Brisbane

Don't bother waiting for Godot; he's not coming. The Regent Theatre is back in the news today, with the Courier-Mail's Tonya Turner revealing that an acclaimed production of Samuel Beckett's Waiting For Godot starring Sir Ian McKellen won't be coming to Brisbane due to the lack of a suitable venue. The story quotes me saying that the Regent could be restored into a theatre much more cost-effectively than building a new venue from scratch. Godot is one of many productions that haven't found their way to Brisbane because of scheduling conflicts at QPAC. Godot producer Liza McLean says: "Commercially, everybody would love for there to be another venue in Brisbane". Lyndon Terracini, the former Brisbane Festival boss who now runs Opera Australia, agrees. With the city growing at the rate it is, we absolutely need another new venue as soon as possible or risk becoming seen as a cultural backwater. Restoring the original Regent auditorium as part of the current office-tower project for the site would be an efficient way to give our city a versatile theatre/concert/cinema space while protecting Brisbane's last remaining Hollywood-style picture palace for future generations. Anna Bligh, it's not too late to make this happen.

Update: A little bird tells me (as my father used to say when he wasn't seeing a man about a dog) that Rick Burnett will be using the Nine news appearance to announce that he's taken up a new job which may have some synergies with his new "hippy" look (as shown in this picture I took of him a few weeks ago). It won't be at Channel 9, or any other TV station. (Saturday, March 13, 10.40am AEST)
Update 2: As revealed on Nine, that job is CEO of Keep Australia Beautiful. (Saturday, March 13, 6.27pm AEST)


Channel Nine Brisbane teaser ad, featuring former Extra host Rick Burnett, as posted on YouTube by regular debritz.net commenter Kuttsywood on March 12.

The Courier-Mail is predicting this morning that Nova 106.9 will look outside Brisbane to find a replacement for Ash Bradnam, who has officially parted ways with the former No.1 station. I reckon that would be a big mistake. There is plenty of talent in this city, and now's the time for Nova to make a fresh start by grooming a local rather than trying to parachute in a "star" from elsewhere - especially since anchor Tim Blackwell has been in town for less than a year. I'd suggest the powers that be spend a bit of time listening to other radio stations (commercial, community and the ABC), visiting comedy clubs and scouring the net.
PS: On 612ABC, Spencer Howson and I spoke about Lara Bingle, Doctor Who and stealing stationery. The audio has been posted here.

The Channel 9 Today show's "March with Magda" is coming to Brisbane on Monday, March 15. If you want to follow Magda Szubanski around New Farm Park for an early morning constitutional, be at the Rotunda at 6.45am on the day. It's part of the Jenny Craig/Women's Weekly "Australia's Greatest Weight Loss Challenge", with the aim of getting Australians to lose one million kilograms. In a Nine media release, Today co-host Lisa Wilkinson says: "Every time Magda is on the show, we get huge feedback from viewers who are inspired by her story, and want to take action themselves."

Meshel Laurie has confirmed on Twitter that Ash Bradnam has left Brisbane's Nova 106.9. Laurie replied "Yep" when asked by Twitterer @iMatt93 if this was the case because only she and Tim Blackwell now appeared on the station's website. Bradnam only rejoined the station's breakfast program recently after a hiatus in which he entered rehab following his arrest and subsequent conviction for drink-driving last year. Nova's breakfast show lost its long-held No.1 spot to B105's Labby, Camilla and Stav in the first ratings survey for 2010. Laurie said via Twitter direct message that she could comment no further.
Disclosure: Brett Debritz is heard on 612ABC's Breakfast with Spencer Howson program, which is joint No.1 in breakfast with B105.

