Breakfast Radio

Driving to Holmesglen in the mornings, I have once again ventured off into the world of breakfast radio. I tend to flick between stations depending on guests and segments, but two shows I have been especially focusing on are Hughesy and Kate on Nova, and Pete and Myf on Triple M.

Hughesy and Kate are your regular breakfast team, telling stories from their personal lives, reacting to the wacky happenings in the world and providing their take on it. They play off each other well, often taking opposing sides and humorously arguing points with each other. As well as personal stories from their lives, they also get stories and input from Anchor Ed Kavalee (who honed his craft on the wonderfully funny Get This program) and newsreader Carrie Bickmore, as well as friends, family and others from the station. There seems to be a real community feel in the show, and this is only strengthened in the way presenters Dave Hughes and Kate Langbroek converse with each other. You can see these two as being friends outside radio, along with the rest of the crew.

Pete and Myf have a relatively new show compared to Nova Breakfast, which has featured Hughes and Langbroek from when the station launched in 1999. They have had a somewhat rough trot in the ratings, and you can see the show is still not as polished as other Breakfast offerings. Peter Hellier often rambles through the show, with the extremely knowledgeable Myf Warhurst being relegated to “giggle girl”. The only conflict on the Pete and Myf show seems to be between Pete and news reader Hewy, and this can sometimes mean the show doesn’t progress much, and turns into an agree-fest. Anchor Paul tries to move the show along, but has a sort of dullish presence which doesn’t seem to add value to the show. The saving grace of the show is the humour of comedian Peter Hellier, and that doesn’t seem to be everyone’s cup of tea.

Coverage of the Victorian Bushfires

Over the past week, the main news story coming out of Victoria has been the horrific bushfires that have destroyed properties, killed over 180 people and devastated entire towns. Major AM talk stations, 774 ABC Melbourne and 3AW both suspended regular programming for practically the entire week in order to cover the story, and it has been interesting to listen to the various differences in the coverage given by both stations.

774 ABC Melbourne is of course, an arm of the national public broadcaster, and has really done well under these tragic circumstances, as ABC Local Radio often does in times of emergency. As well as being the national broadcaster, the ABC Local Radio network is designated as the Emergency Information broadcaster. Over the past week, not only has 774 been giving out vital emergency bushfire information for regions impacted by the fires, but a major part of the emergency programming has been interviews with officials from various agencies, such as VicRoads for information on roads impacted by fire, the Red Cross for donation information and the Bureau of Meteorology for weather information in bushfire regions.

In contrast, 3AW, a major commercial talk station were a bit slow of the mark to begin with, and went for a more emotive angle, mainly stories from people who were in the regions, and who had lost their homes or people searching for friends and families. They did start to broadcast a few “urgent threat warnings” on Monday and Tuesday, but they were nowhere near as comprehensive as 774.

774′s coverage was also being relayed nationwide via ABC Newsradio, while 3AW have already been running promos stating they are “always there when you need us”.

For More Information on the ABCs obligations during emergencies, see:

ABC Melbourne

Office of the Emergency Services Commisioner.

Welcome!

And so it begins. I guess this marks the start of my year at Holmesglen Institute studying Broadcasting.

First Impressions? It is actually a very strange feeling to finally study something you are interested in, and incredibly passionate about. I know that I’ve always been interested in media and broadcasting, especially radio, and for the past five years I’ve really tried to get involved and learn more.

I can remember it started when I was a small child. I always listened to radio, and would even have it on as I went to sleep at night. I know I used to listen to an announcer on what used to be 101.1 TT-FM. He called himself “Captain Turntable”. I was so obsessed with his show that I even got my mum to ring up and ask if I could meet him and take a tour of the studios. Unfortunately they said its not something they do, but I did receive a message from Captain Turntable and a stack of CDs from the station. I still have them to this day.

So over the past year I finally took some action into getting a bit of experience behind a panel and a microphone, and have been dropping into the studios of the Student Youth Network. I love putting together a radio show, and slowly, the shows have been getting a little tighter.

My parents are probably also very happy about me doing this course, seeing as for the past five years they’ve had to sit through me babbling on about the latest programming changes, music selection, branding, positioning and media scandals. They tried their best to look interested but I could tell they were waiting for me to shut up. I guess you have to be the right type of person to be fascinated by this stuff. And now that I have teachers and classmates to discuss these things with, my parents are finally spared my constant ramblings.

And although I loved learning about media and broadcasting, I didn’t even consider it as a career, but thankfully after a short detour, I’m here and I’m very happy about it.