2HD breakfast announcer Luke Grant has been fired from the Bill Caralis radio station this week. Grant is the second big name to disappear from the 2HD line-up in the last two weeks following the departure of Steve Price from the networked Morning program.

The bizarre reason for Luke Grant’s dismissal was allegedly because he “didn’t play enough advertisements during his show”.

2HD has been run without a program director for the last year since the departure of Kev Kellaway. Normally a program director would oversee the format, content and amount of advertisements run on the station, but it seems that the announcers have been left to their own devices with very limited resources in 2009.

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from IT News

Senator Stephen Conroy is fast becoming an international name – with the world’s technology and political community astounded as much by his plans for an internet filter as the build of the $43 billion national broadband network.

London’s Telegraph led with the headline “Australia plans Chinese-style internet filtering“, reminding its UK readers that the leaked ACMA blacklist had included the “innocent websites of a dentist’s practice in Queensland, a tuck-shop consultant and a kennel operator.”

In the United States, Fox News ran with the headline: “Joining China and Iran, Australia to filter internet.”

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The Internet, Twitter especially, exploded with indignation today when the Australian government announced it will proceed with controversial plans to censor the Internet.

The Communications Minister, Stephen Conroy, said today he would introduce legislation just before next year’s elections to force ISPs to block a blacklist of “refused classification” (RC) websites for all Australian internet users.

While the Australian government may be proposing an Internet filter with the best intentions of protecting the youth of our nation against “immoral content”, most experts agree that this is easier said than done and could do more harm than good.

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The evolutionary nature of the internet means that its increasingly important for organisations to have a website that is keeping pace with change. A neglected website is one that will be left behind by the most powerful marketing force in the world. Amazingly, only a small percentage of organisations are really taking advantage of their web presence.

Web NLYZR, a free website rating service owned by my company, has been appraising the marketing effectiveness of websites for most of 2009. In this time we have ranked thousands of Australian websites, looking at their Search Engine Optimisation, Keyword Search Results, Competitors, Social Media integration and Traffic Conversion strategies.

Web NLYZR provides us with a fascinating insight into the state of Australian web design industry and the sites being produced for Australian organisations.

Here are the latest statistics that have emerged from websites tested over the last 6 months:

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The commercial free-to-air television stations have been all claiming various triumphs since the end of the 2009 ratings year, but who were the real winners this year? According to David Dale it was Pay TV and The ABC.

Pay television: Between 2001 and 2009 the population of Australia grew by 10 per cent. Between 2001 and 2009, the average number of people watching prime time TV on Channel Nine dropped 17 per cent, on Channel Seven dropped 10 per cent, on and on Channel Ten dropped 2 per cent. In the same period, Pay TV’s audience rose 95 per cent. The free networks’ addition this year of digital spinoffs specialising in flops and repeats has done nothing to slow the rise of Pay.

The ABC: Between 2001 and 2009, its prime time TV audience has grown by 9 per cent, its metropolitan radio beats most of the commercial talk stations, and its website has expanded to offer serious competition to the newspaper chains.

Every Friday morning since March 2009 an intrepid crew of social media types have gathered at local cafes to chat and meet in real life (IRL). As social networks such as Twitter have grown, so have the number of people who have been dropping in for a coffee and a chat. This has recently included Anthony Scully of 1233ABC radio who interviewed several of us at a recent coffee morning.

You can listen to the interviews with  @billfredtom @hyperbrendan @jentally @mediahunter @ofdphoto @the_git here on the ABC website

Meanwhile, Newcastle Coffee mornings are being held each Friday from 745am to 9am at Sprocket Cafe, cnr Hunter & Watt Sts Newcastle (except over Xmas break). Follow the #newcastlecoffee hashtag on Twitter to keep up to date.

Source: Karl Quinn, Sydney Morning Herald

Television broadcasters have been roused from their slumber by a flurry of innovations. But will technology save them or signal their end?

Yesterday, Australia got its newest free-to-air television station when Kevin Rudd flicked the switch on ABC3. The just-for-kids station will broadcast 15 hours a day,and brings to 12 the number of free-to-air channels Australians with a digital television or a digital set-top box can receive – a tripling of free viewing options since 1980, and a doubling since 2005. But it’s just the beginning.

The TV broadcasting landscape is changing so quickly that predictions about what shape it will take are no longer flagged as coming soon but happening now.

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Writing this blog has been an amazingly informative experience for me. What began as a small site dedicated to the media in and around the Hunter Valley (hence the actual reason for the name Media Hunter) quickly grew to tackle national media issues. Then, as the media landscape began changing rapidly with the convergence of digital technologies, I began musing on the implications for traditional media and marketing organisations.

Researching and writing Media Hunter helped me tap into a realisation that we are experiencing one of those rare revolutionary periods in history. Old powers are falling, new technologies are rising. And the changing media landscape has become one of the most important battle grounds of the 21st Century.

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Source: Lara Sinclair, The Australian

ONLINE video viewing and social networking are set to dominate internet use over the coming year, according to two studies into new media and technology.

But whether — and how much — Australians will pay for the privilege remains a vexed question.

Four out of five Australians now watch video online, compared with just 25 per cent three years ago, according to Universal McCann’s annual Wave report that tracks internet usage.

Over the same period, creating a profile on a social networking site tripled to about 60 per cent, making it the second most popular activity, the research showed.

The data coincides with the findings of a Telsyte study into digital content that found social networking was the fastest-growing online activity, although email remained the most common reason for using the net.

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Source: MediaSpy

The Seven Network’s first attempt at a multichannel, 7TWO, has commenced broadcasting in the Tasmanian and Darwin television markets.

The channel is being carried by local broadcaster Southern Cross Television, who already operate the Seven Network affiliate in both areas. Southern Cross announced their intention to broadcast the channel from the beginning of December, soon after its metropolitan launch last month.

As of 7:30 PM local time, viewers in these areas received the first broadcasts of the new service after a localised countdown to the launch concluded.

This marks the first of the free-to-air multichannels being broadcast in the Darwin region. Tasmania, however, now enjoys the same television variety as the mainland capitals, as the area has received both Go! and One HD for some months already.

This move has only further infuriated viewers in the Regional New South Wales and Victorian markets, who are still yet to receive any notification of when their local Seven Network affiliate, Prime Television, will commence broadcasting the new channel.