Mike Carlton has announced his resignation from 2UE today so that he can return to The Sydney Morning Herald, although one suspects that there may be more to the story. The Herald previously sacked him, but are now taking him back, presumably to allow their Fairfax stablemate 2UE to relaunch Breakfast and have another go at getting some market share back from…well, every other station in Sydney. It’s not just the market leading Alan Jones show on 2GB which they need to defeat any more.
Mike’s final day with the station will be Friday September 18. John Stanley will fill Mike’s place on Breakfast until the end of the year. Sandy Aloisi will remain as co-host, and “The Two Murrays” Murray Olds and Murray Wilton will fill in for John Stanley on Drive.
According to a story in today’s Brisbane Times (yes, The Brisbane Times…I’m hoping it’s a reprint of a Sydney Morning Herald story), Mike made it clear to station management at the beginning of the year that he wouldn’t continue beyond the end of this year…which really makes me wonder 2UE haven’t tried to make significant changes to Breakfast before now, especially seeing as Alan Jones has had a significant amount of time off over at 2GB.
Meanwhile the Murray Old Appreciation Society informs me that Murray Olds will be filling in for Sandy Aloisi this week.
There is no word at this stage as to who will fill Murray Wilton’s spot on weekends with Clive Robertson…something you would expect 2UE to want to bed down within the next few weeks before network stations (or maybe it’s not plural…perhaps 2CC is the only network station) return to the show when the football finals end. Update: Well it may very well not even reach singular status…2CC are sticking with 2GB’s Weekend Detention over summer, which is a break from what they have done in previous years. See comments below. End Update
This one caught me off guard yesterday. I turned on the radio just before 3:30 and heard this ad right before my recorded news bulletin was due to air…it took me a moment to work out why John Laws was on the radio as I had tuned in half way through and heard Lawsie talking about how he had worked as a jackaroo…I thought he was talking to a caller at first.
Shows recorded and watched later, or “timeshifted” will be included in TV ratings figures next year, according to Media Spy.
The count will now be split in to two categories. One for “live” which for some reason includes programs watched at a later time on the day of broadcast, and one for “timeshifted” which is for programs watched on a day other than the day of broadcast.
This will undoubtedly boost the number of people listed as watching shows, but I have to wonder if it will favour the ABC who do not run advertising or promos during shows. I wonder this because the story says that ratings will only be counted for “content watched at normal speed”. Technically, my skipping of ads, could be considered “watching at an increased speed”, and in my case this would favour the ABC as I timeshift The Bill, MDA and Media Watch on a regular basis on the ABC, as well as programs such as Rush and Law And Order on Ten, and the ones on Ten might not be counted as I skip the ads.
To the same extent, with two episodes of The Bill being screened back-to-back, I usually pause for a coffee break at the end of the first episode…so I could be watching it “at a decreased speed”. The ABC will solve this problem by catching up to the UK air date of episodes shortly, and drop back to one episode per week.
It will be very interesting to see what effect this change has on the ratings.
3AW’s General Manager Shane Healy was quoted as saying “I’d say so” when asked in the station wants to keep Rex Hunt next year, but then went on to say that “[w]e are looking at our ratings and our research, we are always interested to see how our audience is reacting to the team”. Well Shane, let’s do just that…let’s take a look at the ratings for stations covering football.
From survey #5, the ratings across the weekend:
3AW: 17.1%
ABC: 15.2%
MMM: 5.3%
SEN: 3.5%
As if the gap between 3AW and MMM isn’t big enough on its own, the fact that 3AW and MMM get priority choice of games, with the ABC and SEN getting whatever is left over, makes it even more interesting. 3AW and MMM cover the same games most of the time with the ABC and SEN getting the dredges, and yet the ABC almost have triple the ratings of MMM.
