Source: Melissa Lyons, The Herald (Newcastle)

The Hunter sport community has vowed it won’t call game over following news 2HD had axed its six hour Saturday program dedicated to local sport.

The program’s host and NBN sport reader Mike Rabbitt closed the mic on the Saturday Sports Line program last Friday after an alleged pay dispute with the Sandgate station’s owner Bill Caralis. 2HD station and operations manager Guy Ashford said Rabbitt’s sudden departure left no time to find a suitable replacement.

“He has big shoes to fill, Mr Ashford said.

The loss of extensive sport coverage has enraged major sporting groups across the region, who are preparing a letter of protest to 2HD.

Read the rest of this entry »

Following the recent axing of Richard King’s 2HD drive program, there has been more upheaval at Newcastle’s oldest radio station with Mike Rabbitt and Pete Davis resigning.

Saturday morning sports talk presenter and NBN News sports announcer Mike Rabbitt has left 2HD following a pay dispute with owner Bill Caralis. Apparently Caralis objected to paying Rabbitt for the full 6 hours he was on air each Saturday morning. The dispute came to a head last week when Rabbitt told station management he wouldn’t go on air unless he was paid his outstanding account. Caralis wasn’t happy with that and so after 15 years of service Mike Rabbitt is gone.

Rabbitt had built a very loyal audience and consistently rated well for 2HD. His program was also a lucrative one for the station with an abundance of sponsorship opportunities. It is anticipated that most of Rabbitt’s sports audience will now switch to ABC 1233 to listen to Craig Hamilton.

Read the rest of this entry »

Newcastle cannot get enough of its new favourite show Underbelly2. Once again taking out the leader board for most watched program in the Hunter. Who can deny its star attraction so far to this witty, on the edge of your seat, suspenseful drama…Its leading ladies.
A year ago to this day Prime was in arms reach and trailing slightly behind the leading station NBN. Fast forward today, NBN has won this battle again by more than 10% of its viewing share!
Were you part of this audience? Check the entire list and see:

Read the rest of this entry »

National TV ratings week ending 21 Feb 2009

Source: David Dale, Sun Herald blogs

It’s got to be a bad omen for Channel Nine. In a week when it had the top program, with record ratings, it was nevertheless beaten by Channel Seven. The average prime time audience shares went like this: Seven 29.2 per cent; Nine 27.5; Ten 21.5; ABC 16.2; SBS 5.4. Nine just can’t get past Seven’s Tuesday punch.

Read the rest of this entry »

It seems Supernetwork Radio owner Bill Caralis is now sacking staff before they even start.

Caralis is well-known in the industry for his reluctance to pay for experienced journalists. As a result he staffs most of his stations newsrooms and copy departments with juniors to minimise his wage costs. Once they get too old and go up a few pay grades he moves them on.

Here’s a comment that has just arrived on Media Hunter. I have spoken to a few people to verify the story. The writer asked for their name to be removed from this post as they are still trying to break into the industry:

Two weeks ago I was offered a job as a radio journalist at one of the Supernetwork stations by the station manager. I also politely questioned my pay (as it was definitely incorrect).

Today – and just before moving 5 hours away to be closer to my new job – I received a call from the station manager saying that Bill Caralis had seen my details, called.. and said I was “too old” (I’m 27) and “too experienced” for the position (I have only just completed uni and my only experience in radio is a 3 month internship). The station manager was extremely apologetic and explained “he puts people like me in charge but we have our hands tied as he likes to make final decisions.”

The station manager had passed on my queries regarding pay to head office (which is where he noticed my details so I am certain that he knew I had questioned my contract) and I’m sure that this is the real reason he told the manager that not to hire me. I believe this because noone can tell if you are 20 or 27 on radio anyway.

Unfortunately this is a regular occurance within the Supernetwork Radio group and an indictment upon the industry.Radio journalists should not be subjected to the same aged-based hiring approach as fast food restaurants.

A few weeks ago I wrote How to get a job in the advertising, design or media industry in 2009. The main message was to connect with your potential employer through alternate communications channels, ideally a channel that they are participating in actively. I encourage starting a relationship before asking for the job.

The post obviously made an impression as it went on to be the most popular ever published on this site.

Since then, it occurred to me that there was another point I’d like to add to the job hunter’s strategy, one which is probably even more relevant in the current employment climate: don’t ask for a job, create one.

Before complaining about all the potential employers who haven’t responded to your letters and emails, or didn’t give you the position after the interview, put yourself in their shoes for a minute. The economy is tough and every hire is crucial. Risk and reward are high in every employers mind.

What can you do to stand out, or even create a position where one wasn’t on offer?

Remove the risk. Make it almost impossible to ignore you.

Read the rest of this entry »

Australian Anthill magazine announced this week that it is reducing its print frequency and increasing its online presence to counter what they have identified as publishing’s “extinction level event”.

On launching the new WordPress based Anthill site, publisher and founder James Tuckerman was quoted on Mumbrella explaining:

“The next 12 months will be an extinction level event for many Australian publishers unless they adapt to this changing environment, and quickly. The future of business marketing is all about educating customers, rather than flogging them product.”

“We have begun the process of changing our focus from a business magazine with a solid website to a digital media company with a fuller, fatter publication.”

Here is at least one publisher who sees that the writing is on the wall for his industry and that they must adapt or die.

Read the rest of this entry »

Week 1 for the 2009 Hunter TV Ratings has kicked off with a bang! Literally. NBN has enjoyed a strong start thanks to Underbelly. Having such success with the first series, fans all over Newcastle slumped on the couch again for Monday nights premiere of the second series Underbelly: A Tale of Two Cities.
With all eyes set on our TV box for updates on the devastating Victorian Fires, its not surprising NBN News dominated the most watched programs list for last week. In fact, NBN took out 7 out of 10 most watched programs in Newcastle. See further results:

Read the rest of this entry »

Media trade publications are reporting consistently bad news for traditional media properties at the moment.

The current B&T highlights the drop in weekly magazine sales.

• New Weekly (NW) is down 16.4%

• New Idea, OK & Woman’s Day are all down around 12%

• Zoo Weekly down 8.1%

B&T is also running a story on the drop in men’s monthlies:

• Read the rest of this entry »

National TV ratings week ending 14 Feb 2009

Source: David Dale, Sun Herald blogs

It was a week of guns, breasts, balls and ashes, with Nine dominating on the first three and Seven dominating on the last for our first week of ratings. Underbelly 2 gave Nine such a commanding lead on Monday, backed up by the cricket, that Seven could not recover, despite strong bushfire coverage.

Read the rest of this entry »