Samuel's Blog

Staying an extra week

My stay in Deniliquin has been extended by a week. I will be on news duties for 2QN and Classic Rock next week, and will continue to do breakfast on 2QN this week.

Samuel

May 19th, 2009 at 02:08pm

Song request

I received a request for a song this morning on 2QN and, seeing as I had a bit of time and the song was a more appropriate length than one of the others in the log, I decided to run it. Had I recognised the song from the title, I would have played it and made the rest of the hour fit around it.

The song was “What’s Up” by Four Non Blondes. It’s a song which aired the last time I was in Deni and wanted to jot down the title and artist, but I didn’t get a chance to check the log and promptly forgot about it until today.

I was very pleased to hear the song, and I have now purchased a copy from iTunes.

On a related note, three brick bats to the Universal Music Group. I am becoming increasingly frustrated by their policy of disabling the embedding of YouTube videos of music to which they own the rights. I wanted to embed the song here for your reference, but the only embeddable version I can find in a hurry is a techno remix of the song…all of the videos of the original song (not live versions) that I’ve found have embedding disabled. I have noticed that many YouTube videos have recently started to carry ads over the video with a link to iTunes to purchase the song…so one wonders why Universal are cutting off a potential revenue stream. I’m sure that, if you don’t know the song, you would be much more likely to watch a video of it on this website than you would be to go to YouTube and find a video of it.

I’m sure Universal have their reasons, but as far as I’m concerned, embeddable videos of music are a great promotional tool for music companies. The whole idea of disabling the embedding of music videos is just nuts.

I’m on a roll here, so Universal Music Group, have another couple of brickbats!

Samuel

3 comments May 18th, 2009 at 10:15pm

A slight change of plans for the week

There has been a change of plans for the coming week. I was going to be producing and presenting the local news on 2QN and Classic Rock, however this is no longer the case. Instead, due to a staff illness, another fill-in journalist will present and produce the local news, and I will be hosting breakfast on 2QN.

I have to admit that I am a tad excited as this is my first on-air shift in commercial radio. This should be fun.

At this stage I’m not sure if I will be posting news headlines on this blog.

Samuel

6 comments May 16th, 2009 at 02:59pm

Fairfax Syndication Outage

Looks like the Fairfax Syndication operation is currently kaput. I noticed that Tim Webster’s show was unlistenable to due to satellite issues (partial words interspersed with odd noises and silence) and that 2CC fell back on the 2UE webstream. Currently they’re taking the rugby league off 2GB’s webstream as far as I can tell…sounds great, but it causes me to fiddle with delaying the television coverage to keep the commentary in sync (it’s roughly a 20 second delay).

Fairfax Syndication’s technical website is not very optimistic, having the current message:

15 May 2009 – 19:58:00

Please note the current system outage is more serious than first thought. Unfortunately we cannot give an estimate when normal services will resume. Please check this website. News is available from Digital Courier.

With Medispy currently off the air due to scheduled maintenance, I’m in the dark as to what other stations are doing…but one does have to wonder if Macquarie (2GB) News is being made available by Digital Courier, or just Fairfax News. 2GB do put Macquarie News on livenews.com.au at about twenty past the hour, but that’s not quite as useful as live (or thereabouts) news. That might explain why the 7pm Macquarie news did not contain any timecalls though.

Further updates as information comes to hand.

Update 8:43pm: The rugby league is back on the satellite with just the slightest hint of the dreaded underwater bubbling noises which so often are a part of the Fairfax failures. Once can only assume that other programming (AFL etc) is back as well…Friday night must be an awful time for such failures with all the live sport coverage. Fairfax’s website hasn’t noticed that services are online again.End Update

Update 9:11pm: Update from Fairfax:

Please note that 99% of services have been restored. You still may receive an occasional, minor audio glitch, but all programs are available. We will continue to work on the problem until service is restored to 100%.

End Update

Samuel

May 15th, 2009 at 08:14pm

July 18

If I have a car of my own by then, I know exactly where I’ll be on Saturday July 18.

