Following several rumours that ex-2HD breakfast announcer Luke Grant was about to sign with another network and was leaving Newcastle, I contacted him for official word.

Luke confirmed that he has signed a contract with Macquarie Radio Network and starts work on Monday1 March 2010 in Melbourne. He will be working directly with Steve Price on assembling a commercial talk radio station, as reported elsewhere, in direct competition with long time market leader 3AW.

Luke cannot elaborate on any other details at this stage.

This statement just arrived via email  from Luke Grant dated 5 February 2010. I have spoken with Mr Grant to confirm that he was indeed the sender and wanted it published:

“Following what I consider my unfair dismissal from Radio 2HD after more than 4 successful years hosting the Luke Grant Show, an attempt for conciliation with Fair Work Australia to resolve my claim was yesterday unsuccessful.

Whilst I cannot reveal the details of the conciliation I can confirm that my nature is always to find compromise if possible.

I will now pursue my rights through a public hearing in the next couple of months where I will present witnesses who will help uncover the truth and clearly demonstrate the difficulties I found working in the environment of 2HD.

I strongly deny any suggestion by the management of 2HD that I have acted other than with professionalism and integrity in a high pressure role and plainly say I was effectively starved of support in my judgement.

I would again like to extend my gratitude to colleagues, listeners and advertisers of 2HD for their loyal support, encouragement and good wishes. Being dismissed a week before Christmas has made my circumstances very difficult and I will continue a strong and public campaign to be reinstated or compensated.”

No further comment will be made at this stage.

Former 2HD breakfast announcer has finally spoken publicly about his dismissal in today’s Newcastle Herald. Grant maintains that the main reason for his dismissal was apparently for not playing some commercials, something the station has repeatedly denied. Here is the full story from The Herald:

Read the rest of this entry »

Following on from December’s dismissal of 2HD breakfast announcer Luke Grant, we can now reveal that Brent Bultitude will be his replacement.

Several industry insiders suggested in comments to MediaHunter that Bultitude, the former afternoon announcer on 2HD, would move into the breakfast shift, and it seems they were correct.

Brent Bultitude has just joined Twitter as @2HDBreakfast and his one message so far is, “Doing the final prep for the first show! Join Brent on the airwaves from 6am on Monday!”

I have removed a post from this site dated 18 December after receiving a letter from solicitors representing 2HD/NEWFM. The post referred to the response of several advertisers to the dismissal of Luke Grant from radio station 2HD.

I received information from reliable sources regarding the content of this post, however the station strongly disputes the allegations. If further information comes to light about advertiser reaction to Luke Grant’s departure I will reconsider, but for now I believe the best thing is to remove the post.

Source: The Newcastle Herald – James Joyce

Home-style cooking, home-made crimes and daggy old variety television were the flavours of the TV year in Newcastle and viewers can expect more of the same in 2010.

The official 2009 ratings survey finished at the weekend with NBN holding on to its crown as Newcastle’s No.1 station.

NBN’s nightly news bulletins, rugby league telecasts and crime drama Underbelly 2: A Tale of Two Cities made it a clear winner in its home market, capturing 32.9 per cent of prime-time viewers.

Two reunion episodes of Hey Hey It’s Saturday also boosted the Nine Network owned station. The Daryl Somers comeback shows drew more than 97,000 viewers each to most-watched programs.

But the hottest new show of the year was dished up by Southern Cross Ten. Kitchen contest MasterChef Australia helped make third-ranked Ten Newcastle’s most improved station in 2009, with a 20.3 per cent audience share (up 1.5 percentage points).

Read the rest of this entry »

The Newcastle TV Ratings, week ending November 14

Note: These ratings results are compiled using the combined resources of SC TEN, NBN & Prime’s weekly AGB Nielsen Media Research reports.

Apart from looking at the Ratings flogging that NBN gives each station every week; let’s look towards the Most Watched Programs instead. ‘Oh wait’, they’re identical in the beating that NBN gives as well.

Every week NBN rules this Ratings Roost, so instead of ignoring the consecutive winner, lets have a look at what and why this station must take out that winner spot every week.

Check out what we are watching and how they rate. 

Read the rest of this entry »

It’s been a long, long time since one Newcastle radio station dominated this market, you’d have to go back to the early 80’s and it was probably 1341 2NX, but NXFM have hit No. 1 in all sessions BMADE with an all time record cume of 194,000 listeners.

Good news also for 1233 Breakfast host Aaron Kearney jumping almost 3% to 14.4% to be No. 3 Breakfast overall behind NX and KO.

It’s been a fairly consistent year for KOFM while at Sandgate, the closed door meetings begin. 2HD loses No.1 Mornings and Nights… NEW FM slight improvements might give some heart but it’s a long slow climb from the bottom when the No.1 station has almost 4 times the share.

Read the rest of this entry »

We’ve been swamped with traffic for the launch of new digital television station 7TWO and plenty of emails and comments asking when the channel will launch in Prime regional viewing areas.

Prime is the affiliate station for the Seven network in much of regional Australia. Like their regional competitors, Southern Cross (TEN) and NBN & WIN (Nine), Prime are anticipated to take on the new digital station from their affiliate partner….and they will….eventually.

There is one hitch in the plan, though. The new station’s name.

Southern Cross were happy to take on OneHD from TEN. NBN were happy to take on GO! from Nine. But for Prime the 7TWO name and branding is too closely identified with the Seven Network. Its not an easy brand for them to work with and Seven clearly weren’t thinking much about their affiliates when they settled on the name.

So regional Australia, that’s why you won’t be watching 7TWO for a while. We’ll let you know when an agreement has been reached and launch is scheduled.

The Newcastle TV Ratings, week ending October 31

Note: These ratings results are compiled using the combined resources of SC TEN, NBN & Prime’s weekly AGB Nielsen Media Research reports.

This week sees NBN fall nearly 3% in it’s viewing audience. Prime increased by 1.7% and SC TEN by 0.7%.

Last week the Hunter enjoyed ABC’s ‘Midsomer Murders’ more than the weekly NBN News.

Prime & SC TEN also managed to get two programs each, up on the ‘Most Watched’ leader board.

Read on for the full results…

Read the rest of this entry »