Mr. Healy, I know that you say that you’re not looking at replacing Rex, and that the Herald Sun claim the rumour started at MMM, but a quick word of advice for you. If you replace Rex Hunt with Brian Taylor, I will not be listening. In fact, if you replace Rex with just about anyone else, then I will not be listening. Promoting one of your existing commentators is something I can live with…bringing Denis Cometti on full-time I can deal with, but don’t replace your chief caller with somebody who is helping to keep MMM on 5%. If you do, I, and others, will be helping the ratings of your nearest competitor.
Australia’s latest satellite has rocketed into space after the Optus D3 successfully lifted off from French Guiana.
The Ariane 5 rocket, operated by Arianespace, lifted off from Kourou, French Guiana, at 8.08am (AEST) on Saturday.
Optus D3 will expand the telecommunications company’s satellite technology by providing redundant capabilities and expanded capacity for subscription television, free-to-air TV and voice, internet and radio services.
[..]
The satellite will take a few days to assume its orbit of 35,000km above Australia.
It will then undergo two months of tests before it commences commercial operations.
This does force me to wonder what will happen if it fails its tests? Would they burn it in the atmosphere and send a new satellite up in its place? That would be a rather expensive option, considering that hundreds of thousands of dollars go in to launching each satellite…I wonder what the return is on these satellites? They must make a lot of money selling broadcast space if they can afford the launch costs.
Too many questions for a Saturday night. I’m just happy to see D3 has been launched.
Apparently Hugh Rimington has been with Channel Ten since April. I’m surprised that tonight was the first time that I have seen him on Ten News seeing as I see it every Saturday.
Hugh worked for Channel Nine for 16 years which included a very impressive stint as the anchor of Nightline, before defecting to CNN as a newsreader and Hong Kong correspondent.
It’s good to see Hugh back on free-to-air television in Australia, and I dare say that Channel Ten must be very pleased that they have Hugh working for them and not another network. Hugh lends Ten News a level of credibility which I think it has been missing for quite some time when it comes to reporting on federal politics.
It was quite a shock to see Hugh on Ten tonight, but it was a good shock. It makes me much more inclined to pay attention to Ten News in the future.
As reported in multiple places, Fairfax Radio’s chief political correspondent Alison Carabine is off to the ABC, specifically to ABC Radio National’s breakfast show with Fran Kelly, which should be quite interesting as Alison is often accused of having a right-wing bias, and Fran is often accused of having a left-wing bias.
Alison Carabine at the National Press Club’s debate between John Howard and Kevin Rudd in 2007. Picture credit: Channel Nine
Personally I think Alison is one of the best political reporters of recent times and is the most impartial reporters for the electronic media in the Parliament House Press Gallery. 2UE, other Fairfax owned stations, and other stations which take news from the Fairfax Radio Network will be poorer for her loss. Radio National have picked up a great reporter…hopefully Alison can retain her reporting excellence in that peculiar environment.
Radionews.com.au is carrying the curious news that Ken Sparkes (former 2UE voiceover man…and still doing the intro for their news bulletins if I’m not mistaken) will be filling in for Pete Graham on 2UE’s Saturday Night Live show for the month, and Rowan Barker, formerly 2GB’s breakfast newsreader, will be filling in for John Kerr over the same period.
Nothing on Fairfax Syndication’s “temporary format changes” page yet…but that’s hardly surprising.
As I noted earlier this morning, Countrylink had an open day at the Canberra Railway Station this morning to celebrate their refurbished Travel Centre (which seems to be code for “booking office”) and, albeit not mentioned on their website, refurbished trains and new staff uniforms. As part of the open day, they had free return train trips to Queanbeyan, and 2CC were broadcasting live from the train station.
I went along shortly after 7am, stopping off to pick up a packet of Tim Tams for Mike Frame and the 2CC team. Below you will find photos of the train station, a trip to Queanbeyan and back, some video footage, and a photo of 2CC’s Mike Frame and Garden Gurus. As usual, all photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.
First up, the front of the railway station, where a sausage sizzle was being set up when I arrived.
