Posts filed under 'TV/Radio/Media'
Earlier in the week I interviewed Wayne Mac for Samuel’s Persiflage episode two, where we talked about Wayne’s book, Don’t Touch That Dial. On this occasion Wayne had to rush off after the show and as such was unable to sign the book or have his photo taken.
We made alternative arrangements, which involved meeting for lunch and coffee today. During this time Wayne signed the book with the following:
Here is Wayne signing the book:
And a photo of myself with Wayne:
This was also a good time for me to hand Wayne an audio CD copy of Samuel’s Persiflage episode two and a thankyou letter. My standard policy for guests on Samuel’s Persiflage is that they receive a letter with information about the show (including the fact that it is now archived by the National Library of Australia), as well as an audio CD copy of the show, and monthly download statistics. At this stage the podcast hasn’t been running long enough for me to establish how long these monthly updates need to continue for.
You may recall that during my interview with Wayne, he was talking about John Kerr’s jingle from 1963 and was just starting to say something about John Vertigan when we were forced to cut to the jingle by an unexpected banging on the front door. Today I took the opportunity to ask Wayne what he was going to say, and he informed me that the jingle was part of a package of jingles where the main song was recorded and the names inserted later. Upon listening to the jingle closely it is quite possible to hear the difference in the way the various bits of the song are sung. This jingle package was used by many stations for many DJ’s.
For the record, the book weighs in at 1.88 KG according to my weighing of it.
Samuel
January 20th, 2006 at 03:30pm
The long awaited book on the history and people of Australian radio, Don’t Touch That Dial, Hits ‘n’ Memories Of Australian Radio, has been released and is available exclusively through www.waynemac.com.
The best way to explain the book is to use the words of Wayne Mac:
Don’t Touch That Dial chronicles Australian radio from the days when teenagers were first seduced by the new sounds of Top 40 pop and DJs in the late 1950s.
It takes you on a journey where radio went from strength to strength on AM, then FM, introducing music, news, personalities, commentators and colourful characters several of whom became household names.
In Don’t Touch That Dial Wayne Mac takes account of an entertainment phenomenon which has touched the lives of generations of Australians.
A celebration of radio and its people in words and pictures.
The book format is A4 hard cover, 400 pages.
The foreword is written by legendary radio presenter Bob Rogers, in which he writes about Wayne
Wayne Mac was a keen young radio listener in the ’60s, who turned his passion for radio listening into a successful career as an announcer and program director in the ’70s and ’80s. Documenting this era of our radio history is long overdue. Wayne’s commitment to this task, through several years of meticulous research, has resulted in an authoritative and entertaining read. Few stones are left unturned. I have even been reminded of a few things about me, which I’d forgotten and I had a few laughs along the way.
The book is sorted into sections and chapters:
- PART ONE:
- 1. ‘From Wireless to Radio’…an introduction to the very early days
- 2. ‘A New Hit to Happen’…the Top 40 era begins
- 3. ‘Stacks of Wax and Platter Chatter’…introducing Australia’s pioneering Disc Jockeys
- 4. ‘The ’60s: and the Beat Goes On’…the next generation of DJs and new sounds in pop music
- 5. ‘A Bright Good Morning to You’…the sound of breakfast and morning shows
- 6. ‘Hello, You’re on the Air’…talkback radio begins
- 7. ‘Now a Word From Our Sponsor’…the business end of radio
- 8. ‘Goin’ Up the Country’…how did country radio compare with the city?
- 9. ‘Have You Heard the News?’…the establishment and role of radio news
- 10. ‘The Music Goes Round My Head’…the origins of music format styles and positioning
- 11. ‘Sound of the ’70s’…greater sophistication of format radio through audience segmentation
- 12. ‘Something Special’…the era of producing radio specials and ‘event’ programming
- 13. ‘Jingle Jangle’…the production of advertising, promo and station identification jingles
- 14. ‘Cunning Stunts’…a Top 10 of station promotions and publicity stunts…and then some!
