Finalists in the 30th annual Australian Commercial Radio Awards (ACRAs) have been released featuring new categories and first-time nominees, plus Australia’s top radio presenters competing for the coveted Best On Air Team in both the AM and FM (Metro).

Two-time winners in the FM category Kate, Tim and Marty (Kate Ritchie, Tim Blackwell & Marty Sheargold, Nova Entertainment 2016, 2017) are amongst the finalists that include five-time winners The Kyle and Jackie O Show (Kyle Sandilands and Jackie Henderson, KIIS 1065, Sydney); Jonesy and Amanda (Brendan Jones and Amanda Keller, WSFM, Sydney winners in 2012 and 2014); Hughesy & Kate (Dave Hughes & Kate Langbroek, Hit Network, SCA), Fifi, Dave, Fev & Byron (Fifi Box, Dave Thornton, Brendan Fevola & Byron Cooke, Fox FM, Melbourne) and first-time finalists in the category, Kennedy Molloy (Jane Kennedy & Mick Molloy, Triple M Network, SCA).

The Metropolitan Best On Air Team AM title will be a contest between last year’s winner, The Continuous Call Team (Ray Hadley, Bob Fulton, Darryl Brohman, Erin Molan, Mark Riddell, Chris Warren & Mark Levy, 2GB, Sydney, Macquarie Media Limited); Breakfast with Steve & Basil (Steve Mills & Basil Zempilas, 6PR, Perth), David & Will (David Penberthy & Will Goodings, FIVEaa, Adelaide, Nova Entertainment) and Laurel, Gary & Mark (Laurel Edwards, Gary Clare & Mark Hine, 4KQ, ARN, Brisbane).

Another highly competitive category is Best Talk Presenter, with all four finalists this year from Macquarie Media Limited: Ray Hadley (2GB), Ben Fordham (2GB), Neil Mitchell (3AW) and Tom Elliott (3AW).

Best Music/Entertainment Presenter has been split into two categories this year with Nova stablemates Ryan Fitzgerald, Tim Blackwell and Kate Ritchie up against Carrie Bickmore (Hit Network) for Best Entertainment Presenter. Best Music Presenter finalists are Melissa Doyle (smoothfm) Steve Fitton (WSFM), Ugly Phil O’Neil (Triple M, Sydney) and Katie Mattin (Nova 106.9 Brisbane).

This year’s metro finalists for Best Newcomer On-Air include Brendan Fevola (FOX FM, Melbourne), Grant Denyer (2Day FM), Xavier Ellis (hit92.9 Perth) and Libby Trickett (Triple M Brisbane).

Three new podcast categories have been introduced for the 2018 ACRAs to celebrate the best original podcasts produced in Australia. Four awards will be presented – Best Original Podcast (Branded); Best Original Podcast (Unbranded) and Best Radio Show Podcast (Metro and Non-Metro).

Entries were received from 260 metropolitan and regional radio stations across Australia. Stations outside the metropolitan areas are well represented at the ACRAs with more than 200 finalists from country and provincial stations. This year the gala black-tie event will be held at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre on Saturday October 20 and will start at 6pm (red carpet 5pm).

Chief executive officer of Commercial Radio Australia Joan Warner said: “There is a wealth of talent across metropolitan and regional Australian radio and we look forward to celebrating the 30th year of the ACRAs,” Warner said.

Organised by Commercial Radio Australia, the national Awards cover 37 categories. Winners are announced in each category across four areas: metropolitan, provincial, country and Syndication/Production Company and encompass all areas of commercial radio broadcasting including news, talk, sport, music and entertainment. The ACRAs differ from television’s Logie Awards in that they are peer judged by industry members. The ACRAs follow the Radio Alive 2018 conference, which will be held at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre on Friday October 19.

See a complete list of the ACRA nominees here.

Fox Sports has announced three new signings to the growing Fox Cricket commentary team as part of what the broadcaster is labelling the biggest shake-up in cricket broadcasting.

