Posts filed under 'TV/Radio/Media'
I’m going to make this post very very brief as I have a lot to do today and need to get started shortly.
Today will contain my first CIT class, which is scheduled from 9am-2pm (hopefully including some breaks). After this I will be heading to Bunnings Belconnen’s grand opening where Mike Frame will be running a 2CC outside broadcast.
Mike will be on-air from 3pm-6pm Canberra time (GMT+11) so why don’t you give him a call and say g’day. Of course it would help if you have something to contribute to the program, perhaps you have a view on a news issue that you would like to express. Give Mike a call on 62554444. Mike quite correctly states that he has “an open line and an open mind”, so I’m sure he would love to hear what it is that you have to say.
I will (hopefully) post a review of my day this evening, it should be quite a day.
Samuel
February 10th, 2006 at 07:27am
As you may recall from this post (I have been referring to previous posts a fair bit recently), 2CC will be running an outside broadcast from the grand opening of Bunnings Belconnen. To my horror I have discovered that this Bunnings store will not feature a cafe and I will have to add “picking up coffee” to my schedule. Either that or taking coffee in a thermos.
My plan for the day is below, but right here I am reproducing the multi-page advertisement that Bunnings took out in The Chronicle (click to enlarge).
Yes, that’s right, Australia’s favourite children’s entertainer (although you don’t have to be a child to enjoy his show), Humphrey B. Bear will be there to entertain all and sundry from 7pm-7:30pm. He will be performing a special show at that time, and I hoping that he will be walking around the store for a little while before that. He probably wouldn’t be great on the radio (he doesn’t speak out loud), but it would be nice to get a photo of him standing next to Mike Frame at the 2CC outside broadcast.
Anyway, Friday for me will involve leaving home at about 8:45am so that I can be slightly early to CIT, find the correct room (J028) and hopefully be there at the commencement time of 9am. As previously stated, this “Introduction to working in your chosen profession” class, assuming that it sticks to its name, will be one of the greatest pieces of irrelevant snoring material ever to be produced by an educational institution…I’ve already worked in my “chosen profession”, why do I need to have it explained to me for five hours?
My theory is, the earlier I get there, the earlier I can get out of there. With any luck there will be a break which includes 11:30am-Midday so that I can enjoy Best Of Laws in its broadcast form.
When the class ends at 2PM, what follows will depend on what happened during the CIT class. If there were no break (they may find me a bit agitated if that is the case), I will need to decide where to have lunch. However, as I suspect that there will be lunch and morning tea breaks, I will make my way to the Civic bus interchange and catch an intertown bus to Belconnen. With any luck, I will be able to catch a nice orange bus, and avoid a horrid green contraption. Due to the fact that I will be pressed for time, I will probably catch the first bus I see. It will probably be around 2:10 or 2:15 when I reach the Civic bus interchange.
One of the many problems with ACTION’s new green buses is the way they interfere with the AM signal, this generally means having to listen to 2CC over strange buzzing and whirring noises.
When I get to Belconnen (approx 2:30), I will enter Westfield Belconnen, walk to the food court, and visit one of the coffee shops I like out that way, pick up a take away coffee, walk out of the shopping centre, onto Benajmin Way and head off in the direction of Belconnen Way, and somehwere up there I will find Bunnings Belconnen. I suppose it will be close to 2:50 when I get there.
I intend on being there for anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour, after which I will probably head back to Westfield, have another coffee, and head home. Of course, taking coffee with me in a thermos might be a better idea, but I will make that decision on that morning.
Anyway, it should be a good day!
Samuel
February 7th, 2006 at 11:49pm
As you may recall from this post a few weeks back, 2GB newsreader Rowan Barker was due to return to work today. I am pleased to be able to bring you the news that he did indeed return to work today, and settled in straight away.
Radioinfo.com.au has more
2GB/2CH newsreader Rowan Barker back at work
06 Feb 2006
Barker back at work today
As predicted by radioinfo on 27 January 2GB/2CH newsreader Rowan Barker returned to work today.
He was stabbed several times in early December during an altercation with two men outside a home in St. Ives.
It’s planned that he’ll ease himself back into it by working half days for the first couple of weeks – up to the end of Alan Jones and John Poole’s shows.
Erin Maher will then continue to fill for him through the weekday morning timeslot.
Macquarie Director News and Current Affairs Jason Morrison told radioinfo: “He started as normal at 5.30am and was brilliant and error-free – just like he’d only had a day off. After 6 he had a lengthy chat on the air with Alan Jones. It’s good to have him back.”
