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December Radio News

Ian "Dicko" Dickson had an unofficial audition as an AM talk show jock on 2UE after co-hosting John Stanley's show for the past two nights.  Full story.

4BC producer Anthony Gerace is leaving the Brisbane talk station and has accepted a position as Content Director/breakfast presenter at ABC Mildura.

Joshua Withers has left Star FM Port Macquarie.  He co-hosted breakfast with Stacey Morgan.  He'll be filling in at Hot FM Mackay and Cairns.

ARN's Night Show, hosted by Andy Grace, has ended.  The program was heard on WSFM 101.7 in Sydney and GOLD 104.3 in Melbourne. Andy made the announcement on his Facebook page and he can now be currently heard as a fill-in jock on Classic Rock 95.3 in Sydney.

Keegan Buzza, Hot Tomato drive newsreader and third wheel on the Mal and Luke show, is leaving the Gold Coast.  He'll begin with 2UE in early January. The 2011 ACRA finalist for Best News Presenter says he's looking forward to a new challenge saying: "Hot Tomato will always hold a special place in my heart but I know the time is right to move on."

3AW went off air on Christmas Day from about 6pm.  A JJ  reader emailed: "I tuned in at 8.30pm to hear nothing.  Management claimed it was a transmitter problem. They returned to air at 2.20am.  Strangely Magic was not affected.  MTR, 2GB and 2CH all broadcast "hits and memories" for Christmas Day.  I tuned in at 8.30pm and I know the music continued to 6am on Monday.  2GB went to normal programming at 5am.  I wish MTR was like that on weekends."

Clint Drieberg reports: "As The Jono & Dano Show has now concluded I have left mcm media.  I am now taking myself on a month off before starting my next challenge ... moving to Melbourne and my new job as the Executive Producer for Gold 104.3's 'Brig and Lehmo' breakfast show."

Snowy Mountains 2XL Newsreader Aleisha Bell will be leaving the Capital Radio Network early in the new year, after accepting a position at Southern Cross Austereo?s Albury Hub.

Chris Parker will replace Tim McDermott as General Manager of 2UE.  McDermott  is joining dmg as General Manager of Sydney's 95.3 and Nova 969. Parker is currently Commercial Director at Telstra but he has previously held roles with Austereo and Macquarie Radio.

Ian "Dicko" Dickson is the hot tip to join Chrissie Swan as her new breakfast co-host on Mix FM. The pair were originally heard on breakfast onVega FM in 2008 with Dave O'Neil. Watercooler Talent who manage Swan and Dickson have stated that they "can neither confirm nor deny any rumours".

Melbourne's newest broadcast frequency, 1674 AM, has gone to air this week. 1674 AM will be "timeshared" between two operators, namely Melbourne Jewish Radio and Frankston based Surf FM. More details.

Ken Green has replaced Luke Holt on the Light FM Melbourne breakfast show. Ken was one half of the Southern Cross Media (Austereo) drive team of Dan and Ken. Luke is off to Juice FM on the Gold Coast. Ken will team up with Lucy and Dan will team up with ??

RadioWest and HOT FM in WA has had a few movements. Robert Morrison of the breakfast show 'HOT FM's Rob and Heidi' is taking a break from radio and finished up on the 16th December 2011. Tom Bell, panel op & casual announcer for FOX FM, is the new co-host of HOT FM's breakfast show, starting on the 23rd January 2012. He joins existing co-host Heidi Anderson. Katrina Tibbits has accepted the position of 'Tactic's Manager' and adds this to her 'Assistant Content Director' role. Brad 'Potts' Pottinger leaves RadioWest Network Days/ACD for 96FM in Perth. Chris Holland, ex CD Star FM Dubbo started on the 19th December, as RadioWest Network Days Announcer/Assistant Content Director and will be on-air 3rd January. Amin 'Nimsy' Azoor, ex 'Wake Up' RadioWest Esperance will move to the Bunbury Service Centre to tackle the Tactic's Assistant role and change camps to be the HOT FM afternoon announcer. RadioWest's sports program 'The Locker Room' finishes up on Saturday 24th December.

After more than 8 years as Program Director and an announcer at Juice 1073 on the Gold Coast, Callum Jones is moving and told JJ he is looking forward to "the next chapter in my life." He finishes up with Juice on Friday 23rd December.