Former Australian wicketkeeper Ian Healy and current stars Ellyse Perry and Alyssa Healy have joined the team.

Adam Gilchrist and Shane Warne lead the new lineup, combining with Andrew Symonds, Michael Hussey, Brett Lee, Mark Waugh, Allan Border, Isa Guha, Mel Jones, Kerry O’Keeffe, Michael Vaughan, Brendon Julian, Jessica Yates and Mark Howard.

Ian Healy said he was looking forward to being part of the team: “I’m very happy to be joining Fox Sports in what is a very exciting time for cricket in this country. Fox Cricket is going to give the viewers at home exactly what they want and deliver a level of coverage they’ve never seen before. I feel lucky to be part of it”.

Fox Sports has also revealed the new logo for the Fox Cricket channel.

Foxtel’s dedicated 4K channel (channel 444), which begins in October, will bring cricket fans Foxtel in 4K just in time for the November 4 Australia v South Africa ODI. This will kick off Foxtel’s sports coverage in 4K, bringing the game to fans like never before.

Fox Sports’ cricket coverage will include Australia’s Test and ODI Series against Pakistan beginning October in the UAE.

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Top Photo: Ian Healey

By Trent Thomas

Similar to the American website The Onion, The Betoota Advocate labels itself “Australia’s oldest newspaper”, which has more recently made the transition to digital.

In just a few years The Betoota Advocate now grown to over 500,000 Facebook likes and performs well in the 18- to 30-year-old demographic.

This success has seen the brand bleed out into other areas, which include alcohol (Betoota Bitter) and a clothing line (Betoota Outfitters).

This is not bad for a newspaper meant to based out of a town with a population of zero.

Really based in Sydney, Errol Parker (editor-at-large) and Clancy Overell (editor) are the pen names of the founders, who recently spoke with Mediaweek about some of the fictionalised history behind Australia’s oldest newspaper.

As the story goes, Overell was “born into the role of editor like any good media professional – it was promised to me, it was written,” he told Mediaweek.

“I am a 4th generation editor of The Betoota Advocate from a relatively well-respected family out here in the shadow country. I started as a cadet, then bounced around for a few years. I had tried to make a career in rugby league football but a knee injury put an end to that so I took a 10-year sabbatical.

“I then returned as a sports reporter to The Betoota Advocate and then sports editor. I then spent five years as the Charleville correspondent, then headed back and took the editor’s role from my father, who was in the role for a couple of decades.”

Overell met Parker at a race meet in Central Queensland in 2014. Parker had just returned from working in the industry in England and Overell offered him a job.

According to Parker the success of the site is due to an intern. “Clancy took the newspaper online in 1996 and it was there for people who had since moved out of the circulation area.

“It wasn’t until 2014 that our intern at the time had a bit of a brainwave and said, what about we put you on social media, and it went gangbusters from there.”

The Betoota Advocate has emerged as a part of the Australian media during an interesting time.

With Australian politics in a state of flux, media consolidation, a difficult economy and a change in the consumption habits of the public, The Betoota Advocate seems to have found a niche through its flat hierarchy approach to parodying Australian culture.

According to Overell: “When your looking down the barrel of a leadership challenge or a federal election, every media organisation is put under the microscope of where their allegiances lie.

“And obviously there are some blatant ones – there are some blatant right-wing ones and some blatant left-wing ones. We like to align ourselves as apolitical but we get accused of being centralist, which we aren’t either.

“We kind of bounce along the spectrum and report where we find news worthy events and we skewer all ends.

Parker agrees and also brings up the importance of telling a wide array of stories that cover a broad cross-section of the public. “You need to treat everyone with the same respect. Everyone’s story is worth telling and it is up to the person who reads it.

Overell agrees: “It has certainly had an effect on our popularity since going online because, while it might seem mundane or niche, you need to write for everyone and while we are writing for the town it translates right across the country.

