Radio

Reports that Hamish Blake and Andy Lee (pictured) are quitting their drivetime show, which blitzes the ratings every weekday in every major metropolitan market across the nation, is bad news for the Austereo's Today radio network. It's hard to imagine another act, local or networked, that could garner such consistently high ratings. Of course, it also presents an opportunity for other stations to even the playing field in the afternoons, and that's got to be a good thing for the medium. I'd like to think we'll get some strong local shows, but I fear networking is inevitable. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if 2011 is the year that one commercial network attempts a national breakfast show. I know they've failed in the past, but the times they are a'changing. The shame for Austereo is that, if anybody could do it, it would have been Hamish and Andy.
P.S. One last thing about H&A: they proved that you don't have to be obnoxious to score big listener numbers. They'll be missed.
P.P.S. The duo will still be heard on Austereo one day a week.

Scott Mayman has moved on from ABC Coast FM on the Gold Coast following a reorganisation of the station. I'm told that Mayman's afternoon Chillout show has been axed in favour of a networked show to be heard on both the Gold and Sunshine Coasts. Coast FM, which started out as a unique member of Aunty's local radio family, now also takes Steve Austin's night show from Brisbane, along with the networked Conversation Hour with Richard Fidler, Nghtlife with Tony Delroy, Overnights with Trevor Chappell, AM, PM and The World Today. My source says Mayman, on whose show I used to be a regular guest a few years ago, is now working as an Australian correspondent for CBS News in the US, where he once worked. The change comes just short of Mayman's 25th anniversary as a broadcaster. I hear a celebratory program may soon go to air on another station.

In the official radio ratings survey 5 for Brisbane released today, B105 remains no. 1 overall, with 612ABC's Spencer Howson still king of breakfast. Overall, the top four were B105, 97.3FM, Nova 106.9, 612ABC and Triple M. It was a solid result for 97.3, whose Robin, Terry and Bob also came fourth in breakfast after Howson, B105's Labby, Camilla and Stav, and Nova's Meshel, Tim and Marty. 612ABC also had a good survey, adding points across the day, with Steve Austin being particularly strong in the evenings. After recent gains, 4BC has slipped back marginally overall and in the breakfast shift, where Jamie Dunn is now in sixth place ahead of 4BH and 4KQ. Stablemates BC and BH had the biggest losses overall. In the Sydney results, covering the periods May 9 to June 12 and June 27 to Ju1y 31, the top three were 2GB, ABC702 and 2Day. The two leaders both had falls, but not enough to topple them. Biggest gainer overall and in breakfast was 2UE, while WSFM also added audience in breakfast. Nova held steady in breakfast, with a slight rise overall, and Classic Rock and Triple M slipped slightly. In Melbourne, 3AW held its big league, followed by ABC774 and Fox FM. Triple M, home of Eddie Maguire, slipped marginally overall and in breakfast. Newcomer MTR ranked at the tailend, but it wasn't on air for the full survey. The networked Hamish and Andy show continued to blitz allcomers in the drive shift.
Disclosure: Until today, Brett Debritz was a regular on the 612ABC breakfast show with Spencer Howson. He will be watching future surveys with great interest.

It was my last regular 612ABC spot this morning (before I head overseas again) and, to celebrate, Spencer Howson and I went to the streets to ask people if they could provide surnames to match 10 "famous" Brisbane first names. The results are here. Interestingly, the three people everybody knew were Anna Bligh, Kevin Rudd and Wally Lewis. In a bonus segment, not put to air, we showed people some photos of famous faces and sought names. Results here.

He may have threatened to pull the pin back in March, but the word around the Brisbane media traps is that Jamie Dunn is signing on the dotted line again as breakfast host at 4BC. While Dunn and co-host Ian Calder's audience share has grown a little lately, they are yet to reach the ratings heights of commercial talk stations in other state capitals. The next bunch of figures, to be released on Tuesday, will be interesting.

