Rush Limbaugh has a link to a story on Sweetness and Light placed at the top of his website, and then asks his listeners to visit his website and click on the link.
It’s a good thing that Rush had a printout of the story to read to his audience, because the website didn’t last long once everyone started trying to visit it. It’s only just starting to recover now, fifteen minutes later.
Update: OK, so maybe “recover” was the wrong word. I can occasionally get the page title to load…nothing else though. End Update
Further Update: Half an hour later, Rush notes that Sweetness and Light is being “bombarded” and gets the key images of the story republished on his own site. End Update
[..] the matter is unlikely to wind up in court. Mitchell told Green Guide that Laws left an apology on his answering machine the afternoon of the incident.
‘‘He said, ‘Please pass my apologies to Neil, I might have overreacted’, which was a very decent thing to do. And I left a message on his machine saying, ‘Thanks for the message, appreciate it’. It’s all over, as far as I’m concerned.’’
Who would have thought that the answering machine would become the modern-day equivalent of the legal secretary?
In Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide, bits of the CBD are being taken over by the collective breakfast teams of numerous radio stations, both commercial and government owned. Community Radio is not involved in the event.
Sydney’s event, in Martin Place, has lost three of its biggest names, with 2GB’s Alan Jones off sick (although Alan was never going to be there, it was going to be Jason Morrison on-site crossing to Alan in the studio. Jason will now be hosting the show from Martin Place as he continues to fill-in for Alan) and the two unmentionables from 2DAY FM who are “in recess”.
The full list of stations and places running their breakfast shows from a central location for today’s publicity stunt are as follows:
Sydney – Martin Place
2SM, MMM, 2DAY FM, Vega, 2GB, 2CH, Sky Sports Radio (known, until recently, as 2KY), 2UE, Nova, SBS, ABC Local Radio, The Edge (digital-only station).
Melbourne – Federation Square
3MP, Magic, Fox, SEN, 3AW, Nova, Vega, MMM, SBS, The Edge, ABC Local Radio, Sport 927.
Brisbane – Reddacliff Place
4BC, 4KQ, MMM, B105, Nova, 4BH, ABC Local Radio, RadioTAB.
Adelaide – Victoria Square
FIVEaa, SAFM, Cruise, ABC Local Radio, MMM, Nova.
Perth – Forrest Place
Mix, 92.9 (Austereo station), Nova, 6PR, 96fm, 6IX, ABC Local Radio.
If I didn’t have many other things to do, and if Alan Jones was going to be there, I’d probably make my way up to Sydney. As it happens though, I’m sure there will be enough people turning up to see their favourite radio presenters without me being there as well.
Channel Nine’s new youth-oriented digital station “Go!” just appeared on my television’s station list. At the moment it’s just a static screen with a music bed and a looped voiceover reading the on-screen text in a faked “I’m a young person with a slight British accent” voice.
Hopefully the station’s content is better than this.
A defamation case taken out against Macquarie Radio by Islamic Friendship Association spokesman Keysar Trad has been dismissed, with the Supreme court judge finding he has racist views.
Two years ago it was ruled 2GB radio broadcaster Jason Morrison had defamed Mr Trad when he labelled him “gutless” and “disgraceful and dangerous” following a speech Mr Trad made over the 2005 Cronulla riots.
A Supreme Court jury found in Mr Trad’s favour.
But the jury’s decision has been effectively quashed by today’s judgement from Justice Peter McClellan.
Justice McClellan ruled that the case should be dismissed, after lawyers for 2GB argued that information claimed to be defamatory was in fact true.
[..]
“I’m satisfied that the plaintiff does hold views which can properly be described as racist.
“I’m also satisfied that he encourages others to hold those views. In particular he holds views derogatory of Jewish people.
“The views which he holds would not be acceptable to most right-thinking Australians,” Justice McClellan’s judgment said.
[..]
Mr Morrison said it is a relief the matter has finally been resolved.
“I was very pleasantly surprised. These things are tough,” he said.
“This has been hanging over me and this radio station for four years and it’s not a particularly nice assertion that’s been made, so I was very relieved at the judge’s decision.”
Reporter: How ironic do you find it that a judge has now said in black and white that he’s [Keysar Trad] racist?
Jason Morrison: Oh, look, that for me wasn’t what it was about. I was responding to an attack on this radio station, on its broadcasters, on a quiet campaign that was out there trying to imply that we were responsible for things, and I responded to the attack. I mean some things you’ve gotta stand up for, some things you can’t just let be said, and you can’t just sort of assume that people will go and find out for themselves what the truth of the whole matter is. So you can push and push and push as much as you like and this time we just fired back.
