Posts filed under 'General News'
I should probably take this opportunity to wish all the readers a happy new year, may this year be kind to you.
Just after midnight I rang George Gibson to wish him a happy new year and congratulate him on his new job at 2GB. George is receiving a lot of calls from his old 2UE audience, including interstate people, which is a testament to his popularity, especially considering that the 2GB does not syndicate programs (except the football). In fact, his first two callers this morning were from Queensland & the ACT respectively.
I recorded the 2GB webstream for the first bit of the show, including my call. You can listen to the first ten minutes or so (Including calls from Joanna and myself) of George’s first show of 2006, and his 2nd 2GB show, by clicking here or using the audio player below.
[audio:https://samuelgordonstewart.com/wp-content/George-Gibson-1-1-2006.mp3]
The 32kbps real player stream from 2GB is extraordinary quality! You could be forgiven for thinking I had a studio recording.
Happy New Year!
Samuel
January 1st, 2006 at 12:57am
From Samuel & Nattie, to everyone out there, Merry Christmas, we hope you have a fantastic day.
Click here to download “We Wish You A Merry Christmas” music which was automatically played on Christmas Day
Samuel
December 25th, 2005 at 12:32am
On December 21 2004, a new community radio news service started, then known as Australian National Radio News. This service started on a trial basis, running three bulletins per day Monday-Friday. Within the first two days ANRN picked up their first subscriber station, and within three months they had 12 stations.
In April, director Artie Stevens relaunched the service as Australian Independent Radio News, on a subscription basis with an expanded service, only three stations stayed with AIR News. Now, 12 months after the first day of operation, AIR News is back to 12 stations, spanning every state and territory except for Tasmania and the ACT. At present seven stations are trialling AIR on a free, non-broadcast basis.
Director of AIR News, Artie Stevens remembers the start of ANRN,
“I remember the doomsayers telling me it wouldn’t work, and me being a stubborn old coot and saying it would.”
AIR News has developed a “virtual newsroom”, enabling news readers from all over the country to operate from the comfort of their own studios.
“One of the things we have developed is our Virtual Newsroom and it seems to work so well. All our readers operate from their own home studios, some a little more flash than others, but they all work fine and sound great” Artie said.
Since moving to a subscriber basis, AIR has expanded to provide more than just a news service.
“We provide AIR Sports Mon – Fri at around 6:15am, AIR NEWS Headlines around the same time and The World Mon – Fri around 10am Eastern. ”
Artie describes The World as a “10 minute daily magazine style program compiling reports from our affiliate reporters around the world” on the AIR News website.
AIR has established not only a national presence, but also brings in stories from all over the globe, as Artie explains.
“Our association with Feature Story News in Washington has given us access to reporters around the world, with Washington, New York, Orlando, Ottawa, London, Brussels, Moscow & Tehran all on board.”
Artie also says that AIR News provides Asia-Pacific reports for Feature Story News.
Sport is also covered,
“We also have an association with The Broadcasting Company in London which provides us with elite sports reports. We had some great “exclusives” during the Ashes test series and currently we’re getting updates on the Volvo round the world yacht race.”
Radio historian, Wayne Mac, thinks that AIR has been a fantastic success.
“It’s bloody terrific see someone put themselves out there and to make something happen in this business. As we all know, there are many armchair critics always waiting to pounce or poo-poo an idea.”
Artie Stevens agrees.
“I think it’s been a bottler of a year and I think I’ll have a cold one
tonight to celebrate.”
For more information about AIR News, or to recommend AIR to your local community station or blackspot commercial station, visit www.air-news.net
Samuel
Disclaimer: Samuel Gordon-Stewart has a commercial agreement as a newsreader for Australian Independent Radio News.
December 21st, 2005 at 01:47pm
For the second morning in a row, John Kerr’s show was flooded with people calling about the Sydney riots this morning. Despite the fact that he cut out most of the usual segments of his show, it still took a very long time to get through all of the callers, with most waiting on hold for about 90 minutes. I was one of the people who waited for 90 minutes, calling at 12:03 and finally talking with John just after 1:30. Anastasia sounded somewhat snowed under, which is quite understandable considering the work she must have been doing.
