By James Manning

Gold 104.3’s British import is hoping to celebrate his first birthday at his new radio home next Tuesday.

That is off course also survey day and Christian O’Connell didn’t want to jinx anything by doing his lap of honour too soon.

“One slip on Twitter or on Monday’s show and you could be writing a different article,” he told Mediaweek.

This time last year O’Connell had just finished hosting breakfast on the British FM station Absolute Radio. Now he is celebrating his first 12 months at ARN.

Speaking about the decision to pack up and leave the UK just over 12 months ago, O’Connell said there had been several periods of self-doubt. “We didn’t properly realise until we got here about the enormity of moving to the other side of the world. Everything is new.” He then rattled off a list of everyday chores that they needed to sort out – from Wi-Fi (“slower in Australia than in some African villages”), to doctors, schools and accommodation.

He has the latter finally sorted as O’Connell and his wife Sarah have just bought a home in Melbourne and they take occupancy in two weeks time. “Melbourne is home now, so the radio show has to work!”

He recalled how audience acceptance took some time.

“After the first few shows I started to get a sense some people were wondering what they were listening to. ‘A pommy in the morning? No thank you. No one asked for it and we don’t know who he is. Why have they done this?’

“I see all the texts and messages that come in – it’s my focus group. I read the good, the bad and the ugly. It’s the only way you can get a true measure of how you are going with your audience.”

There was plenty of bad initially.

“The first message within the first 20 minutes of the first show was ‘Go back home’. It was then I realised I wasn’t going to be given the key to the city any time soon.

“But what has been a really nice thing are some of the emails I have had from people apologising (which they don’t need to do), admitting they hated me when I started, but have now changed their minds.”

One recent correspondent told O’Connell that he rang the station to complain when he started. “Now he tells me he loves the show and listens every day. I am going to get that framed. I love the fact he went from hating me, thinking I was as dull as bat shit, to going completely the other way. It says something about the Australian spirit. They will give you a go even if they are not sure at first.”

ARN broke the breakfast mould with O’Connell by not having a comedian, a reality star or a former football star on the show.

That moved him to admit: “I have been doing breakfast radio for 20 years. The last 12 months have been the most challenging, and the most rewarding, in my whole career. It’s been the best thing I have ever done.”

O’Connell had an idea of what audiences liked in Australia. He knew Hamish and Andy and he listens to shows all over as almost a professional hobby. “Australian radio has had some brilliant presenters. I was a big fan of Tony Martin and Mick Molloy, also Kyle and Jackie O I was familiar with.”

He noted that he landed into a tough market. “This is so competitive in Melbourne. The regular ratings felt almost relentless and too stressful. Now though I have embraced it and I look forward to it. When you are new it is good to get regular reports on your progress.”

Team O’Connell

Excuse the pun, but the breakfast star seems to have struck gold with his on-air team – Jack Post and Patrina Jones, aka Pats.

Appointing Post was one clever piece of insurance ARN bought for its new breakfast show. Post was known to a generation of younger listeners after 10 years with Hamish and Andy as Cacklin’ Jack. It automatically gave O’Connell and the station a link with Australia’s most successful radio duo.

O’Connell: “Any radio show is the result of a good team, and they are a great team. It was a big risk for them as I could have damaged them if I go down. I feel they might have learnt a lot from working with me and they enjoy being part of something that is new and different.

“I said to Pats she had been under used, she had been hiding in the shadows and I thought she could do a lot more. I said to her, ‘I’m not interested in you telling me what you think I should hear. I want you to tell me what you actually think.’

“We argue quote a bit, most recently about Frank Sinatra, who she said couldn’t sing, he just spoke the words!

“What I don’t like is the fact that so many women on radio are cast by male programmers to be a giggling woman. Pats is way more than that. She is funny, articulate and opinionated which is exactly what you should be hearing on breakfast radio. Pats is a secret weapon for the show.”