- 15. ‘FM Arrives’…finally!
- 16. ‘The Power in Radio’…the radio hierarchy. Who called the shots?
- 17. ‘The Changing Tune of the ’80s’…New formats, music, technology and new players
- PART TWO:
- Frequently Asked Questions
- The Stations: the Players
- POSTSCRIPT:
Wayne has put an awful lot of work, time and dedication into this book, and it shows. Don’t Touch That Dial is a quality book in a limited print run. It is expected that it will increase in value in the years to come.
If you would like more information about Wayne’s book, head on over to his website at www.waynemac.com, and keep your ear on the radio as Wayne will be interviewed countless times in the coming weeks.
I’ve ordered my copy!
Samuel
(Quotes and image © Wayne Mac 2006)
January 18th, 2006 at 01:57am
I received a letter from Ian Sheppard, General Manager of Radio 2UE today, plainly explaining the situation, and pretty much saying that nothing is going to change.
At the very least, Mr. Sheppard did take the time to read, understand and acknowledge the concerns of myself and many others. It would also appear that he signed the letter himself, not via printer or stamp, as the pen marks can clearly be felt on the other side of the paper.
2UE also sealed the envelope with a 2UE sticker, sporting the old 2UE logo, which I will now have to peel off very carefully. What follows is a copy of the letter from Mr. Sheppard.
Dear Mr. Gordon-Stewart
Thank you for taking the time to write to express your disappointment about John Kerr moving from weekdays to weekends. These moves are never popular with everyone, and I can assure you that you are not alone with your feelings.
That said, I am delighted that John has agreed to continue on with 2UE for two nights each week. He will be back from his break at the end of January.
I’m Pleased that you do enjoy listening to Stuart Bocking and hope that you give him time to settle in to his new role. He is a very interesting, popular and talented broadcaster and we are receiving many positive comments about his program.
Thanks again to your letter and I trust you will keep listening to 2UE.
Kind regards,
Ian Sheppard
GENERAL MANAGER
None the less, I will send a final copy of the petition to him, as it would be unfair on those of you who signed the petition for me to not send a copy.
Speaking of John Kerr, stay tuned as I have a 1963 John Kerr on 2CA jingle…coming soon!
Samuel
January 17th, 2006 at 12:02am
Robbie McGregor, the voice behind SBS since 1989 has been axed, and will no longer be reading the SBS promos. I guess it had to happen at some stage, but SBS won’t sound the same without him.
I often sit through the five minutes of ads after a show on SBS as I feel like I’m supporting the station by doing so, it also provides me with an opportunity to see what’s coming up on SBS in the near future, which is helpful as program names are often deceptive. SBS will be hard pressed to find another voice of Robbie’s calibre, and will struggle to retain me during ad breaks.
This would appear to be yet another step in the gradual degradation of SBS.
Samuel
January 14th, 2006 at 06:32pm
Mike Jeffreys returns to the 2CC Breakfast show on Monday morning at 5:35am (assuming I’ve calculated the length of the news correctly).
Contrary to my dreams, there have been no reports of Mike’s regular guests hiding in cupboards in department stores, but I may ring him to tell him about this dream anyway.
Ever since Mike went on leave, 2CC has been mildly odd, with Mike Welsh, Leigh Zaghet and Mike Frame all spending time on Breakfast. Drive hasn’t been any better, with Mike Frame, Steve Liebmann (yep, a 2UE feed on public holidays), Leight Zaghet all taking turns at hosting it, thankfully Mike Frame has already returned to that show.
Mike Frame has been referring to himself, Welshy and Jeffreys as “The Three Omegos”, but I did hear him use my suggestion of “The Three O-Mike-Os” the other day, I do hope my occasional lunacy is helping 2CC in some way.
