Posts filed under 'TV/Radio/Media'
Sydney radio station 2GB’s Alan Jones could face up to $5500 in fines and a year in jail next month when he is sentenced for naming a child witness involved in a murder trial.
The Daily Telegraph and 2GB’s parent company Harbour Radio also face the prospect of a $5500 fine.
Jones has been found guilty of illegally naming a juvenile involved in a court case when he read out a Daily Telegraph article which named the witness in July 2005. Deputy Chief Magistrate Helen Syme rejected Jones’ defence that he thought the Daily Telegraph had permission to name the witness.
Radioinfo is reporting that between Alan Jones and Ray Hadley, Harbour Radio are facing more than a dozen court cases.
Unfortunately, due to the way some people on here like to carry on whenever Alan Jones is mentioned, plus the fact that this is still before the courts, comments will not be enabled for this article. You can, however, submit comments for approval by emailing them to me.
Samuel
March 21st, 2007 at 07:06am
I’m not entirely sure when it failed or why, but the 2CC computer is not getting to air. It’s just the 2UE feed, silence and the emergency tape.
The ad break on the emergency tape is becoming tedious…I think I prefer the silence (but certainly not “The Sounds Of Silence“).
Oh well, this kind of thing once in a while reminds me that I’m listening to automation…and I don’t really care as long as they either fix the computer or find something other than the emergency tape to fill air time when the breakfast show starts.
Samuel
March 16th, 2007 at 04:25am
A few weeks ago I reported that Dale Sinden and Simon Foster, the two movie buffs of John Kerr’s New Day Australia now have their own show on Sundays between 6pm and 8pm, I also commented that the catalyst for the new show was the departure of former 2UE presenter Mike Williams who was apparently unsatisfied with his remuneration…whilst that may be the case, 2UE want to paint a different picture, as this extract from The Sydney Morning Herald explains:
Film recruits
When 2UE programmer Greg Byrnes was driving around after midnight a few weeks ago trying to settle his crying baby twins, he happened to hear overnight presenter John Kerr’s regular segment with movie buffs Dale Sinden and Simon Foster. Byrne was so impressed that he has now given the pair their own two-hour show on Sundays to discuss film. Sunday Night at the Movies is heard from 6 to 8pm and features new releases, DVD reviews, film trivia, a cult corner and soundtracks. The pair replace Mike Williams in the slot. Now Byrne just has to solve the problem of getting his children to sleep through the night.
May I suggest that instead of sleeping during the night, they gather logical thoughts from Clive Robertson? Oh…err actually no, that’s my bad habit…in fact when I rang Clive early this morning, his producer Abe suggested that I should really have been asleep.
Anyway, whatever the story is, a big congratulations to Dale and Simon, they are doing a great job, their show is quite possibly one of the busiest shows on 2UE and is an awful lot of fun. Needless to say, it is an awful lot better than the four hours of Sharina’s Psychic Boredom which follows them.
Samuel
March 12th, 2007 at 06:15pm
Saturday was an interesting day on 2CC, the morning programming was an outside broadcast from Bunnings Belconnen, Steve Liebmann filled in for Glenn Wheeler in the afternoon. 2UE covered the New South Wales Waratahs’ rugby union match until 10pm, so 2CC ran local programming, with Kris McKenzie running what sounded like an incredibly well organised show, which isn’t something I’ve ever associated with 2CC’s rare local night time programming. 2CC should be proud of their Saturday night effort, and consider doing things like that more often.
The remainder of this week should also be interesting. During the breakfast show today somebody will win a holiday as part of 2CC’s “Cash and Holiday Mania” competition…I’m not in the draw as I opted to take the $100…that was before they told me I would have to wait until after the competition for the cheque to be mailed to me.
On the drive show, the proposed Tralee housing precinct will be the focus of a debate between someone from Canberra Airport (opposed to houses at Tralee), and somebody from the Villiage Building Company (wanting to build at Tralee). It will be an ad-free half hour and it should be an interesting debate…pity I can’t remember the names or the exact time. I can remember one of the names, but it would be very unfair of me to name one person and not the other.