Channel Seven Brisbane is declaring victory in the battle for Ipswich. A day after both Seven's Sunrise and Nine's Today broadcast from the southeast Queensland city, Seven has issued a media release declaring it had an average of 76,000 viewers on the day. The release continued: "For 6 consecutive years Sunrise, hosted by Melissa Doyle and David Koch has remained south east Queensland’s number one breakfast program and in that time has not lost one week of ratings. " The folks at Nine know they have a way to go and, according to information relayed at a briefing (i.e. long lunch) for journalists (me included) and other media folk at the Normanby Hotel on Tuesday, they are pumping more money into the Queensland market with a view to making Today No. 1. The good news for viewers should be that intense competition makes for better TV. Or, it should ...

The internet continues to present a challenge for radio folk who've never had to know how to spell. Here's a bit of my pedantry on Twitter (read from the bottom up):

Coincidence or not? According to information from the two networks, both Channel 7's Sunrise and Channel 9's Today show will be broadcasting live from Ipswich, near Brisbane, on Wednesday. Well, presumably, they'll actually be broadcasting live to Sydney and Melbourne but on a one-hour delay to Brisbane. But they will be here.
Update: Spencer Howson tells me it's Ipswich's 150th aniversary on Wednesday, and 612ABC will have reporter Anne O'Keeffe on the scene, too. Time for your close-up, Cr Pisasale?

The old George/ Lyceum Theatre in George Street is reopening on March 11 under the name Tribal Theatre. Films already programmed range from Casablanca to Pulp Fiction. Details here.

I am trying to put together a showreel of highlights from my various radio spots and decided to search for audio on the ABC Brisbane website. Although I know Spencer Howson posts my segment every week, a search for "Debritz" at abc.net.au/brisbane yielded just one result (from 2007, when I co-judged a 612ABC competition with Lord Mayor Campbell Newman) and this message:

Luminaries from the Brisbane media, past and present, gathered at the Paddington Tavern on Friday night to say to farewell to producer Majella Marsden, who is retiring after 30 years working in broadcasting. Majella has worked with 4BK, 4BC, B105, Channel 9, River 949 and, most recently, 612ABC. Among those on hand to say farewell were Wayne Roberts (who is also Majella's brother in law), Rick Burnett, Billy J. Smith, Spencer Howson, Kelly Higgins-Devine, Loretta Ryan, Richard Fidler, Gerry Collins, David Greenwood, Rod "Mr T." Tiley, Peter Psaltis, Donna Lynch, Natalie Bochenski, Peter Gooch and Peter Dick. Earlier in the say, Kelly Higgins-Devine hosted an on-air farewell which included contributions from Wayne Roberts (pictured with Majella) and Jamie Dunn. More pictures from the function are here.

"You’ve heard of sexual dynamite, meet the man who’s sexual kryptonite." That's the tagline for the standup shows from Greg Sullivan, better known as Sully from Triple M Brisbane's The Cage breakfast show. He'll appear at the Brisbane Powerhouse from March2-7 as part of the Brisbane Comedy Festival which will also feature performances by Wil Anderson, Adam Hills, Josh Thomas, Kitty Flanaghan, Frank Woodley, Melinda Buttle, Felicity Ward, Peter Helliar and the Pyjama Men. Details here.

