The King of News/Talk 2GB is still ruling the roost in the latest Sydney survey...

The King of News/Talk 2GB is still ruling the roost in the latest Sydney survey, number one overall and on top in breakfast where Ben Fordham has had a handy little 15.6 to put him clear of KIIS and Kyle and Jacki O. What is interesting this time around is that WSFM has come back into the spotlight and is battling it out with KIIS and SMOOTH for FM leadership. This looks like developing into a bit of a stoush over the rest of the year. Analysts are also extremely keen to see how things go for KIIS networking the Kyle and Jackie O Show into the Melbourne market. Initial results are less than exciting and the trade will be watching this interstate experiment through the rest of the year. Prevailing wisdom suggests that networking won't work in Australia: the cities are so different. And boy are the Sydney and Melbourne markets different!

We pay final tribute this month to another departed veteran of our industry, with Sam Anglesea leaving us, aged 80. I worked with "Big Sam" at 7HO, Hobart (just about every body actually worked at HO) before he headed across the Strait to Melbourne to ride 3UZ all the way up to number one. UZ was one of the most dominant stations in Australia in that era. Like many others, Sam kicked off his career in country radio but has all the bragging rights really because he started at 6KG, Kalgoorlie. Now that is deep out there into the country... Pretty much as deep as you can get.



One of my favourite moments of the year with a couple of old stagers getting together for a reunion coffee and a celebration of the OAM. There they are, Geoff Brown and Yours Truly, touching base after Browny made the long drive down from BAY FM, Nelson Bay (Yes, to answer your next question... He's still going strong in the business after plus-60 years of playing old 78s, 45s and episodes of When a Girl Marries, not to mention having to ride the sound level of the 2MG Studio panel in case a sudden burst of laughter/applause in the middle of "Pick a Box" blew the transmitter off air). We met in the mid-70s when we had to reprogramme 3MP in dramatic circumstances, in order to meet our original licence commitments (don't go there). There was a lot of juggling involved as we re-fashioned MP's "local content", charity and public announcements, emerging the best of buddies forever.

I am overwhelmed by Australia's performance at the Paris Olympics. I'd downgraded my expectations to twelve gold medals. Instead, we came up with a record 18 – a phenomenal return. The thing is Los Angeles in 4 years time is looking just as promising. Have a look just below the surface: we also emerged with nineteen silver and sixteen bronze, a clear indication that we're not looking at a few stars getting hot all at once, but rather strong across-the-board quality, settling in at the Olympic level for the long term. This is genuine depth. We've got some infrastructure going here. The downside of Paris '24 is again that we're too reliant on the women... We need a stronger showing from the blokes, especially in the water next time. And a bit of luck in finding a few more elite performers in track and field. Again, though there are signs of some depth developing there – even on the track area which Australia has found so difficult in recent Games. I'm also upbeat about a stronger showing in the team sports. We couldn't grab a break this year in hockey, basketball, soccer, football, water polo... We just needed a bit of luck in some of these to push our gold tally up to twenty. I'm telling ya... Things look good for LA and Brisbane. Just one last Olympic observation. In all the praise for Australia, did anybody notice that New Zealand finished with ten Gold Medals? NZ has a population of just over 5 million.

She's a funny old country this Australia, the land where we're all supposed to roll up our sleeves and help each other. Not much sign of that from the billion-dollar corporations who continue to wring ever last bit of cash out of the "average Joe". No point complaining anymore about the giant supermarkets: they just keep pushing up prices in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis. Even our Telstra bill keeps on going up every time. A little bit here, a little bit there. "Maybe we won't notice it". And it's not just the companies who are keeping their snout in the trough. The federal and state governments have actually turned it into an art form. Petrol excise is shameful... Petrol is supposed to be there to power cars, not to power the Government. And I don't drink beer but really! The latest increase has me wondering about the people who run our nation. What was once the age-old social practice of sitting down and having a beer with your mates has now become a luxury. Used to be a time when you could buy a beer out of the loose change in your pocket. Now if you want to shout your mates, bring your Visa card. Who is there these days who actually gives a damn about the average Aussie?

I continue my long search to try to find out how my Country managed to get itself hijacked by a consortium of bureaucratic/academic elite, mainly populating the cafe society of our inner cities. May I step aside and make way for Nick Cater of the Menzies Research Centre who recorded his observations in a commentary in The Australian a little while back, which may answer some of our queries. "Today our country is more divided, less proud, more pessimistic and more tribal... In 2007, 58% of Australians felt great pride in the Australian way of life and culture. This year it is 33%... This relentless, insidious, tiresome barrage of guilt and moral self-loathing has inevitably eaten away at our national self-confidence... We must remind new immigrants of the unwritten rule that obliges every migrant to leave historical grievances behind... And remind ourselves of our greater loyalty to Australia and its people, whose democratic beliefs we share, whose rights and liberties we respect, and whose laws we will uphold and obey". This remains the most devastatingly honest assessment of the Australian condition that I've got to read this year. But you know what they say in the classics, there's a silver lining there somewhere behind all those black clouds. And it turns out to be in "The Order", the magazine published by The Order of Australia Association, which features an exit-interview with Governor General David Hurley who has recently retired from the role. He tells the story how he and wife Linda went to Cloncurry and Julia Creek in 2019 just after the place had been hit by massive floods. "I was talking to some property managers and owners. I said, 'you have a lot of hard work ahead of you.' They replied, 'Governor General, we're not afraid of hard work, just give us a good season.' That comment has stayed with me for five years. It tells me so much about who we are as Australians... I have never heard such a concise explanation of who we are. We're not looking for short cuts or a hand out. We just want a level playing field, the chance to work hard and get ahead."

My compliments to Donut King for what may well be the most inventive t-shirt of the year. It reads "Save the Earth... It's the only planet with Donuts".

"WE'RE ALL AUSTRALIANS NOW" (1915)

Australia takes her pen in hand to write a line to you
To let you fellows understand how proud we are of you.
From shearing shed and cattle run, from Broome to Hobson's Bay,
Each native-born Australian son stands straighter up today.

Banjo Paterson wrote this poem in praise of all the people who worked so hard to convince the colonies to unite into one country – Australia.