Inside, 2CC were busy running their gardening show, anchored by Mike Frame and horticulturalised (for lack of a better word) by the Garden Gurus Merylyn Condon and Judy Refshauge (sorry, I’m not sure which one is which in this photo…I have never been able to work it out).
Inside the railway station, staff seemed almost excited about their refurbished Travel Centre, which spent most of the morning (while I was there anyway) dealing with enquiries.
They were also giving away balloons (and exploding many of them accidentally as they filled them with helium, producing a decent bit of atmospheric noise for the 2CC broadcast).
I quite liked the model train.
The train station has a coffee machine which produces a heated beverage which I wouldn’t call coffee, but I had two cups anyway. The first one was a sensible temperature, but the second one was so hot that I needed to use a padded sleeve of my top to hold the cup, in order to avoid being burnt.
The first free return trip to Queanbeyan started at 8am, which is well and truly after the morning Canberra to Sydney train departed at 6:37am, and was followed by other free return services every 45 minutes, except for a window of time around the 11:21am arrival of the Sydney to Canberra service (those passengers would probably have received a surprise when they got off at the busy open day).
To board the train, naturally you had to be given a ticket. They were using different colours of tickets for each trip, although I don’t think they were actually checking them. Amusingly, the tickets they were using were the Countrylink luggage tags.
Countrylink stations have interestingly elaborate identifying signs on the platforms.
The train to Queanbeyan and back had three cars.
Once on the 8am train (the first of the day), I noted the view, and the rather oddly worded sign (from a passenger’s perspective).
As the train took off, I noticed the collection of carriages at the Canberra Railway Station.
The 8am train travelling under the Monaro Highway.
And then under Ipswich Street in Fyshwick.
A video from the train as it passed Fyshwick and travelled under the Newcastle Street overpass. Apologies for the dodgy frame rate of this video.
(The original video can be downloaded by clicking here)
Video of cows in fog which the train passed on the way to Queanbeyan.
(The original video can be downloaded by clicking here)
A picture of the Queanbeyan Train Station. There was no time to get off the train as it only stayed at the station for a few moments.
A video of the train departing Queanbeyan.
(The original video can be downloaded by clicking here)
On the way back, the most spottable sight was the Direct Factory Outlet sign.
The train then arrived back at the Canberra Station, about 25 minutes after departing.
ct width=”425″ height=”344″>(The original video can be downloaded by clicking here)
I also filmed the departure of the 8:45 train.
(The original video can be downloaded by clicking here)
And before I left the platform, I noticed that the door to the luggage room was open, and lockers could be easily seen. Two of the lockers had old radio station stickers on them, one for 2CC.
And one for 2CC’s then supplementary FM station, Kix 106 (now Mix 106.3).
I then stuck around until 9am to see the end of 2CC’s garden show (which managed to get me roped in to doing the prize draw, to select that day’s lucky caller), and say toodles to Mike Frame who, incidentally, once he gets back from holiday in a couple weeks, will be 2CC’s permanent weekend morning host…and it’s fantastic to have him back permanently!
And that was my morning at the Canberra Railway Station open day. There is a similar event at the Goulburn station tomorrow which will be attended by 2CC’s sister station in Goulburn, 2GN. I, however, will not be there.
* Live radio broadcast by 2CC
* Free entertainment
* BBQ
* Free train rides to Queanbeyan and return
* Meet some Raiders players from 9.30am-11.30am
* Chance to win a signed Canberra Raiders jersey
* Discount admission voucher for the Raiders vs Dragons game on Saturday night
* $30.00 return tickets to Sydney, $50.00 return tickets to Melbourne. Must be booked and paid for at the travel centre on the day*.
* Make a booking on the day and enter the draw to win a family trip for 4 to Sydney including return first class rail, 2 nights accommodation, entry to Sydney Aquarium and Sydney Wildlife World plus a cruise on Sydney Harbour.