I did notice that they appear to be rebranding themselves as “your talk radio”, I wonder if Mike Jeffreys will start introducing traffic reports with “2CC traffic thanks to the Mitsubishi 380, here’s your Andrew Pye”, or perhaps Kevin Woole will become “Your wolfman with your sport”. I quite like that last one…
Samuel
January 14th, 2006 at 04:00pm
2UE certainly are keeping the webmaster busy, once again the schedule has changed, this time breakfast is the victim of a 2UE movement.
Mike Carlton will be joined by his fill-in, Peter FitzSimons, for a two person breakfast show starting Monday. Talk duos seem to rate well, although I can’t stand them, and I can’t personally see this duo gaining much, if any, ground on 2GB’s Alan Jones.
Meanwhile 2UE’s website is reporting that Dugald Saunders is hosting the night show tonight, possibly filling in for Mike Williams, or maybe not…who knows? The schedule at that station is a solid as a water roof…it just keeps splashing all over the place.
Also on the 2UE website, John Mangos is listed as on air now despite the fact that the schedule below it shows Glenn Wheeler being on now, and my radio confirming Glenn’s on-airness.
Maybe Lawsie should get The Cuckoo’s Nest to write a song about 2UE schedules, and then hope he doesn’t get moved to 7:36am-2:49pm…
Samuel
January 14th, 2006 at 03:06pm
I had the good fortune of finding that the ABC are running 4 new episodes of “As Time Goes By”, which is one of my favourite TV shows. It would appear that there was enough demand for more of As Time Goes By that the producers decided to write four encore episodes. Thankfully they live up to the standard of the show.
As Time Goes By can be viewed on ABC TV on Friday nights at 8PM.
For those of you who missed episode one of this series, I have mirrored the episode description from the ABC website below.
The As Time Goes By – Reunion Specials pick up after the original series left off and reveal Jean Hardcastle’s (Dame Judi Dench) great anticipation for grandchildren, much to the dismay of her husband Lionel (Geoffrey Palmer).
In episode one Jean has cots delivered to the house in the hope that Judith (Moira Brooker) and Sandy (Jenny Funnell) will soon be having babies. Lionel explains they may not want children. Lionel dreams of looking after babies that multiply at an alarming rate.
Alistair (Philip Bretherton) and Judith collect Sandy and Harry (David Michaels) from the airport. Back at Jean’s house an emotional Sandy tells Jean that Harry wants to kill himself. Meanwhile Harry explains to the others how he plans to join the armed response unit to gain a promotion. Jean wants to talk him out of it, but Sandy insists it must be his decision.
Alistair begins to behave peculiarly and Judith fears it is because she has been unable to get pregnant. She knows she is healthy and is concerned the problem lies with Alistair. Jean offers Lionel’s services to talk to Alistair, but Lionel refuses to be drawn into discussing such personal matters. However, when Jean plots to get him alone with Alistair, Lionel finds himself suggesting he seek medical help.
Samuel
January 14th, 2006 at 09:00am
I was taking Nattie for a walk this morning as I usually do, we were walking around Argyle Square, which is a block of private townhouses on Ainslie Avenue, near Civic. As we were walking along Allambee Street, there was a government pather on the other side of the road, having his morning tea break. He was sitting under a tree, with his car radio on, and from a distance I thought I could recognise a voice, as I got closer I heard someone talking about sharks, and then hear Tim Webster, who was interviewing a shark expert.
I was tempted to say hello to the pather, but Nattie just wanted to keep walking, so we kept right on walking.
Samuel
January 10th, 2006 at 11:10pm
Well Channel 9 outdid themselves with their late night news bulletin, Nightline, last night. I could have been certain that I was watching A Current Affair with an altered background.
For one reason or another, each and every story had to be introduced with an opinion, for example, a story about Victorian highland drovers hering their cattle through national parks was introduced as “it’s illegal, but it’s alright because they are trying to save their heritage” (paraphrased).
