Samuel's Blog

Schnappi Drops To 22

Schnappi has dropped another two places to 22 this week.

Samuel

2 comments October 30th, 2005 at 09:49pm

Louie The Fly featured on John Stanley’s show

This afternoon John Stanley’s featured phrase was based around the Louie The Fly song, which was discussed here recently. John obviously hasn’t read this site as he didn’t know who the singer was.

Checking back through the logs it is quite clear that John and his staff didn’t get the song from this site, as the last download of the song was a couple days ago. Other than that, it would appear that he sent at least one person here as they searched for “louie the fly mortein” a couple minutes after John mentioned it.

Oh, nearly forgot, here is the Louie The Fly song again.

And John_B1_B5 has drawn a picture of Louie The Fly

Samuel

2 comments October 27th, 2005 at 02:00pm

Schnappi stays on 20

I was going to do the Schnappi update yesterday, but ARIA didn’t update their website last night, so I couldn’t.

Schnappi is still sitting in 20th place.

Samuel

1 comment October 24th, 2005 at 04:52pm

2CC Music Radio Jingle

As many Canberrans would know, this year Canberra’s Talk Radio 1206 2CC is turning 30. In those 30 years many many things have changed, probably the most significant thing is that it used to be a music station, and then gradually became a talk radio station. Today 2CC is Canberra’s number one radio station for news and entertainment (oops, I’m sounding like an ad again), and broadcasts many talented and influential broadcasters, including the king of talk radio, John Laws. (Just a quick note here, that is my opinion and there are plenty of people who will disagree with me, none the less, I still think 2CC is great.)

But, as I say, it wasn’t always so, at one stage as a music station 2CC consistently topped the ratings, this was during the time which can now be referred to as the time when they made those things you hear about when people say “They don’t make ’em like they used to”.

Well, as part of 2CC’s 30th birthday, former 2CC staff are invited along to the 2CC reunion being held on Saturday the 29th of October, two days before 2CC’s birthday…or so I’m led to beleive.

Anyway, why am I babbling? Well, believe it or not I do have a point, and it fits into the category of “They don’t make ’em like they used to.” While I was browsing the 2CC reunion website I stumbled across something which can probably be described as one of the best radio jingles ever made. If you listen closely you can probably spot the points where they would have chopped it up into smaller “sweepers”, and it probably sounded good in sweeper form, but it sounds fantastic as a one minute jingle. As I keep saying, this is arguably one of the best jingles ever produced, and I hope you enjoy listening to it. I’ve cleaned it up a bit as the copy on the reunion website had a long silence at the end, and their version was a WMA file which makes it mildly restrictive for playback.

Click here for the one minute MP3 “2CC Music Radio” jingle.

I was listening to this earlier in Winamp on a loop with a two second crossfade between the end and the beginning, and my verdict is that this jingle is fantastically addictive.

Samuel

8 comments October 20th, 2005 at 10:31pm

Video of Millionaire

As previously reported, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire made a millionaire, and I now have video online of the event.

I have two version online for compatibility reasons.
MP4 (MPEG Layer 4) This version is more compatible with lots of media software, although Windows Media Player doesn’t seem to like it, it is also higher quality.
WMV (Windows Video) Lower quality, but Windows Media Player supports it.

I strongly suggest that if you are running Windows, download Quicktime which supports MP4 without issues. It also integrates with Mozilla Firefox quite nicely. None the less, choose which file pleases you more and download it, if it doesn’t work the other one almost certainly will.

Samuel

2 comments October 18th, 2005 at 03:05am

Who Wants To Be A Millionaire make a millionaire

Australia’s version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire have just made their first millionare with a question relating to sixites television. The answer “bewitched” is the first one of the selction to be released on television.

They haven’t come back from the ad break to solve the answer yet, but a quick bit of fact checking proves it. Congratulations Channel 9!

Update Here are a couple pictures from the event, I’ll work on the video and get that online ASAP.

Firstly, Rob Fulton just after discovering that he won $1 Million

Secondly, a picture of Rob and partner Clare, who delayed moving in with each other for a week so that Rob could study for his appearance on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire.

