Posts filed under 'TV/Radio/Media'
I was reading through some blogs which I haven’t read for a while last night, and found myself quite bewildered and annoyed by a particular blogger who I shan’t name because, quite frankly, I don’t think they deserve a link after annoying me in this manner.
Basically, the blogger in question is in a lather about how he is going to interview Jackie O, co-host of Channel Ten’s Big Brother and 2DAY FM’s breakfast show, both of which she co-hosts with the annoying Kyle Sandilands. He makes two claims which irritate me, the first of which being that 2DAY FM’s breakfast show is the highest rating breakfast radio programme in Sydney. This is blatently false.
In the latest Sydney radio ratings (Survey three, 2008), 2GB’s Alan Jones Breakfast Show is the clear winner, on 15.2%, followed by 2DAY FM on 11.1% and 702 ABC Sydney on 10.1%. The story was the same in Survey 2:
2GB: 16.5%
2DAY FM: 12.3%
702 ABC Sydney: 11.3%
And survey one was quite similar:
2GB: 19.1%
2DAY FM and 702 ABC Sydney: 10.9%
2GB were also the breakfast leader for all eight surveys last year.
The other thing this blogger wrote which annoyed me was a claim that Jackie O is one of the most beautiful women on television. I suppose it doesn’t really annoy me, I just disagree quite strongly. In my opinion, Jackie O tries too hard to look attractive, and I’m not fond of excessive use of makeup to make oneself look attractive. In my opinion, somebody who would truly rank as one of the most beautiful women on television is Channel Nine sport presenter Stephanie Brantz, she also has a great voice.
I remember watching Stephanie on SBS World Sport before it was dumped in favour of an extended and revamped news bulletin, and was then very pleased to see her jump across to Channel Nine. It’s a pity that she didn’t get the proper cricket commentary role that she deserved, but it’s good to see her presenting the sport on Nine News on the weekend. She is a great talent and I’m sure she will be one of Australian television’s star commentators in years to come. Maybe the 2012 London Olympics on Nine will be her big break.
Samuel
May 13th, 2008 at 01:56pm
Mike Welsh, host of 2CC’s Drive Show, filled in for John Kerr this morning on 2UE’s New Day Australia program. I was asleep for most of yesterday and woke up this morning at 1am, I was still half asleep until the wrong report was played (briefly) during the news and then the New Day intro played without a voiceover…for a while I thought somebody was impersonating Welshie as his voice sounded deeper, but then either I woke up properly or his voice returned to normal.
Anyway, Welshie played one of my favourite songs. I’ll run it in the Musician Of The Week award tonight.
Samuel
April 20th, 2008 at 10:08am
Channel Seven’s “The Morning Show” has just been renamed “Sitting On The Couch with Larry and Kylie” by Dorothy, one of Clinton Maynard’s callers on 2UE this morning. Apparently she watches it on Thursdays.
If this, and the callers Stuart Bocking had about an hour ago (one whinging about his licence and registration being suspended while he was overseas for five months, because he deliberately did not pay two parking fines before he went away, and the other caller who was going on about something to do with running out of fuel for his heater and some competition running on another radio station…although most of his words were merged with the next three words so I missed most of whatever he was talking about) are a sign of things to come, this could be a very amusing night.
Samuel
April 19th, 2008 at 12:33am
When it comes to sport commentators, a lot have a habit of making me find a way to silence them, but not Channel Seven and 3AW’s Dennis Cometti whose impromptu wit manages to amuse me and keep me watching a game, even when I’m not really interested in the game. Tonight’s AFL match was a good example…
“He’s seen the team hypnotist” said Dennis, in reference to a player who took a mark, instantly turned around and kicked a goal, the latter two actions almost without looking.
I was quite interested in Dennis’ appearance on the SBS genealogy series “Who Do You Think You Are” earlier this year. I have been planning on writing him a letter about that for a while…I really should do that soon.
Samuel
April 18th, 2008 at 11:58pm
Update: Unfortunately I now have confirmation of this story. Glenn was indeed fired this afternoon, I don’t know why. I just can’t see any sense in it. End Update
Further update: Clive Robertson has been appointed to the weekend afternoon shift. End Update
There’s a rumour doing the rounds that 2UE have fired Glenn Wheeler.
Sounds very odd to me, but it would fit with the change to the weekend schedule which starts this weekend. From an outsider’s perspective, I can’t see the logic in it.
