Let’s (not) talk about sport
Also: who’s next to go from radio, and farewell to the Seven Gold Coast News.
I’ve told the story before about the good-natured ribbing I received many years ago from the great Brisbane broadcaster Peter Dick in an on-air discussion about whether sport or the arts were more popular.
It was his show and he won the debate, even though my argument was based on Australian Bureau of Statistics data about attendance at arts venues; while his was based on the common wisdom that Australians are “sports mad”.
Maybe he was right then. Maybe that’s even true now. But I can tell you one thing for sure: sport is no longer bringing in listeners to Peter’s old station, 4BC.
The latest survey results show that the weekend Continuous Call Team and the nightly Wide World of Sports program are losing the ratings race.
This fact is not immediately obvious from the survey highlights that are published in the media, but they are if you drill down into the more detailed data provided to the subscribers.
At first glimpse, the numbers for the Wide World of Sports look OK— until you realise that they are rolled in with the Drive shift numbers. Separate them, and Drive does a little better and WWOS does a lot worse. And the latest figures compare very badly with the same time last year (which, to be fair, is the story across the board at 4BC).
For all the promotion it — and rugby league football in general — gets on the air, the weekend Continuous Call Team doesn’t set the world on fire. The numbers start at ordinary and slip away during the NRL season, and the program has long rated lower than the local programming that (until recently) proceeded it.
In the Sunday afternoon slot, mostly occupied by the CCT during the latest survey period (August 11-September 14 and September 22 to October 26), 4BC attracted below 2% of total audience — which puts it down in Radio National, ABC Classic and SEN territory.
Because it’s owned by Nine Entertainment, which has contracts with the NRL, 4BC has a commitment to rugby league. However, apart from the gambling advertising revenue it attracts, it doesn’t seem like a good deal to me.
Perhaps it’s time to consign the “Aussies want to listen to sport” delusion to the pile of false preconceptions (such as “women don’t like listening to women on the radio”) that are guiding programming decisions.
Time of the year 1
Still on radio … a few months ago, I wrote that all the big decisions about line-ups for 2025 will be made in the wake of Survey 5.
Since then, we’ve seen a rush of departures at stations across the nation. High profile departees nationally include Ray Hadley (2GB), Sammy J (ABC Melbourne), Mark Geyer (Triple M), David Bevan (ABC Adelaide), Julie-Anne Sprague and Tod Johnson (6PR, Perth) and, as I’m writing this, Sarah Macdonald (ABC Sydney).
Some have been sacked, some have walked away of their own accord, others have been sacked but given the opportunity to pretend they have walked away of their own accord.
I admire the refreshing honesty of KIIS’s Mitch Churi who said the decision to depart that network’s The Pick Up and The Night Show was “not his”.
While Brisbane has already seen a few departures (including Laurel Edwards, Mark Hine and Gary Clare, and Peter Gleeson from 4BC, and Susie O’Neill, who is set to leave Nova), more announcements are expected. With my luck, that will happen as soon as I press publish on this newsletter.
In any case, I have a feeling I’ll be providing an update on this story soon. (Even if I am wrong, as some people insist I am.)
Time of the year 2
A meteorologist interviewed on TV in the past few days referred to November as Brisbane’s “rainy season”.
When did that become the case? My memory of childhood and young adulthood here in the Sunshine State is that January was always the wettest month. Am I wrong or have things changed?
Bus stop
I’ve asked this a few times before, but the answer is slightly different this time.
Question: When is a Metro not a Metro?
Answer: When it’s not running (and it’s not actually a Metro in the first place.)
A month ago, with great fanfare (although my invitation seems to have been lost in the ether), Brisbane City Council launched its big bendy buses on the 169 route.
The line then was that the buses were ready to go, even though the actual Metro route was not.
But now the new vehicles have gone back to the sheds, and we’re told it was always meant to be a limited “four-week preview”. Oh, and to nobody’s surprise, the budget has blown out.
What’s going on?
Telling it like it is
“TV Extra goes big!” That was the line when the pullout television magazine in the Sunday Sun newspaper was changed from an A4 semi-glossy to a tabloid format on cheap newsprint in 1990.
It was all about cutting costs in the dying days of the newspaper, but it was spun as a good thing — easier to read, more space for stories etc. It was, in fact, an inferior product not just compared to its former self but to its rival, TV Scene, at the Sunday Mail.
I was reminded about that this week when chatting to somebody in the know about the changes at Channel Seven which began with the departure of Sharyn Ghidella and Paul Burt a few months ago and has now seen the end of the nightly Gold Coast bulletin.
In an email to staff on Tuesday, Seven’s director of news and current affairs Anthony De Ceglie said: “This morning we have spoken to our news teams on the Gold Coast and in Brisbane about some changes to our news operations in Queensland.
“Our Gold Coast newsroom will be streamlined to run as a multifaceted bureau, with its award-winning stories and hot button issues to be given more prominence in the nightly metropolitan news at 6.00pm.”
He was quoted in The Courier-Mail as saying: “This is about bringing together and modernising both our Gold Coast local news and Brisbane’s unrivalled 6pm bulletin hosted by Max Futcher and Sarah Greenhalgh.”
Sure, let’s make a bad thing — the axing of a dedicated bulletin for a thriving, fiercely independent city of 650,000 people, and the sacking or displacement of staff members — sound like a good thing.
It is, quite simply, a cost-cutting measure made due to difficult economic circumstances.
De Ceglie could and, to my mind, should have said something like: “We’re sorry to be dropping this valued service, but — as you all know — times are tough. We don’t have the budget to run a separate bulletin anymore, but we’ll do our very best to provide coverage of Gold Coast events in the major nightly Brisbane bulletin.”
News organisations rely on gaining the trust of their audience. When they can’t be honest about what they are doing in their own businesses, how can we trust them to expose the failings of others, speak truth to power, or even just report the news with a straight bat?
Disclaimer: Brett Debritz once worked for the Sunday Sun and the Sunday Mail, and for 4BC and other media organisations not especially relevant to this newsletter.
Times have changed ... I can go way, way, way back to the 1960s and 70s when 4BC's three-state racing coverage (virtually all day Saturdays) attracted more listeners than all other stations combined. That was decades before FM radio made huge inroads into predominantly the "bogan" demographic.
Next you'll be saying rugby league shouldn't wander from the back pages of the Courier Mail to the front. Blasphemy.