Further Update:
I now have videos of the event online, two copies in fact, the WMV (Windows Video) and the MP4 (MPEG 4). Why two formats I hear you ask, compatibility is the answer, whilst Windows Media Player can play WMV files, a lot of other players can not, and other operating systems often lack the WMV codec. To the same extent, the MP4 codec is fairly universal, even if Windows Media Player can’t seem to play it. Personally I think the MP4 is better quality, so if your computer supports it, then use it, otherwise try the WMV. Both files are approx 10MB (It is video after all, so you can’t expect it to be dial up friendly AND watchable).

Samuel

2 comments October 17th, 2005 at 09:11pm

Schnappi Still In Top Twenty

Schnappi is still in the top twenty on the ARIA singles chart, but only just, one more drop and it won’t be the top twenty any more.

Samuel

October 17th, 2005 at 06:47pm

Digital Radio Announcement

The federal minister for communications, Helen Coonan has made an announcement about digital radio. Apparently the major metropolitan areas will get it first, and will use something called the Eureka 147 system, and they will provide broadcasters with 128 kilo bits per second, which is half the recommended bandwidth for the Eureka system.

Now, I don’t know much about the Eureka system, but if the bit rates are in any way similar to those of MP3 compression then 128kbps stereo will be fine for speech and some music, but won’t be great for music. In my experience “on the fly” compression generally requires higher bandwidth than “post compression” as the latter can deal the audio file as a whole whilst the former has to compress as it goes, which I find usually provides worse audio quality than post compression. The point I am trying to make here is that 128kbps stereo might be fine with post compression, but it won’t provide the same quality for broadcast.

I have read that the UK is using Eureka at 128kbps and it sounds dreadful, but I can’t confirm that, so if anybody knows better then I would be glad to hear from you.

Also Digital Radio will coexist with analog radio for now, as there is no set “switch off” date for analog radio. The same can’t be said for digital and analog television, with 2008 being confirmed as the switch off date for analog television (in metro areas anyway) to free up the airwaves for digital radio.

There hasn’t really been any clear decision made for the regional areas, except that they will get digital radio soon, and as far as I know, Canberra is considered a regional area when it comes to television and radio. The regionals might not even use Eureka, Ms. Coonan announced that DRM may be used instead. I personally don’t understand why we would use two different radio systems, but such is government regulation.

Interestingly, Radio 2 moved on to odd parts of the radio dial hoping to be part of the digital radio saga, but they have missed out, and that can’t possibly help the already dwindling share price. According to radioinfo.com.au “Low power community stations, open narrowcasters and Section 40 off-band licencees will miss out on space in the first round of allocations, which will be planned by ACMA.”

radioinfo also reports that “VHF spectrum will be the preferred carrier medium, with L Band being considered for in-fill transmission and other future uses. Spectrum planning will begin immediately, but the Minister expects that legislation and a staggered technical roll out will mean that consumers may still have to wait up to 2 years before they will be able to enjoy a full range of digital radio services.”

This certainly marks a very exciting period for the future of radio in Australia, I can only hope that the regulators make the right decisions, otherwise we may be left with a substandard system, and fixing that could be very tricky.

Samuel

UPDATE: Upon further reading it has become apparent that Eureka uses MP2, which is going to be interesting to say the least. Also, stations will be allocated 256kbps worth of bandwidth, but will only be allowed to broadcast at 128kbps, the other half of the bandwidth will be reserved for extra features and services. I don’t like the sound of this at all.

5 comments October 14th, 2005 at 04:11pm

Schnappi drops out of the top ten

Yes, Schnappi has been relegated to the top twenty now, in 15th spot. Is this the beginning of the end or just a rough spot…wait until Sunday and find out.

Samuel

October 12th, 2005 at 06:45pm

Repeatable Infomercials?

I noticed something very odd in the TV guide last night, the infomercials from 2am to 4am on Prime Television were listed as being a repeat. These late night/early morning infomercials tend to advertise the same product for an hour or so, often repeating the same “interview” or audio clips from “your favourite memories of the 1960’s” twenty times in a row (or at least it feels that way). They always have a phone number down at the bottom of the screen because “our operators are waiting for your call” and naturally “if you buy two sets with your credit card in the next twenty minutes and quote the word bingo and pay an extra ten dollars we’ll send you half a photo of someone smiling, and if you are one of the first twenty callers we’ll even send the other half of the photo with it.”