Ray Hadley and the Continuous Call Team – consisting of league Immortal Bob ‘Bozo’ Fulton, Darryl ‘The Big Marn’ Brohman and Steve ‘Blocker’ Roach – have informally adopted the Binalong Brahmans rugby league team.

In an off-the-cuff radio announcement last week, Hadley – 2GB morning presenter and leader of the weekend rugby league panel the Continuous Call – said he’d taken an interest in how the Brahmans were travelling and would bring the team out to Binalong to broadcast the game against arch-rivals Harden on July 18.

I was too tired on the day to go to Singleton when they visited the wife carrying championships last year, and had no transport for it this year. I have something to work towards, although I’m not convinced that I’ll be able to get there.

Thanks to The Right Aussie for the tipoff.

Samuel

May 11th, 2009 at 03:52pm

3AW Technical Issues

3AW seem to be having trouble with their tieline link to their commentary team at the AFL this afternoon, as it has dropped out multiple times this afternoon. They’re lucky that 5AA Adelaide (who regularly relay 3AW’s coverage) have their own commentary team out there today because AW are using AA as their backup team.

Current outage over five minutes duration, one wonders how many extra sponsor mentions they will have to fit in to the next quarter if they even get the link back.

Update: 3AW’s commentary team were back online for the half time wrap, but Rex Hunt was audibly ranting at somebody on the phone in the background. Now for the second half they’ve decided to stay with 5AA’s biased coverage. End Update

Update 2:37pm: Somebody told 5AA that 3AW’s commentary team will be back on-deck shortly. I hope they were right. End Update

Update 3:48pm: Full time, and still no sign of the 3AW commentary team…and it only took 5AA until very late in the final quarter to concede that Adelaide’s opponents might just be worthy winners. End Update

Samuel

May 10th, 2009 at 02:07pm

Drunk or not, that was one of Karl’s best performances

You’ve probably heard the news about Karl Stefanovic on the Today show on Monday morning. Following on from a late night at the Logies, Karl had his usual early start on the Today show, but was somewhat more happy and spontaneous than usual, prompting speculation that he was drunk at the time.

Having watched both the Today Tonight story, and further raw footage over at livenews.com.au, I have to say that I believe Karl’s statement that he was not drunk, merely tired, as I don’t think there was enough slurring for him to be drunk…in fact I’m finding it hard to find any slurring.

Perhaps Karl downed a dozen cups of coffee…regardless of the cause, I thought Karl’s performance was well above his normal standard, and is well worth repeating, even if slightly toned down. Happy and spontaneous Karl is much more interesting than normal Karl, especially at 6am.

Livenews.com.au have some raw footage at http://livenews.com.au/entertainment/stefanovic-apologises-for-postlogies-today/2009/5/6/205461 but I can’t find a way to embed it here.

Samuel

5 comments May 7th, 2009 at 10:46pm

On today’s 1WAY FM morning show

ACT Treasurer and Deputy Chief Minister Katy Gallagher at 9:20 to talk about the ACT budget.
More on the ACT Infrastructure Tax being passed on to customers by Telstra.
The spammers are adapting their messages for the rising unemployment levels.
Maritz baked yesterday’s food with a slight modification…and some sentence which doesn’t make any sense.
A quiz or two.
And more.

The 1WAY FM morning show: 9am-11:30am on Canberra’s 91.9 and 94.3, 1WAY FM.

Samuel

May 7th, 2009 at 08:00am

On the 1WAY FM morning show…

A look at the ACT budget.
Julianne Thomas from Newsradio 840 KXNT on the US activist group ACORN being charged with voter enrolment fraud at approximately 9:30.
Savanth Sebastian, CommSec economist talking about interest rates (and hopefully a comment about budgets and the economic crisis) at approximately 10:30.
An email from Maritz who seems to be confused by television cooking shows.
Telstra decide to pass on the cost of the ACT Government’s “Network Facilities Tax”.
And lots more.