Channel 9 are supposed to be a respectable news agency, I do hope this was just a bad night and not a new mandate…unless they are trying to rid themselves of an audience…
Samuel
January 7th, 2006 at 10:00pm
The AFL have now confirmed that the Seven/Ten consortium have won the broadcast rights for the 2007-2011 AFL seasons with the right to sell up to four games per week to other providers if they desire.
Hooray for good coverage, and congratulations to Seven & Ten.
Further Update: Seven/Ten have decided to sell three games to Foxtel per week
Samuel
January 5th, 2006 at 05:33pm
The Seven/Ten consortium have matched the Nine/Foxtel bid for the AFL, unfortunately this makes things slightly unclear as to who will win the rights. Seven/Ten have first and last bid rights, but a match isn’t an outbid, so who knows?
Ultimately I would prefer to have the AFL on Seven/Ten. Firstly, Seven/Ten do a better job of it in my view, plus Nine are already tied up with NRL and can’t really put both on live on Friday night.
Seven & Ten also have the better commentators in my view, hopefully Bruce McAvaney will take up the commentators position again. He is in my view, the best AFL commentator of the current era. He has done well hosting things for Seven, hopefully they can persuade him into the seat behind the microphone…or he might just jump in…
Putting that to one side, Nine (excluding Dennis Commetti Ex-Seven) and Foxtel have some of the most boring and pointless AFL commentators the game has ever seen, and don’t get me started on Collingwood president Eddie McGuire commentating on Collingwood matches for Nine.
Bring back good AFL Coverage, give the rights to Seven & Ten!
Samuel
January 5th, 2006 at 03:00pm
Word is circulating that 2UE management have asked John Kerr in for a meeting on Wednesday January 18. As yet it is unclear what this meeting is going to be about, but with the sheer amount of complaints 2UE have been receiving over their move of John to weekends, it wouldn’t surprise me, or others, if they are going to discuss reversing the decision.
On that note, it isn’t too late to help, sign the petition, ring 2UE on (02) 9954 9930, or write a letter to:
The Station Manager
Radio 2UE
PO Box 954
St Leonards NSW 1590
Australia
All assistance is greatly appreciated.
For more info on the John Kerr saga, see here.
Samuel
January 5th, 2006 at 02:00pm
For those of you who a re wondering, George Gibson will be filling in for Angela Bishop on 2GB’s middawn program (Midnight-5am) from Monday January 9 until Friday January 13.
George will be co-hosting with Dan Mullins (ex 2CC) and will be able to be heard on the 2GB webstream for those of us who do not live in Sydney.
Samuel
January 5th, 2006 at 01:00pm
I should probably take this opportunity to wish all the readers a happy new year, may this year be kind to you.
Just after midnight I rang George Gibson to wish him a happy new year and congratulate him on his new job at 2GB. George is receiving a lot of calls from his old 2UE audience, including interstate people, which is a testament to his popularity, especially considering that the 2GB does not syndicate programs (except the football). In fact, his first two callers this morning were from Queensland & the ACT respectively.
I recorded the 2GB webstream for the first bit of the show, including my call. You can listen to the first ten minutes or so (Including calls from Joanna and myself) of George’s first show of 2006, and his 2nd 2GB show, by clicking here or using the audio player below.
[audio:https://samuelgordonstewart.com/wp-content/George-Gibson-1-1-2006.mp3]
The 32kbps real player stream from 2GB is extraordinary quality! You could be forgiven for thinking I had a studio recording.
Happy New Year!
Samuel
January 1st, 2006 at 12:57am
John Mangos has magically reappeared at 2UE, taking a three hour fill-in shift today and tomorrow.
With George Moore and Paul B. Kidd having the two mornings off, Glenn Wheeler is filling in for them, With midday seeing some 3 hour highlights of the year type programs, John Mangos takes over 3pm-6pm.
Samuel
December 31st, 2005 at 03:05pm
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