TV crews from all stations covered his return to the job plus a Daily Telegraph crew to greet him as well.
I heard a brief snippet of his work and an interview with him on Seven News this evening, and I must say that he is looking and sounding very well. It’s good to see him back at work after such a terrible and ruthless random attack.
Rowan, best of luck mate, it’s great to see you on your feet again.
Samuel
February 6th, 2006 at 06:38pm
As 2CC Listeners would know, Mike Welsh is currently on holidays for two weeks, however the way it is being dealt with is rather interesting.
For the five days of the drive show last week we had Mike Frame, this week for four days (Monday-Thursday) we have Pete Williams, who filled in for Mike Jeffreys on the breakfast show on Australia Day. Friday will see Mike Frame return with an outside broadcast from the grand opening of the new Bunnings store in Belconnen.
Friday will be odd for me. From 9am-2pm I have a CIT class called “Preparing for employment in your chosen profession” which sounds like an extended “please rate the following aspects of your industry by their importance” survey-a-thon. Ultimately this class (as long as it sticks to its name) is irrelevant drivel to me as I have already worked in my “chosen profession”. There will be angry letters if there isn’t at the very least a morning tea and lunch break, preferably one of them being encompassing 11:30-midday so that I don’t have to miss Best Of Laws. If I do miss it then I will just have to listen to it on Lawsie’s website.
After this class I will make my way out to the new Bunnings store in Belconnen (approximately 10-15 minutes walk from the bus interchange) and watch the outside broadcast for a while. With any luck, this Bunnings, just like the one in Tuggeranong, will have a mini-cafe.
Afterwards I will make my way home and, depending on the temperature, take Nattie for a walk.
Anyway, getting back to 2CC, I remember hearing Pete Williams on Australia Day, but only briefly as I slept through most of the breakfast show and didn’t pay much attention to the bits that I did hear. It will be interesting to see how Pete goes on the drive show.
Samuel
February 6th, 2006 at 07:30am
The keen eyed amongst you would have noticed that I missed last week’s As Time Goes By update.
As Time Goes By (Reunion Specials)
8:00pm Friday, January 27, 2006
Sandy and Harry return from their walk to find Jean anxious to tell them about the arrival of Patrick – a young black man claiming Lionel is his father. Joining Lionel and Patrick she eventually discovers Lionel was the family’s benefactor and they all consider him their father, even Patrick’s mother. Having recovered from the shock Jean takes delight in seeing Penny’s face when she introduces Patrick as Lionel’s son.
Stephen has designs on becoming a celebrity and calls Alistair for assistance. Alistair, meanwhile, decides to visit a sex shop and leaves with some bags which, unbeknownst to him, Judith and Sandy later discover. Annoyed at his tactics they give the bags to Penny and Stephen as gifts from Alistair.
Tonight at 8PM on ABC TV, the final of this special series of “reunion specials” will screen. Here is the summary from the ABC Site (Spoiler Warning: May contain plot details that you would rather see for yourself):
As Time Goes By (Reunion Specials)
8:00pm Friday, February 3, 2006
In the final As Time Goes By Reunion Special, Jean is keen for Sandy and Harry to stay living with her and Lionel, she’s even willing to adapt the house for them…
Sandy declines Jean’s offer of running the secretarial agency, as does Judith, who no longer wants to work at all.
Lionel leaves everyone at the pub and returns home for some peace and quiet, and a custard tart. However his hopes are dashed by the arrival of Mrs Bale.
Later that evening Lionel is looking forward to a quiet night in when Patrick calls from the hospital. Rocky is in the Emergency Room.
Very soon Mrs Bale, Jean, Lionel, Sandy, Harry, Judith and Alistair are surrounding Rocky to hear how he injured himself. The sister complains about them crowding the area and Lionel manages to upset the hospital clerk. Jean thinks it nice that everyone came.
Samuel
February 3rd, 2006 at 12:32pm
Today has been rather interesting on 2CC and 2CA.
Firstly I was awake briefly at 6am and noticed the news was not introduced with “I’m … with Capital Radio Network News”, instead being introduced with “I’m … with 2CC News”. At this time I thought this might just be 2CA not taking the 6am news, or perhaps 2CA taking Sydney news, and then I thought about their recent listener feedback survey which was designed to help them improve the station, and suddenly thought that they might have dumped the news altogether. I was tired though and decided to worry about that later and went back to bed…more on that later.
