Every now and then an idea strikes me which is so utterly stupid, that it could make a high rating television show. This one occurred to me while I was reading one of Steady Eddie’s Facebook posts where he gives Ten’s new show The 7pm Project a maximum lifespan of three weeks (which, incidentally, is the amount of time I gave Nine’s horrid attempt at reviving Wheel Of Fortune) and noted that it will disappear when Masterchef returns anyway.
As much as I hate cooking shows and wish Masterchef would die, his mention of Masterchef and The 7pm Project in the same sentence gave me an idea.
Chatty news shows seem to struggle to survive outside of morning timeslots, recent examples include The Catch Up on Nine and This Afternoon which was also on Nine, but cooking shows, especially when mixed with a reality format, seem to flourish, so my idea is this.
A chatty news show based in a kitchen, where the hosts are cooking and explaining their cooking while discussing the news issue of the day. Optionally you could have judges who taste the food. Importantly the audience can “vote off” hosts and have them replaced with “contestants”, so eventually the show would be entirely hosted by “regular, ordinary, everyday people” discussing the news of the day whilst cooking. Optionally, prizes could be available to the person who produces the best food each night, as judged by the judges, and for certain lengths of time that each contestant is able to stay on the show without being voted off. The best cook each night should be immune from being voted off that night.
I think it would rate, but I wouldn’t watch it as I’m not a fan of reality game shows or cooking shows (which is probably why it would rate…a lot of shows that I hate, rate really well).
Well that was interesting. Prime lost the Seven feed for a few moments, getting black to air and the test pattern. This was quickly rectified by flicking to an unbranded feed from another source, possibly Fox, which had very different scoreboard graphics and a noticeable lack of the “Seven Sport” logo.
It’s not that I want to inflict fines on regional stations which carried the John Laws show before John retired, but…read the article, and then I’ll make my point.
Radio host John Laws’ persistent flouting of the on-air advertising laws has cost his radio station $360,000, in a judgment by the Federal Court.
Laws had an agreement to tell Radio 2UE (owned by Fairfax Media) about any sponsorship agreement he entered into to advertise products on air in return for payment, but the court found he did not do that on 13 occasions.
[..]
Before the matter came to court, it had been agreed that Radio 2UE would pay the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) an agreed penalty of $10,000 per breach, totalling $130,000.
But the Communications Law Centre intervened in the case, arguing that a higher penalty should be imposed, and in a judgment handed down in the Federal Court on Friday, Justice Steven Rares agreed, imposing penalties totalling $360,000.
The judge said the breaches were of a serious nature, indicating “a significant failure of Radio 2UE to take proper and sufficient steps to ensure that Mr Laws, in fact, complied and continued to comply with the disclosure standard”.
[..]
ACMA welcomed the Federal Court decision, saying 2UE had flouted the Broadcasting Services Act.
“2UE repeatedly breached its obligations under the Act, even after giving the ACMA an enforceable undertaking, committing itself to improve compliance,” ACMA’s acting chairman Chris Cheah said in a statement after the judgment.
“The court has confirmed that in matters involving serious contraventions, a substantial civil penalty is an appropriate sanction.”
The really important line in that article is “2UE had flouted the Broadcasting Services Act”, so what about the other stations which broadcast the Laws show? If John Laws caused 2UE to breach the Broadcasting Services Act on the air, then surely he caused the same thing of the 70 or so stations which took his show…unless of course his breaches were entirely confined to the local ad breaks on 2UE which weren’t broadcast by network stations unless they forgot to kill the network feed during the breaks.
Community radio stations are responsible for ensuring that everything which airs, regardless of its source, complies with the various rules and regulations which govern their existence…commercial radio stations are supposed to be bound by similar rules, yes?
If I’m right, and ACMA decide to go after the regional stations, can you imagine the amount of court time which will be spent on this? “ACMA vs 70 radio stations”, which in turn would be followed by “70 radio stations vs 2UE”, which would almost certainly be followed by “2UE vs John Laws”. A total circus, but a deserved circus…and it would be interesting to see who would win the final case, as that would hinge on whether 2UE had to keep Laws in line, or whether Laws was under obligations to keep 2UE informed.