I suppose the other rumours which could fit in with this are one that Clive Robertson is getting a daytime shift, and one of 2CC’s many Mikes is moving to 2UE. Clive made a lot of noises about it being the last time he would be on-air after his last shift (could just be his sense of humour), and I can’t see one of 2CC’s Mikes leaving a full time position to take up a weekend shift, especially a week out from the release of the latest ratings.
Samuel
March 26th, 2008 at 07:38pm
If you’re waiting for the Canberra Radio Ratings to be released, I would suggest not holding your breath as Nielsen have announced that they are delayed until next week, due to a delay in data processing (probably code for “two or more households didn’t return their ratings book on time”).
Samuel
March 25th, 2008 at 08:20am
You may recall that on Wednesday I posted some rather overdue audio of a conversation I had with 2UE’s Stuart Bocking while I was in Sydney in April last year, about the supermarket barcode scanning code of practice.
In that post, I mentioned that I would publish the audio of my conversation with John Kerr from around 4am the following day, on Thursday…but I never quite got around to that, so here it is.
To recap, last year in April I went to Sydney for a couple days to attend John Kerr’s lunch at Liquidity Restaurant. The lunch was on the 24th of April, and I spent most of the 23rd and 24th in Sydney.
On the 24th of April at some time just after 4am I called John Kerr because I had woken up and wasn’t going to be able to get back to sleep. I don’t remember the exact reason I called, as I was instantly sidetracked by John losing the caller ahead of me due to a computer problem, which prompted me to regale John with a story about the hotel’s computer systems not working properly, preventing me from checking in at the time I arrived, and how I subsequently managed to get lost in an area of Chatswood I should have known very well, John was fairly sympathetic, referring to Chatswood as a maze.
Strangely, I didn’t debate John on whether Sydney is up or down from Canberra when he mentioned that I had “come down from Canberra”. I think I’ve debated him every time since then on that point.
John and I also discussed my apparent insomnia, and I somehow miscalculated the time until I would see John at the lunch, incorrectly referring to it as “just under six hours”…that would have been fine if I wanted to be incredibly early.
[audio:https://samuelgordonstewart.com/wp-content/SamuelwithJohnKerr20070424.mp3]
Download MP3
From the lunch later that day, John Kerr and Stuart Bocking:
I have one more recording from that morning to share with you, however it can wait until Monday or Tuesday.
Samuel
March 22nd, 2008 at 02:56pm
About a week ago I met 2CC’s Program Director Pete Davidson. He was working at an outside broadcast 2CC were conducting at Bunnings Belconnen. Apart from Pete being the presenter of 2CA’s “Love Songs After Dark”, I knew that I recognised the name from something else and I asked a question along the lines of “you did the traffic a while back didn’t you?” to which Pete replied that, yes, he did work for ATN providing traffic reports for Mix 106.3 and FM 104.7.
I was actually referring to Pete presenting traffic for 2CA and 2CC for a brief period after Dennis Leigh left ATN, but as I wasn’t entirely sure and the conversation was moving on, I dropped the matter…but it hasn’t stopped it bugging me all week. Anyway, last night I was trawling through some audio for an unrelated reason and I found this recording from the 2nd of August last year, and guess what…it’s Pete Davidson with a traffic report on the 2CC breakfast show.
[audio:https://samuelgordonstewart.com/wp-content/20070802PeteDavidson2CCTraffic.mp3]
Download MP3
At least now, I can put my mind at ease on this matter, knowing that I’m not completely devoid of a working memory (reassuring considering the audio which will appear this afternoon).
Samuel
March 22nd, 2008 at 04:13am
I have just sent the following message to 2GB’s Jason Morrison:
Good morning and happy Easter Jason,
Welcome back from the US, I hope you had a great trip as it certainly sounded like you were having fun over there when you chatted with Mike Jeffreys.
Your point about people watching less television is interesting and matches my own viewing habits. On most days I would probably watch no more than about an hour of television…and the funny thing is, the cruder they get in an effort to gain more viewers, the less I watch.
Also it was good to hear Warren Purchase on the traffic report. I remember him doing traffic in Canberra in 2003.
Have a great Easter, and don’t eat those Easter eggs all at once.
Regards,
Samuel Gordon-Stewart
Canberra
March 21st, 2008 at 06:26am
Well that is slightly surprising, 2CC are taking all of 2UE’s weekend morning show with George Moore and Paul B. Kidd today.
I was almost expecting their new weekend presenter Graham…(last name escapes me at the moment, sorry) to do what Mike Frame would have done previously by presenting a public holiday version of the breakfast show.
I suppose this means 2CC will be taking 2UE for all but the two hours and forty-five minutes they will spend on 2GB’s football coverage tonight.