Looking ahead to Friday night, and 2CC will broadcast their first Friday night NRL match, it will be live (sourced from 2GB) and will, as usual, be much better than the Channel Nine coverage. If you plan on watching the NRL on Friday night, mute the TV and turn on 2CC.
That reminds me, my (not to be trusted) footy tips start again this week…I’ll either put them online on Thursday or Friday morning.
Also, I’ve received a few emails about the radio reviews…I have a whole heap of recorded review periods to review, with the final one in the first round due to be recorded today. I will suspend further recordings until next week when the ratings period is over, and I will endeavour to get as many reviews done as possible in the interim.
Samuel
March 12th, 2007 at 01:29am
Sounds like Steve Liebmann is filling in for Glenn Wheeler this afternoon on 2UE and 2CC…it’s great to hear Steve again, but Glenn, if you’re reading this, I hope you’re OK and will be back soon.
Samuel
March 10th, 2007 at 12:23pm
I can’t help but get the feeling that the ABC’s title as the master of pronunciation and usage of the English language in Australia is a mere memory. It has been quite obvious over the last couple of years that their pronunciation standards have been slipping to the point where, whilst still perfectly legible, they have no bragging rights over other stations and networks.
Pronunciation is one thing, and we are all human so mistakes should be expected unless you have experts clamouring over every tiny detail, but spelling is another, and last night I was quite dismayed to see ABC Television’s Canberra news use the supposed word “arguement” on a super (aka the story headline graphic thingy next to the newsreader). I’m sure they meant “argument”, and to their credit they pulled it from the screen once the error was noticed, but the mere fact that no form of spell checking system is in use in the ABC newsroom is a worry. If “arguement” happened to be a real, but wrong, word, then I wouldn’t be making any fuss over this, but the fact that it does not appear in any dictionary has me very concerned.
One can only hope that the ABC does not continue to slip, or before we know it they might be fund-raising with a “Quizmania” type of show in place of their current “repeat the night time programs during the day” hour…and that would be a very big shame. I wouldn’t have a problem with a privately funded ABC, but there would be much better ways of fund-raising than loopy 1900 number game shows.
Samuel
February 26th, 2007 at 09:16am
Yesterday I decided to try and work out why 666 ABC Canberra rates well in this town. What is on there that is worth listening to, is there interesting discussion and debate of current issues, events and affairs? Are the presenters particularly interesting? What about the callers?
My plan was to listen for an hour between 10am and 11am…here’s what I heard.
News, bad song, droning on and on and on and on about a dead author with some local author, promo for Clean Up Australia day with really bad jingle set to the tune of Waltzing Matilda, presenter being smarmy about breaking the news of James Hardie chairwoman Meredith Hellicar resigning…a whole fifteen minutes after Lawsie broke the news (yes, I flicked back to 2CC during the bad song), another bad song, chatter between presenter and sport reporter who somehow managed to be at the Canberra Capitals breakfast whilst answering phone calls from the public about Basketball, and attending the Brumbies training session, whilst taking more phone calls from the public (does he give out his mobile number or something) and somehow making it back to the studio to take calls from ABC sycophants who claim that commercial radio don’t provide sport scores. Promo for a CD of the bad music they play on the air. Interview with a shareholders’ association representative telling us all how wonderful Meredith Hellicar is. Promo explaining that the ABC will play the emergency siren if there is an emergency. More bad music.
It was 10:45 and I had heard enough. It was the worst 45 minutes of radio I have endured in a looooong time…and that Alex Sloan couldn’t keep a straight face if it was superglued…and she t–a–l–k–s…..s–o…..s–l–o–w–l–y and constantly says um and er. I don’t mind the occasional um and er, but when they become a vital part of every second sentence it is downright annoying.
All the while, Lawsie was focussing on real issues, such as basic services for schools which seem to be sadly lacking in so many places, and the crazy outsourcing system which NSW schools have to go through to get things repaired…adds about 30-40% to the cost of the repair and they end up with the local repair person anyway. (Yes, I had to flick back during the bad music to save my ears).
So why do people listen? Clearly it has something to do with the sheer amount of people who are either Chief Turnip Stanhope admirers, require warning signs on clothing to remind them not to iron shirts while they are wearing them, or both. The other 666 listeners have me baffled as I can’t see how anybody else can put up with that crud for any length of time.