“The little stories you are writing that might seem insignificant or unreliable are there for someone else and there are a lot of someone elses in Australia.”

Following its success, The Betoota Advocate has announced that it will tour Australia in November/December 2018 through TEG Dainty and Nice Events.

The national tour is described as a no-holds-barred live show in true Betoota-style, filled with its trademark approach to news.

The tour starts in Townsville on Saturday November 3 and will feature Darwin, Toowoomba, Brisbane, Gold Coast, Wollongong, Newcastle, Perth, Melbourne, Hobart, Adelaide and Canberra before finishing in Sydney at the Sydney Opera House on Saturday December 1.

According to Parker, now seemed like a good time to do the tour: “In this news climate there have been a lot of changes in the industry and we thought it was time we really told the story of our newspaper and how we managed the journey from being an old media organisation to being one that is growing and thriving in this media age.”

Asked what areas of Australia excited them the most, Overell answered: “We are looking forward to starting in the deep north, in Townsville. We are excited about every show but Melbourne and Sydney are less exciting because they are one and the same, those two. But we have a lot of readers in the area so it will be good to touch base with those cities.

“As for seeing the country, it doesn’t get much better than the coastal delights of Townsville, Newcastle, and Wollongong. Even the Gold Coast has its own thing going.”

While there are a lot of laughs expected, Parker also points out that there is an important message as well: “The most important thing to take away is that there is hope for journalism in this country. It isn’t all doom and gloom. It’s about just battling it out and hoping for the best.”

Each performance will be localised with its own special spin as each city will have a show tailored for its audience.

With the merger of Nine and Fairfax still fresh and the possibility of more media consolidation on the horizon, Overell said they don’t expect much to change in regards to The Betoota Advocate’s independence for now. “There would be more dignity in being bought out than merging, I’d have to say.

“At the moment we are expanding and bucking the trend of what’s happening in the media landscape right now and we are on the up and up expanding and building up and building profits.

“If that well dries up, which it doesn’t look like doing, we might have to make some of those scary decisions before we retire and pull our parachute and retire to the beach.”

Tickets are available for purchase here.

• Townsville Saturday 3 November – The Civic
• Darwin Sunday 4 November – Darwin Entertainment Centre
• Toowoomba Tuesday 6 November – Empire Theatre
• Brisbane Thursday 8 November – Qpac
• Gold Coast Friday 9 November – Nightquarter
• Wollongong Sunday 11 November – Anita’s Theatre
• Newcastle Tuesday 13 November – The Civic
• Perth Friday 16 November – Astor Theatre
• Melbourne Saturday 17 November – Hamer Hall
• Hobart Sunday 18 November – Odeon Theatre
• Adelaide Thursday 22 November – Aec Theatre
• Canberra Friday 30 November – Llewellyn Hall
• Sydney Saturday 1 December – Sydney Opera House

The company’s appointment to the IAB board follows SWM’s decision to sell its 50% stake in Yahoo7 to joint venture partner Oath as part of its strategy to fully own and operate its direct-to-consumer products.

The announcement comes as the IAB accelerates its efforts to grow sustainable and diverse investment in digital advertising across all platforms, most recently working with the AANA and MFA to launch the Australian industry’s first Digital Advertising Practices.

IAB Australia chairman Cameron King said: “The addition of Seven West Media to the IAB Australia board will strengthen and broaden our industry insight and expertise and enable us to continue our work driving investment in, and advocating for, digital advertising.”

The acting CEO of IAB Australia Gai Le Roy said: “We are delighted with Seven West Media’s decision to step up its involvement with IAB Australia and join the board. We are fortunate to continue to attract engaged and active board members who are committed to demonstrating and improving the way digital advertising delivers on business objectives for Australian businesses.”

Clive Dickens said: “Our digital business has evolved significantly during the last two years and we have built one of the largest live streaming ad-funded broadcast video on demand (BVOD) platforms in Australia, so the time is now right for SWM to join the IAB board.

