Agriminders: Chris Russell remains optimistic about our future

Mediaweek first interviewed PodcastOne’s host of Agriminders, Chris Russell, just over 12 months ago. He told Mediaweek he remains optimistic about the future despite some serious challenges facing the planet.

Russell has been a longtime agricultural scientist and was the agricultural judge on ABC TV’s New Inventors for seven years. He’s also been an agricultural contributor to Newstalk ZB in New Zealand for around 20 years.

See also: Chris Russell and Agriminders launch

Russell reminded us this week the reasons behind the series: “I wanted people in agriculture to find it be useful to hear from experts they couldn’t normally access. The second aim was to speak to urban Australia who often get news about agriculture from a sometimes-uninformed media, telling them all sorts of things that aren’t necessarily correct. Telling them things about everything from water, animal welfare to genetic modification.”

For his third season, one of the things Russell wanted to explore further was climate change. “This series I have interviewed Phillip Mulvey, who is a soil scientist. He thinks if we can even fix the soil problem, we will be overwhelmed by another problem which will impact the amount of rain farms get. This is another man-made issue we have to address.”

After three seasons of speaking with specialists, Russell said he remains optimistic about the future. When he is not podcasting, Russell sits on committees for the Institute of Agricultural Science and does speaking engagements.

Each Agriminders episode takes him plenty of time. “I hope people find them as fascinating as I have when I did them. Each podcast takes a lot of research. I am only talking to CEOs and professors. If I don’t have enough knowledge to properly chat to them then it is not going to be good listening. It has been good for me in that it forces me to keep up-to-date.”

Listen to Agriminders here.

Commercial Radio and AFTRS announce CRA Podcast Scholarship

AFTRS, the national screen and broadcast school, and Commercial Radio Australia (CRA), the national industry body representing Australian commercial radio broadcasters, this week announced a new scholarship to support a regional student moving to Sydney to study AFTRS’ Graduate Diploma in Radio which covers all aspects of audio including podcasting.

The CRA Podcast Scholarship will provide $7,500 in 2020, to support the student’s living expenses and re-location to Sydney plus a 4-week internship at Podcast One.

“Podcasting has been growing at a substantial rate both nationally and internationally. AFTRS foreshadowed this exciting emerging field for Australian broadcast storytellers and began teaching podcasting in 2006. AFTRS Graduate Diploma Radio curriculum includes opportunities for students, working alongside industry experts, to regularly create, edit and publish radio and podcast content, preparing them to work professionally as podcast producers,” said AFTRS head of radio Fyona Smith.

CEO of Commercial Radio Australia Joan Warner said: “We are pleased to announce the CRA Podcast Scholarship to support a regional student studying at AFTRS. Many of the radio students AFTRS produces invariably find employment in commercial radio across Australia, including within the podcasting space, and several have gone on to win prestigious radio awards. Through the CRA Podcast Scholarship, the commercial radio industry is investing in the development of the next generation of industry talent and showing our continued commitment to supporting the growth of podcasts in this country.”

The Australian’s David Murray hosting The Lighthouse

From the team behind the award-winning podcasts The Teacher’s Pet, Bowraville, Who the hell is Hamish? and Lost in Larrimah, The Australian last week launched its latest investigative podcast, The Lighthouse, about the mysterious disappearance of Belgian backpacker Theo Hayez.

Read Mediaweek’s original report on The Lighthouse here.

At the request of Theo’s family, The Australian’s national crime correspondent, David Murray, joined the unofficial search party to investigate what happened to Theo who hasn’t been seen since leaving a Byron Bay bar in May this year.

As a range of theories for his disappearance emerge, The Lighthouse delves into all possible scenarios highlighted by a major police investigation and takes you inside the extraordinary search by local volunteers who’ve never met Theo.

The podcast also explores the stark contrast between Byron Bay’s millionaires and the homeless community living in hidden bush camps, along with the role technology has played in the case and how it will continue to transform the search for missing people.

Listen to The Lighthouse here.

The Onion partners with Sony Music

The Onion, the US comedy and news satire brand owned by G/O Media, and Sony Music Entertainment this week announced a strategic partnership to develop original podcast content. The companies will co-create a new daily satirical podcast focused on current events called The Topical, which is to launch in January 2020. It will be a parody of The Daily from The New York Times.

Sony Music said the partnership will bring to comedy fans a whole new way to experience The Onion’s distinctive voice and insightful commentary on a daily basis across a wide variety of platforms. The Onion will oversee all creative aspects of the podcast, including writing, production and recording.