I’d rather not see the regional stations put through this mess, simply because I worry about how the money spent on legal matters could be better utilised, but I also would like to see this go the full distance just so that the legal precedent is clear and understandable.
The NRL starts at 6:30 tonight, presumably because it’s a double header in Queensland and The Powers That Be want the second game to start at 8:30 rather than 9:30. 2GB and ABC Radio have altered their schedules this week so that they can cover the games…both of them, but what do Channel Nine do? Delay their telecast until 7:30 so that they can run A Current Affair and yet-another-episode of Two And A Half Men (regional audiences don’t see Two And A Half Men due to WIN News).
Would it be so hard to make a little exception for a special event and do what you do during the cricket…delay A Current Affair? Do you not realise that the NRL coverage would kill Today Tonight in the ratings?
Such a shame that I didn’t notice this before 11am, as I would have nominated them for Jerk Of The Week.
You forget what you said when you were interviewed, and only remember the one statement which you wish you hadn’t made. Thankfully that statement isn’t in the trailer of All Talk, and one can hope that it isn’t in the finished product.
All Talk is a documentary by 2CC presenter Mike Welsh and Mike’s former producer (now producing for Ray Hadley at 2GB, if the information on the 2GB site is up-to-date) Michael Thompson, about the people who call talk radio. According to the 2CC website, the documentary is due to be released next month, which is great. Mind you, if it gets delayed, I won’t be surprised, given the number of times I’ve heard the word “soon” used in relation to this documentary.
To give you some idea of how long this documentary has been in the pipeline for…remember that dream I had about people coming to my house and filming green mesh almost two years ago…well that was around the time of filming for this documentary.
In all fairness though, I am aware that there have been a number of setbacks in the production of this documentary, and in many ways I’m impressed that they stuck with it and got this far. I am looking forward to seeing the final result…partially because I’m looking forward to the documentary, and partially because I, for the most part, haven’t got the faintest clue what I said…I just have memories of lots of lights and cameras invading my house around the time of me filling out a form giving permission for it to happen!
And despite the fact that I saw tonight’s episode about a week and a half ago when it was on the Channel Ten website, I’m still eagerly looking forward to watching it tonight…and watching the rest of the season following it.
I hope that the 90 minutes of the cooking show that I can’t stand which precedes Rush will deliver a strong lead-in, and that the ratings are good enough this year for Ten to commission a third season.
So 2CC have a new website again. I’m starting to have trouble keeping up with the almost annual changes to the layout of their website, but I have to admit that I do like the clean and simple design of the new site, even if I don’t understand what everything on there is supposed to do.
Here’s the new site.
The main difference to the front page from my perspective is the “now, next, then, later” box is gone. I’ll miss that box, but considering that each “now, next, then, later” box was a separate image, I can understand why they would get rid of it…any change to the program line-up would have meant editing at least four images. The “what’s happening at the station” box has been given a more prominent spot, and the “listen live” links are also much more prominent, as are 2CC’s latest podcasts which are also now easier to play, as the page for each podcast has a Flash MP3 player on it.
The right-side bar is interesting, as under the opinion poll box they have a weather and stock market box.
I like these, but I haven’t got the faintest clue what the dropdown box on the stock market report is supposed to do. I tried the various options and couldn’t see any difference. I’m sure that it has a function…it’s just not obvious to me. I could ask what it does (I think I will, and report back), but unless it’s blindingly obvious and I’m just thick, it could probably use some kind of description on the page. Other than that, I think it’s great, especially if the aim is to get people to use the 2CC website as their homepage. Update: I have been informed that the menu relates to how many stocks the graph compares at any given time. If you enter some stocks in to the box next to the menu, they will be graphed. Quite a nifty little feature. End Update
Another improvement is the presenter menu. It easily fits on one screen now rather than stretching to well below the bottom of the screen.
And the presenter page looks good too, having dismissed the 2UE photo backgrounds and only kept the heads of the presenters.
Also of some interest is the fact that the Tradies Post ads have a much more prominent spot and are easier to navigate.