“Seven believes in a strong IAB, and values its role in creating a stable and vibrant digital industry through its important work in areas including independent measurement, standards and global best practice. We believe we have a valuable contribution to make to the IAB, and are looking forward to playing an even greater role in the future of the Australian digital industry.”

Seven West Media joins fellow IAB Australia Board members News Corp, REA Group, Carsales, Google, Simpsons Solicitors, Fairfax Media, Nine and Facebook. Current member Yahoo!7 will be replaced by Oath once the transaction with SWM is completed.

Dickens has held the role of chief digital officer with Seven West Media for four years, and is responsible for the digital strategy, execution and revenue for all SWM businesses. He is also non-executive director for Airtasker, Freeview Australia, Yahoo!7, Health Engine and Code Club.

By Kruti Joshi

Indira Naidoo has an extensive background in television, having worked as a presenter on ABC and SBS. Meanwhile, her co-host Trevor Sinclair has been working in radio for 42 years – 40 of them in Sydney, he told Mediaweek.

“There is rarely ever a suburb in Sydney that Trevor hasn’t heard of or doesn’t know where it is,” Naidoo said.

The duo wrapped up their show at 9am and, at 9:05am, they were in the studio talking to Mediaweek.

Four months ago, the 2CH breakfast show adopted a cow. This was in its first week on-air.

Sinclair explained: “There was a dairy farmer in the west of Sydney – one of the few remaining in the Sydney basin – who was struggling to keep his herd alive through the drought. He’d put out a call for people to adopt a cow. So we did that.

“Then the audience got involved because we had to name the cow.”

A poll was put up on the 2CH website. It was a close call between Daisy and Moo, so the hosts combined the two names to Daisy Moo.

“No one in radio was talking about the drought four months ago,” Sinclair said.

Naidoo added: “It’s about picking those little community stories that we can see are going to have resonance and a growing impact. We didn’t know that the drought would become a problem across the state. However, through Daisy Moo, we can talk about the serious issues like the drought and have the community really come together. This is genuinely a part of the culture we have at the station.”

While 2CH uses the AM frequency, it is a music show. “There is no other radio station in Australia that is playing the diversity and the eclectic music that we are playing,” Naidoo said. “The 60s and 70s music was some of the best music ever written, recorded and sung.”

Sinclair said: “We would have the largest music universe of any radio station in Sydney. We are not repeating songs as often. When you put that with the combination of conversations that touch people, it forms a really unique offering.”

As with any other radio show, news is an important part of 2CH breakfast. Sinclair says, “It’s not heavy news but it’s topical news.”

This approach to content seems to be working with the station’s listeners. All the growth signs are pointing upwards, Sinclair said.

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This is an excerpt from the full article, which appears on Mediaweek Premium. Read the full article here or subscribe to Mediaweek Premium here.

A three-decade veteran of media in the UK and Australia, Preston is the founder of multi-award winning independent media agency Match Media, which he established in 2003. Publicis Media acquired the company in June 2015 and it was rebranded to Blue 449. Preston became its CEO for Australia.

James will continue to have full strategic, operational and financial responsibility of Publicis Media, overseeing its agencies Starcom, Zenith, Spark Foundry, Blue 449 and Performics.

Reporting to James, Preston will support the Publicis Media board and James at a strategic business level both for the group and its clients. Preston will also continue as CEO of Blue 449 until the end of the year.

“John has been a critical part of the Publicis Media team since the acquisition of Match Media and, with Duncan Parfitt promoted to Managing Director of Blue 449 last year, this gives us the opportunity to not only evolve John’s role but to harness his 30-year experience and success in supporting the ongoing development of Publicis Media,” James said.

“John is one of Australia’s most respected media professionals, with a wealth of knowledge, an entrepreneurial spirit and proven leadership skills. I have no doubt he will bring a valuable and positive perspective to our strategic direction and I look forward to working with him to further develop Publicis Media Australia’s success.”