O’Connell said he and the team have got most of the content right. “Although sometimes we don’t and I can feel the collective backside [of the audience] tightening up!” [Laughs]

One topic he misjudged was giving the Australian cricketers some stick. “In week one I went too early on that and I now realise it was too soon.” [Laughs]

O’Connell says his Gold breakfast show now gets was more calls than any of his previous UK programs – including his time at Absolute where he broadcast nationally on a handful of music formats.

A lot of listeners also admit to enjoying a British accent at breakfast.

Although smoothfm is doing very well in Sydney and Melbourne at present, there’s still a big audience that enjoys the talent talking. “I just don’t want to be an iPod,” said O’Connell. Although he reminds the team each day how lucky they are to have the opportunity to talk to people. “But let’s not waste their time. Let’s make sure we have something to say.”

Reality TV is a no-go zone usually on his show. “The sweet spot for me is our listeners stories and their real life.”

ARN seem to have given him quite a bit of rope. “Every radio boss I’ve ever had told me initially they were going to leave me alone. I have pushed ARN a few times, but only once have they said no.”

O’Connell revealed that happened after he argued with ARN’s programming boss Duncan Campbell about a fire engine!

“I found a second-hand fire truck being sold in Sydney for $6,000. I wanted to get it, put Gold all over it and pay some kid to drive it around. I wanted $6,000 and I was going to fly to Sydney and drive it back.”

Campbell said “no”, after asking O’Connell if he was trying to wind him up.

“I eventually accepted his decision. But we have agreed if the show ever gets to #1, they will get me the fire truck. Duncan told me if the show gets to #1 he will drive the fire truck from Sydney to Melbourne and give me the keys.”

—

Top Photo: O’Connell with the man poised to deliver his fire engineer – ARN’s Duncan Campbell

By James Manning

“How do you feel ahead of the launch,” Mediaweek asked instead. “Nervous” he shot back quick as a flash.

“I have gone from nervous and anxious, and drifted into confidence and excitement. Having finished some episodes I think it’s half decent and I want some people to see it.”

And tune in they did. The first episode of Kinne Tonight last week did 392,000 metro viewers, slightly bigger than his Pilot Week crowd.

Kinne is in the middle of production of the six new episodes.

Asking if Kinne was surprised about his Pilot Week performance also seemed a bit rude.

“How did you feel about those ratings?”

“Surprised!” [Laughs]

Troy Kinne used to make videos at high school borrowing the library camera. “I used to show them to just my parents and next door neighbours. For me to be able to reach so many more people is something I find hard to fathom.”

Kinne started stand-up 15 years ago. He’s been a fan of many classic TV performers from The Late Show to The Comedy Company. But it’s a different world now.

“We are in a phase now with YouTube where we are transitioning. You can either embrace social media or fall by the wayside.

“I used to have to watch Seinfeld when it was on or you didn’t see it. Now even friends of mine ask if there will be some of my show online. I have to say to the, ‘Try and watch it went it’s on.’”

There have been two people in particular who helped get Kinne on TV. More recently he points to 10’s Paul Leadon. “I have to give him credit, and I don’t see tis much in Australia, he came to my Sydney show and saw the reaction from my fans. He made the effort to understand my comedy and he got it.”

Before impressing 10’s Pilot Week audience, Kinne polished his TV skills with two seasons on 7mate in 2014 and 2015. “They seemed to be experimenting on the channel and they let us have free reign with very little interference.”

Kinne credits MaryAnne Carroll for kick-starting his TV career. “We worked so well together at Seven. I did a sketch show pilot for Seven before working at 7mate. It didn’t go ahead after initially looking like it would.

“MaryAnne Carroll got sent one of the early videos we did which was a parody of a Kia commercial. She got in touch with my manager about making a pilot. I said I’d already done one and wasn’t going to waste my time again. My manager talked me into doing it, luckily.”

His TV experience makes Kinne feel more confident about what works “When we did the Seven show there was a TV audience and an internet audience. Now I think they are both the same.”

The audience now has a shorter attention span. “If I see a clip online over three minutes I probably wouldn’t press play on it.”

