On Monday August 5’s episode of Media Watch, outgoing host Paul Barry took two radio networks to task.
Nine Radio for a error by 3AW host Tom Elliott for incorrectly depicting a flag flown at a rally held in Melbourne, and a segment called Smut FM focusing on Kyle and Jackie O and the content they provide listeners on KIIS 1065 Sydney and KIIS 101.1 Melbourne.
Only one of these segments is getting the attention, much like Yusuf Dikeç, pictured below, and his casual and instantly meme-worthy stance whilst winning an Olympic silver medal in the Mixed 10 metre air pistol shooting. Did you know his silver was won alongside compatriot Şevval İlayda Tarhan? The pair are pictured below too.
I remember Robbie Buck, at the live event celebrating 100 years of ABC Radio Sydney, talking with Angela Catterns about the moment he knew that he needed to leave triple j and his was no longer representative of the audience that they were targeting. I also remember too when my six year old son was in the back seat with a little girl who I was taking home and I was playing a favourite song of his at the time, Dance the Way You Feel, by English synthpop group Ou Est Le Swimming Pool because he wanted her to hear it. He had the cover of the triple j album I was playing it off and without hesitation told her the next song was one that I will use its censored name of Forget You, by CeeLo Green.
My son did not use the word forget.
I too realised that we weren’t going to be listening to triple j in the car for the foreseeable future, but that didn’t mean that I wanted everyone to stop listening to triple j as twenty different radio stations all in the same flavour is not very interesting, or sustainable to our industry’s future either.
ARN have no comment over last night’s Media Watch segment. It is to me an exercise in being offered free publicity where those who know Kyle and Jackie O will be aware that some of the audio included above was deliberate shock tactics for their very first moments in Melbourne to tell that audience what they thought they were going to hear, all the time (spoiler alert – it’s not).
GfK Radio 360 Survey 5 is out Tuesday August 27, and I expect, due to the Olympics within some of survey period, that Nine Radio and the ABC will both see upticks in listening. If Kyle and Jackie O see an increase in their cumes, they will in part have Media Watch to thank.
With regard to Tom Elliott’s incorrect flag identification, for which Media Watch says neither Nine Radio or The Herald Sun, who repeated Elliott’s comments, have apologised for, Adel Salmon, the President of the Islamic Council of Victoria told Media Watch that it was, “scaremongering Islamophobic nonsense.”
You can watch and read the two Media Watch segments below:
Wrong Flag: https://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/episodes/flag/104186254
Smut FM: https://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/episodes/kyle/104186256
Jen Seyderhelm is a writer, editor and podcaster for Radioinfo