Comments on: Alan Jones — yesterday’s parrot?

By: Carrie

Carrie — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

There’s no doubt the failing Fairfax and Macquarie talk-back products are now going the way of the Liberal Party. In the last ten years or more you’d swear GB and UE were being programmed from Howard’s headquarters. Hardly insightful or honest with radio audiences that sit way beyond Sydney. UE’s Laws and Price have long resonated along the NSW and Qld eastern seaboard after some deal with the bizarre and vast resources of Bill Caralis – which in itself is another and malodorous story. In other words there are huge radio audiences hopelessly disadvantaged by media networks allowed to deliver sub-standard, irrelevant and skewed information and entertainment (??) via our airwaves. It is more than time for radio industry regulators to get off their buts and do an A-Triple C by calling for wider regulatory powers.

By: Rob Moston

Rob Moston — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

Jones will always appeal to a core demographic of older, conservative listeners and this explains why he has been winnig the breakfast shift in Sydney for for well over a decade. Ray Hadley will almost certainly step into his shift when he retires and provide GB with continuity. The Parrot is 66 and probably only has another year or two in him on air - if that.

The Sydney talk radio market is obviously a lot stiffer than it is in Melbourne, with both 2UE and the ABC 702 competing with GB. 2UE could make a dent on both GB and 702 if they improved their morning slots. Mike Carlton's brand of sneering, second-hand "satire" is about 20 years out of date and Steve Price has always been far too 'Melbourne' for Sydney Radio. 702 would not be enjoying its current run in the ratings if 2UE got its act together.

By: Dennis

Dennis — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

How the untalented, big noting boofhead Jones ever made the impression on the ratings he formally did, beggers understanding. Of course he had the assistance of his mate the lost little loser, Howard, of whom he boasted, he had the ear of whenever he wanted. How now Jonesy? Kevin Rudd sorted the parrott out early on and as he has done with Cassidy on Insiders, you tete a tete with the Liberal media attack mongrels ie; Akerman and Bolt, you dont get the i/v with the PM, given the non stop absurd, personal vendettas being carried on by these three in particular, fair enough for KR to pull the plug on those programmes interviews. Doubt he is looking to be treated with kid gloves but non stop personal attacks, with Akerman even suggesting he will bring the Prime Minister down with his fanatical obsession with the so called non event the Heiner Affair, we still await some 12 months on, this momentous happening. Any wonder there is a non appearance in place on some shows.
So if this is the end of Jones, bye bye birdie, doubt there will be many tears shed.

By: Chris Morris

Chris Morris — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

Alan Jones can take his pick. He’s a symptom and a casualty of an industry that’s been dying a slow death for years in the absence of stringent standards, guidelines and control. Radio’s unique qualities of portability, immediacy and skilled delivery of sounds and imagery have been fully flicked by licence holders who prefer to use it as a hoakey cheap megaphone and not a powerful communications force. And they’ve used radio programming to deliver opinionated talk-back only to come off second best. Jones is a prime example of why radio is dying. Sure a great debater and editorialist but as an apologist for the Liberal Party that folded last election, so did his career. GB took a big punt. So has UE with Price dabbling in anything that crosses his mind. It’s not riveting communication or interaction with the listening audience, more something you thumbed through in your dentist’s waiting room five years ago. Media networks have (for want of better words) f**ked over the radio industry by milking and plundering and putting profit first. The end result is an industry now unable to deliver creative, cutting edge communication on our air waves. Just because people can write a news column, dance like a star, coach a footie team or file brilliant material as a war correspondent, doesn’t mean they can draw a radio audience. Nor does a gaffe-free news bulletin sound riveting if there’s no energy, guts and punch. Real radio is a magical experience. Only a miracle will bring it back.

By: Patricia Weston

Patricia Weston — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

“Is that why Brendan Nelson is struggling with his 5 cents a litre off? Australians want to hear something substantive, not a band-aid or a crude appeal to our emotions or hip pocket, and they are prepared to listen?” It’s not just Brendan Nelson and the Opposition who are struggling to understand Australians
right now. The media generally , which seems to be angling for an anti-Rudd, anti-Government angle on almost every issue hitting the press and airwaves, is not having much influence on the Australian public as opinion polls tell them very clearly. Even the recent Nielsen poll did not reflect in any sense the view of the commentariat that Rudd is losing his honeymoon glow. The public is not listenting to a commentariat which devotes enormous time and space to jibing about new policy reviews lacking substance even before reports are in and action planned and which encourages whinging from those directly and negatively impacted by long overdue and foreshadowed policy outcomes. And much as the public might say they want changes to petrol excise when asked directly in a one sentence opinion poll, there is a broad understanding in the electorate at large that the issues of peak oil, petrol pricing and climate change are all part of a huge tangled problem to which a knee jerk vote winning answer is just not available or wise. The common sense of Australians is reflected in the latest Newspoll which counters the populist and immoral stance of the Coalition on petrol excise.

By: davo

davo — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

Face it. Radio is dead. All it talks about is inane inanities - there is nothing worth listening to. And good riddance.

By: Irfan

Irfan — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

I don’t think it’s fair to describe Mike Carlton as a talkback host who panders to people’s prejudices.

By: Cathy Morris

Cathy Morris — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

As if the radio industry gurus – particularly those sitting at UE and GB couldn’t see this coming! It’s so typical of the confusion that reigns in radio these days with the major media players more spun out on politically influencing talk-back audiences than entertaining them. Aside from the bias, there’s no interest or effort to maximise the unique immediacy, imagery and sound qualities that only radio can deliver. Why on earth would a radio station hire television and print journo’s or old political bureaucrats as on-air presenters? Just because they can write editorials, stories and policies, doesn’t mean they can verbally communicate well. It’s as silly as the FM music stations using song and dance talent that no one can see! They resonate as ordinary, literally leaving nothing to the imagination. Even those reading the news bulletins sound pubescent. Just ten years ago we had gutsy, ballsy and stimulating voices talking to us and not at or down. They communicated. Radio is dying because those running it aren’t in tune with its philosophy. Either that or media owners just want a no-frills, cost-less info-entertainment product where a stable of generic, all-purpose ‘stars’ just wander from their radio gig to a television screen and then perch behind a PC at a daily newspaper. It’s all very much like the Howard model that took him and his product off the social agenda. There goes radio!

By: goy

goy — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

Bring back “Blue Hills” and all those wonderful radio shows that fired our imaginations! Radio nowadays is only a sleeping pill for me when insomnia wakes me at 3 am. Who wants to listen to a bunch of bullies and egotistical idiots that talk crap most of the time. Here in Melbourne the ABC breakfast slot is typical. The nose up in the air attitude is palpable across the ether and no amount of football is going to save it. I have switched off a long time ago. The lady on the GPS sounds far better!

By: Miranda

Miranda — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

Someone had to finally call the bluff of this on-air bully and Labor did it successfully by ignoring him at the last NSW state election. You should do some investigation and see the number of charity events that are turning their backs on Jones as the MC for the night.

Besides-anyone seeing the picture of Allan in his purple bell bottoms at Kings couldn’t possibly take him seriously anymore.

By: Bill Hodges

Bill Hodges — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

The big test for 2GB and for Jones inparticular will come during the Olympic Games. For the first time a commercial radio station in Sydney has the exclusive radio rights. The ABC, while able to broadcast the games to the rest of Australia, is not permit to broadcast the Olympics in the Sydney metropolitian area leaving 2GB with a strangehold. With the China timezones relatively similar to Sydney, radio should have a fieldday particularly during the day. if 2GB’s figuers dont increase you might see Jones and Hadley heading for retirement.