9am rolled around and I heard Lawsie make his triumphant return to the airwaves, where he instantly asked the audience if they still want him to start the show with his snippet of useless information. I sent him an email about this which follows:
Hi Lawsie,
Welcome back, it’s great to hear you on the wireless again. I sent you a Christmas card late last year (it probably arrived just after you left), I hope it got to you safely.
Please don’t take away my daily dose of useless information, you’d be amazed how much easier life is when I hear a piece of trivial information in the morning which reminds me that there is still plenty to laugh about in this world. Sure, I’ll probably forget what the useless information was by midday, but at least it makes me happy in the morning!
By the way Lawsie, it’s now the Chinese year of the dog, so Nattie, my lovely little Jack Russell Terrier, says “woof” to you.
Have a great day,
Samuel Gordon-Stewart
Canberra
Lawsie sounded a bit gruff this morning, but that is probably to be expected from someone who has just returned from eight weeks holidays.
Around 1pm I was walking down to civic with my radio to get some lunch, and had a bit of trouble with the 2CC signal, so I flicked across to 2CA who would be running the news, only to find that they were finishing the weather and running an ad (at least, I think they were finishing the weather), so I flicked back to 2CC and rotated the radio which made the signal clearer.
I decided to investigate this at 2pm, and started monitoring both stations sumultaneously at 1:55, 2CA were in the middle of an outside broadcast from (I think) The Hellenic Club with a DJ that I don’t recognise, possibly confirming last year’s rumors that Brian James was leaving 2CA. There were a couple promos from the new female voiceover person, which reminded me of the local commercial FM stations, which were followed by her introducing the news at 1:58. This was from the 2CC/2CA newsroom, but was branded 2CA news, had a different sport intro which included the newsreader reading the sponsor message, and concluded with the newsreader reading the weather (new ground for 2CA who used to have the DJ read the weather) and fading into the next song on “the new sound of 2CA” or something to that effect.
At this stage 2CC were half way through their news with the same newsreader, which leads me to believe that 2CA news is prerecorded, probably at 10 minutes to the hour. This would easily enable the 2CA panel operator to choose an appropriate point for the song to appear under the newsreader. I must say that the few minutes of 2CA that I heard sounded pretty good, I haven’t really spent long enough listening to decide whether I like the music lineup, and I really do dislike news which isn’t on the hour (it’s a pet peeve, it drives me up the wall as I am used to news on the hour and often work out the time based on it), however flexible news does make music programming much easier to manage as you don’t have to deal with precise timeouts and the difficulties associated with it.
In related news, Mike Welsh is on holidays for two weeks, with Mike Frame filling in this week, and a “Pete” being eluded to as the fill-in host next week. I suppose this could be occasional traffic reporter Pete Lusted, or perhaps Peter Cochrane who filled in for Welshy at one stage last year. Of course, it could be a Pete that I have completely forgotten or don’t know about, but I would be willing to put my money on Peter Cochrane.
Samuel
January 30th, 2006 at 04:39pm
As some of you have noticed, I have been absent for close to 48 hours, so what I will try to do now is explain my weekend.
I will start with Saturday at 12:03am, which is when I picked up the phone and dialled 13 13 32 for the first time in nearly a month, so that I could have a chat with John Kerr and welcome him back from his holiday. John’s new producer Robin (possible Robyn) answered the phone and posed the usual name, city & topic questions, followed by a “You’re not going to mention the change to weekends are you?” question. That removed about a quarter of my subject matter, and meant I would have to think carefully about how to request that John resume playing “Good morning” from “Singin’ In The Rain” as his show ending song. John had previously played this when his weekday show finished at 5am, but stopped playing it when his show was extended to 5:30 as a news replacement of sorts as he no longer had time to play it.
I eventually had a chat with John at about 1:20, during which he mentioned that some of 2UE’s news staff mentioned this website to him. I would like to take this opportunity to say hello to everyone in the newsroom at 2UE, thanks for reading, I hope you’re enjoying it! While I’m at it, hello to the 2GB newsroom, we have had at least one person from there register here, and a special hello to 2GB newsreader Rowan Barker who is returning to work on the 6th of February after being stabbed last year.
Just before 1:30 I went to bed, but didn’t fall asleep for about two hours due to the heat, this gave me plenty of time to listen to John’s show.
I got up again at about 9am and had breakfast before doing some household duties (including Nattie’s walk), had a coffee and then started my work with Australian Independent Radio News. I had lunch around 1:30 and finished working around 4:30, at which time I took Nattie for an evening walk, before having a cup of tea and a nap.