On the whole, I think the new site is great, but there is one thing that I just don’t get. The new site has search engine friendly URLs. For example, Tim Webster’s page on the old site was at http://www.radio2cc.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=32&Itemid=46 and on the new site it’s at http://www.radio2cc.com/presenters/tim-webster.html and yet for some reason, 2cc.net.au is still one giant frame serving up content from radio2cc.com. If it were me, I’d turn one of the domains in to a redirect rather than doing the horrid frame nonsense. I’d move the whole site over to the 2cc.net.au domain and turn radio2cc.com into a redirect to 2cc.net.au (or, if moving the site isn’t viable for whatever reason, do the opposite). It just doesn’t make any sense to me why, now that search engine friendly URLs are in place, they would want to use frames to hide long convoluted URLs from the address bar.
My moratorium on mentioning things which are related specifically to the Capital Radio Network has been lifted for the weekend, for reasons which will become apparent shortly.
I’m glad that it has been lifted, because there are two voice on 2CC this morning that I quite like hearing on the radio. Newsreader Jane Turner who is normally heard on weekdays, and Southern Cross Ten’s presenter on the State Focus program, and former regular presenter on 2CC, Mike Frame. Two voices that I haven’t heard on the same day for a very long time…too long in fact.
This is horrifying. 9:05pm on SBS Two One, a bunch of commentators trying to fall asleep and take everyone else with them:
That could have made the umpire move … but it didn’t
Turn on the ABC Radio coverage only to find them plugging abc.net.au/sport for a good couple of minutes…then they returned to Cardiff, and spend the next five minutes plugging the fact that you can send them emails and text messages, followed by the commentators confusing each other about Twitter.
And I thought Nine’s commentators were bad…
Update: Now that ABC Radio’s commentators (via BBC Radio) have started talking about the cricket again, it is quite clear that they are much better than the commentators on SBS (via Sky TV UK). It’s just a pity that the TV coverage is, as usual for sport covered on TV and radio, behind the radio coverage by a handful of seconds.
Anyhoo, I think I’ll turn the cricket off and watch Godzilla. A good CG monster movie sounds like a good cure for a lack of anything except cricket on television to me.End Update
Further Update: I will, however, give SBS credit for screening the cricket in high definition, and Sky UK credit for having better, and less intrusive, graphics than Nine. End Update
The big question on my mind tonight is whether the 90 minutes series final of Thank God You’re Here on Seven or The Ashes on SBS Two will win the ratings for 7:30pm to 9pm tonight? I’m tipping Thank God You’re Here, and I expect the ratings for The Ashes to pick up later on and definitely win the wee hours. Not that I really care about The Ashes at this stage…a bit later on in the series perhaps.
I was also quite amused to be informed in the first ad break during Thank God You’re Here that Seven will have full coverage of Michael Jackson’s funeral on Wednesday, starting with a special early start to Sunrise at 3am. This only minutes after the extended edition of Today Tonight finished. Somebody schedule a promo for the wrong day?
And every time I see a Hyundai ad with Mark Ferguson, I’m reminded that I wonder if his new contract with Seven will prevent him from appearing on other networks? And if so, at what cost to them? It’s a clause which Nine either forgot or couldn’t afford.
Oh, and I see that the Sci Fi Channel has changed name to the SyFy Channel (thanks to Casey Hendrickson for the tipoff). Stupid name change and a half, and they get to sit in my bad books for a while for cancelling Stargate Atlantis at the end of Series Five when it was really hitting its stride.
Having just seen Terminator 4 at the Dendy Cinema in Civic, I feel compelled to review it.
The one word review: Brilliant.
The slightly more wordy review: An excruciatingly slow start which makes you wonder if there will ever be a plot, but the slow start really builds the post-apocalyptic atmosphere of confusion and pure survival extremely well, and leads in to a great middle, and brilliant end.
Best of all, it seems to completely skip the fact that there was a third Terminator movie (eg. T3’s story is entirely optional in the grand scheme of things, which is great because it was a shocker of a film).