* For more information contact CountryLink Canberra Travel Centre on (02) 6208 9700
2CC will be there from 7am to midday broadcasting their usual Saturday morning programming, although I think I’ll be out of there by 9:30am to avoid the Raiders players.
Meanwhile it looks like the Capital Radio Network are making the most of Countrylink’s open days. There’s an open day at the Goulburn railway station on Sunday which will be attended by 2GN.
Incidentally, if you, like me, are wondering why railway stations would be having open days…apparently it’s to celebrate some refurbishments of the travel centres at the railway stations, and the stations themselves.
It should be an interesting morning…it’s just a pity that there doesn’t appear to be any mention of a tour of the refurbishments.
Apologies for the break in transmission. I’ve been pretty well snowed under with menial tasks for the last few days and haven’t felt like writing much here during my downtime. I was going to post photos of the Tuggeranong Weather Station this morning, but the upload scripts on the photo gallery seem to be broken, so after half an hour of being annoyed by that, I gave up.
I should also note that I know that I am behind in Sunday audio clips. I will catch up this weekend by posting two audio clips. On that front I have come to the conclusion that the backlog of airchecks to post is going to become quite annoying to manage if I keep posting them in chronological order. What I really need to do is produce a list, and start posting them at random like I do for the Musician(s) Of The Week award, whilst adhering to the “must be three months old” rule.
Normal transmission will resume shortly. Until then, here’s something which I found a couple weeks ago by accident, and which brightened my day considerably. Mike Jeffreys interviewing Scott Driscoll from The Retailers Association on 2CC on the 19th of June last year.
It would appear that I am still suffering withdrawal symptoms from a lack of Mike Jeffreys on the radio.
Sure, I got the theme music of the two confused a bit when I was in primary school…but even I knew which show involved a genie and which show involved a witch.
At least they managed to put the right show to air.
This time around though, I think it’s a crying shame. I have almost no time for the comments section of RiotACT, however when it comes to the stories themselves, I think RiotACT has performed an incredibly valuable service to the ACT, especially under John’s guidance over the last year or so.
If there is one thing for which I have to give John credit, it is being the source of pressure which led to the AFP’s media unit getting press releases online more than once per week. Whilst I have access to the press releases through their direct distribution to media outlets, I do appreciate the fact that AFP stuff is now online in a timely manner.
On a less positive note, I’m reminded of what I said to a friend on the phone the day John returned to RiotACT…”it won’t last, there is no way it will be profitable”. I’m sorry that I was correct. As much as I disagree with John on a number of issues, the fact that he built RiotACT in to a respected local news outlet, respected not just by the public, but by the rest of the media as well, is a testament to John’s hard work and dedication. Alas John has succumbed to the financial needs which press on all of us, and is off to fulfil those needs.
It looks like RiotACT’s future is going to be similar to its past. Not for profit, volunteer driven, and leeching off the ABC with the occasional bit of self-inspired brilliance. Sad really. The loss of a decent independent news service.
This does make me wonder one thing though. If RiotACT can’t be profitable, how does Rupert Murdoch expect a pay-for-access lockdown of his online news services to be profitable? Rupert might have more readers, but when more than half the articles on his sites are recycled news agency articles which are freely available elsewhere (heck, Google hosts copies of Associated Press content), a pay-for-access version of his news services would have to be really really special to turn a buck.
The following is stuck on the screen during a Prime TV ad break during Today Tonight.
disappear or kids disappear. Making me disappear and I
Not that I have really been paying much attention to Today Tonight, I have had it on the TV, muted with subtitles while I do other things, and have noticed that some stories have had pockets of live captioning. The stories are all pre-recorded, but there are bits of the stories which weren’t pre-captioned and have been noticeably live-captioned. Very strange, very annoying.
Hugh worked for Channel Nine for 16 years which included a very impressive stint as the anchor of Nightline, before defecting to CNN as a newsreader and Hong Kong correspondent.
