Posts filed under 'TV/Radio/Media'
Well now that’s a surprise. Geraldine Nordfeldt (ex-WIN Canberra and then Canberra Times) is working for Seven News now, and filed a report today on the Gillard ascendancy to the leadership.
Geraldine was a great journalist at WIN, covering the local political rounds in a way which was so good, that the government pressured (and sadly succeeded) WIN management to get rid of her before the last election. I wasn’t as enamoured with her work at The Canberra Communist Daily Times, but it’s good to see her back in broadcast journalism. Hopefully she will do her best to keep The House On The Hill honest.
Samuel
June 24th, 2010 at 02:35pm
Ever since just before 2GB sacked David Oldfield so that they could replace him with his predecessor Jim Ball, the rumour mill has been on overdrive with news that Oldfield would simply be switching with Jim and be taking over 2UE’s overnight show. As usual with this kind of rumour, it was half true. David is indeed coming to 2UE, but not to take over their overnight show which is now quite comfortably being anchored by Mike Jeffreys, but rather to bolster their fill-in roster.
This was confirmed within the last day without dates by the emergence of a Facebook group dedicated to David’s emergence on 2UE, and I have now received this information from an anonymous but reliable source. It reads like an extract of an internal memo, so I’ll copy and paste it verbatim.
I’m pleased to announce that David Oldfield will be joining us for several weeks in May, filling in on Drive and Nights.
David will step in for the holidaying Two Murrays from Monday May 3 – Friday May 7. He will then move to nights for two weeks filling in for Stuart Bocking.
Most recently David was 2GB’s overnight host – prior to that he had an extended stay in both state and federal politics.
Could a permanent shift be on the cards for David in the not-to-distant future. Given his performance on 2GB overnights, and pending a decent performance in his fill-in roles, I wouldn’t be surprised to see it happen.
Samuel
April 22nd, 2010 at 12:43am
According to The Daily Telegraph earlier this week, John Laws will be on ABC Local Radio across the country for the last hour of Australia All Over with Ian McNamara. This airs between 9am and 10am in eastern Australia.
Samuel
April 18th, 2010 at 06:27am
I was saying last night that I would love to hear Rex Hunt and Eddie McGuire calling AFL together now that Rex has found a home at Eddie’s station of Triple M in Melbourne, and that I was surprised that Eddie wasn’t calling football.
My prayers have been answered this afternoon. Rex Hunt and Eddie McGuie are both calling the North Melbourne V West Coast match right now.
In Melbourne on 105.1FM and in the rest of the world online at mms://wm9.streaming.telstra.com/ucs-wh_afl0live3.
This year, with a lack of the annoying Brian Taylor and the addition of Rex Hunt and Eddie McGuire, it’s more than fair to say that Triple M rocks football!
Samuel
April 10th, 2010 at 02:21pm
This year’s first radio ratings have been released and are as follows:
1st: FM 104.7 20.2% (up from 18.3%)
2nd: 666 ABC Canberra 18.5% (up from 16.1%)
3rd: Mix 106.3 16.9% (down from 18.0%)
4th: JJJ 8.0% (down from 13.5%)
5th: ABC Classic FM 7.6% up from 7.4%
6th: 2CA 6.8% (up from 4.1%)
7th: Combined unlisted 6.6% (up from 5.4%)
8th: 2CC 6.3% (no change)
9th: ABC Radio National 6.0% (down from 7.5%)
10th: ABC NewsRadio 3.1% (down from 3.4%)
I don’t really have time to do any analysis of this at this very moment, however I intend on doing so this evening. Stay tuned!
Samuel
April 8th, 2010 at 12:06pm
Jim has now confirmed on his website that he will be returning to 2GB’s Midnight to 3:30am weekday show on Monday.
A week later Melbourne’s 3MTR will be coming on board as the show’s first network station.
Samuel
April 7th, 2010 at 09:08pm
The first radio ratings for the year for Canberra have been released to radio stations, with the public release expected tomorrow.