While the champagne corks have been popping at B105 and 612ABC, they'll be scratching their heads at 4BC and Nova 106.9 today. One Twitterer has already called 612's Spencer Howson (pictured) and B105's Stav Davidson the kings of Brisbane radio. Certainly, their shows tied for No. 1 in the important breakfast shift, pushing Nova 106.9 to third place. It's probably not entirely fair to single out Stav from his on-air colleagues, Labby and Camilla, but he has played a bigger role in the station's recent promotional and advertising activities. B105 has also reclaimed its crown as the No. 1 Brisbane station overall. In my view, this is the culmination of smart programming by the Austereo team and a few unfortunate incidents at Nova, including the decision by breakfast anchor Kip Wightman to quit and travel to the US in the middle of last year and the drink-driving arrest that tarnished the image of his colleague Ash Bradnam. But Nova is still in a strong position and has a good product and, barring any rash moves, should remain competitive. Commercial FM listeners will be the winners, as Triple M and 97.3FM are also performing strongly, the latter especially so among its preferred 25-plus female audience and with the all-important-to-advertisers grocery buyers. Meanwhile, at 4BC, they will be wondering why Brisbane's only commercial talk station has failed to replicate the runaway success of similar formats in Sydney and Melbourne. At BC stablemate 3AW, breakfast stars Ross Stevenson and John Burns scored 19 per cent of the breakfast audience, and the station was heard by 14.1% of the overall audience, rising to 27.4% in the 55-plus demographic. In Sydney, 2GB's Alan Jones was heard by 20% of breakfast-radio listeners, and the station had an overall share of 16.6% (people 10-plus). And 2GB has competition from 2UE which scooped up a further 6.7% of the breakfast audience and 5.8% overall. If one in four radio listeners are listening to commercial talk radio in Sydney, and one in five in Melbourne, why is 4BC rating just 6.7% with no commercial competition? It simply cannot be that Brisbane audiences are different. And it's certainly not because the breakfast team of Jamie Dunn and Ian Calder lack talent. It can only be that the former B105 stars are not appealing to the potential, and station-prefered, audience - listeners over 55. In fact, 612ABC is drawing away in the category, as well as leading 4BC overall. Perhaps it's that Dunn, the undisputed leader of the pack in Brisbane radio in the late 1980s and all of the 1990s, is better suited to a music station with well-timed and relevant comedy spots. He once said he should have moved from B105 to Triple M - but that decision was not his to make, and the B105 announcer who did make the jump, Ian Skippen, has had well-deserved success in appealing to the over-25 male audience with his Cage team of Emily-Jade O'Keeffe, Greg Martin and Greg Sullivan. Dunn is still a great talent, but he's a square peg in a round hole right now - and it seems unlikely he will stay on at BC in the long term if he can't dramatically reverse today's trend. And it's no secret in radio circles that at least one of his colleagues is eagerly waiting in the wings.
Disclosure: Brett Debritz is heard on the 612ABC Breakfast with Spencer Howson program, which was equal No. 1 in today's ratings.

Apart from newspapers, radio is the most enduring of the mass media. And while newspaper circulation has taken a huge tumble in recent years, radio is holding relatively steady in terms of listener numbers (if not relative to the percentage increase in the overall population, but that's another story). Today will see the release of the first metropolitan radio survey for 2010. In Brisbane, manyeyes will be on the performance of the recent market leader Nova 106.9, which underwent some turmoil on and off air last year (including the resignation of breakfast anchor Kip Wightman, the arrest of his colleague Ashley Bradnam for drink-driving and a deal that saw half the parent company sold at a considerable discount to Lachlan Murdoch), and the former longtime No. 1 station B105, which has been blazing the comeback trail in recent times (especially with the performance of the national Hamish and Andy drivetime show but also with its breakfast team of Labby, Camilla and Stav, pictured). B105 management is confident of a strong showing this year. Also in the spotlight this year will be talk station 4BC. With the talk format blitzing the ratings in Sydney and Melbourne (so much so, that a new talk station will be launched in the Victorian capital soon), 4BC has been something of the poor cousin, often ending towards the end of the ratings pile. BC management will be expecting a stronger performance from its breakfast hosts Jamie Dunn and Ian Calder. Although not officially in competiiton with the commercial stations, 612ABC will also be looking to maintain its recent healthy results, especially in breakfast, where Spencer Howson was No.1 for five out of eight surveys last year (twice tied with Nova and three times outright). Looking to shore-up their healthy demographics will be Triple M, which appeals to older (but not old) males, and 97.3, which has a strong female audience. Overall in recent years, the market has remained tight with even the overall trailers, 4BH and 4KQ, remaining very competitive (unlike some commercial stations in Sydney and Melbourne, which have struggled to find viable audience shares). We're in for another fun ride, and you'll be able to read about the first results for the year right here. Stay tuned.
Disclosure: Brett Debritz is heard on 612ABC with Spencer Howson on Friday mornings.