Often these things are “one time offers”, so how do you run repeats? Very odd…

On a related note, I was pleased to spot a repeat of a great Australian drama, Water Rats, last night/this morning. It was on at 1am, but that didn’t stop me from watching it…it might be (c) 1999, but it was still classic drama. I was very pleased to spot that, despite the fact it was aired pre-digital television, it was in widescreen. Fantastic television, I just wish it was in primetime, it was one of Australia best dramas, and it is really should get an encore performance in prime time…if the viewing public have any sense, it would top the ratings. I could spurt out more “classic television” type quotes, but I won’t, you get the point by now.

Samuel

October 11th, 2005 at 10:41am

Schnappi Back To Tenth

Schnappi has returned to 10th on the ARIA singles chart this week. This is the 13th week that Schnappi has been in the charts.

Samuel

October 2nd, 2005 at 09:12pm

Nattie Makes The Midday News

Nattie, the lovely little recently-bathed doggie, managed to get on the midday news.

Nattie’s bark is one of the few noises that is capable of penetrating any wall in the house, and she just happened to be barking as I was finishing up the midday bulletin for Australian Independent Radio News (and before you ask, no, it is not part of my contract to link to them constantly). Upon listening to it again I also noticed Nattie’s squeaky ball can be heard under my voice at one stage just after her barking.

All of these were background noises, and you would have to be listening carefully to notice them, but they are there.

This effectively makes Nattie a “National Dog”, having previously been heard in the background on a couple of my calls to 2CC, and possibly seen internationally, with her picture appearing on this and a couple other websites.

I think “Nattie the National Dog” or “National Nattie” sound good.

Samuel

October 1st, 2005 at 03:08pm

RIP Don Adams

I am deeply saddened by the news that Don Adams (aka Maxwell Smart/Agent 86 from Get Smart) has passed away aged 82.

Get Smart wasn’t one of the TV shows of my era, but its reruns touched me, and it became one of my favourite TV shows.

I had a couple lighthearted stories to run today, but I am going to hold them in honour of Don Adams. May he rest in peace, and be in our hearts always.

Samuel

Click here to hear the Get Smart theme music

The New York Times has this report

Don Adams, Television’s Maxwell Smart, Dies at 82

By DOUGLAS MARTIN
Published: September 27, 2005

Don Adams, who played Maxwell Smart in the 1960’s sitcom “Get Smart,” combining clipped, decisive diction with appalling, hilarious ineptitude, died on Sunday at a Los Angeles hospital. He was 82.

Maxwell Smart’s shoe phone from the TV show “Get Smart” was displayed in 2002 at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library Foundation in Simi Valley, Calif.
Readers
Forum: Television

The cause was a lung infection, his friend and former agent Bruce Tufeld said, according to The Associated Press. Mr. Tufeld said that Mr. Adams broke his hip a year ago and had been in poor health.

Maxwell Smart – in a way, his name was the show’s biggest joke – was a bumbling secret agent for Control, the good guys, who weekly foiled the plans of the evil cabal Kaos for world domination.

Inevitably, Smart’s ham-handed detective style landed him in hot water. Luckily, his faithful and beautiful sidekick, Agent 99 (Barbara Feldon), was as bright as he was dense, and could bail him out. (Smart was Agent 86: bartender’s code for cutting off service to a drunk.)

“Get Smart” twice won the Emmy for best comedy series, and Mr. Adams won three Emmys for best actor.

“Get Smart” ran on NBC from 1965 to 1969 and on CBS from 1969 to 1970. Years later, producers tried to recapture the show’s initial spark in the 1980 film “The Nude Bomb,” the 1989 television movie “Get Smart, Again!” and a revival on Fox that lasted seven episodes in 1995. Mr. Adams appeared in all the incarnations.

The original show spoofed the James Bond movies in an innocent, if sophomoric way, and one of its most winning characteristics was the seriousness with which Maxwell Smart again and again did and said things that were really stupid. Several of his lines became popular catchphrases, particularly with young people:

“Would you believe?” (Used when someone did not believe one of Smart’s prevarications and he was about to suggest another.)

“Let me handle it, 99.” (And then he would, and botch it.)