Jock’s Journal have received some figures which I’m unable to confirm at this stage. They have published the following figures:
FM 104.7: 20.2% (up from 18.3%)
666 ABC Canberra: 18.5% (up from 16.1%)
Mix 106.3: 16.9% (down from 18%)
JJJ: 8% (down from 13.5%)
ABC Classic FM: 7.6% (up from 7.4%)
2CA: 6.8% (up from 4.1%)
2CC: 6.3% (no change)
This doesn’t cover every station in the market, so I can only be sure that the top four are indeed the top four. It’s also interesting to note that with the exception of 2CC, most of the stations have jumped back to their approximate ratings share in last year’s first survey.
I’ll publish a more comprehensive summary tomorrow when the official figures are released.
Samuel
April 7th, 2010 at 07:03pm
3MTR’s launch today confirmed a number of things, with some of the more interesting things being bits of information which 2GB haven’t confirmed for Sydney yet.
The schedule is below, but a couple things of interest are that Jim Ball is the confirmed overnight host despite there still being no official word of his arrival at 2GB. Interestingly, Frank Crook’s weekend overnight show is being replaced by current overnight fill-in host Mike Williams, indicating that Frank may be on his way out. If I’m not mistaken, Mike covered the last weekend, so this wouldn’t be too much of a shock.
Andrew Moore’s Wake Up Australia program has been extended by an hour so that it now runs until 6am. Whether this means that Alan Jones will be on-air for half an hour less each day, or whether the latter parts of Andrew’s show will simply not be heard in Sydney are yet to be confirmed. Having Andrew on-air until 6am would open the door for competition to 2UE’s New Day Australia in the Syndication market, especially considering that many regional stations do not start their local breakfast show until 6am.
The 8pm-9pm block is listed as “highlights” which probably means highlights of local shows rather than the Jones/Hadley hour. 9pm-Midnight is covered by locally by Luke Grant.
Weekends are mostly syndicated from Sydney, with only the Midday-6pm block being local, hosted by TV personality Glenn Ridge. Glenn Wheeler’s Saturday night show is being extended by two hours and will start at 6pm in Melbourne. There is no mention of any broadcasting of the NRL, although I will be surprised if Melbourne Storm matches are not aired when 2GB are calling them.
3MTR will start broadcasting on 1377AM, replacing 3MP, in two and a half weeks at 6am on Monday the 19th of March with the following lineup.
Weekdays:
Midnight: Jim Ball
3:30am: Wake Up Australia with Andrew Moore
6:00am: Breakfast with Steve Price (local)
10:00am: Mornings with Steve Vizard (local)
1pm: Afternoons with Chris Smith (final hour local)
4pm: Drive with Martin King (local)
6pm: Money News with Ross Greenwood
8pm: Highlights (possibly local)
9pm: Melbourne Tonight with Luke Grant (local)
Saturday:
Midnight: Mike Williams
5am: The Fishing Show with Michael Guest
6am: The Gardening Clinic
9am: Mornings with Scott Cam
11am: Real Estate with Mark Moraza
Midday: Weekend Afternoons with Glenn Ridge (local)
6pm: Saturday Nights with Glenn Wheeler
Sunday:
Midnight: Mike Williams
6am: The Gardening Clinic
9am: Home Handyman with Simon Stevenson
11am: Health and Wellbeing With Deborah Thomas and Andrew Rochford
Midday: Weekend Afternoons with Glenn Ridge (local)
6pm: Medical with Dr. Graham Malouf (This show is called “Your Health” on 2GB)
8pm: Sunday Nights with Reverend Bill Crews
So we’re looking at 13, maybe 14 hours of local content per day during the week, and six hours per day on weekends. Not anywhere near the amount of local content on 3AW, but one would expect it to be enough on weekdays to be seen as a local station. The weekends worry me though. The interstate programs might be niche programs, but things like gardening and real estate are very local subjects, and it could be difficult to make these locally relevant in multiple markets.
And what is it with radio stations and weekend morning gardening shows? Can nobody do a proper weekend breakfast program, even if it’s only on Saturday? I’d rather listen to a simulcast of Channel Nine’s Today show than most gardening shows…I just don’t understand why they are so dominant on weekends.