I got up again at 7:30 and watched My Family on the ABC, followed by Hardware, and then The Green Mile on Prime. This finished just before 12:30, so I heard Simon & Dale (John Kerr’s movie reviewers) singing their intro, and then had a shower and went to bed. It was close to 3am when I fell asleep.
At 5:30 my alarm went off, but I was too tired to stay up for half an hour to hear “Good Morning”, so I went back to sleep, and didn’t wake up until about 1:30, when I had breakfast. It was far too hot to take Nattie for a walk by this stage, and she was quite happy laying in front of various fans in the house. I stripped my bed and placed the sheets in the washing basket, but the vacuum cleaner was being used elsewhere in the house, so I couldn’t vacuum the bed before making it again. Instead I folded up some clothes that had recently been washed and put them in the cupboard. It was close to 3:30 when I had a small lunch, after which I made my bed and then sat down for a cup of coffee. After this I prepared to go down the street to fetch some groceries (it is usually my turn to get groceries on Sunday), whilst my parents and Nattie watched “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance”.
My intention now is to take Nattie for a walk, have dinner, prepare my Musician(s) Of The Week award, setup a timer recording of Water Rats (4am, Win TV, Weekly on Monday), watch some cricket and tennis and attempt to go to bed and fall asleep so that I can wake up early in the morning and hopefully watch Humphrey, followed by my recording of Water Rats. This may be an issue as this will make me miss Lawsie’s return from holidays, so I might record Humphrey instead of watching him live.
On Wednesday I will be making my way to the local CIT campus for one of the direct enrolment sessions. More details closer to the date.
Nattie is waiting for me, so I better take her for her walkies.
Samuel
January 29th, 2006 at 07:26pm
One of the many examples of game show hosting talent is Larry Emdur, commonly known for getting people excited about games involving dollars, cents, golf, chance and cans of beans on Channel Nine’s The Price Is Right. In the most recent (and mildly unsuccessful) incarnation on Nine’s The Price Is Right, a giant dangerous wheel was introduced to the game. Larry seems to have liked the wheel so much, that he has jumped ship to Channel 7 as the host of Wheel Of Fortune, which has been on a bit of a production break.
I will be making sure to watch whenever I can as I quite like Larry, and enjoyed The Price Is Right. Regular readers would also know that I liked Wheel Of Fortune that much when Rob Elliot was the host that I drew a picture of it.
The new button pressing (well they don’t turn the letters these days) co-host is Laura Csortan. Wheel Of Fortune screens of Channel 7 and network station on weekdays at 5PM, just before Deal Or No Deal.
Here are a couple more pictures from the show.
I have also included the 15 second TV promo for Wheel Of Fortune in various video formats, listed in order of quality.
Real Media
Windows Media Video
Quicktime Movie
MPEG 4
Samuel
January 28th, 2006 at 12:00am
Returning to The Fortress on Monday, is John Laws. That means the golden microphone will also be returning to work, and the co-driver will be dropping by on Fridays with his race tips.
Hopefully the cat will find a way to be amongst the pigeons again, and The Cuckoo’s Nest will almost certainly have a song ready, with plenty more to come as the years rolls on.
Welcome Back Lawsie!
Samuel
January 27th, 2006 at 02:41pm
At 12:05am John Kerr will be returning to 2UE’s airwaves as host of the weekend version of New Day Australia. Depending on how tired I am I will either email or ring John, and if I don’t ring in the morning then I will ring on Sunday morning.
It’s good to have John back, I’m sure he has plenty of stories to tell of his holiday.
Samuel
January 27th, 2006 at 01:11pm
Ex 2CC Newsreader and current 2UE political reporter James Goodwin is leaving radio for the realm of local television. At the end of this week, James will move out of parliament house, and into the Win Television studios located nearby in Kingston. James will, not surprisingly, be a senior reporter.
I suppose James is trying to get some on-camera and on-air experience before making a move to something bigger than Win Local News. I’ve never understood the fascination with Win News, I always preferred Prime News and Ten Capital News over Win. Win have however, to their credit, become the only commercial television local news bulletin provider in the ACT (no, those 60 second ad break local news segments on the other commercial stations do not count).
Win do have this habit of treating even the most trivial story with the utmost seriousness, sometimes with a bit too much seriousness, however I’m sure it all looks good to prospective employers. Marguerite McKinnon is a prime example, having spent five years covering Legislative Assembly minister statement sessions at the back door, and the occasional other venues of MLA press conferences and meetings. Marguerite went from Win to 2UE (is James going backwards here?) and became the Federal Political Reporter where she “followed Prime Minister John Howard on his tour of Australia” (quote from her Seven News profile, which contains that stalker-like sentence, Maybe Seven should rewrite that) and is now working at Seven as a Senior Reporter.