For me though, this raises a conflict. I haven’t heard George and Paul for ages and would love to listen to their show, but 2GB’s Jason Morrison is back from the USA and filling in for Alan Jones this morning.
I think a tradeoff is in order. Jason until 8AM, and George and Paul for whatever time I have for the radio during the rest of the morning.
Samuel
March 21st, 2008 at 06:13am
Last year in April I went to Sydney for a couple days to attend John Kerr’s lunch at Liquidity Restaurant. The lunch was on the 24th of April, and I spent most of the 23rd and 24th in Sydney.
Today (and some of tomorrow) I am in Sydney to attend another one of John Kerr’s lunches, so it seems like a good time to post the audio of the conversations I had with Stuart Bocking and John Kerr on the air during my April 2007 Sydney trip.
On the 23rd of April at some time after 10pm I called Stuart Bocking (if I had the hotel invoice in front of me I could tell you the exact time) to talk about the supermarket code of practice for the scanning of barcodes where products scanned at the incorrect price are supposed to be given to the customer for free, as that was one of the topics of discussion for some reason. We also briefly discussed Stuart’s attendance at John’s lunch, and me not being able to remember which team I tipped in the Monday night NRL match. For the record it was the Rabbitohs to beat the Cowboys, which was a good tip in a round where I tipped 50% of the NRL matches correctly.
[audio:https://samuelgordonstewart.com/wp-content/SamuelwithStuartBocking20070423.mp3]
Download MP3
And of course Stuart was in attendance the next day:
Tomorrow I’ll post the audio of my conversation with John Kerr from the early hours of the 24th.
Incidentally, I recorded these off the radio by running an audio cable between the headphone jack of my portable radio and the microphone jack of my digital notetaker, so the quality is reminiscent of a mobile phone call. Finding a volume low enough on the radio to not overload the microphone jack was an interesting experience as it had to be practically the lowest possible volume on the radio…any lower and it was pure silence.
Samuel
March 19th, 2008 at 11:28am
Temporarily…although the rumours suggest otherwise.
Clive Robertson will be filling in for Stuart Bocking on 2UE’s evening show tonight, tomorrow and on Good Friday while Stuart fills in for John Stanley on the drive show. Stuart will not be there on Friday, and to be honest, apart from John Kerr on New Day Australia filling in for Jim Ball and Clive Robertson on evenings, that day is a bit of a mystery to me.
Also on the fill-in list this week is Glenn Wheeler, who is filling in for Tim Webster on the afternoon show.
2UE are keeping their game of shuffles alive by moving gardening (and anything else that he feels like mentioning) presenter Don Burke from the weekend afternoon show to the weekend breakfast show. Don did have a segment on the Glenn Wheeler show between 4pm and 6pm on Saturdays, and he is now going to be heard on Saturday and Sunday mornings between 6am and 8am. By the sounds of it, Don will have his own show instead of being part of the existing George and Paul breakfast show, so how George and Paul will reschedule their regular segments is anyone’s guess.
And the rumours about Clive Robertson returning to a regular shift abound. There seem to be two versions of the rumour, one is that Clive will take over the afternoon show, and the other involves Stuart moving to afternoons and Clive taking over the evening show. The common thread in these rumours is the ratings, apparently any move would hinge on another loss for 2UE’s daytime programming in next week’s ratings.
Samuel
March 19th, 2008 at 08:24am
The Queenslanders who were watching State Focus, Southern Cross Ten’s current affairs program, yesterday at 8:30am would have received a treat. They were watching Mike Frame’s first State Focus program.
To the same extent, 2CC’s listeners heard Mike Frame’s final show yesterday between 7am and 9am. Mike has now left 2CC after about five years as a weekend presenter and fill-in weekday presenter on the station.
Mike is no stranger to Southern Cross Ten, having co-hosted their coverage of the 2006 Black Opal
I spoke to Mike on Saturday at Bunnings Warehouse in Belconnen and he seemed to be quite happy with the move, and especially the fact that he won’t have to be awake before sunrise on the weekend any more. Best of luck Mike, hopefully you can fill-in on the ACT version of State Focus one day.
Samuel
March 17th, 2008 at 10:44am
2GB’s middawn presenter (and summer Drive presenter) Jim Ball has announced that he is switching from 2GB to 2UE, to take over the middawn slot vacated by Clive Robertson. As I write this, Jim is presenting his fourth-last show on 2GB (a show which he opened with innuendo about “heading north to the competition”). He will present his final 2GB show on Wednesday March 12 and will take over 2UE’s middawn program on Monday March 17. Jim will be presenting the Monday to Friday edition of the show, with John Kerr continuing his current weekend program.