Sequel likely. I give it five stars (he said, digging around for that star graphic)
There have been, like there’s a story today on the front page of the “Sunday Telegraph” and there’s been a number of them and almost all of these stories that we’ve gone away and checked out have been either inaccurate or not correct.
Yes, the stories are either inaccurate or not correct.
Meanwhile Mark also put on his psychologist hat during the interview, and came up with this pearler:
We’re going to create on the ground and the productivity gains that the country’s going to get.
I mean this is, to sort of question our intentions, [is] just – crazy
Mark, I have a job for you. There’s this bloke over in the US who talks to the media every day…sends them to sleep, uses the word “um” as every third word, and rarely has the faintest clue what’s going on. His name is Robert Gibbs, and he is the White House Press Secretary. I’d like you to take over his job. You make just as much sense, and with an attitude of “questioning our intentions is crazy”, you’d fit right in to the Obama White House.
Nine newsreader Mark Ferguson has quit Channel Nine, and will be defecting to Channel Seven to read weekend news.
Ferguson had been in contract negotiations with Nine over the past few weeks, but has decided not to stay on at the station.
The move comes as little surprise to many, after Ferguson was punted from his weekday 6pm newsreading slot to the weekend, to make way for 60 Minutes journalist Peter Overton.
The axing reportedly left Ferguson furious.
For Nine, the shift didn’t prove to be a smart tactic – the one time news leader experienced a sharp decline in the ratings.
Ferguson had been presented as the face of Nine’s new This Afternoon news program, which debuted only this week.
His departure leaves Andrew Daddo and Katrina Blowers as the remaining hosts.
[..]
Ferguson’s shift to Seven raises questions about the future of [Seven’s] current newsreading line-up.
Rumours have been rife for some time that veteran reader Ian Ross is on the verge of retirement, with the popular Chris Bath set to take his place.
This would leave weekends for Ferguson.
Neither Nine nor Seven is commenting officially at this stage, although LIVENEWS.com.au sources have confirmed that the move is occuring.
Apologies for the quality of the text…it looks like somebody at livenews forgot to use a spellchecker.
I’m surprised that Mark would jump ship less than a week in to being “the news guy” on Nine’s new afternoon show, but to the same extent, he has every right to be annoyed with them. He was doing pretty well in the 6pm slot, was dumped on a whim, and has been shuffled between weekends, the Today show and weekday afternoons since. His body clock must be confused by now, and if Seven are promising to treat him better, then more power to him and them.
Mark is, in my opinion, the best television newsreader in the state. I wish him (not that I think he needs it) the best of luck at Channel Seven.
2QN in Deniliquin is now back on the air after a wind gust during a storm knocked over their transmission tower yesterday.
The station went off the air at about 4pm yesterday, and was returned to the airwaves this afternoon at around 2pm. According to a staff member’s Facebook messages, 2QN’s sister station Classic Rock was also taken off the air in the incident.
Other reports say that power in Deniliquin was restored this afternoon, after being lost in yesterday’s storm.
File photos of the 2QN Transmitter site, taken on the 10th of March
This has been a good first show, although perhaps a bit over the top with the orange.
Good luck for the future.
Regards, Samuel Gordon-Stewart Canberra
Update: Actually, Andrew seemed a bit clunky to start with today but got better as the show went on. I was amused by the sign off though…Andrew being drowned out by music, Katrina saying “good night” followed by Andrew saying “good afternoon” and then before the microphones were muted, Mark Ferguson having a go at them for it.
If the show can pick up a bit in the coming weeks, I’d like to see it extended to 6pm, and Millionaire Hot Seat bumped to an evening timeslot. 7pm (the old Sale Of The Century/Temptation timeslot) would be good, but only if WIN will replace one of those infernal 7:30pm screenings of “Two And A Half Men” with Hot Seat. Seriously, Two And A Half Men has become the Nine version of The Simpsons on Ten…”We have nothing to show…quick, find a tape of Two and a half men!”. It’s an entertaining show, but it’s on far too often.
There have been, like there’s a story today on the front page of the “Sunday Telegraph” and there’s been a number of them and almost all of these stories that we’ve gone away and checked out have been either inaccurate or not correct.