Reporter: What sort of future do you think Mr. Trad has for him now in terms of his credibility, in terms of speaking with the media and as a representation of his…as a representative of his community?
Jason Morrison: Well I think that’s actually an issue for the press frankly. You make the judgement. You make the judgement if you think, based on that [the justice’s] judgement, that he should be continuing to be a spokesman for the community as he’s often portrayed. That’s your decision, not mine.
Reporter: From 2GB’s point of view, do you think 2GB will be using him as a spokesperson?
Jason Morrison: I don’t answer for 2GB but I answer for me, and I won’t be.
What I find most extraordinary about this though, is that the justice appears to have given Keysar Trad more of a serve than Jason ever did.
From here I hope that the appeal which Trad’s lawyers seem keen on doesn’t eventuate, and that this ridiculously unfair episode which Jason has had the misfortune of having to deal with, can be closed.
A quite extraordinarily bizarre exchange between 3AW Morning Show host Neil Mitchell and retired 2UE Morning Show host John Laws, this morning on Neil’s show.
[audio:https://samuelgordonstewart.com/wp-content/NeilMitchellVJohnLaws20090730.mp3] Download MP3 Audio courtesy of Crikey and copyright 3AW/Fairfax Radio Network.
Lawsie had a great career, but I seriously think he has gone a bit peculiar in his retirement, and I’m forced to wonder what possessed him to ring Neil…is he paying Media Monitors to alert him to mentions of himself? Or has “The Princess” merely grown weary of him talking to her instead of the country (as he said he would when he retired) and so he felt the need to call the most listened to show in Victoria?
I feel for Neil Mitchell who quite understandably had absolutely no idea what that was all about, or what John’s point was. I’m not convinced that John had any idea what his point was either. Perhaps that was the point…perhaps John was fulfilling a bet that he could still have his say, regardless of how trivial, on the radio and get the media interested in it. Today Tonight certainly were interested in it.
Congratulations John…now please go back to your retirement until you can be sensible. We both know that you’re a lot smarter than what you let on in that stupid exchange…you’re not doing yourself any favours.
And if you’re going to sue Neil, include me in your lawsuit would you? You have about as much chance of winning a lawsuit against me as you do against him.
First filed 3:02am
About half an hour ago I had the great pleasure of discussing government healthcare with Rush Limbaugh. It took half an hour of hitting “redial” and hearing two “this is not a free call” announcement per call to get through, but it was well worth it.
I took the decision yesterday that I had to call Rush regardless of how long it took to get through, after hearing him talking about the Obama administration’s proposed healthcare payment bundling for doctors…the similar bulk billing scheme has been such a massive success (sarcasm, if you hadn’t noticed) in Australia that I needed to draw the comparisons.
Many, many thanks to Rush’s staff for making me the first caller of the day.
I’ll grab the audio for you later, after it gets podcasted.
Update 5:42am: OK, here we go with audio. First though, one of the interesting things about being on a show with an estimated minimum audience of 14.75 million people (Talkers Magazine, based on Arbitron ratings data) is that people react. I’ve had some reaction on Facebook which has been great (I’ve never had a program director comment on one of my calls to talk radio before) and I’ve also been interested by some of the other reactions. “usazombie” on Twitter summed up my call thusly:
guy from au called rush Limbaugh and said things suck in au too
Well, sorta…close enough. The deranged people over at Media Matters who dedicate multiple people to scrutinising and commenting on every single second of the Limbaugh show in some bizarre effort to discredit him, declared me to be an “Aussie gentleman“…I was hoping for worse.
Rush took a call from an Aussie gentleman who said that Obama’s health care payment proposal sounds similar to the system they have in Australia, which is a mess. Wherever in the world socialism and liberalism has been tried, it hasn’t worked, said Rush, who asked if the caller can say with any knowledge whether Australian doctors are refusing to treat Medicaid patients. The caller said they’re not refusing treatment, they’re just opting out of the payment system. Rush said he has a friend in Australia right now who sent him this story about aborigines crashing a Wilderness Society party, which Rush said is just hilarious. The caller said it’s not just the aborigines who are upset with the Wilderness Society, a lot of people hate them because they’re shutting down the economy. Obama is doing the same thing here, said Rush. The caller wrapped things up by expressing his hope that the U.S. government follows Australia’s lead and doesn’t impose cap-and-trade. Rush said Harry Reid is trying to get it passed as part of the health care bill. It’s one of those things where they propose an amendment on Friday afternoon and have no debate. They’re going to try and get this done without anyone knowing about it because they know it’s in trouble.