The agreement further advances Sony Music’s creator-first approach to collaborating with unique creative talent. As a partner in podcasting, Sony Music provides its expertise in content creation, marketing and new technology monetisation to help storytellers enhance the scale and scope of their work.

Broadcaster records Audible series about Rupert Murdoch

David Dimbleby, the British broadcaster who has watched the life and times of the Australian media mogul for over five decades, will separate fact from fiction in a podcast that chronicles the real Rupert Murdoch story, reports The Observer.

The series will launch on Audible later this month and will be 81-year-old Dimbleby’s first journalistic work since stepping down from the helm of BBC’s Question Time program last year.

“The podcast I have made explores the controversial use of the media he owns to exert political power,” said Dimbleby, of The Sun King, which will launch on 18 November. “I first interviewed Rupert Murdoch for BBC’s Panorama when he bought the News of The World in 1968 and then again when he bought the Times,” said Dimbleby. “From the Sun to Fox News I look at his motives and methods through the eyes of his colleagues and opponents. I know a great deal more about him now than I did back in 1968, but he remains an enigma.”

[Read the original]

Search Audible Originals here.

As the only out of home Boomtown partner, oOh!media becomes the eighth media owner to join the initiative, demonstrating the importance of this campaign.

Boomtown unites the country’s leading media companies to support a campaign to redress the imbalance of advertising investment and the vast opportunities for businesses and brands to reach the 8.8 million people living in regional Australia.

oOh!media has a solid history of investment into regional Australia. In 2008 the company spent $40 million acquiring regional outdoor advertising company Sports & Outdoor Media, and since then has made frequent and ongoing investments to upgrade this portfolio, including digitising assets.

Brian Gallagher, chair of the Boomtown committee and Southern Cross Austereo’s chief sales officer said: “We are thrilled to have oOh!media join Boomtown’s history-making collective, encouraging marketers and agencies to rethink advertising in regional Australia. Out of home advertising is an important medium for brand building, as it can reach large audiences in ways that no other format or technology can. We are now a stronger, broader-reaching collective.”

Belinda MacPherson, News Corp’s general manager sales and operations at News Regional Media, said: “We welcome oOh!media to the Boomtown collective as we continue to showcase regional Australia and the nearly 9 million reasons why national brands should be prioritising regional media.”

oOh!media CEO, Brendon Cook (pictured), said: “We are excited to be partnering with Boomtown, as regional Australia is a crucial market for advertisers and a very important part of our business. We’ve invested in regional assets over many years, as we strongly believe there is still massive potential for advertisers to reach wider and more relevant audiences across Australia, and build their brands by using the latest, sophisticated data analysis techniques.”

Media company collective: Southern Cross Austereo, Prime Media Group, WIN Network, Australian Community Media, Imparja, Grant Broadcasters, News Corp Australia and oOh!media

Committee Chairman: Brian Gallagher
Production / Campaign Manager: Ana Nasarre
Client Working Group: Francesca Ryan, Sam Woods, Martine McPhail, Daniel Perotti
Production Company: Fabric Films
Production Director: Charlie Fergusson
Executive Producer: Krista Fergusson
Post Production: Fabric Films

The iconic pop duo have endured a colourful career timeline; and now, with their very own reality series, MTV will reveal to viewers an uncensored version of the twin sisters’ personal lives. One half of The Veronicas, Lisa Origliasso, spoke to Mediaweek about what to expect in the show, being constantly filmed, and what she and sister Jess think about other reality TV.

When asked about how the show came about, Lisa told Mediaweek that she and Jess always joked that they needed a camera following them around for their own reality TV show. “If there was a camera to caption our chaoticness every single day, we’d actually be able to laugh at some of the stuff that happens.

“I don’t think it was always a goal of ours. It just sounded like a really fun experience and when the opportunity came up, we jumped to it.”

Jess and Lisa on MTV

Lisa added that it’s been a really easy and fun experience filming the series. “We felt really comfortable with the idea of shooting a show because we’re so used to being around cameras for so long. It’s almost like our own documentary or video diary of our life. To have that to look back on one day will be pretty cool.”

Lisa said she and Jess are uncensored at the best of times, so they’re very much in the moment when the cameras are rolling. “Our fans can now see what it’s like when we aren’t on stage and cameras stop rolling. As I said, it was a very natural experience having cameras there, although it is a lot more personal this time around. 

“We delve into more of our relationship as sisters and into our personal romantic relationships, our family, and our lifestyle. So while it did feel natural, it was also a matter of sharing those things for the first time on a more intimate level. Being twins, we can easily forget there are cameras around because it’s almost like stepping into our own world while we’re together, so we’re not always overly aware that there’s a camera in the corner of the room. People will get a real look into our lives.” 