The morning show: 9am-11:30am on Canberra’s 91.9 and 94.3 1WAY FM

Samuel

1 comment May 6th, 2009 at 08:00am

Weather Channel radio reports extending to Australia now

I just noticed what appears to be a new addition to the service lineup on the Fairfax Syndication website: state based weather forecasts from The Weather Channel.

The service is aimed at automated radio stations, with three weather bulletins being provided for each state per day. The service is similar to a well-established service run by the US version of The Weather Channel where they provide individual radio stations with forecasts relevant to their broadcast area which stations then add to their schedule. KXNT Las Vegas are a good example of this, as they receive multiple updates per day from The Weather Channel, and have their newsreader provide the current temperatures at the end of the forecast:
[audio:https://samuelgordonstewart.com/wp-content/KXNTWeatherExample.mp3]
Download MP3

Whilst KXNT do this in a live environment, I can see how this would work perfectly in an automated environment where a local presenter could record a bunch of temperature announcements and the automation could play the relevant temperature announcement straight after the Weather Channel forecast. The only issue I see with this Australian version though is that, with the exception of the ACT, a state/territory forecast is not going to be very locally relevant, and wouldn’t be an ideal replacement for the local forecast.

It will be interesting to see how many stations pick up this service, and how they use it. I can only assume that, at some future stage, more specific forecasts will be available by request as the service probably won’t have a high adoption rate otherwise.

Samuel

May 5th, 2009 at 12:54pm

Alan Jones on ACA

As easily predicted yesterday morning, Alan Jones was all over the television last night. On the Nine network he was featured briefly on Nine News, and then got a lengthy story dedicated to his return on A Current Affair prepared, ironically, by 2UE fill-in Ben Fordham.

Apologies for not posting this sooner. I had little time to do anything this morning before co-hosting breakfast with James Scott on 1WAY FM. The plan at this stage is to co-host breakfast for the rest of the week and to host the morning shift tomorrow and Thursday.

Samuel

May 5th, 2009 at 11:39am

Another distinctive voice of racing hangs up the binoculars

Ian Craig is retiring. It was bound to happen eventually, but it is sad to see the various voices of racing disappearing.

AFTER 45 years entertaining the racing world with his dulcet tones and classic calling Ian Craig has announced his retirement.

Craig, the longest serving fulltime racecaller in Australia, said the decision to hang up his binoculars was quite an easy one.

“I have been planning to pull the pin for some time now,” Craig said.
[..]
“I have called 35 Golden Slippers and AJC Derbys and thought the time was right to hang up the 10-by-50s.”

Craig, 67, started at 2UE in 1965 before moving to 2KY in 1968. He will call his final race meeting at Gosford on June 24.

He could not single out one performance as a career highlight but rates Kingston Town, Luskin Star, Sunline and Octagonal among the best thoroughbreds he has called.

One wonders who will fill Ian’s shoes for Sky Channel and 2KY. Regardless of who it is, I get the distinct feeling that the days of “personalities” calling races are all but over.

Samuel

Image courtesy Racing And Sports

3 comments May 4th, 2009 at 05:00pm

AAP endangering people by editing out useful descriptions

Not only are AAP not including mugshots in their stories, they’re also leaving out vital bits of identifying information.

Police are warning the public to stay away from four prisoners on the run after escaping from a Parramatta jail.
[..]
John Harris, 18, and three 19-year-olds named Ricky Kincheila, Isaac Haines and Jay Williams are described as being of Aboriginal appearance, while Harris has the name ‘Lauren’ tattooed on the left side of his chest.

So anyone reading or hearing an AAP based report of this story is left guessing as to what most of the escapees look like, and can only identify one of them if he isn’t wearing a shirt…great!

Effectively the message AAP are spreading here is “beware of teenage Aboriginal people”.

