’s Statement of Intent, which was tabled in Parliament on the 9th of October last year (more than three years after the project was started…one does have to wonder what took so long) certainly seems to think so:
Introduction
In the Statement of Expectations released on 20 December 2010 the Government expressed three central objectives for the National Broadband Network (NBN):
– To deliver significant improvement in broadband service quality to all Australians;
– To address the lack of high-speed broadband in Australia, particularly outside of metropolitan areas; and
– To reshape the telecommunications sector.
The NBN will enable high-speed broadband to be delivered to all Australian households, businesses and enterprises, through a combination of Fibre-To-The-Premise (FTTP), Fixed Wireless and Satellite technologies
(start of page 4, NBN Co. Statement of Corporate Intent 2012-2015).
$43 billion dollars with a primary goal of getting regional areas up to scratch, and it’s going to take until after the “Statement of Corporate Intent” expires to get Central West NSW completed, and that’s if it doesn’t get delayed even further!
The demand is there. If the NBN wasn’t preventing the private sector from building private infrastructure, this would be done by now, or at least be almost completed. This whole government-run scheme is an expensive shambles.