Working the TV audience is different to performing live, explained Kinne. “For the TV audience you have to warm them up a bit more. You have to tell them it is just like being at a stand-up performance. They are allowed to make a noise and react. It’s OK to let loose. Whereas people at a comedy club are there for exactly that.”

An episode of Kinne Tonight moves so quickly the audience never has a chance to get bored. The first episode had about 10 different setups in just over 20 minutes of show time.

“In a pitch for the show we had a note there was ‘no fluff’. We only do intros when a sketch needs it. We jut go straight to the content all the time. Never give the viewer a chance to reach for the remote.”

Between the “longer” sketches, Kinne drops in one liners, or “short bursts of energy” as he calls them.

He noted that writing and filming the shorter pieces can be more of a challenge than the longer sketches.

Although Kinne Tonight goes to air quite late on Mondays, he has no complaints about the timeslot, coming off the back of Have You Been Paying Attention?

Kinne Productions is the vehicle for his TV and live shows. He is also getting into merchandise and has also published a book about one of his characters.

Kinne is looked after by Lauren Bergman alongside people like Red Symons, Glenn Robbins and Eric Bana.

For the rest of 2019 Kinne is planning some live shows – in Australia and perhaps the US if he can organise it. He played several shows in the UK last year.

Heffernan was the first employee of Atomic 212°, joining the Sydney office in 2010 and moving to Melbourne in 2013.

Previously Atomic 212° Melbourne’s digital lead, Heffernan will now be responsible for the operational leadership of the Melbourne office. He will report to Melbourne managing director and partner Claire Fenner.

Claire Fenner

Fenner said: “I’m delighted to announce Rory’s promotion to a key leadership role in our Melbourne business.

“Rory was one of the first employees in Sydney and moved to Melbourne to help set up our agency here. Over the past six years he has worked closely with a number of key clients, played an important role in building our business and demonstrated exceptional leadership skills.

“Rory is an invaluable member of the Melbourne team and I know he will do an outstanding job as our Melbourne general manager,” she said.

Heffernan said: “It’s a privilege to accept this leadership role within the talented and exciting Atomic 212° Melbourne team.

“After nine years in the business, I’ve seen the exceptional work and results that Atomic 212° produces, reflected in the strong partnerships seen in our Melbourne office. I look forward to playing my part in the next evolution of the agency, which has accelerated with the recent welcoming of new client partners and the continued focus on driving success for our valued existing clients.”

Heffernan’s appointment follows a series of recent client wins and reappointments at Atomic 212° nationally, including Spirit of Tasmania, Tourism Northern Territory, the Northern Territory Government, Beyond Blue, Programmed, NSW Police Force, NSW Rural Fire Service and Charles Darwin University.

As winner of this scholarship, Durkin will now commence an eight-week paid internship in Sydney, consisting of two weeks each at the leading radio broadcasters Macquarie Media, Southern Cross Austereo, Australian Radio Network and Nova Entertainment.

Currently in his final year of study at Edith Cowan University, Durkin said he is very proud to have been granted this opportunity and believes it will give his journalism career a kick start.

“I have always dreamed of having a career in news radio. I am thrilled and very grateful that I will be starting my career with the Brian White Scholarship,” Durkin said.

Durkin was among nine other student finalists who attended a news workshop in Sydney on May 24 at the Southern Cross Austereo rooftop.

At the workshop, commercial radio news directors Deborah Clay (ARN), Michelle Stephenson (Nova), Erin Maher (Macquarie Media) and Natasha Jobson (SCA) shared insights about the journalism industry and set several tasks for judging.  

All of the radio news directors were impressed by the skills of the finalists, however Durkin was named winner due to his exceptional knowledge of the radio news industry and his ability to write a professional news script in a short period of time.

Joan Warner, chief executive officer of Commercial Radio Australia, congratulated Durkin on his achievement and said all of the finalists should be proud of their efforts.

“We want to congratulate Tom and all the finalists on their amazing efforts. To make it this far in the selection process is an exceptional achievement for all the aspiring journalists,” Warner said.