Jim Ball’s success (29.4% of the Sydney audience) in the Sydney ratings in 2005 is widely believed to be one of the reasons 2UE moved John Kerr to the weekend and gave Stuart Bocking the middawn shift in 2006. Stuart gained ground on Jim Ball in 2006 (2GB 16.9% – 2UE 12.5%). I didn’t actually notice the middawn ratings last year and it doesn’t look like radioinfo published them so I don’t know what happened, but it will be interesting to see how Jim Ball goes…I’m sure 2UE will be hoping that he brings his existing audience with him, much like former 2UE weekend middawn announcer George Gibson did when his contract wasn’t renewed in late 2005 and he jumped to 2GB, filling in for weekend middawn presenter Frank Crook (he even managed to get the interstate listeners tuned in to the webstream and calling in…I was one of them).
Actually 2UE and 2GB have an interesting middawn presenter trading history. Warren Moore was 2UE’s middawn fill-in presenter before switching to 2GB where he is now their summer evening presenter. Glenn Wheeler was quite popular on 2GB (from memory he hosted the middawn shift, but I could be wrong) before switching to 2UE where his first shift was filling in on the middawn shift. He is now 2UE’s weekend afternoon presenter. With this history, one does have to wonder if Jim Ball is hoping to also get a non-middawn shift on 2UE in the near future.
Anyway, I’m getting off-topic, Jim Ball has a website at http://www.jimball.com.au/ where he lists articles referred to in recent programs. Somehow, I think the “highlights of recent shows” page and his biography will be of more use if you’re interested in finding out about him.
Jim has been hosting 2GB’s middawn program since 1999, and interestingly has a similar philosophy to the one Stuart Bocking enforced on the middawn program; Stuarts was “If it matters to you, it matters to us” and Jim’s is “We talk to anybody about anything”. Jim, like Stuart, is also a golf enthusiast.
It will be interesting to see what happens, I welcome Jim to the syndicated middawn program and I hope it works well for him…and I have just a bit of advice for 2UE. There is no point in having good ratings in the middle of the night if everyone switches off at 5:30. You’ll never beat Alan Jones, but if you want to provide some competition, get rid of Mike Carlton and put Clive Robertson on breakfast…he was popular overnight, he was popular on ABC Classic FM’s breakfast show, and he would be good at breakfast on 2UE (he might find the hours a bit more agreeable too). I can’t comment on the performance of Sandy Aloisi but the last ratings did show that breakfast is not improving…if you want ratings during the day, then you need ratings at breakfast, and I firmly believe that with the talent of Clive Robertson available to you, he is your best option.
Now, who’s going to take over middawn on 2GB?
Samuel
March 7th, 2008 at 02:17am
I forgot to check FIVEaa’s website this week until last night Stuart Bocking reminded me of the news I mentioned a few weeks ago, the former federal foreign minister and current member for Mayo Alexander Downer is hosting the afternoon show on Adelaide’s commercial talk radio station, FIVEaa.
I had wondered how FIVEaa were going to get around the problem of their afternoon host being in Canberra every Friday, and it looks like rather than illegally rebroadcasting parliamentary proceedings in the hope that Mr. Downer says something, they have taken the sensible option of involving his wife as the co-host and (on Fridays) only host.
After the furore last week about Alexander Downer missing question time so that he could have lunch with somebody whose plane was late, not missing parliament for the sake of a radio show is a good idea.
When I wrote the original article about Alexander Downer hosting FIVEaa afternoon show, I raised the prospect of a biased program being in breach of the Commercial Radio Australia codes of practice…well FiveAA have negated that. Have a look at the “coming up” section of the screenshot above (click it to enlarge the image if you can’t read it). Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan is joining their morning host today for a while.
I also raised the prospect that it would be interesting to see how capable Mr. Downer is of running an interesting program. I haven’t had a chance to listen to his show properly yet, and the snippets I heard last night were mainly of him being grilled by the electorate, but if his performance whilst being interviewed by Steve Price last week is anything to go by, he is one of the few politicians I have heard who seems to be more than capable of thinking on his feet and giving as good as he gets…and pulling an interesting distraction trick.
I will try and find some time to listen to his show tomorrow, but for now his show is on the air as this post appears, so if you’re interested, visit the FIVEaa website and click the Listen Live link.
Samuel
February 26th, 2008 at 01:30pm
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