Preston said: “I am delighted to be offered the opportunity to contribute in a broader role with Publicis Media. My role will be to bring an independent and fresh perspective to decision-making, working with Matt James to develop strategies to drive Publicis Media forward.”

Preston will commence his new role on September 1.

By James Manning

Singles

Dean Lewis has held onto #1 for a second week with Be Alright charting for eight weeks. Lewis celebrated with his dad this week, whom he credited with teaching him guitar and everything he knows about music. Tickets for a December tour sold out quickly this past week and before that Lewis is playing dates in Europe and then the US.

Dean Lewis

With a number one album this week, Ariana Grande is also a force on the singles chart with five in the top 50 and another at #52. Breathin is new in the top 10 at #8 (and her 10th top 10 single) while God Is A Woman jumps from #17 to #7 on its sixth week after previously peaking at #5.

New in the top 10 is George Ezra with Shotgun, up from #11 after six weeks, for Ezra’s third top 10 single.

Calvin Harris and Sam Smith have Promises at #30 and they are the only other artists to debut inside the top 50.

Albums

Ariana Grande’s fourth album sees her land her third ARIA #1. It is four years since her first album chart-topper (My Everything in September 2014) and just over two years since her most recent (Dangerous Woman in May 2016).

Human Nature

Human Nature have been working their new album hard on a busy promo tour with visits to radio that included Alan Jones at one end of the spectrum to Kyle and Jackie O at the other. They were all over the TV, including Sunrise, the Morning Show and Paul Murray Live, and they travelled to shopping centres including Castle Towers. After all that hard yakka they came oh-so-close to landing a #1 debut with Romance Of The Jukebox. The album, which is the group’s 11th top 10 ARIA album, features great cover versions – our favourites: Love Is All Around (a Troggs tune best known for its versions in Four Weddings And A Funeral and then Billy Mack’s Christmas version in Love Actually), Love Train, Love Is All Your Need and Love Hurts. I Say A Little Prayer is also a treat with guest vocals from the great Dami Im.

It’s good to see Jimmy Barnes back in the chart too… and it’s not even Christmas. This time he’s charting with the soundtrack to Working Class Boy, which opened in cinemas with a limited release over the weekend. Remarkably this is Barnesy’s 19th entry into the top 10 on the album chart as a solo artist. Eleven of those times Barnes saw the album make it to the top.

With the passing of Aretha Franklin there was much interest in her catalogue this week with The Very Best Of Aretha Volume 1 – The 60s new at #13. Also charting for her this week were 30 Greatest Hits (#16), The Queen Of Soul: The Atlantic Recordings (#17), Together – The Very Best Of Aretha Franklin & Otis Redding (#19), Original Album Series (#22), A Brand New Me: Aretha Franklin (With The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra) (#23) and Best Of Aretha Franklin (#25), and the re-entering the chart Respect – The Very Best Of (#20).

Respect is also #50 on this week’s singles chart.

Also new to the chart this week is Aussie country artist Travis Collins with Brave And The Broken entering the chart at #15.

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Top Photo: Ariane Grande credit: Sky Cinema / Shutterstock

By Luke Reilly Games Editor, IGN Australia

The seventh expansion to Blizzard’s record-holding MMORPG, Battle for Azeroth racked up 3.4 million in day-one sales. Not a bad effort for a game released 14 years and seven prime ministers ago. Or maybe that’s eight, now. I’m nearly out of fingers.

Madden NFL 19 sank one spot, to second place. It’s still slightly puzzling to see such a niche sports game rank so highly down under but, again, it’s indicative of how otherwise quiet August has been this year.

First-person stealth and survival game We Happy Few is the only other new game to wrangle its way into the charts this week, and it finds itself in sixth spot. Developed by Compulsion Games (which was recently acquired by Microsoft) We Happy Few is set in a dystopian version of 1960s Britain, where players must escape from a town hooked on a hallucinogenic drug called Joy, which keeps the inhabitants unaware of the decay around them. We Happy Few was briefly refused classification in Australia back in May, during the lead-up to its release, but that effective ban was overturned upon review in July and the game has been released unmodified.