It seems the sisters had a lot of fun times on the show, and Lisa laughed when she said Jess taught her how to drive, since she still doesn’t know how to. “That was a personal highlight for me in the show, definitely.

“We also look at our personal relationships and our living situations in LA with me living with my partner – I got married a year ago – so a bit of mine and Logan’s (Huffman) life in LA. The show also follows the beginning of Jess and Kai’s (Carlton) relationship, where they’re just starting to get to know each other. They’re now engaged.

Jess and Kai on MTV

“The show also looks at what happens behind the scenes of The Veronicas in the studio writing sessions and making this album as well.”

Lisa revealed she believes reality TV has been an interesting phenomenon because these days there are a lot of shows out there are labelled as “reality” but they’re really scripted shows, and everyone’s quite aware of that. “We’re not actresses, we’ve never really been good at being told what to do. We like to do it our way. This is a very real and human side of who we are.

“We do love reality TV. We were big fans of The Osbournes which we very much can relate to, being family. Our show definitely does have that ‘Oscourne’ feel to it, especially with some of our fights. We also both loved The Simple Life.

“I’m really into the self-sustainable, DIY and home renovation style of reality shows and those sort of mini-documentary series on building your own home and how to live more self-sustainably. More than anything, we watch a lot of documentaries.” 

Their upcoming show is very much a mix of what the twins appreciate watching. “Logan and I bought a house together and there is that home-reno aspect to it, which was really fun for us. There’s a little bit of everything in there.”

Lisa said what’s intriguing about the show – she imagines – is just the idea of how society thinks celebrities live their lives and what they are like when the cameras stop rolling. “Behind the scenes, we are all just the same. We have to do the housework and do the grocery shopping, we fight, we cry, we have vulnerable moments, family things going on, personal challenges, just like everybody else. It’s all about the humanity behind the construct of celebrity that I think is a bit different. And, of course, our relationship as sisters and the fact that we work together. 

“When every episode ends, we want everyone to feel inspired. If they’re not feeling inspired, then we would feel disappointed.”

The audience will get a very good sense of who Lisa and Jess are outside the unity of The Veronicas. “You get to know us as individuals. Jess jokes it should’ve been called The Veronicas verse Lisa and Jess, because it very much feels like that. When we are The Veronicas and on stage, we get into these other worldly personas. And when we’re off stage, we’re normal human beings figuring out life as we go just like everybody else.”

The twins have such an interesting relationship dynamic. “Jess is like an extension of me and vice versa. So at times when I’m feeling more confident or business-minded or opinionated, I’ll step up and she’ll take the other role if that makes sense. It’s not like I’m more one way and she’s more the other way; we have this intrinsic bond where we mould the energy of each other. At any given day, we could almost switch roles.”

There are a number of upcoming plans in store for the duo. “We’re embarking on festival tours at the moment; we love playing in front of a crowd, especially if they haven’t seen one of our live performances before. 

“We just played at Grass is Greener on the Gold Coast and Cairns, and both shows had unbelievable energy. We’ve got Lost Paradise coming up and a bunch around New Year’s Eve. We also have Groovin the Moo next year; so it’s pretty non-stop with festival touring. 

“We have a new album coming out this summer as well, and a new fragrance we’re dropping around Valentines Day. And Jess has a wedding to plan in there somewhere!”

The Veronicas: Blood Is For Life will be premiere across MTV global linear and digital platforms at 6pm on Sunday 10 November. 

The agreement includes premiere Australian subscription rights for movies from Universal Pictures and a significantly expanded range of titles from the studio’s rich library of blockbusters and evergreen classics. This further strengthens Foxtel Movies’ extensive line-up including hit films from The Fast and the Furious, Jurassic, Bourne and Jaws franchises, in addition to DreamWorks Animation titles.

Foxtel will continue to reimagine its channel offering with NBCU’s popular channels Universal TV, E! and business news channel CNBC. Universal TV will join Foxtel’s new FOX Crime channel in providing a line up of crime and procedural drama including multiple series in the Law & Order and Chicago franchises. Together with E! and Foxtel’s ARENA, Foxtel’s position will be cemented as the number one destination for reality and Hollywood news with popular franchises such as E!’s Keeping Up with the Kardashians and The Real Housewives from Bravo.

The new agreement will also see NBCU continue as a major provider of scripted content for Foxtel’s expanded line-up of FOX-branded channels and on demand platforms. This includes complete seasons of some of the most popular sitcoms for FOX Funny and FOX Hits including The Office, 30 Rock and Parks and Recreation. The deal also brings Foxtel first run rights to US blockbuster series Chicago P.D. which will premiere on FOX One on November 15.