Anyway, I will miss James’ detailed news reports from parliament house and his occasional detours into mitchell to fill-in as a news reader. Best of luck James!
Samuel
January 24th, 2006 at 03:02pm
One thing I’ve noticed about 2UE lately, is that the shows where the presenter doubles as the panel op have been sounding quite odd on network stations. Hosts have consistently cut the network feed for computer audio, creating annoying silences when they play bits of incidental music (such as at the end of a call), Glenn Wheeler has become quite an expert in that in recent weeks. Somebody really needs to reminds the presenters that they only need to cut the computer network feed for ads and 2UE specific intros.
The other example which has driven me nuts is Stuart Bocking enabling the complete audio feed during the weather, effectively making network station weather and 2UE weather clash. It’s quite simple Stuart, press the button when the weather finishes. This is not a criticism, just a bit of helpful advice.
I’ve noticed that 2GB seem to employ panel operators for all shows, perhaps 2UE should consider this. Yesterday’s OB sounded very good from a technical perspective as there was a panel op at 2UE controlling things, which made the program flow nicely.
I have said before (perhaps not here), that automation and networking are only obvious when things go wrong, and then it reflects badly on all stations involved, regardless of how fair that might be.
I would urge 2UE to do one of two things, employ panel ops 24/7, or remind staff of correct panelling procedure.
Samuel
January 22nd, 2006 at 12:32pm
As you may recall from 2UE’s letter, John Kerr will be returning to 2UE on the weekend version of New Day Australia on January 28. This is now less than one week away, and I have closed the petition and archived it.
I appreciate, as I’m sure John does, all the support that people gave John. 2UE have decided to keep John on weekends, so it is time to get behind that show.
I have archived the Save John Kerr page here, and the petition here. 2UE will receive the final version of the petition, as it would be unfair of me to not pass on the comments left in good faith.
If you still want to send a message to 2UE, you will need to send it directly to them.
Samuel
January 22nd, 2006 at 07:21am
As you may recall, I reported about a week ago that the ABC are running a special “Reunions Special” series of As Time Goes By, which is a series of four episodes which pick up after the original series ended. These episodes are screening on Friday nights at 8PM.
Last night, ABC TV ran episode two, a summary of which can be found below. (Source: ABC TV)
Jean, Sandy and Judith wait nervously for news of Harry’s job and Alistair’s doctors appointment. Lionel is the first to return home, having left Alistair waiting for test results.
Alone at last, Jean and Lionel reflect on the day. Lionel is keen to talk about something other than babies, but Jean wants to know why he and his first wife never had children.
Episode three will screen on ABC TV at 8PM on Friday, January 27, whilst episode four will screen at 8PM on Friday, February 3.
Samuel
January 21st, 2006 at 11:24pm
I can sum that up in one word…”lunatics” (for those that keep emailing me saying it’s “loonatics”, that’s a movie, not a word!).
Take 2UE’s OB at The Domain in Sydney for example. 2UE generally have enclosed studios for every OB, which is lucky as somebody could have been seriously hurt if they didn’t. I’ll let a Sydney listener, Madcat from USENET Aus.Radio.broadcast explain what happened:
I was just listeening to 2UE just after 1pm Saturday, and they are
doing their “Find Me A Home” program as an OB from The Domain in
Sydney.
Some woman started banging on the glass window telling them to “turn
it down”. They told her to stop, as she’d break the glass. She did
for a few moments.
Then she started up again…constantly and hard – BANG BANG BANG BANG.
And it really did sound like the window would shatter.
The real esate guy adn the host got all flustered, and mentioned that
they would have to get the police.
(Verbatim copy, errors were in original text).
Poor Monica Trapaga, her first day filling in for Glenn Wheeler and she gets a visit from a lunatic. If this person had wanted to have the speaker volume turned down, you would think she could have asked one of the 2UE staff, there seemed to be plenty there (including weekday afternoon presenter John Stanley). I don’t think I’ve seen a single OB that didn’t have non-presenting station staff all over the place.
Canberra only get 2pm to 6pm of Glenn’s (Monica’s) show on a Saturday, but the bits I heard did sound like Monica got a bit of a shock from that drama and needed a break. To her credit she continued with the show, and it was undoubtedly a coup for 2UE having Monica at an OB, but it did seem quite clear that she was shaken up by the whole event. I hope that 2UE have the courtesy to give her tomorrow off if she needs it.
Samuel
January 21st, 2006 at 09:30pm
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