“This will be a unique opportunity for Tom to experience what it’s like to work in a dynamic radio newsroom and assist with producing live breaking news for millions of listeners.”

The scholarship is named after radio broadcaster Brian White, commercial radio’s first cadet journalist, who went on to cover historical wars, served as general manager of 3AW in Melbourne and chaired the Fitzroy Football Club.

Durkin will commence his internship on June 17. Applications for the 2020 Brian White Scholarship will open in March 2020.

Seven also finished the network week ahead of Nine – 31.3% to 28.2%. The primary channel battle also went to Seven, but the margin was a little closer – Seven on 21.0% to Nine’s 19/3%.

Seven News and Home and Away were key to Seven’s win, with support from House Rules, particularly on Sunday and Monday where the episodes were both over 700,000.

Seven’s combined channel share got a big boost too from #1 multichannel 7mate where on three nights of the week its share was over 5%.

The AFL was again a key pillar for Seven with Friday and Saturday primary channel shares of 25.0% and 23.1%.

Before Easter Nine has 13 successive weeks of primary share well over 20%, yet in the five most recent weeks that share has been sitting just under 20%.

The channel’s best week 22 offering was The Voice with all three episodes the only non-news content to go top 10.

Nine News had the edge at 6pm in Sydney and Melbourne, but across the metro capitals Seven News is well ahead.

10 had its best primary share since January with 11.9%. Have You Been Paying Attention? was the channel’s strongest performer and the only program to rise over 700,000.

Five episodes of MasterChef then each did over 600,000.

Both HYBPA? and each MasterChef episode were on the list of the top 10 shows under 50 for the week.

The new Aussie drama Five Bedrooms was then the next best with just under half a million watching its third episode.

Weekend news bulletins remain the ABC’s strongest performer.

Next best was Anh’s Brush With Fame with the Danni Minogue episode on 682,000.

The Weekly with Charlie Pickering also performed well, cracking both 600,000 and the week’s top 30.

On SBS the newish series Medicine Or Myth was the broadcaster’s only program over 300,000. It even managed to outrate Who Do You Think You Are?, which was down to 268,000 this week.

By James Manning

Singles

It is week six at #1 for Old Town Road from Lil Nas X, while I Don’t Care from Ed Sheeran and Justin Bieber spent a third week on the chart. After debuting at #1, I Don’t Care has spent the past fortnight at #2.

Ed Sheeran also had the highest debut this week as his partnership with Chance the Rapper and PnB Rock hit the chart at #6. The track is from a forthcoming Ed Sheeran 15-track album of tunes due July 12 called No. 6 Collaborations. Sheeran said just last week: “For me, this is a compilation album of artists that I’m a fan of.”

New to the top 10 was Tyler, The Creator as Earfquake jumps two spots to a new peak at #9 after two weeks on the chart.

Three other tunes debuted inside the top 50 this week:
#12 5 Seconds of Summer with Easier. This is the first track released from their forthcoming fourth album.
#17 Young Thug with The London featuring J. Cole and Travis Scott.
#41 Joyner Lucas with Isis. The third single from the rapper’s ADHD album.

Albums

Billie Eilish’s debut album is back at #1 for the third time since release. In its nine weeks on the chart, When We Fall Asleep Where Do We Go? has never been lower than #2 on the chart.

Vacating top spot is Conrad Sewell with Life as it spends its second chart week at #3.

Meanwhile P!nk is climbing higher again with her former #1 Hurts 2B Human back at #2 on its fifth week on the chart.

Two new albums debuted in the top 10 and they are both soundtracks from hit movies.

Aladdin was the highest debut this week with the soundtrack to the Will Smith live action film new at #4. The soundtrack for the animated movie from 1992 peaked at #15.

Two places further down the chart is Rocketman with Taron Egerton, playing the role of British singer-songwriter Elton John. Egerton and John duet on the new track (I’m Gonna) Love Me Again, while Egerton performs the bulk of the tunes on the soundtrack.