NBCU will also provide thousands of additional hours of on demand content including movies and both Bravo’s popular reality series and scripted box sets, initially available through the New Foxtel Experience on iQ3s and iQ4s and through Foxtel NOW. These will be joined by season five of locally commissioned hit reality series The Real Housewives of Melbourne, currently in pre-production with NBCU International Studios’ Matchbox Pictures and due on Foxtel screens exclusively in Australia next year.

Foxtel Chief Commercial Officer Amanda Laing said: “Foxtel and NBCU have a long and shared history of bringing iconic and ground-breaking entertainment to Australian audiences.

“We are incredibly pleased to extend that partnership with this new cornerstone agreement covering movies, scripted content and NBCU channels in a new agreement that reflects Foxtel’s commitment to building strong partnerships with the best content creators in the world.

“This broad, multi-year deal continues to deliver Foxtel subscribers NBCU’s amazing range of top-quality films and series, along with our compelling channel brands,” commented Chris Taylor, Managing Director, Distribution & Networks, ANZ, NBCUniversal. “We look forward to an on-going collaboration with Foxtel as we continue our long-standing, successful partnership.”

—

Top Photo: NBCUniversal’s Chris Taylor with Foxtel’s Amanda Laing

Siobhan Siegert (pictured), currently the head of Nova Entertainment’s branded entertainment division, Create (Perth and Adelaide), will take on the additional role of leading the Perth office, spearheading the local team of 50+ people.

Nina Santella and Antonell Doyle, both long-standing Nova Entertainment employees, will step into the roles of head of agency sales and head of direct sales respectively, joining Siegert running the commercial team in Perth.

Nina Santella

Peter Charlton, Nova Entertainment’s chief commercial officer said, “Jamie was a much-loved and valued friend and colleague, deeply committed to the betterment of the business and its culture. His time with us saw Nova 93.7 earn its position as Perth’s #1 station, among numerous other milestones. It’s our commitment to continue to reflect his values and ethos into the future.

Antonell Doyle

“We have complete faith in Siobhan’s ability to lead the Perth team into 2020 and beyond. With the ongoing support and expertise of Antonell and Nina, we consider Jamie’s legacy in very safe hands.”

Charlton added Siegert, Santella and Doyle have had a long tenure in the business and have made an enormous contribution to the Nova Entertainment team nationally, while being instrumental to the commercial and cultural success of the Perth office.

The new leadership structure will be effective from 11 November 2019.

Bianca will be responsible for developing and driving the digital strategy for the Sparx Digital team, existing digital assets and any new platforms with radio advertising.

Grant Broadcasters CEO, Alison Cameron said:  “The time is now right for us to roll out nationally a well planned and executed digital strategy that utilizes all of our combined strengths, particularly leveraging our Sparx Digital products. Bianca has a huge amount of experience in digital and she also understands local Regional Radio, which will be of great benefit to Grant Broadcasters. We warmly welcome Bianca to our senior executive team and look forward to the energy and passion that she will bring to this role.”

Bianca will join Grant Broadcasters’ senior leadership team reporting directly to Alison Cameron. The appointment is effective 13 January, 2020.

Nova 100 continues in New York

Since completing the New York Marathon last weekend, Nova 100’s Browny shared audio of him throughout the race including audio of the former footballer when he finished the race (and he was delirious).

The Nova 100 breakfast team of Browny, Kylie Brown, Sam Pang, Deano and Jack Charles attended an NFL Game his week with the Dallas Cowboys against the NY Giants, which Browny compared to Carlton v Collingwood. He talked about attending a tail gate party, Big Blue BBQ, before the game and that people were cooking food in fire pit BBQs built into the back of trucks.

Sam, Deano and Browny at the football

There was an all-out fight five minutes into the game and that a black cat ran across the stadium at one stage, stopping the match.

The Nova 100 team celebrated Melbourne Cup Day at The Australian Bar and Restaurant in midtown Manhattan where they caught up with Melbourne Storm general manager football Frank Ponissi (pictured).

One guest on the show earlier this week was Eddie Perfect, who moved his family to NY and is currently performing in Beetlejuice, and Ted Richards, who also participated in the marathon and was beaten by Browny by a couple of minutes.

Today on the show, the team surprised Chrissie Swan with a special guest – comedian Ross Noble who is doing some gigs in New York.