Clearly they come from a different planet and don’t visit this one…which begs the question, if Chief Turnip Stanhope lives on another planet, why must he issue directives for this one, seeing as he is never here?
I may try them again on a different shift with a different presenter (not breakfast…Ross Solly, combined with morning presenter Alex Sloan represent just about everything that is wrong with talk radio)…perhaps Drive has some decent programming, surely it couldn’t be any worse than the assault on my ears and intellect that came through my radio yesterday morning!
Perhaps while the ratings period is still on I will randomly review an hour of each radio station in the ratings race, now that would be some fun (and possibly burn my ears out…but fun).
Samuel
February 21st, 2007 at 05:06am
As if extending Sharina’s show by an hour wasn’t enough proof, here is the candid honest truth on the 2UE website:
20:00 – 23:59
Sharina’s Psychic Encounters
Sharina
Spencer Kirk will join Sharina as she gets the vibe and delves into her loyal listener’s love and professional life.
She only has one loyal listener…it must be Spencer seeing as he has come back to that awful show!
As it happens, 2GB don’t care about Sunday nights after 8pm either…otherwise they wouldn’t let Reverend Bill Crews run a four hour “melting-pot of spiritual, topical, and personal discussions”. I think the only things melting are the poor transmitters that have to listen to this stuff. If I were a transmitter, I think I’d have fun by having “technical difficulties” during those shows.
Samuel
February 20th, 2007 at 08:23am
The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) have auctioned off a new High Powered Open Narrowcasting (HPON) licence for Canberra. The purchaser of the licence is ANC International Holdings Pty Ltd, who have paid $200,000 for 1323 kHz on the AM band.
Apparently there is an association between ANC International Holdings and BoardRoomRadio.com which appears to be some sort of “communicate with your shareholders” podcasting service. At present it is unclear whether the new radio station will have anything to do with this partnership, but if it does, then it will obviously be a business/stock market station.
Unfortunately the ACMA press release makes no mention of what restriction this station has in order to make it a narrowcast station…being high-powered it has to be a subject restriction, so being a business/stock market station is certainly a possibility.
According to ACMA’s transmitter list, the station’s transmitter will be located on the Broadcast Australia facility (ABC, SBS, RPH transmitters) on the Barton Highway and will have a transmission power of 400 watts, 100 watts higher than 2KY Racing Radio which runs a HPON racing service on 1008 KHz (AM), 4,600 watts less than ABC Local Radio in Canberra, 2CA and 2CC and 9,600 watts less than Radio National in Canberra.
Unfortunately ANC Holdings haven’t informed ACMA as to what their restriction or on-air ID will be as yet, but they’ll have to do that before going on-air.
Currently their is no carrier on their frequency.
The new radio station must be up and running by June 21, and I’ll be following the progress of the station. More information as it comes to hand.
Samuel
February 20th, 2007 at 03:17am
John Kerr with some of his listeners in Terrigal
It’s John Kerr’s 65th birthday, in many ways this is a tough birthday as once you’re 65 you can’t really break out your favourite song of the last 365 days, “When I’m 64” by The Beatles, and you have reached the government sanctioned age of retirement. Thankfully though I can’t see John retiring just yet…he has been mentioning it every now and then for the last few years, and who knows, he may decide to retire at the end of the year…but I think it was radio historian Wayne Mac who said to me that people like John have radio in their blood…so if John Laws is still going at 71, and Bob Rogers is still going at 80, we may have a lot more of John Kerr to look forward to yet!
Happy 65th birthday John, I’m glad you’ve got the day off, and I hope it’s a great day filled with lots of happiness, joy, presents, cake and loved ones.
For the record, I, along with the other members of “The Questionable Trio”, Irene in Brisbane and Charity in Sydney, sent John a mystery thriller book titled “Gone” (Amazon has details) by Lisa Gardner, as well as a card with a picture of a lion on the front, with caption “You’re the mane man”. Inside the card we sent the message “Happy 65th Birthday John, best wishes for the next year, and another 65 to come!”
John got the present a few days early, and said to me on Friday that he is looking forward to reading the book.