As Peter Preston notes here, video didn't kill the radio star, and UK radio listenership is at record highs. That doesn't surprise me at all, and I'm sure listening figures are still buoyant in Australia too (although last time I looked, the radio audience wasn't keeping pace with population growth). But I must take issue with some folks on Twitter who think this is a good sign for all "old media" --specifically that newspapers will continue to thrive the way radio has. The simple fact is that radio, whether it's delivered on the AM and FM bands, on the free digital spectrum or over the internet, is basically the same beast as it ever was -- spoken word plus music designed to inform and/or entertain various targetted markets. And so long as we humans have to do things -- like drive cars or iron or watch the children play -- that require the separate employment of our eyes, radio has no need to change. Newspapers face a different challenge, because the method of delivery is changing more radically and the audience is splintering. While the printed word will survive as long as people can read, the medium of words on newsprint will decline and almost disappear. There will undoubtedly be, even in the distant future, some people who keep books and old papers, and maybe even some who publish them. But as far as the business side of things goes, putting words and pictures on paper, and delivering the product by truck, simply will not be viable. And, as we've already seen, once you start to publish newspapers electronically, they cease to be newspapers as we know them. They can have audio and video and interactive elements -- and, crucially, they can be accessed from anywhere in the world. So far, newspaper publishers haven't excelled in delivering quality sound and vision, except when it is lifted from their professional colleagues at radio and TV stations. Meanwhile, over at Twitter and other social media sites, the really breaking news is being delivered in 144 characters or fewer and in "real time". So when it comes to news "hot off the press", the whole dynamic is changing. Many newspapers are already evolving into magazines that combine longform feature articles and endless opinion pieces at the expense of actual news. Publishers are investing in a small number of highly paid columnists and other specialists rather than in large numbers of flexible foot soldiers who can dig out news at the local level. Looming large over these changes is the big question: who's going to pay for it? Rupert Murdoch is already betting some of his considerable farm on the fact that readers of The Times will pay for online content, while Peter Preston notes that the UK Daily Mail's website is doing fine by creating its own online niche. He says the online edition could be profitable by advertising support only, without a paywall. Australian publishers are already weighing which way to go. The current thinking is that The Australian will embrace a paywall but its News Ltd stablemates (The Daily Telegraph, Courier-Mail, Herald Sun etc.) will not. Not yet, anyway. Farifax already has internet-only titles in Perth and Brisbane and a recent Macquare Bank report suggests taking the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age wholly online would be a profitable move. What the publishers all know is that print is declining and they must invest in quality online products. And they know there are two groups of readers out there: those who will pay, and those who never will. Readers who decide to pay will demand extremely high standards of journalism that reflect their own world view; those who don't pay will still want a product that engages them and tells them what they want to know. Even the online "freesheets" must have unique, targetted content. There is so much choice out there that readers have no reason to bookmark and regularly visit any one product unless it really stands out in a crowded market. My hope is that publishers will see the wisdom of investing in journalism -- not just big-name, big-buck columnists but old-school journos who know their patch and can consistently unearth good yarns that might otherwise go unreported. After all, if we want to know the latest on Lady Gaga or Lindsay Lohan, we merely have to type their name into Google and select one of thousands of choices. But where do we go if we want to know what's happening in our own backyard? The way things are going, there will soon be no news at all from the parish pump -- and we'll all be the poorer for it.

We live in an age of celebrity. You can't pick up a newspaper or magazine, or switch on the TV, radio or internet, without seeing something about Brad and Ange, Tom and Katie, Lindsay or Britney. Like it or not, they've become the subject of many a watercooler conversation and, dare I say it, are genuine "household names". On the national front, there are the big names of TV (Bert, Kerri-Anne, Eddie and Ray among them), plus a smattering of musicians and, largely now-expat, movie makers (Hugh, Russell and Nicole). Recently, the finalists of MasterChef, Callum and Adam, have joined that hallowed society -- but for how long is anyone's guess. You'll note here that I've mentioned only first names but I reckon almost everybody reading this would know exactly who I'm referring to. Which brings me to the big question for Queensland readers only: Who are Brisbane's household names? Which homegrown talents, in whatever field, are instantly recognisable to a large portion of the population (not just the media junkies who read this blog) by their first name or nickname? I've got a few ideas of my own, but I won't be writing them down just yet. Suggestions by email or by Tweet, please. When I've assembled a list, I'd like to test the theory with members of the GP. Maybe we'll all get a surprise as to who's really on the A-list and who isn't.