3AW's Derryn Hinch has ended five months of court-imposed silence with a simple message: "Heee's back!'' The Herald-Sun reports: Just seconds after the gag ended at midnight, the Human Headline made his fearless voice heard once more. "Heee's back! New liver. New life. Same old #Hinch," the 3AW veteran host tweeted. Full story. On his first show he opened with: "It's great to be back here with a brand new website. Great to be back on 3AW. It is even better to be alive. Thanks to an organ donor and his family I have a new liver. And thanks to Bob Jones and his team I have a new life. Five months under house arrest. That's 153 days. That's more than 3,600 hours or actually more than 13 million seconds." Read and hear what he had to say on his first day back. More details. 

Keegan Bakker of 91.9 Star FM Bendigo has left to join Perth's 92.9.

Ian 'Molly' Meldrum, Australian music guru and a name known by everyone in the radio industry, is now off the critical list and reported to be in a stable condition. Update.

Marty Braley from The Marty & Jess Breakfast Show at Cairns 103.5 HOT FM has decided to part ways with the radio industry. He told JJ that he is going corporate with a marketing role at LendLease and is "counting down the days until he can grab a cheeky sleep in!"

Bruce Turnbull replaces Dave Smith as the new Senior Program Director for the Prime Radio Group in Queensland. Bruce has been working with Karina Bennett as the Breakfast Co-Host on Townsville's ZINC 100.7 for the past 2 years and is currently searching for his replacement before officially starting on January 3rd in Maroochydore. Bruce will be in control of the network, primarily looking after the ZINC Radio Brand, while overseeing Daniel (Doc) O'Carroll who's the PD of the two Youth Stations and Laurie Atlas, who'll be looking after the three Talk / Heritage stations.

2SM morning announcer John Laws says he's not concerrned about 2SM not being involved in the metro ratings. He told the Daily Telegraph: "Every day on air this year has been a highlight and I can't wait to be back on air in February to feed my addiction of talking to Australians. Not being in the Sydney ratings has been the best feeling of the lot, because I don't have to worry about the stupid system which I have never trusted, and I still don't. All I know is my switchboard is filled with listeners waiting to talk to me - that's my ratings system." Full story.

dmg Radio Australia Group Sales Director Jenny Parkes would be leaving the company after deciding against renewing her contract for 2012. Jenny leaves the company in late January to pursue new directions.

John Fabris is back on the radio and filling in for David Dalkin on Heart 107.3 Hobart.

MIX 101.1 Melbourne Content Director Owen Ryan is leaving on Januaruy 13. Owen told JJ: "I'm British and after 4 years at ARN which saw me working as 'Head of Creative Programming' for the Network as well as Acting Content Director of Mix 106.5 and my current role as Content Director of Mix 101.1 - my fiance and have decided to head back to the UK to get married and start a family. I'll be taking on my new role as Programme Director for Hallam FM and Magic AM in Sheffield as of February." Brendan Dangar, former Assistant Programme Director at Nova Brisbane moves to Melbourne to take over the role.

Paul Talbot, 2GB's aquarium fish and diving expert announcer was off the air on Sunday after a mysterious incident following the Macquarie Network station's Christmas party. He was not heard on the Sunday evening Talking Pets program which he co-hosts with Dan Mullins and Dr Katrina Warren. Full story.

Fairfax Radio has today appointed Southern Cross Austereo executive Adam Lang as Chief Executive Officer.  Lang is currently General Manager Sydney and National Director of Operations of Metropolitan Radio at Southern Cross Austereo.   Fairfax Radio also announced that current General Manager, Graham Mott, has decided to step back from day-to-day operations and will take a role as Programming Consultant.  Fairfax Radio Acting Executive Chairman, Michael Anderson, said: "Graham advised me that following recent health issues and the intense workload of running the prospective sale process, he would like to take a break from day-to-day operations.  Graham has been a guiding force in helping Fairfax Radio navigate a challenging environment over last four years and I'm pleased that his experience after 43 years in radio will continue to make a valuable contribution to the group".   Mr Lang is anticipated to start on March 1, 2012. More details. 

MIX 106.3 has announced their 2012 on-air line-up.  On the breakfast show, Biggzy will be joined by Rod Cuddihy with Joe Gleeson returning to his Drive-time slot after briefly pairing up with Biggzy towards the end of 2011 since Pete Curulli's departure to B105 in Brisbane. MIX 106.3 Content Director, Drew Chapman said when welcoming Rod to the MIX, "Rod is 37 years old, right in the MIX 106.3 target demographic, he has a wealth of radio experience to bring to MIX 106.3 and a pretty amazing track record." Rod & Biggzy will be followed across the day by long-time MIX 106.3 and Canberra radio personalities, Karina Rappel and Cam Sullings with Joe Gleeson wrapping up the day with the Home Run.