One more break and Rush was back with a correction — it’s not cap-and-trade that they’re trying to sneak into the health care bill, it’s card check.
As deranged as Media Matters may be, they do provide a useful service just in case I need to check back over what day and time it was that Rush said something or referred to a story, long after the archives have disappeared from Rush’s site. At least they aren’t wasting their efforts entirely.
Anyhoo, without further ado, here’s my call to Rush. I’ve included the full segment as I think it leads in to the call quite nicely. If you want to skip ahead to the call, it starts at one minute and twenty seconds.
[audio:https://samuelgordonstewart.com/wp-content/SamuelOnRushLimbaugh20090729.mp3] Download MP3 Audio courtesy of, and copyright to, The Rush Limbaugh Show and Premiere Radio Networks
Further to the recent story about changes to the 2GB evening lineup, word reaches me that Prue Macsween is about to get her own show on 2GB, weekdays between 7pm and 8pm.
Apparently Prue has bought the timeslot, and will on-sell it to the clients of her media agency. This would explain Prue’s appearance on the presenters list on 2GB’s website a few years ago. MediaSpy are running the story as speculation, saying that she will be running a “small business show”. They’re calling it speculation…I have reason to believe that my source knows that the story is fact.
This also means that Luke Bona’s 7pm-8pm show which was recently halved to make room for an Alan Jones and Ray Hadley highlights show (see linked story above) will now get the axe.
Now, moving on to speculation, based on the Pyrmont bunker rumour mill. Brian Wilshire’s show to be extended to 1am, making it a 9pm-1am show. Andrew Moore’s show to start at 3am instead of 3:30am, making it a 3am-5am show, and the David Oldfield show to be dumped…presumably to be replaced by more highlights shows, as mooted in newspapers earlier in the year (I think it was the Daily Telegraph which came up with that one, can’t be sure though).
The first episode of the revamped 9pm, once-per-week version of The Bill has aired in the UK. Here’s the first two minutes or so of the first episode.
I watched the new opening titles on their own before I saw this video, and I wasn’t keen on the new titles or theme music at all, but after seeing it in context, I think it works well, on the proviso that they keep the new formula of putting a scene before the titles.
As for the background music…not really sure. It seems to work in the background, but it’s one of those elements that you have to keep once you put it there, otherwise it sounds like something is missing. I think the background music will work as long as it stays in the background as it has, and doesn’t take over like it does in some episode of Rush.
Without a doubt though, I will miss the old (current here in Australia) theme.
According to calculations on MediaSpy, Australia should see the new episodes in late October or early November.
The story of what will happen to people at 2UE. This week’s version, according to The Daily Telegraph, is that Steve Price and John Stanley will face the axe, Mike Carlton will move to a different timeslot, and Ben Fordham will replace Mike Carlton on breakfast.
2UE boss Graham Mott’s response? “I’m not going to respond to speculation.”
Probably not a bad response…if he responded to speculation, he’s never get the Tele and the Herald off his back…or other stations pretending to be the Tele and Herald for that matter.
When it comes to breakfast, I think they’re facing the same problem Seven News faced when Brian Henderson was anchoring Nine News…you just can’t beat ’em. Alan Jones is the Brian Henderson of breakfast radio. 2UE need to wait until Jones retires before making a move…although if they want to drop Carlton and his massive salary in the meantime to cut costs, they will get no argument from me. I’m not much of a Ben Fordham fan, but I’d much rather hear him than Mike Carlton any day.
There is one thing about all of this which I just don’t get though…why hasn’t the Tele or Herald asked 2UE’s Sunday night psychic Sharyn about this yet? Credible or not, her responses would make a great story.
The internet’s down…well that would explain why the main Windows Media webstream is down. The RealPlayer one is working fine though. Just thought you’d like to know.
Boy oh boy did I have a shocker of a night on Saturday night. That knock-on try I emailed you about was the highlight as my beloved doggies got thrashed in both the AFL and NRL. It’s a good thing The Bill was on to give me some respite!
I hope Archie gets better soon.
