The digital radio ‘simulcast’ of Nine’s talk stations along the east coast ranges from 12 to 23 seconds this week.
DMG in 2009 managed to get the delay of 5AA down to between 1-2 seconds, closer to 1; so what’s the problem with Nine in 2022?
Jacqui could make a good pairing with Stephen Quartermain while Ross and Russ have a break.
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True, but Emily Power also already does a great job of that. So much great female talent on the 3AW b-team.
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The desire to be good.
The attitude of the engineering staff/management is completely the different. The ex-Macquarie engineers want everything to be rock solid reliable and not cause them problems, at the expense of all else. They don’t care about the user experience and frequently say no to things they don’t want to do.
Nova, especially in the 2000s, liked to push to boundaries or everything in their business. They had a team of engineers who thought anything was possible and had the passion and skills to pull anything off. They had the care to play around with minor settings for extended periods of time to make the 1% difference. It’s no surprise that the majority of engineers from the early Nova years are still in the industry.
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With the numbers of techs that have been churned through places like 4BC over the years its a wonder anyone is left in the radio industry - it really is a business that ate its young as the juniors are always the first laid off when a bean counter wants a few heads.
Outsourcing transmission to places like BA also gets rid of RF nasties from the work so the owners can now employ generic IT workers on really low $$$ and not worry about any big workers comp claims from the Tx sites.
Nine has always had a culture of outages getting people fired that dates back to Kerry Packer - not surprised their radio techs are risk adverse.
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My knowledge of their techs predates the Nine and even Fairfax mergers. The techs I have in mind where at Macquarie when it was just 2GB and 2CH.
Agree, I’d have Jacqui and Quarters on Breakfast and Elise on Afternoons. I prefer Elise hosting solo where she gets to drive the program.
RF/Broadcast engineers were also been paid crap too!.. the award rate is something like $37k a year.
Most broadcasters were paying around $65k however no overtime pay and that includes on call, However broadcasters found out a few years ago that was unlawful Hence why some of them moved to the “NOC” model.
Any idiot can do IT, Broadcast engineering was a special beast and its insulting that such little money was given out and continues to be handed out and that’s why you have no-clue numpties running these stations.
Its degrading that tech’s were the most important person on staff and now management see’s them as a disease they have to have.
Reality is, Most tech’s can schedule a few songs, copy write a few ad’s, Sell a few spots to clients, pull a on-air shift, even hand out cans of icey cold coke but NOBODY else can do what engineers do.
As you can see this is why most real broadcast engineers have moved on to other industries.
</Rant complete>
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100% fully agree - there is absolutely no need to be working for those kind of wages if you can do RF work. There are 5G upgrades going on in telco and better wages available in defence contracting and the public service(police, fire,ambo, aviation, marine etc). I understand that some people take those jobs because they are in a town they want or the run up to retirement but it just creates an expectation that everyone will work for those wages.
The stations are still on air so they are clearly getting by but there are more outages than ever before and I suspect 9 are wanting to centralise metro radio along the lines of what TV has done.
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Hopefully Mike Williams can also make a comeback to assist covering McLaren. I miss MW.
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Yes agree. I was very critical of Jim’s style when he first took over 2GB drive and predicted he wouldn’t last. I am happy to be proven wrong. Earlier he was too wishy washy, a bit sleepy and vague with not enough strong opinion. I think he was then reminded this is Sydney and you are on 2GB (“the power station”) So You Must Do Opinion. Since then he has been much harder hitting and backing listeners causes from Stuggle Street. Its what we do on 2GB. As you say, his continued ratings lift is indeed well deserved. Good on you Jimbo.
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Herald Sun reports that Jacqui Felgate and Jimmy Bartel will host 3AW Breakfast for the week commencing September 19. I think they’ll make a great on-air duo!
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Yeah they will be good. I can imagine them bouncing off each other well.
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3AW producer Richard Stansbury from AW is filling in on weekend overnights.
This is Richard:
https://mobile.twitter.com/rstansbury9
Programs always sound better when from AW.
Jon Anderson reports in the Sunday Herald Sun that The Twilight Zone hosted by Mark Allen and David Schwarz is unlikely to return this summer, with a two hour program hosted by Emily Power likely to replace it in the 5pm-7pm weekend slot.
It would be a real shame if AW lose the services of the Ox, but in particular Marko because of his versatility to fill-in on other programs. The Twilight Zone is a very entertaining and popular program, and Marko and Ox have great chemistry. It would be a shame if their pairing comes to an end after all the hardship they’ve been through. Must be a cost cutting exercise if they want that slot to have one presenter.
Due to a COVID outbreak at 2GB and no presenters available, 2GB and 4BC listeners received Tony Moclair’s Australia Overnight program from 3AW this morning (Mon 12th Sep), and possibly for the rest of the week.
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Pop up on 3MP maybe?
Even better if it was Magic.
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Not on Magic, music only!
Elise Elliot filling in for DeeDee next week. Wonder if she has stipulated no Jacqui Felgate? 
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Jacqui will be co-hosting Breakfast with Stephen Quartermain.
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I must say that I am enjoy listening to Tony Moclair coming up the pipe from Melbourne this week due to the absence of fill in Bill Woods. Clinton Maynard has scored a trip to the UK and of course Michael McLaren is on maternity leave.
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