Chrissie Swan will be doing breakfast at MIX FM Melbourne in 2012. She will be leaving The Circle and will take over with new co-host Jamie Row (confirmed on his Twitter) from Brigitte Duclos and Anthony Lehmann, starting on air on February 6. Row is currently on Nova 969. In a swap-around Duclos and Lehmann will shift into the sister station Gold FM breakfast show, replacing Peter 'Grubby' Stubbs and Diane 'Dee Dee' Dunleavy. Swan currently hosts Mix's 3pm Pick Up show and we believe her new co-host will be Jamie Rowe.

AirCheck, the Leader in Broadcast Monitoring, have released the figures showing 'Animal' - Neon Trees in the top spot with 16,568 spins and 'Moves Like Jagger' from Maroon 5 featuring Christina Aguilera in second place with Airplay of 14,240 instances. (More details in January JJ.)

Don Thomas, manager for over 40 years at 2AD & FM 100.3 is retiring on 23 December. (Interview in new JJ.)

A close source has revealed that Steve Vizard will be finishing up at MTR 1377 on Friday. The only live shows from Melbourne on MTR will be breakfast and drive, everything else will come out of Sydney. Most of the newsroom staff who were made redundant have already moved on to new jobs. Anthony Laughton, Melissa Polimeni, Allison Wallace and Matt Thompson have been hired by SEN, who will now provide their own news service. Ashleigh Brown had already quit and is starting at 3AW in January. No word on the future moves of Christie Kerr or Ben Radisich.

In January 2012 Rob Duckworth will take over drive on Sydney's WS FM and Gavin Miller will take on drive in Melbourne on Gold FM. (Correction)

Dave Carter is leaving mcm media after a second 7-year stint and has decided to pursue some new challenges. He'll be moving on to Crocmedia to become their Program Director. (Crocmedia is a content and news business, making radio, TV and online product, based out of South Yarra in Melbourne.)

Final 2011 Nielsen Radio Ratings (Metro) are out. Despite a drop of 2.8% 3AW remained No 1 station in Melbourne. 2GB continued their reign as No 1 Sydney station. The Brisbane market is now a tight race but it was 97.3 who finished the final survey as No 1 station (11.7) just ahead of Nova (11.4), B105 (11.3) and Triple M (11.1). MIX 102.3 were gain No 1 station in Adelaide with MIX 94.5 in Perth assured of another No 1.  Full details.

 Ian Blackley will host the 96fm Perth Breakfast Show in 2012. Ian returns to his original radio home at 96fm from Mix 94.5 where he has been one of the most listened to personalities over the last decade. At 96fm, Ian will be joined by Brad "Fitzi" Fitzgerald and Carmen Braidwood. General Manager Martin Boylen said "Being a Perth focused station, we have the unique opportunity to source more local talent rather than relying on syndicated shows from Sydney or Melbourne. We were looking for someone who was down-to-earth, in touch with Perth listeners and also someone who is a passionate music lover. In Ian we found all three". Darren de Mello will return as host of a new local Drive show in 2012.

MTR 1377 has made its Melbourne news team redundant.  All bulletins are now outsourced from Sydney. MTR's news will now be streamed from 2GB, with no on-the-ground reporters in Melbourne. Pacific Star and Macquarie Radio each own 50 per cent of the station, which reported a loss of more than $6 million in the year to June.

Nova 106.9 Brisbane has announced that Kip Wightman will return to co-host the breakfast show in 2012. Kip Wightman was one of the original Nova 106.9 breakfast team when the station launched in April 2005.  He rejoins original Nova breakfast announcers, and long term friends, Ash Bradnam and David 'Luttsy' Lutteral. The Nova breakfast 'bromance' will now include fellow breakfast host Camilla Severi, ex-B105 who joined the Nova team in the latter half of 2011. 

Kim O'Loughlin, general manager at 4CA/Zinc FM Cairns has left the station. 

ABC radio host Richard Glover has wrapped up the world's longest ever radio or TV interview with Peter FitzSimons. Glover had been interviewing journalist and author Peter FitzSimons since 10am (AEDT) on Sunday and the duo finished the marathon chat 24 hours later at 10am on Monday. Full story.

Philip Cottrell, a Radio New Zealand journalist has died after being brutally attacked in Wellington on his way home from work. Police upgraded the investigation to a homicide after the 43-year-old man died in Wellington Hospital from injuries received when attacked on Saturday. Full story.

The plan to replace Grubby and Dee Dee on Gold FM with "confrontational radio" was purportedly hatched as long ago as February - reports the Herald-Sun. Full story.