I think this proves that people are really quite concerned about these riots, you would have to be pretty concerned to be willing to wait on hold for 90 minutes or more in the wee hours of the morning.
There was one suggestion which seemed fairly clever in my mind, involve fire trucks and the counter terrorism people. It would take some coordination, but blasting the offenders with a powerful burst of water and then having the counter terrorism people forcing them to surrender would certainly be helpful. Of course, coordinated road spike attacks would also be good, when the powers that be know that the rioters are in a particular area they could set up barriers of road spikes, it might catch a few innocent people, but it would certainly prevent the rioters from driving away to another trouble spot.
There are plenty of good ideas (and some bad ones) floating about as to how to deal with the situation, and really, the sooner it is dealt with the better. Hopefully the talks between the opposing sides today have helped to some extent.
Samuel
December 13th, 2005 at 10:33pm
As the Australian audience (and probably some of the international audience) are probably aware, a lot of rioting has gone on in Sydney over the last 24 hours or so, with more expected.
Plenty has already been said about these riots, including the prime minister trying to down play the racial vilification which formed part of these riots. Race and religion were undoubtedly the main reasons for these riots, but there would have been an element which would have said “Oh goody, a riot, yay”. It is hard to decide which side is worse, I suppose the bottom line is that they are all utter loonies.
The really big downside of this is that our police have to deal with it, certainly it is their job to do such things, but the people who make up our police forces decided to go into that line of work of their own free will, in an effort to help uphold the fabric of our society. Sometimes I get the distinct impression that people don’t value our police enough, so here is what I urge every good law abiding person to do:
When you see the police, give them a wave or a smile, and say hello, make them feel welcome and appreciated. Simple things like this will help the police to feel that people appreciate what they are doing, and that it is worthwhile. If we didn’t have the police, our society would be in chaos, we owe these brave men and women an awful lot, and they really deserve our support.
As for those loonies who think that abusing everyone and everything is such a great idea, just go away, we don’t need or want you here.
I understand that people aren’t going to get along with each other all the time, but these riots were completely uncalled for, and were truly reprehensible, the people involved should be ashamed of themselves.
To our many police men and women, keep up the good work, the law abiding people of this country really do appreciate all the brave hard work you do.
Samuel
December 12th, 2005 at 08:53pm
Firefox 1.5 was released earlier today, but due to Mozilla moving from mozilla.org to mozilla.com the download link was slightly hidden. Thankfully Mozilla have corrected that in the last few hours (mostly), but I’ll put a link here anyway.
http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/
When I started using it I noticed instantly that the menus have changed appearance slightly and now look similar to those seen in Open Office. The tabs are now sortable, RSS/Atom feed notification icon now appears in the address bar rather than the status bar, the options window has been reorganised to make it easier to use, and some dialog boxes have been improved. Another thing I had heard about and checked out for myself is the fact that a lot of the dialog box spawning errors (such as site not found) now bring up an error page, similar to the way Internet Explorer handles it. This is good in some ways and bad in others, but the page looks nice and friendly so overall I’ll say it’s good.
Here is an example of an error page generated when I deliberately misspelled the URL for this site. (Click to enlarge)
Other notable improvements include
- Faster “back” and “forward” browsing
- Improvements to the Gecko rendering engine, with support for new standars, and even better support for older ones
- Optionally automatic updates. Updates are also now “update size” rather than the old full reinstall system
- The ability to clear the private data (browsing history, cookies, saved passwords etc) with a “tools” menu entry or key combination (presumably with confirmation dialog box, I haven’t tried it yet).
Update: Just tried it out and it sure beats going through parts of the options window to find the data to clear!
- New levels of disabled person accessibility to the browser. Firefox 1.5 is the first browser to ever meet US government accessibility standards for people with physical impairments.