Fifi Fev Byron & Daisy rock Tokyo

Photos: Fifi, Fev, Byron and Daisy in Tokyo

Melbourne’s Fox FM breakfast show, Fifi, Fev & Byron, created a segment, Tradie-oke, that gave the tradies of Melbourne a chance to belt out their favourite songs live on the radio. Tradie-oke resonated across the suburbs of Melbourne and the segment morphed into Tradieoke: Live from the Fox World Famous Rooftop and The Real SlimTradie, where the winner performed in front of 50,000 people at Marvel Stadium for RNB Friday’s Live.

This week Fifi, Fev & Byron have taken Tradie-oke global to the home of karaoke, Japan, for Tradie-okyo!

The show flew to Japan for a week with winning tradies, their friends and a selection of other lucky listeners dubbed The Groupies with a vocal coach, a dance choreographer and two mums who are promising to keep everyone in line. They have been performing at karaoke bars around Tokyo to see if they have what it takes to take their karaoke talents large and make it big in the land of the rising sun.

Fifi Box said on departure: “We have such a soft spot for our tradie listeners so we can’t wait to take them to the home of karaoke for this awesome trip! Plus all of Melbourne will be joining us as we broadcast from there in the mornings.”

Fev added: “I’m a huge sushi fan so I can’t wait to get to the fish markets to get the freshest possible…that sumo wrestler had better watch out!”

Both Fifi and Fev have members of their family with them. One of the stars of the trip has been Fifi’s four-month-old daughter Daisy on her first international trip.

Fifi this morning shared some of her parenting skills of how she is going old school to keep Daisy from crying as they travel around Tokyo.

One morning things got off to an awkward start when they broadcast a fortune tellers predication for Fev that he would die in his 50s which had his daughter Leni in tears.

Fitzy & Wippa’s star studded backyard cricket at Kirribilli House 

It happened a week ago, but it is still worth reporting on a fabulous day out for Nova 969 breakfast at Kirribilli House as PM Scott Morrison joined celebs, sportspeople & listeners at to raise funds for Batting for Change – supporting young people living in poverty around the world.

The show wasn’t exactly “on the road”, but they did have to cross the Harbour Bridge for their match.

Fitzy & Wippa’s previous Backyard Cricket match won Best Station Promotion at the 2019 Australian Commercial Radio Awards last month.

Taking part in the match last week were Ryan Fitzgerald, Sarah McGilvray, Matt de Groot, Ed Cowan, Ben Fordham, Peter Stefanovic, Colin Fassnidge, Jim Wilson, Brett Lee, Michael Wipfli, Christine Wipfli, Scott Morrison, Conrad Sewell, Dr Andrew Rochford, Lynne McGranger, Mark Ferguson, Karl Stefanovic and Richard Wilkins.

The national anthem was sung by the talented Conrad Sewell, followed by the bat toss by NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian and the match was on. In the end ScoMo was sent off by Brett Lee and Team Wippa took home the trophy. ScoMo’s pooch Buddy took out Man of the Match after he took off with the ball on two occasions and had to be sent to the doghouse so as to not interrupt the game. The event saw $15,000 raised for Batting For Change.

Wednesday Week 45 2019

 • Seven News 897,000/886,000
• Nine News 816,000/842,000
• A Current Affair 760,000
• ABC News 600,000
• 7.30 556,000
• The Project 256,000/500,000
• 10 News First 299,000
• The Drum 152,000
• SBS World News 129,000

Breakfast TV

• Sunrise 253,000
• Today 201,000

Seven

Home and Away was up a little from 528,000 Tuesday to 559,000 last night.

Seven’s ob doc hour returned audiences of 490,000 for Highway Patrol and then 498,000 for Motorbike Cops.

The Good Doctor was on 484,000 after 477,000 a week ago.

Nine

The public got to see inside the finished properties on the biggest series of The Block ever after the Blockheads left their homes for the past few months. The penultimate episode had an audience of 811,000 with just the auctions to come this weekend ahead of the final episode detailing the results next Sunday night.

Love Island Australia then did 320,000.

10

Two potential husbands were eliminated on The Bachelorette as the field of candidates narrowed significantly. The episode did 696,000 after 600,000 last week.

Playing For Keeps then did 274,000 after 237,000 a week ago.

ABC

Julia Zemiro was spending time with Judith Lucy who was being very frank as always on Home Delivery. The episode did 479,000 after 438,000 last week.

Also up week-on-week was Gruen with 586,000 last week turning into 648,000 last night.

Frayed then did 333,000.

The Last Leg was on 143,000, after viewers on ABC Comedy got their first look at the Adam Hills episode on Tuesday with 91,000 watching.

SBS

The final episode of Tony Robinson: Britain’s Ancient Tracks did 229,000.

The drama series labelled as the masterpiece of the year by Andrew Mercado here last Friday, Years and Years, then debuted with 189,000 watching.