Southern Cross Austereo Landed Music host Bec Dent is leaving and is heading back to Cairns.  On Facebook she announced: "To all the friends I have made in Canberra - I love you and will miss you - to my friends and adopted families in Cairns."For more radio news from our recent archives click: Jocks' Journal image below.

100% of students graduating from both AFTRS Radio award courses for 2011 have landed jobs in the broadcasting industry, ahead of graduation day on December 9. The students will return to Sydney from radio stations across NSW, Victoria, Queensland and the NT to attend the ceremony and receive their awards, with a keynote address from Federal Minister for the Arts, Simon Crean. One of the first to get a job was Nick Karkazis, who started as morning presenter at Darwin?s Hot100 in  October, after completing his studies at AFTRS. The Australian Film, Television and Radio School is Australia's national screen arts and broadcast school delivering full and part time courses to develop and enhance broadcasting skills. AFTRS Radio graduates are renowned for emerging from their studies 'industry ready'.

ABC Local Content Manager Jocelyn Nettlefold has announced that Garry Bailey will be the new Drive presenter for ABC Northern Tasmania. After 10 years as editor of the Mercury and Sunday Tasmanian he will join ABC Local Radio in February.

Erica Davis has been announced as the new presenter for Sydney's Hope 103.2 Mornings for 2012 replacing Katrina Roe who recently gave birth to daughter Molly. Erica is a presenter on Channel Seven's Sydney Weekender and is looking forward to working for Hope from late January 2012.

Anthony Toohey - the "Becks" half of MIX106.5 FM's Ants and Becks - who has been off air for two month, won't return this year. It's understood the 30-year-old co-host of the prime drive show has suffered a breakdown and been ordered to rest and recover by his doctors, and management of the station's owner ARN.  More details.

702 ABC Sydney has announced their Morning and Evening presenters for 2012.  Linda Mottram will present the Morning program and Dominic Knight will present the NSW/ACT Evening program for 2012. Dominic is a founding member of The Chaser, has blogged for The Sydney Morning Herald, is a satirical comedy writer and an author. Linda has presented the ABC's flagship program AM, worked as Radio Australia's Canberra correspondent and worked in ABC News online.

97.3 Brisbane morning announcer Jo Henderson is taking a break.  She told JJ: "A change of pace for me, slowing down and going part time. Long walks on the beach with my spoilt dogs and lots of catch ups with "the girls".  However it's likely that you'll be hearing her back on the airwaves in the new year at one of Brisbane's FM stations in a casual capacity.

Derryn Hinch will complete his five month home detention in December.  He is due to return to drive on 3AW on December 21.

The Age reports:  The fortunes of Radio Sport National (formerly Sport 927) in Melbourne appear to be going from bad to worse after financial figures from the past five years revealed the station has achieved losses believed to be close to $20 million. Full story.

Ben Price confirms: "Well it's official, I'm no longer on Gold 104.3 as the Grubby & Dee Dee Breakfast Show finished after 12 years. Well done to them on such a great effort! I was proud to be a part of it for 10 years and had some good timesI'm excited about the next chapter. I've had a great time, but the best is yet to come!"

Andrew 'Dunks' Dunkerley has returned from a brief stint in the UK and is now on Mix 106.3 in Canberra.

ABC managing director Mark Scott says parts of Australia Network and Radio Australia will be merged along the lines of the BBC, a day after control and funding of the overseas television service was handed permanently to the public broadcaster. Full story.

Ray Gamble, one of the founders of radio 2RG in Griffith, passed away over the weekend at the age of 83.  From the small station in Griffith, Ray Gamble expanded his radio empire until he owned stations that stretched from the North of Queensland down through New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania and even included stations in South and Western Australia. He was also one of the founding directors of Hardie Grant Publishing. Ray Gamble's funeral will be held at Griffith's St Albans Cathedral at 11am tomorrow (Wednesday). More details.

612 ABC Brisbane has announced its line up for 2012. Former night announcer Steve Austin will be the new host for mornings, Kelly Higgins-Devine will host afternoons, Tim Cox will host drive and Rebecca Levingston will host evenings.

Aaron Stevens, formerly of ABC Capricornia in North Queensland will be hosting a magazine and lifestyle morning show across 7AD/7BU/7SD, with a key focus on northern Tasmania. Aaron's 20 year career started at 3GG in Victoria and includes stints at stations in his home state of Queensland including 4MK and 4BC.

Miss Vicki, longtime producer and on air presenter at Gold FM Melbourne has also left the station.