The New South Wales Police press release is much more helpful, but it’s sad that people have to dig for the information which the Police have released in an effort to protect the public:

*** Editor’s note: Images of the four men are available by contacting the Police Media Unit on (02) 8263 6100. ***
[..]
The first escaped man is 18-year-old John Harris who is described as being of Aboriginal appearance, with a dark complexion. He is approximately 180cm tall, thin build and brown eyes. He also has a tattoo of the name “Lauren” across his chest.

The second man is 19-year-old Ricky Kincheila who is described as being of Aboriginal appearance, with a light complexion. He is approximately 178cm tall and of medium build. He has brown hair, brown eyes and a beard and moustache.

The third man is 19-year-old Issac Haines who is described as being of Aboriginal appearance, with a light tanned complexion. He is approximately 190cm tall with a thin build. He has black hair and brown eyes.

The fourth man is 19-year-old Jay Williams who is described as being of Aboriginal appearance. He is approximately 175cm tall, medium build with black hair and brown eyes.

AAP, I know that lengthy descriptions don’t make for exciting copy, but some things are more important than that. This is one of them.

Samuel

May 4th, 2009 at 11:13am

Rush Limbaugh is Time Magzine’s 38th most influential person of the year

I note that Rush Limbaugh, the most listened to radio host in America, heard by approximately 13.5 million people on 590 radio stations, has made his way on to Time Magazine’s “Time 100” list of the world’s most influential people, apparently in position number 38 (although I can’t find an in-order list of the people, just category listings).

Rush’s entry in the listing is written by fellow broadcaster Glenn Beck:

When Rush wants to talk to America, all he has to do is grab his microphone.

He attracts more listeners with just his voice than the rest of us could ever imagine. He is simply on another level.
[..]
Rush, 58, saved the spoken-word radio format from obscurity and paved the way for thousands of broadcasters, including myself. His career serves as the most successful stimulus package in radio history. All without a government dime.

Knowing firsthand just how hard it is to hold an audience’s attention for a few hours makes it that much more amazing to have seen Rush do it for more than 20 years. To say that he has set the standard for success in broadcasting would truly be an understatement.

Barack and Michelle Obama also made the list (the former I understand, the latter, other than people furnishing their wardrobes based on what she wears, I don’t), and I find it interesting that Sarah Palin made the list, but John McCain did not. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, Sarah needs to run for president again.

Time’s full list (complete with category headings) can be found on their website.

Samuel

3 comments May 3rd, 2009 at 06:02am

Mike Jeffreys explains his sacking from 2CC

According to Mike, 2CC have wanted to replace him with Mark Parton since November (which squares with a few rumours which have floated across my desk…that is, rumours about various people at 2CC wanting to get rid of Jeffreys, not rumours about wanting to replace him with Mark Parton. RiotACT got the scoop on that rumour).

Mike responds to a few rumours in his blog post:

It was my choice to leave. Not true. I was called in to the manager’s office last Friday, told I was sacked and asked to return my door key then and there. It was a very brief conversation and came completely without warning.

It was about the ratings. Bullshit. The present breakfast host was on air before and during the most recent ratings period, so any decline in the numbers is as likely to be down to him as me. It may be worth noting that he was on the morning (9am to noon) time slot for an extended period prior to the survey and it really bombed.

It was about the Spalding case. In a way. But it’s the reverse of what has been implied. It’s my belief that if it hadn’t been for the Spalding case I would have been gone back in November as soon as they put Parton on the payroll (RiotACT got it right). But the lawyers told 2CC that success or failure in the case very much depended on my credibility as a witness. With the case out of the way, they fired me.

On the topic of the defamation case, I have to agree with the lawyers. Mike’s comments (for which the station was being sued) were an opinion based on various facts, and a court would have needed to decide whether that opinion was a reasonably held opinion. Mike’s credibility, which in part would have been determined by the support he was shown by the station, would have been a vital aspect in determining the reasonableness of his opinion.

As for Mike’s future, all I can say at this time is “watch this space”, although I would love to be able to say more.

Samuel

1 comment May 2nd, 2009 at 10:48am