I also wonder if 3MTR will use 2GB’s 131 873 for their shows, of if they will have their own number, and how this will work during overlapping programming in Sydney such as the first two hours of Glenn Wheeler’s show where 2GB and 3MTR will have different shows with call-in numbers on the air. One wouldn’t expect Glenn to suddenly change phone number at 8pm…so this could be interesting. Some telephone routing magic perhaps?
Incidentally 13 1377 is owned by Aussie Mastercard, so I can’t see 3MTR buying that. 131 687 (131 MTR) is answered by “NCP” so they probably can’t buy that either. 131 873 might have to suffice, although I’m sure that 3AW will instantly run with the “see, they’re not local, that’s 2GB’s phone number” if they do that.
Interesting times ahead in Melbourne.
Samuel
April 7th, 2010 at 06:51pm
3MTR, the Melbourne talk station which replaces 3MP will be “launched” today but will not be going to air today.
It is expected to be officially confirmed today that the new station will have A Current Affair reporter Martin King as the drive show (4pm-6pm) host, although it will be more of a surprise if they don’t confirm this today as it has been splashed all over the Melbourne media.
2GB’s Chris Smith is not on-air in Sydney today as he is in Melbourne for the launch and it is expected that his show will be syndicated to 3MTR in a slightly altered format. His show will be split in to three distinct parts. Midday-1pm will be broadcast in to Sydney only and will have a Sydney focus, 1pm-3pm will be broadcast in both markets with a national focus, and 3pm-4pm will be broadcast in Melbourne only with a Melbourne focus.
The weekday lineup for 3MTR is expected to be:
Midnight-3:30am: Jim Ball
3:30am-5am: Wake Up Australia with Andrew Moore
5am-6am:Unknown
6am-10am: Steve Price and contributors
10am-1pm: Steve Vizard
1pm-4pm: Chris Smith
4pm-6pm: Martin King
6pm-8pm: Money News with Ross Greenwood
8pm-midnight: Unknown, but likely to be similar to 2GB’s evening lineup, minus Brian Wilshire.
Meanwhile Ash Long, proprietor of Melbourne newspaper The Melbourne Observer is maintaining quite possibly the best publicity stunt for an unlaunched radio station in living memory. For months Ash has been publicly stating that he owns the name “Melbourne Talk Radio” and that Macquarie and Pacific Star have no rights to the name…lots of noise, but no action. It’s true that Ash owns this name, but surely if this was a serious claim he’d be dragging it through the courts and not through the media?
Regardless, my suspicion here is that Ash reached an agreement with Macquarie/Pacific Star a long time ago, and this public “dispute” over the name is just part of that deal as it benefits the new radio station as well as The Melbourne Observer. Case in point: who, outside of Melbourne, had heard of The Melbourne Observer before this all blew up?
It should be interesting to see what the actual lineup is, and whether it will be able to put a dent in 3AW’s ratings. I’m personally hoping that 3MTR will take the rugby league coverage from 2GB even if it doesn’t take the hours and hours of talk surrounding the coverage. Time will tell, and we should all know in about twenty minutes from now.
Samuel
April 7th, 2010 at 10:41am
I promised the anonymous emailer who sent this link to me, that I would publish this yesterday. It seems that it slipped my mind during my long afternoon nap.
Currently on eBay, a handful of radio station number plates are on sale. 2UE, 2DAY FM and WSFM are all represented, but are well and truly out of my price range as they start at $5,000 with a Buy It Now price of $15,000.
If these things interest you, then enjoy…I’d be interested if I could actually afford them, although I doubt that I could buy any of them even if I sold everything I own.
And a quick hat tip to radionews.com.au who had this story on Monday before I was even emailed about it.
Samuel
April 7th, 2010 at 09:45am
Six and a half hours of monitoring 2GB’s webstream has paid off. I’ve captured their daylight saving reminder!
I really like the way this makes use of Telstra’s talking clock. It’s a clever bit of work, and I’d like to congratulate whomever at 2GB’s is responsible for it. Nice job!