Best wishes,
Samuel Gordon-Stewart
Canberra
And as soon as I hit “send”, the Real Player stream dies. I’m gonna hold on to this one for the next time I’m told not to mention on-air that the Internet had gone down at radio stations I’m working at, because “it makes them sound really small”. If anything, I think it adds to the listeners’ experience and makes the whole thing just that bit more entertaining.
2CC and 2CA are on the lookout for a new senior journalist, which sadly means that Jane Turner (who is, in my opinion, Canberra’s best newsreader) is leaving. I would like to see Jane take over the anchor role on WIN News, but alas she isn’t sticking around this fair city. I will miss Jane’s dulcet tones and professionalism, as well as her wit which was evident when conversing with program hosts.
I wish Jane the best of luck for the future.
Anyhoo, in Jane’s absence, the following needs to be filled:
Senior Journalist
The Capital Radio Newsroom is searching for someone to manage and lead our news team.
The successful applicant will lead a full-time team of 3 and require the following:
Previous experience in managing a newsroom or at least 5 years news experience.
Outstanding people skills and be able to manage and direct news staff in a competitive market.
Strong presentation and writing skills.
A passion for news and be across local, national and international issues.
To be able to communicate with our audience via our talk station and adult music station.
This is a rare opportunity to join our group at a senior level.
If you have a passion for news and for making great radio, send your CV, demo in MP3 format and cover note outlining your news experience to:
Peter Davidson
Program Director
Talking Canberra 1206 2CC
I just listened to all of Andrew Moore’s new “Wake Up Sydney” show on 2GB and I have to say that I like the idea of the format, but it needs a bit of work before it can reach its potential.
Traditionally, overnight talk radio is a combination of very long shifts and lengthy conversations with callers. This works well to the extent that not a lot of people are listening overnight, and those that are tend to like the more intimate and detailed nature of the shows, however it suffers from the problem of the shows just being too long, making it far too easy for audiences to switch off.
Andrew’s new show strikes me as an attempt to revive the 3am “dead hour” in which calls tend to be scarce, resulting in long rambling conversations just to keep the interactivity going, by running a fast paced news oriented show where listener interaction isn’t crucial, but certainly helpful. The show appears to be aimed at people who start work early in the morning (presumably people starting work between 4am and 5am) who probably don’t have much time to call in, but would like to hear about what’s going on in the world rather than hear a caller rambling about something (not that all 3am talkback radio callers do that…but the 3am to 5am talkback block does tend to invoke a lot of “mildly incomprehensible calls about not much”, with the calibre of call starting to pick up from around 4:30.
I was impressed with Andrew’s show, especially the “remember when” segment where he chatted with 2GB’s “Money News” host Ross Greenwood about the history of ATMs and life before the ATM (I reckon that segment was pre-recorded…but only because I doubt that Ross would have woken up to chat about ATMs at 3:40…it did sound live though), and the two interviews on the subject of the Jakarta bombing. Between these segments Andrew probably read half of the AAP Newswire, a handful of emails, and took two or three calls (I have the honour of being the first caller to the show, which is a bit like having the honour of being the first person to set off the theft detector at Big W in Civic, although the latter was accidental).
The faster format does make the lower amount of interactivity very noticeable though, especially straight after a slower, more traditional overnight show. They probably both have the same amount of callers and emailers, but the faster format, at that hour at least, does make it feel like the host is carrying the show and filling time a bit with some of those news stories, as the listener contributions aren’t dwelled upon as they would be in a slower format. (Sorry, dense sentence, I’m tired and just want to make my point).
Ultimately I think the format has merit and is an interesting break from the traditional overnight show, and it will probably appeal to people who are waking up that early. I think it probably needs an extra interview or segment on standby to break the “newsreader audition” feel that bits of the show have, but with weekdays available to pre-record bits and pieces, I don’t think that will pose a problem. And to the same extent, a slightly news story heavy show on Mondays would be a good lead-out for the weekend…I just don’t think it will work every day of the week. Perhaps the solution is to have Harley Carnes and Adam Gilchrist (breakfast show US and UK correspondents respectively) on the show on a rotating basis?
Anyway, I liked the show. I think it, like any new format, needs a bit of ironing out, but I think 2GB have a winning format here…I just pity Andrew having to start work in the very small hours of the morning so that he is prepared for a 3:30 on-air start, and then having to back up with sport news on the breakfast show. Starting work at 3am or so for a breakfast show is bad enough, but starting at 1am or thereabouts is something which I would prefer to not think about.
Wake Up Sydney with Andrew Moore can be heard from 3:30am to 5am on 2GB
