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I have finished reading "On Air" by Mike Carlton, ISBN 978 0 85798 780 8. I will be discussing his literary style, funny moments, pay particular attention to Mike's critique of 2GB and its current presenters. Also discussed is political interferece in the ABC, comparing Rupert Murdoch and Kerry Packer, the downfall of the Fairfax empire and its consequences on 2GB.
If "a picture paints a thousand words" then Mike Carlton can paint pictures with his words. Whether his personal life at 53 Orchard Rd Chatswood (now a fruit shop, sale value $6.9 million), or a student at Barker or his professional life in South East Asia, Australia and London, Carlton weaves in the particular events in history associated with his professional and personal life.
His book is sprinkled with humour. It cracked me. His particular style is to use a metaphor and a little allegory. For example, he described a former colleague as "....dumb as a bag of hammers...." (p302, RIP). At his boss's wedding at an old English church, heating was needed inside the cold 14th Century building(p406). His description of the effect of the heating on the church's organ was when Felix Mendelssohn's "Wedding March" commenced and the organ "...wheezed, farted, squawked and honked with an ear-splitting racket somewhere between a blast of foghorns and a collapsing wooden shed..." (p407).
His words definitely stripped the glamour off TCN channel 9's Willoughby TV centre; "...take away the studios...,their lights, cameras and control rooms and it could have been a struggling widget factory in Wollongong...." (p267).
One of the funniest moments that was not recorded in the book occurred on his 2GB breakfast program during the late 1980s towards Christmas. This was Mike's second attempt at a massed choir of talkback callers. All 24 lines were put to air. The talkback 'choristers' sang "Good King Wenceslas", badly! It created a belly-laugh due to the effect of sopranos, baritones and crooners some in tune, many out of tune and some 'choristers' two bars out of time.
I shall refrain from an in-depth discussion of the radio colleagues he likes or dislikes. Reviews of the characters can be found by clicking the above hyperlinks and the hyperlinks of the hyperlinked articles in the RadioInfo site. Suffice to say that the current 2GB presenters have a different style to presenting radio than Mike Carlton.
Many of the issues discussed on the Alan Jones such as power prices and population growth are of concern to many citizens and Jones has his way of making the political leaders account for their actions or inactions. You won't see (with cameras present) Jones ask a political leader to twerk to music (as happened on 2Day-fm in 2013) or give them an easy ride as those FM radio breakfast programs.
Even if 2GB's programs are not to Mike Carlton's liking, the result is that the programs do have a structure, a consistent delivery and do attract an audience that makes 2GB a market leader. Whether the programs appeal to the ignorant, I doubt that Macquarie Media's market research would indicate that.
Anyway, one of the contemporary issues (2018) is alleged political interference at the ABC between a member of parliament and the ABC board of directors. It's not new. There was direct political interference in the ABC in 1972, on allegations of corruption in the postal service. ABC management banned the airing of a story on those allegations through the Coalition-appointed Post Master General Sir Alan Hulme, pages 230,231. In defiance of ABC management, the story did get to air, p231.
While chapter's in Carlton's book may well be the impetus for further case studies in a university business studies course, he touches on two media giants, Rupert Murdoch and Kerry Packer (RIP). Carlton appraising Murdoch (p351) also does not like Murdoch using his media empire to influence his readers (p353). He observes that even though the editors in Murdoch's publications are supposed to be independent, they appear to unanimously agree with him, probably because these editors know what Murdoch wants (p352).
For decades, to this day, Rupert Murdoch's publications have always been anti-ABC, the 'why should we pay taxes for the ABC' "...like some endless infant tantrum..." (p352) that is also repeated on 2GB. Allegations of left-bias are not new. But journalists have been left-of-centre since the 1960s (p139).
The notions described are not new, so ignore it next time issues of supporting the ABC and bias recur. Australian media is not dominated by one source. We can vote with the tuning dial or a mouse click.
Furthermore, whether the meister of legacy media empire Rupert Murdoch can influence the public to vote a particular way may well be a moot point in the future as media consumers resort to other sources of media, left or right, fake or genuine.
In contrast, to Carlton's surprise, Kerry Packer never instructed his journalists on how to cover a political campaign such as the 1975 federal election campaign (p257). Packer is described as having an instinct for news, being genial, shrewd and fair (pages 268-270). The result was a workplace with high morale and high profitability (p270).
At the same time Carlton documents the downfall of the Fairfax empire starting with the strategic mistake made by newly-minted Harvard MBA graduate, 'young' Warwick Fairfax (p369) with the consequence of the Fairfax name disappearing in 2018 (p372).
One of the other consequences of the devolution of the Fairfax empire was the necessity to divest the Macquarie radio network to raise cash in order for the Fairfax organisation to repay loans made by 'young' Warwick's (p380) strategic mistake.
Changing entities, managements, staff reductions and wage reductions did not augur well for 2GB for the next decade (pages 381, 382, 386, 387, 389) resulting in falling ratings and 2GB "...falling over the cliff" with massive losses (p389) and likely loss of morale. That was until 1999 when John Singleton turned the station's fortunes around starting with 2GB incorporating more sporting coverage (p457).
In summary, "On Air" by Mike Carlton is a very entertaining book in which you will find hard to put down. It's readable and funny giving his account of his personal and professional life sprinkled with milestones of the events in public history with the events in Mike's personal and professional life. Refraining from Mike's personal friend and foeships, this discussion was pertinent to the media, particularly the ABC, 2GB, Rupert Murdoch, Kerry Packer. I'm sure Mike could have written more such as my recall of Mike's talkback choir in the late 1980s which was not included in his book.
There are many more aspects of the book not discussed here. I leave that to you. Mike Carlton's "On Air" is highly recommended reading.
Regards
Anthony of exciting Belfield