[audio:https://samuelgordonstewart.com/wp-content/2GBDSTEnds2010.mp3]
Download MP3
Incidentally the hiss at the start is the final syllable of the midnight weather. I couldn’t separate it from the bit I wanted.
It seems that the talking clock and ways that I spend my time are the subjects of the day, so for those of you who are wondering…I had been listening to Jason Morrison’s show since a bit before 4pm and it was a bit after 5pm when I first heard the daylight saving reminder (albeit the generic version and not the Saturday version which you hear above) and it was at that point that I decided to start the recorder to capture the reminder the next time it aired. I was listening to 2GB programming for most of that time anyway…and the bits that I missed I was able to check over with the recording, so it’s not as if I was sitting here anxiously waiting for it to air again. In fact I had just set up the overnight recording and was about to go to bed when I heard this go to air. I suppose it amounts to the same thing though.
Anyway, I must be off. I have to be up early for AIR News’ morning sport reports, and would like to get some sleep before then. Good night.
Samuel
April 3rd, 2010 at 12:31am
I’ve been keeping an eye on the 2GB website all week so that I can spot changes which might indicate that Jim Ball’s profile will make a reappearance, and was struck by something this morning. Ray Hadley’s profile picture has changed to include his glasses. This might not seem very important and, quite probably it isn’t, but it occurred to me when he came to Canberra in late February that he wears the glasses a lot and in my view looks better and more professional wearing them.
As far as I can tell, the photo on the 2GB website changed overnight although it might have changed the day before as I can’t recall whether I spotted his photo on Wednesday. His old photo is still up on the 2CC website, but I really do think the new photo is more flattering.
Here’s the old photo as taken from 2CC’s website:
And here’s the new one on 2GB’s website:
I think this is a much better photo and, whilst it may be a “studio” photo, it is much more reflective of Ray’s natural appearance than the old photo. As an example, here’s a photo of me with Ray at the 2GB/2CC outside broadcast at The Mint on February 22:
I don’t know why, but I find photos of radio people quite fascinating. There’s that phrase “head for radio” and I think that, rightly or wrongly, a lot of people in radio believe that it applies to them and shy away from official photos, effectively causing the photos on radio station websites to often be much less appealing than the photos taken by fans in public. Jim Ball’s 2UE photo was a good example. Jim’s photo, like the rest of the 2UE profile photos, was taken in the station’s lobby and on its own was OK:
But in my view was not as good as the more natural photo from his old 2GB profile:
Unfortunately I don’t have a copy of the photo as it appeared on 2UE’s website (the one above is from 2CC’s website), however it was rotated a bit and, sadly, his 2UE profile photo when rotated slightly has a knack of making him looking slightly insane which I thought was most unfortunate for a man of his intellect.
Update: Many thanks to reader Nathan for sending through a copy of Jim Ball’s 2UE profile photo. It looks like I may have been confused about the origin of some photos as the 2UE profile photo is different to the 2CC profile photo, and I now have this vague memory of the photo of Jim on his page on 2CC’s website being from one of the 2UE studios rather than the lobby like his 2UE profile photo.
Anyway, the point is, thanks to Nathan I can now share that photo with you.
Some of the smaller versions of this photo (the one on the header of the New Day Australia page where he was Photoshopped in next to John Kerr springs to mind) had Jim’s head on less of an angle. Unfortunately, as I mentioned earlier, when you shrink the photo and rotate it a bit, Jim looks slightly insane, which seriously irked me. It’s probably due to the reduction in detail in the photo removing some of the details of Jim’s smile.
I’m looking forward to seeing Jim’s profile on the 2GB website (and the 3MTR website) when it appears. I wonder if it will be a new photo or his old 2GB profile photo?
End Update
Meanwhile, when I was looking through the 2GB website earlier and noticed the temporary profile page for “The C Team”, a show which 2GB are putting on tonight to fill time due to the NRL starting an hour later than usual, I was reminded of something which my Year 4 teacher Jay Busch said to the class about not trusting spell-check.