- And lots more…
If you haven’t done so already, I strongly suggest that you give Firefox a try, I use it and love it, and it happily and easily imports settings from other browsers.
That link again
http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/
Samuel
December 1st, 2005 at 01:16am
This came in overnight from The Plain English Campaign:
Thank you to everyone who sent in entries for our Golden Bull awards this year. We have spent many hours laughing at the best and worst of English gobbledygook, and have managed to compile a list of winners, which will be announced in the next few weeks. However, if you missed the deadline, do not fear as we are now accepting entries for next year’s awards. The winners of the ‘serious’ prizes including the Inside Write award, will be announced at the beginning of December.
Looks like it’ll be a busy time here on Samuel’s Blog at the start of December, we’ve got the large photographic journey to Sydney and back for the New Day Australia Christmas Function (people keep asking me about tickets, unfortunately they are all sold out), the usual monthly site stats, a summary of the Plain English Awards, and to top all that off, the Samuel Awards 2005 are also coming in December.
Samuel
November 19th, 2005 at 09:58am
I think the 2CC Transmitter just died. During the 3PM news 2CC just disappeared from all of my radios, leaving static, which indicates a transmitter problem and not a studio fault. I am still able to pick up every other AM station, including 2CC’s sister station the next studio 2CA.
I’ve rung 2CC to inform them, I’m probably not the only one….I am however holding out hope that this is a problem which has only happened in my house…John B1_B5, can you recieve them?
Update: At 3:15 they have fixed it, starting with some music and then cutting to an ad break.
Samuel
November 10th, 2005 at 03:08pm
Regular reader and commenter John B1_B5 informs me that somebody has stolen his bicycle.
A Reward of $100 is offered to anybody who can supply information regarding the person who stole this 1974 Raleigh Twenty bicycle from a garage in Wanniassa on Friday , November 4 , 2005.
UPDATE:John B1_B5 has provided some more information. This bike stands out from others because it’s smaller than a normal size bike, and has 20 inch wheels instead of the usual 26 inch wheels.
END UPDATE
Email your info to JOHN33805@HOTMAIL.COM
OR CALL 0402201643
If you have ANY information whatsoever, even if it turns out to be unhelpful, I urge you to contact John B1_B5 using the contact details above, even the smallest bit of information can help.
John, I hope you get the bike back soon.
Samuel
November 5th, 2005 at 03:44pm
This has to be the most number of posts on one subject I have ever posted that doesn’t have a category of it’s own. Anyway, let’s have a look at how the Melbourne Cup went.
Firstly congratulations must go to Makybe Diva and my mum who tipped Makybe Diva.
I checked to see what the various Canberra radio station did for the Melbourne Cup, and I noticed that the ABC appeared to have their own coverage, the two major FM stations shared another coverage, and 2CC and 2CA both used a direct feed from race caller Greg Miles (presumably from the Southern Cross Syndication coverage).
2CC went to the news at about eight to three and then went to Welshy who then took us to Flemington, interupted to tell us there was a delay, played about 15 seconds of music and took us back to Flemington.
2CA ran a delayed version of 2CC’s news at five to three (or maybe it was pre-recorded and the stations played it when they were ready), At the end of the news Gregg Easton provided the weather report and then joined the Melbourne Cup coverage.
At this point in time I noticed that 2CC & 2CA were about 5 seconds ahead of Channel 7, who also used Greg Miles. At this time I turned off the radio and watched the race unfold on Channel 7.
As for my tips, well…
On A Jeune came 2nd
Leica Falcon came 4th
Railings came 14th
Nattie’s tip, Strasbourg came 18th.
I have added my quote of “I have to agree with most experts who say that Makybe Diva will not win” to the random quote list with the subtext “Samuel a few hours before Makybe Diva won the 2005 Melbourne Cup”. I suppose I had a 23 in 24 chance of being right about that!