NOVA 969 have announced their Summer Breakfast lineup. Christo & Katie are now filling in for Fitzy & Wippa. Summer Drive - Smallzy (begins Monday Dec 12th) and NOVA's Fresh Hits with Gawndy (began Monday Dec 5th). Rachael Finch will join Gawndy to host NOVA's Fresh Hits for one week from Monday at 7pm & following that Timomatic will co host with Gawndy, also for a week. Ben Wood & Carmela Contarino will be helming their regular shifts.

Gary Osman is the new General manager at 4LM Mt Isa.

John Sheed has resigned from Sunshine FM on the Sunshine Coast. His last morning program will be on Friday December 9.  He says: "I feel that after more than 50 years in the media it is time to take a loooooong break."

Grubby (Peter Stubbs) and Dee Dee (Diane Dunleavy) have exited ARN station Gold FM this morning (December 2) after 12 years with the station.  They have worked together as a team for 25 years.  Priot to joining Gold they were at Fox FM but left in April 1999. The pair were told the news at a meeting this when they came off air. One rumour floating about is that Tracy Bartram is being considered as a replacement.

Jon Blake is leaving Adelaide talk station FIVEaa and joining rival station Triple M.  He will not start at Triple M until the beginning of March, due to his FIVEaa contract's "no competition" clause. Blake was with FIVEaa for 14 years.  More details.

Paul Hussey, on air presenter and recently elected Board member of SWR FM 99.9 in Sydney's greater west, has passed away after suffering a heart attack on air during the Drive shift late on Monday November 28. Paul had been on air at SWR since April 2010.

Mike Dean has been appointed to the position of RCS Aust Support. He will work alongside Jarrett Prior in servicing and supporting the company's Sel/GS/MC/NG and Zetta clients. Mike has worked in radio in England and Australia for over 5 years. He is currently working at 2LM/ZZZ FM in Lismore as Image Producer and on-air doing drive.  He replaces Chris Broad.

News Radio will be heard later this year on the old 4SS freqency, AM 828. Full story.

Simon Greally, Southern Cross Austereo Senior Producer of the Kyle & Jackie O show has resigned after 5 years with the network and 3 years with the breakfast show. He says: "It's been an absolute pleasure to work with every single one of you. From March I'll be making the big move to London. Please make sure you all stay in touch on my new email - simongreally@gmail.com  "

Ed Kavalee has announced he has decided to leave Nova 100 to focus on television and film projects in the new year.  Ed has anchored the Hughesy & Kate breakfast show since January 2009 after joining the Nova Network in 2008 on the Drive show.  Ed said, "I have really enjoyed my time with Nova but the time has come for me to pursue my dreams of adapting Steven Segal's movies for the stage; starting with Half Past Dead 2: On Ice."

Emma Bruer is the new Nova 969 Breakfast Newsreader for 2012.  Currently reading Drive news for Melbourne and Adelaide Emma returns home to Sydney after 4 years away with Nova 100, Mix 101.1  and Sky News.

Hobart Radio Survey Scrapped.  Hobart radio stations are angry that a long-awaited listener survey has been scrapped the day before its release. Media research company Nielsen's survey began on September 18 and ended on November 19, measuring the radio listening habits of 1200 Hobart residents. The results of the survey were to be released on December 1 but yesterday Nielsen told participating stations that the data collected was not suitable for publication. "When we got the data back and processed it, we found the sample wasn't as representative of Hobart as we would like," Nielsen managing director Peter Cornelius said. "There was a skew towards the 55-plus age demographic and an under-representation in the under-39 demographic, and our recommendation was to not release the data." The survey is expected to be redone from scratch early next year, but local stations were unimpressed, having invested in advertising campaigns during the survey period. "Someone here described it as being like a tied grand final," said Sea FM/Heart 107 general manager Damon Wise. (The Mercury)

"Hughesy & Kate So Far" celebrates Nova 100's breakfast team's last 10 years, re-living the entertaining, topical, sometimes deeply personal and strange moments the duo have shared with listeners from 6am on Monday 5 December.     The week long special celebrates the show's regular and topical guests, moments listeners have nominated as their favourites and Hughesy & Kate's best bits since their breakfast show started 10 years ago on Nova 100 in 2001. More details.

LightDigital, Melbourne's new Digital Christian radio station launched on December 1. A number of Melbourne's pastors, teachers and speakers gathered for the launch of LightDigital; Melbourne's Digital Christian radio station.  The station launched at exactly 8:10am, with a spectacular sound and light show. LightDigital will be the home to Australia's best Christian music and overseas artists and will also feature the best of Australian and international Christian teaching.  More details at www.lightdigital.com.au 

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