Mark Level? Who’s Mark Level? Maybe 2CC’s website can clarify this.
Oh, Mark Levy…oh I see! I wonder what they typed to have spell-check suggest “level” to them…it can’t have been “levy” as that’s a word; “levl” perhaps?
It’s a tiny mistake and not in the least bit relevant to Ray Hadley’s glasses…but it gave me a good laugh so I couldn’t stop myself from sharing it. Consider it a Friday Funny if you like.
Samuel
April 2nd, 2010 at 05:07pm
It might surprise a lot of people to know that Mix 106.3 are a relay station for Triple M Sydney’s Monday night NRL coverage. In fact, looking at their website, you’d never know that they did such a thing. Even right now as they’re broadcasting the match, their “Now Playing” ticker simply says “Canberra – Feel Good!”.
They promote the coverage on-air, but why oh why is there no mention of it on their website? Considering that 2CC and the ABC are the home of NRL coverage in Canberra, you’d think that they’d want to publicise the fact that they hold the rights to Monday night football, especially seeing as 2CC aren’t allowed to broadcast Monday night Raiders matches and Mix are able to, as they showed last week.
Odd, but that’s Canberra radio I suppose. Promoting yourself doesn’t seem to be particularly high on the agenda of any Canberra station.
Samuel
March 29th, 2010 at 08:23pm
Jim Ball’s return to 2GB overnights has been delayed a few times now for a couple reasons, but is now looking much closer as David Oldfield’s profile has finally disappeared from the 2GB website. Mike Williams is filling-in for the moment, and we should see Jim Ball on the air soon. Whether it will be this week or next week is anyone’s guess, but at this stage Monday looks to be the most likely date.
Samuel
March 29th, 2010 at 08:17pm
Some very sad news has just crossed my desk. ITV have announced that they are cancelling long-running UK drama The Bill after 26 years on the air (27 if you count the original show Woodentop). The move is understandable seeing as the show is only bringing in half the ratings that it was in 2002, but is disappointing all the same.
The Bill was revamped last year and moved to a later timeslot in the UK, allowing the storylines to become more serious. Of late, I think this has worked really well in terms of production quality as the show seems to be getting better every week, however for the first month or two after the change it really was a pale imitation of The Bill and felt more like a CID-centric spinoff series as uniformed officers almost didn’t exist and certainly didn’t have any useful role. I believe that the new format would be rating well if the first few episodes hadn’t been such a let-down in comparison to the six-week storyline which led up to it.
I also think the show’s producers erred by replacing Inspector Gina Gold with Inspector Rachel Weston. With all due respect to actress Claire Goose who is a fine actress in her own right, her character had a cardboard personality in comparison to Roberta Taylor’s character, and detracted from the show. She made a good Sergeant, but Gold should have been replaced by Sgt. (now Inspector) Dale Smith straight away rather than in the revamp. Certainly these aren’t the only things which contributed to the ratings decline, but I feel that they were the important bits in recent history.
On the bright side, the show has about half a year left, so this should be plenty of time for the producers to write a decent ending. They’d better not take the Third Watch approach though and have the station burnt down (again) as it has survived fires more times than I care to count and it would not do the series justice. There is already talk of the series potentially moving to BBC, but I can’t see it happening as it would be very difficult to move a show to another station after such a length of time. I’ll be very surprised if Sun Hill Police Station doesn’t close in the final episode, especially given the timeslot giving the show much more freedom to go out with a bang.
My only hope from all of this is that it speeds up the release of the show on DVD. Currently only a very small number of early seasons have been released and it would be great to see the rest of them released. I’d also love to purchase one of their police cars but I’d imagine that I would have to remove the word “police” from the side of it in order to register it in Australia, which would defeat the purpose of owning it.
Anyway, the show will finish up in autumn in the UK, so we should see the final episodes here in summer. I’m not looking forward to the end, but I am looking forward to seeing how the show’s stories evolve between now and then.
Thanks to MediaSpy for the news
Samuel
March 27th, 2010 at 12:03am
Next Posts
Previous Posts