Samuel
November 1st, 2005 at 08:32pm
Alrighty then, time for the top eight from the Melbourne Cup
1. Makybe Diva
16. On A Jeune
8. Xcellent
22. Leica Falcon
13. Lachlan River
14. Portland Singa
19. Envoy
2. Vinnie Roe
And last was Franklins Gardens which walked across the finish line.
For the record, Xcellent was the first horse in history to start the Melbourne Cup with a name starting with the letter X.
Update:
Full finishing results:
MAKYBE DIVA
ON A JEUNE
XCELLENT
Leica Falcon
Lachlan River
Portland Singa
Envoy
Vinnie Roe
Kindjhal
Rizon
Dizelle
Eye Popper
Demerger
Railings
Vouvray
Kamsky
Greys Inn
Strasbourg
Distinction
Umbula
Hugs Dancer
Bazelle
Mr Celebrity
Franklins Gardens
Whilst Channel 7 tell us that Franklins Gardens did finish the race, other sources say it didn’t…as Channel 7 provided that information after the other sources I am more inclined to believe Channel 7.
END UPDATE
Samuel
November 1st, 2005 at 03:58pm
We have Correct Weight!
1st: 1. Makybe Diva (Win: $3.60, Place: $2.00)
2nd: 16. On A Jeune (Place: $14.60)
3rd: 8. Xcellent (Place: $5.80)
UPDATE: Official finishing time 3:19.17
Trifecta 1-16-8 $4,951.70
Quinella 1 & 16 $164.60
Exacta 1-16 $197.50
Duet 1 & 16 $36.90
Duet 1 & 8 $19.90
Duet 16 & 8 $180.20
Running Double (Race 6 Number 6 & Race 7 Number 1) $117.90
Further placings as they come to hand.
Dividends are Super TAB which encompasses the Victorian TAB, ACTTAB and many more.
Samuel
November 1st, 2005 at 03:31pm
1st: 1-Makybe Diva
2nd: 16-On A Jeune
3rd: 8-Xcellent
4th: 22-Leica Falcon*
*4th place according to race caller
Samuel
November 1st, 2005 at 03:10pm
The time has come for me to announce my Melbourne Cup tips for this year.
I have to agree with most experts who say that Makybe Diva will not win. It was fairly obvious in my view that she wouldn’t be scratched, but she won’t win. Don’t get me wrong, I think she is a very good horse, but I just don’t think she will win.
Anyway, my top three selections
7: Railings
16: On A Juene
22: Leica Falcon
And a tip from Nattie
21: Strasbourg (Well it is a food word).
The race gets underway at 3pm (GMT+11). If you can’t be near a TV to see Channel 7’s coverage (or the Sky Channel coverage) and you can’t make it to a radio (most radio stations will cover it) then you could always listen to it on the 2KY Racing Radio webstream (Website is down, but webstream still works) or the Sport 927 webstream or even the ACTTAB Radio Webstream.
Of course I’ll bring you results from the race as well.
Whoever you pick, good luck and enjoy the afternoon.
Just like last year’s Melbourne Cup day, it is raining here in Canberra.
Samuel
November 1st, 2005 at 12:32pm
This is something which I can only describe as sad news.
From radioinfo.com.au
3AW commentator and presenter Rex Hunt and his son Matthew have been victims of a savage street attack by at least 15 youths armed with bottles and skateboards in Byron Bay.
In what must be news to the local tourism office the gang told them visitors were not welcome then proceeded to attack the couple in front of Hunt’s wife Lynne and Matthew’s girlfriend Jodie Petrusov.
The already injured Hunt said he was horrified to see the teenage gang then aiming lethal kicks at Matthew’s head as he lay on the ground. He jumped in to help, receiving more blows and a slashed scalp, possibly from a piece of glass.
The attack only stopped when onlookers stepped in to help.
The Hunts and Petrusov were in town for a wedding and had just left an hotel after a brief drink.
Police said there was nothing they could do because of the offenders’ age and no complaint was filed. Hunt said he would take legal action against the boy’s parents.
Samuel
November 1st, 2005 at 12:21pm
Next Posts
Previous Posts