A wave of Elton John nostalgia is flooding the market with the movie’s release. His collection of hits called Diamonds moves from #22 into the top 10 at #8 after 51 weeks on the chart. Meanwhile his classic former #1 double album Goodbye Yellow Brick Road is back on the chart at #40 after 71 weeks in total on the chart.

Just three other albums debuted top 50 this week:

#22 Amyl and the Sniffers – the self-titled debut album from the Melbourne band has been attracting great reviews here and overseas.
#25 YG with 4Real 4Real. In 2015, US rapper YG survived an attempt on his life. Earlier this year Nipsey Hussle was shot and killed. This fourth album from YG is his tribute to Nipsey.
#44 Middle Kids with New Songs For Old Problems. A six-track EP from the Sydney trio.

Luke Reilly, games editor, IGN Australia

The arguably overdue follow-up to 2012’s Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed, Team Sonic Racing sheds the previous game’s transforming vehicles and wide cast of Sega characters from outside the Sonic franchise, focusing purely on arcade driving with Sonic and his crew. The twist this time is the co-operative racing, where drivers must work together in teams of three to share special slipstreams, initiate slingshot manoeuvres, and leapfrog each other to gain ascendancy. It’s definitely different from its predecessor but the result doesn’t seem too shabby.

Trailing Team Sonic Racing last week is a selection of number ones from the last several weeks, including Mortal Kombat 11, Rage 2, and PS4 exclusive Days Gone, doggedly hanging onto its spot just above five-year top 10 chart veteran Grand Theft Auto V.

The only other fresh face in the charts is Total War: Three Kingdoms, a well-received turn-based grand strategy game for PC (also published by Sega), though it’s unlikely that will remain in the top 10 for long.

Sunday Week 23 2019

By James Manning

• Seven News 1,194,000
• Nine News 1,024,000
• ABC News 675,000
• The Project 264,000/407,000
• Insiders 289,000
• 10 News First 266,000
• Offsiders 180,000
• SBS World News 131,000

Breakfast TV

• Sunrise 230,000
• Today 206,000

Seven

House Rules made it just over 800,000 for the first time this season. The judges couldn’t separate the work of team Katie and Alex and team Tim and Mat with each receiving a total of 24 points last night. The audience was up from 740,000 a week ago.

Sunday Night then did 643,000 after 561,000 a week ago. The episode featured Matt Doran’s forensic account of how a Qantas pilot saved the lives of 315 people on QF72 over a decade ago.

Nine

The Voice hit a season high thanks in part to Jack Vidgen returning to performing after a five-year break. The former AGT winner got all four coaches to turn around and he then chose Guy Sebastian to reignite his career. The audience was 1.105m after 1.090m a week ago.

Just short of 40 years since the death of Azaria Chamberlain, Charles Wooley reported on the recent attack on a 14-month-old by a dingo on Fraser Island. The episode did 673,000, down from 756,000 last week.

Suburban Gangsters then shone the light on Lennie McPherson and Stan Smith with an audience of 301,000 after 306,000 a week ago.

10

Waleed Aly made the long trip to Spain to watch Liverpool take on Tottenham Hotspur in the Champions League final on Sunday morning. He reported from outside the stadium for The Project on his team’s triumph. Aly is spending less than 24 hours in Spain before he returns home to re-join the show in Melbourne. The Sunday audience was 407,000 at 7pm after 444,000 a week ago.

Beautiful one day – delicious the next. MasterChef has finally made it to Brisbane for a special week of programs, 10 years after the format launched. For their first night up north, the contestants had to create from a mystery box in a kitchen set up on the banks of the Brisbane River. They then had to work in a convoy of food trucks, which was explosive in more ways than one. The fat caught fire in one truck, sending the contestants rushing for safety and the diners wondering where their meal would come from. The episode was on 621,000, down marginally from 645,000 a week ago.

ABC

In the Sunday night dramas, Shetland was on 509,000, outrating Harrow on 461,000.

Shetland was down from 561,000 week ago, while Harrow was down from 486,000.

SBS

Part two of Epic Warrior Women was titled Gladiatrix and did 124,000.