“Sorry about that, Chief” (When he reported to his boss, played by Edward Platt, after the inevitable failure.)

But Smart’s charm lay in his utter humanness, the opposite of Bond’s preposterous competence. In an interview with The Saturday Evening Post in 1966, Mr. Adams analyzed Smart: “He’s not superhuman. But he believes in what he does and he wants to do his best.”

His best was rarely good enough. Smart called into work with a dial phone on the sole of his shoe, and often got a wrong number. He wore jet shoes that shot him up, often into the roof. He was so security-minded that he would often swallow secret messages before reading them.

Donald James Yarmy was born on April 13, 1923, in Manhattan. He said changed his last name to that of his first wife, Adelaide Adams, because acting auditions were often done in alphabetical order.

His father ran a few small restaurants in the Bronx. Mr. Adams grew up hating school and playing hooky at the movies. During World War II, he joined the Marines at 16 by lying about his age. On Guadalcanal, he was shot and contracted blackwater fever, fatal 90 percent of the time.

After the war, he drifted into stand-up comedy, always refraining from dirty jokes, presaging the almost ludicrous uprightness of Maxwell Smart. He cut back on nightclub work to support his family with jobs as a restaurant cashier and as a commercial artist.

His first real success as a comic came when he won an Arthur Godfrey “Talent Scouts” competition in 1954, which led to television variety show appearances on “The Steve Allen Show” and elsewhere.

Mr. Adams created the comedy character Byron Glick, an incompetent house detective, who was a precursor to Max. Mr. Adams tried comedy writing, producing material for Garry Moore and Mr. Allen. When Mr. Adams’s friend Bill Dana got a comedy series, he hired Mr. Adams to regularly play Byron Glick.

“Get Smart” was originally the brainchild of the producers Dan Melnick and David Susskind, and was then refined by the writers Mel Brooks and Buck Henry. ABC passed on the show, but NBC loved it. The writers first thought of Tom Poston for the Smart role, but Mr. Adams was under contract to NBC.

The program was immediately a success with viewers, though Jack Gould, reviewing the new show in The New York Times, fretted that Mr. Adams was trying too hard to be funny. Mr. Gould, however, heartily approved of Ms. Feldon, fondly recalling her appearances in Revlon’s “Tiger Girl” commercials.

In an interview on NBC’s “Today Show” in 2002, Ms. Feldon gave Mr. Adams credit for much of the show’s success. “When you got in a scene with Don, it was like stepping onto a surfboard, and you just flew over those waves,” she said. “And it was exhilarating.”

Mr. Adams took a much smaller salary when offered a chance for a 33 percent piece of the show. “Get Smart” has been popular in reruns for decades, making for steady annuities.

After “Get Smart,” Mr. Adams did a short-lived comedy series called “The Partners.” After that, he pursued many things, including a very successful voice-over career, speaking for the cartoon character Inspector Gadget. (He was also the voice of Tennessee Tuxedo in the early 1960’s.) He directed and appeared in commercials, and made many guest appearances on shows like “The Love Boat.”

Mr. Adams was married and divorced three times and had seven children. His daughter Cecily Adams, an actress and casting director, died in 2004. His brother, Dick Yarmy, an actor, died in 1992.

Writers have noted disarming similarity between Mr. Adams and Max, his most famous character. The Saturday Evening Post told a story of Mr. Adams looking for money in his pocket to tip a young man who had parked his car. He had no change, no bill he thought was small enough and could find nothing when he rummaged in his glove compartment.

“And so motorists began sounding their horns, the kid shifted from foot to foot and an audience gathered,” the magazine wrote. “It was pure Don Adams. And pure Maxwell Smart.”

3 comments September 27th, 2005 at 01:34pm

49 Years Of Australian Television

I suspect that Channel 9 can’t perform basic mathematical operations. Last night they ran a special presentation about the top 50 shows from the last 50 years of Australian television. The only problem is that we have only had 49 years of Australian television. It started in September 1956, as considering that Channel 9 were the first broadcaster, you would think they would know that…apparently not…

Samuel

September 26th, 2005 at 06:59pm

Schnappi Reaches 8

Schnappi is now 8th on the ARIA singles chart…I could have just typed the title of this post an left it that but I didn’t.

Samuel

September 25th, 2005 at 09:50pm