While we’re on the subject of birthdays, it was Flash’s birthday on Tuesday last week (February 13)
Kate and Flash
Flash is the three-legged mascot of the John Stanley program on 2UE and 2CC, and lives with John’s executive producer Kate (pictured together).
From memory Flash (a Tenterfield Terrier) was the RSPCA’s “pet of the week” on the show, and Kate fell in love with him, and gave him a new home. He has been the mascot of the show ever since.
I’ve been a fan of flash for about the same amount of time, and have been wanting to get him a present for a while now, last week I did so not realising that it was his birthday. I got him some squeaky food shaped toys…apparently he really likes the hamburger!
Happy birthday Flash!
Samuel
February 19th, 2007 at 12:43am
Live now on 2UE, 2CC and other stations up and down Eastern Australia, Simon Foster and Dale Sinden talking movies.
Simon and Dale have been with 2UE since 1995, mostly as presenters of the “Flicks and Things” hour on John Kerr’s New Day Australia, and now, at long last, they have their own show from 6pm-8pm on Sundays.
Let the fun nuttery begin!
(I hope they weren’t serious this morning when they said they were just going to replay Flicks and Things at half speed!)
Samuel
February 18th, 2007 at 06:00pm
Have you noticed that this is appearing on buses again?
What about the big competitions? They’re either underway or about to start…these things can only mean one thing, Canberra’s first ratings period of 2007 starts today and runs for four weeks, ending on March 17. Results are due out on Thursday March 29…but don’t hold your breath!
I haven’t really been paying a huge amount of attention to stations other than 2CC in the last couple weeks, so I don’t really know what they are all doing in terms of competitions. The Mix 106.3 website indicates that they are using the (very tired) secret sound to give away a holiday. The FM 104.7 website says nothing, ditto for 2CA. 2CC have a new website (with about half a dozen errors which I’ve submitted to them for correction), but it makes no mention of their “take the cash or the holiday” promotion. It does, however, indicate that the Capital Radio Network’s webstream project is still on track to happen…eventually…
The local ABC…well who cares, if they, as a non-commercial station are allowed into the commercial radio ratings, and their entry is being funded by taxpayers, then all the community stations should be funded by the government as well…otherwise ABC, but out of the ratings.
Anybody looking for a positive comment about the local ABC station should see their website’s guestbook, which often features the same bloke making trivial positive comments multiple times per day…especially during the ratings period.
Back to the 2CC bus ads for a moment, last time they were used 2CC had a good ratings result, but last time they were used they were up-to-date. Two of the people on the ads are not currently airing on 2CC (Stan Zemanek and Ray Hadley), one of them won’t be back, and the other won’t be heard until the second last day of the ratings period. I suspect that this is the reason why the ads are only on a very small number of buses, and probably won’t be seen ever again (expect on the wall of the 2CC studio).
Dr Karl Kruszelnicki and Mike Welsh in the 2CC Studio
Update: 5:11am 22 February 2007: CORRECTION: The ads being used this year do not contain the face and name of Stan Zemanek. I apologise for any inconvenience my error in reporting may have caused. End Update
As for who will win…well it’s hard to see much changing, FM music on top, AM talk following, and AM music somewhere. I think Mix 106.3 will come out slightly ahead of FM 104.7 (the two are currently tied in first position), Local ABC will stay in third but 2CC will continue to close the gap. About the only surprise packet this ratings period will be 2CA, currently last, but with a format close to one that has carved out a niche for them in the past. Ideally they will at least get ahead of ABC Classic FM, but with no promotion of themselves, I do have to wonder if anybody knows that they have a new breakfast show and a good format.
And despite all of that, best of luck to all involved!
Samuel
February 18th, 2007 at 04:44am
Mike Williams, the poor sod who had to put up with psychic Sharina for three hours every Sunday, has left 2UE.
His replacement is not yet known, although I am hoping that Murray Olds gets a permanent shift out of this…not that I would want him to have to put up with Sharina, but I’m sure he would enjoy the other nine hours of Mike’s shift.