By James Manning

The Block powers Nine to primary channel win, Seven #1 network

Nine’s second-half reality format The Block is again delivering big time as it powered Nine to a primary channel victory in Week 34. It was Nine’s third successive weekly win, which is how long The Block has been running.

Seven meanwhile ranked #1 network – the total of the combined channel share. Seven has been the #1 network all people for the last 11 weeks.

Sport and multichannels were again key factors in Seven’s network win. Seven was #1 on four nights with help from live AFL on Friday and Saturday. 7mate and 7TWO were the top multichannels.

TEN’s Pilot Week champ: Troy Kinne – but he only just out-rates Kyle

The Pilot Week adjusted metro numbers after all eight programs screened:

Kinne Tonight 378,000 (After the preliminary overnight number was 404,000)

Trial By Kyle 372,000

Drunk History 366,000

Skit Happens 347,000

Taboo 277,000

Dave 246,000

Disgrace 227,000

Bring Back…Saturday Night 203,000

Making a hard commercial call using the above data alone, Trial By Kyle would perhaps be most likely to be the show commissioned to series.

Paul Anderson, Anna Heinrich, Kyle Sandilands, Beverley McGarvey

Kinne Tonight did relatively well and could well be tested with further specials.

Paul Anderson, Beverley McGarvey, Troy Kinne

Drunk History did well too, and has a good case for another appearance. It is also a format others could be interested in if Network Ten passed on it.

Skit Happens, Taboo and Dave were all further back in the ratings. Harley Breen could be the winner out of that trio with further TV work. Dave O’Neil did very well considering he possibly had the toughest timeslot in the week – 8.30pm Friday.

Ironically the best-packaged program, Bring Back…Saturday Night, pulled the smallest audience. “Is this happening, is this real?” said Rove as he introduced the program on Saturday night. He could have easily been referring to the ratings, which were disappointing. The show bounced from one topic to the next with a mix of old and new faces and was very entertaining, but those numbers? There is no way to judge a format like this though in one outing.

See also: Andrew Mercado on TV: The final word on Australian politics and Pilot Week

 Seven

The final AFL Sunday match for 2018 helped push up Seven’s Sunday share in southern markets. However the one-sided clash didn’t contribute as much as it could have perhaps with the channel reporting its lowest Sunday primary channel share since the last Sunday in June.

Seven News ranked #1 at 6pm with 1.17m.

Little Big Shots then did 864,000, which is close to last week’s 883,000.

Matt Doran then reported on a strange encounter he had with a woman known as the catwoman and her much younger fiancé on Sunday Night. The episode did 530,000 after 567,000 last week.

Nine

The much-hyped episode of The Block featuring a reveal of the most expensive bathroom yet on the series helped pushed the audience to 1.29m, easily the biggest audience yet this season as the format began its fourth week on air. Former judge John McGrath returned to the show last night as the judges hammered the bathroom that eventually led to a walkout.

60 Minutes followed on 714,000 after 616,000 a week ago. The program had reports from Tom Steinfort, Allison Langdon and Liz Hayes last night.

TEN

The Sunday Project featured an interview with Jane Fonda in the studio. The first 30 minutes did 242,000, which grew to 372,000 after 7pm.

Russell Coight’s All Aussie Adventures was on 513,000, well down from 629,000 last week. It launched on 882,000 four weeks ago.

TEN then stayed with Working Dog and its movie from 2000 The Dish, which did 290,000.

ABC

Rake was the channel’s best after the ABC News with the drama on 573,000 after it launched with 715,000 last week.

The final of the four-part UK Grand Designs: House Of The Year did 529,000.

SBS

The 7.30pm doco The Pharaoh In The Suburbs, part of the Treasures Decoded season, did best with 227,000.

The channel then replayed Egypt: What Lies Beneath at 8.30pm to 205,000.