Congratulations to all the nominees for the Australian Commercial Radio Awards (the full list is here), but what a shame that Brisbane is underrepresented in the major categories. No Queensland-based announcers appear on the list of nominees for the big metro awards, although B105's Mitch Braund and Nova 106.9's Ryan Rathbone are up for the best program director award, and Nova's Kate Casey and B105's Ryan Tothill have been nominated for the best music director gong. Peter Verhoeven, of 4KQ and 97.3FM, is up for the most popular station manager award; Brett 'Nozz' Nossiter from Nova 106.9 has a nod in the best new digital format category (for Novanation and Koffee); and Stav Davidson from B105 and 4BC's Jamie Dunn and Ian Calder have been nominated in the best station-produced comedy segment category, the latter for their serial The Rudds, which is broadcast across the Fairfax radio network. Ben Ryan from Nova 106.9 is up for best achievement in production. Brisbane nominees also appear in sales and promotion categories. In the non-metropolitan awards, Katrina Davidson has been nominated for best show producer for her work with 92.5 Gold FM on the Gold Coast, which presumably means she and her husband Stav will both be attending the presentation ceremony the Crown in Melbourne on October 16.

Ian "Dicko" Dickson and Dave O'Neil have been axed from Classic Rock 95.1, the Melbourne station that used to be known as Vega. 95.1 now falls in line with its Sydey sister station in eschewing "name" teams in favour of a solo announcer and more music. Of course, the move will save the station some money and may just improve the ratings (as it has, marginally, in Sydney). If the latter proves to be the case, should low-rating on-air teams at other stations be worried? I'd say yes.

Kyle Sandilands is right: the gritty details of his split with Tamara Jaber are nobody's business but theirs (unless a crime was committed, which seems unlikely). But I do hope he pauses for thought next time he's about to bully somebody else, set them up for a fall or press them for information that's none of his business. It cuts both ways, Kyle.

At the time of writing, Kevin Rudd has just held a press conference saying there'll be a leadership ballot tomorrow morning. While Rudd is likely to get rolled by Julia Gillard, he's still PM tonight. That doesn't seem to have sunk in properly for whoever updates Facebook for Brisbane radio station Triple M's the Cage breakfast show, though:

I was not alone in commenting that it ain't quite over yet for KRudd. It's a sage lesson for people who rely on Facebook (or commercial FM radio) for their news.
PS: Times shown in screen grabs are UK. Add nine hours for AEST.
Update: To be fair, here's what Channel 7 tweeted in the heat of the moment:

I spoke to Spencer Howson from the BBC studios in Edinburgh and the audio, and a picture of me at the mic, is here. We talked about how Blackpool respects and protects its past but Brisbane doesn't, how Birmingham is pretty boring but the chocolate factory is sweet, and why the Scots will be supporting anybody but England in the World Cup.

Last night, I went in to the ABC's London studios for my regular Tuesday-morning chat with Spencer Howson on 612 ABC. We spoke about Bangkok, London, Fergie and the Eurovision Song Contest. If you missed it, the audio is here.

After an on-air trial, Marty Sheargold is now officially part of Nova 106.9's breakfast team, joining Tim Blackwell and Meshel Laurie, and replacing Ash Bradnam. His bio is on Nova's website here. It's interesting, given the reasons for Bradnam's departure, that Sheargold is described as a "beer drinker". And is Sheargold's obsessive interest in sport a sign that Nova is chasing more male listeners?

If you want to hear me speaking to Spencer Howson on 612ABC about the situation in Bangkok as of early morning on Tuesday, May 18, click here. For the latest from me on the situation in Thailand, follow @debritz on Twitter.