Update 5:08pm: Thanks to regular contributor Albona, who seems to read the 2UE website more carefully than me, we now know that Dale Sinden and Simon Foster, who until last weekend had an hour and a bit segment on John Kerr’s show, now have their own “At The Movies” program from 6pm-8pm on Sundays. Unfortunately Sharina has an extra hour and will be heard from 8pm-Midnight on Sundays. The Saturday night host is still unconfirmed. End Update
Update 12:34am 17 February 2007: Looks like Spencer Kirk is taking back his old job of dealing with Sharina. End Update
Update 5:00pm 17 February 2007: Radioinfo’s Ian McRae is reporting that Mike left over a pay dispute. Mike wanted more (and who can blame him…I’d want more if I had to listen to Sharina’s drivel), but Southern Cross Broadcasting continued their cost cutting. End Update
Samuel
February 16th, 2007 at 03:48pm
Recently I have been thinking about the potential Hawk-Eye, the technology used to decide contentious line calls in Tennis as well as used by Tennis and Cricket broadcasters, has in deciding difficult scoring decisions in the AFL. Hawk-Eye, with its ability to track the ball would be able to detect a player touching the ball, as its path would change, as well as follow the path of the ball in case it were to sail over the posts.
I was going to contact the AFL with these suggestions, but thought that I would contact the people responsible for Hawk-Eye, British company Hawk-Eye Innovations, first to see if they thought it would be possible. I was pleasantly surprised to receive a reply with half an hour, I was not pleased by what I read though.
We have spoken to the AFL and Channel 7. It is not something we are going to pursue at this stage.
This indicates to me that Hawk-Eye is capable of doing what I suggested, but for some stupid reason which the AFL and Channel Seven are aware of, will not be used. I can understand the AFL not wanting to take part just yet…they are always slow to adopt technology. I don’t want to see video replays introduced into decision making in AFL, and I’m glad they’ve kept that out, but ignoring the speedy, accurate Hawk-Eye astounds me. Unlike video replays it produces a result almost instantly.
As for Channel Seven, perhaps they don’t want to invest in extra gadgets for something they will only broadcast two matches of each week. Perhaps if the AFL hadn’t gone for the big bucks of the Nine/Ten/Fox consortium years ago, and still had Seven as their only broadcaster, we would be seeing innovations in broadcasting. Unfortunately the fragmented broadcasting landscape we currently have is not conducive to progress.
I suppose, at the very least, we know that when faced with a choice between money and progress, the AFL will chose money. Strange for a sport that has tried so hard to kill off the suburban nature of the game by moving all the Victorian clubs into a few grounds in an effort to make it look modern. I do have to wonder how the game will survive in the future if it continues this way, it’s a good game, but if it continues to make decisions which will do more harm than good, I can’t see the fan base expanding.
Samuel
February 14th, 2007 at 02:40pm
Weeks go by, but decisions on the 8pm-Midnight shift seem no closer.
The Sydney Morning Herald had an amusing article on Monday about this, they claimed that the candidates are baulking at the $100,000 per year supposedly being offered for the job, which is a quarter of the income Stan Zemanek was getting from the shift. If pay is the main reason for the delay, then I think we would have a decision by now, as pay negotiations would be a bit quicker, and a complete disagreement would surely see more people being “road tested” in the role.
The other suggestion in the article, and probably the best laugh I’ve had in a while, was the peculiar notion of 2UE wanting a duo in the role…that isn’t too outlandish, but the names were. Stuart Bocking and Clive Robertson (the two have completely incompatible styles…the studio or the planet would probably melt if that duo came to fruition) or Murray Olds and Murray Wilton (the odds of 2UE actually giving Murray Olds a permanent shift are almost zero for some unknown reason…he is wasted there, and why would Murray Wilton leave 2GB if the pay is supposedly being baulked at?).
Did the Sydney Morning Herald feel like some “creative journalism” (aka, they made the story up)?
Judge for yourself…towards the bottom of this article.
As for what is really happening at 2UE…well Paul Makin still doesn’t have his own 2UE New Day Australia intro (although they did make a new generic intro), but he has received a very warm welcome from the listeners. I am hearing rumours that he will be trialled on the 8pm-Midnight shift at some stage in the next few weeks. Other than that, 2UE’s non-daylight programming is a mystery.
Samuel
February 14th, 2007 at 09:00am
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