15 July 2008

It's Official - Parton boned from 106 by co-host and GM

| BigBarry44
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Bumped into a reliable source last night. our thoughts on previous posts are true

I heard that Mark Parton had the knife put in by his own co-host Lisa and the GM twisted it.

This is nothing short of a disgrace. Bye Bye 106. Our thoughts are with you Mark.

When are radio stations going to start doing what’s right for their listeners?

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Kitchen Man said :

No The Jas, Zanzibar was not me. Although I’ve often read the Riot Act, this is the first time I’ve ever commented.

There are a lot of ‘experts’ in here who know all about what’s wrong with commercial radio but they seem to be commenting from their personal perspective rather than a big picture view. If we turned a station over to them, I wonder how long they could continue to turn a profit.

I guess the other thing is this. Don’t be thinking that because I worked at Mix for 10 years that I embrace everything that they do. My son worked at Dominoes for 2 years….he can’t eat pizza now. It’s just a job man ! It’s what I did to earn a quid for 10 years.
quote]

THE MAN SPEAKS!!!

So my friend, it this true??? Did they push you out and buy your silence??? Helluva way to end ten years on air, just have the rug pulled out from underneath you.

I do not claim to be any kind of expert but I KNOW that the people up there could run their business in a far more honest and ethical way than they currently are. And they certainly could assume a higher level of intelligence from their audience instead of expecting people to endure the second-rate drivel they’re being subjected to at present.

But you get what you pay for don’t you dude.

hey Johnboy, now that mark’s not working, maybe he could work for the RA? maybe in advertising? just a thought.

Kitchen Man said :

No The Jas, Zanzibar was not me. Although I’ve often read the Riot Act, this is the first time I’ve ever commented.

I agree that there are some problems with the way that commercial FM radio goes about it’s business. Having said that, I’d be fascinated to see if given the task of running a commercial FM station obviously for profit, exactly what you would come up with. The problem is Jas, if your station isn’t ‘mainstream’ well it probably won’t have a large enough slice of ratings to turn a profit. And if that happens regularly, they’ll sack you and get somebody else to do it.

There are a lot of ‘experts’ in here who know all about what’s wrong with commercial radio but they seem to be commenting from their personal perspective rather than a big picture view. If we turned a station over to them, I wonder how long they could continue to turn a profit.

I guess the other thing is this. Don’t be thinking that because I worked at Mix for 10 years that I embrace everything that they do. My son worked at Dominoes for 2 years….he can’t eat pizza now. It’s just a job man ! It’s what I did to earn a quid for 10 years.

Hey and Jas, I’ve never really considered pilates…..I must check it out and have a go and right after that I’ll have serious words with my parents for giving me such a knobby name.

Well,

I hope that you can contribute to the other threads as well, it would be interesting to get a new perspective about the topics, especially with your breadth of experience with the canberra community over the years.

good luck in your future endeavors.

No The Jas, Zanzibar was not me. Although I’ve often read the Riot Act, this is the first time I’ve ever commented.

I agree that there are some problems with the way that commercial FM radio goes about it’s business. Having said that, I’d be fascinated to see if given the task of running a commercial FM station obviously for profit, exactly what you would come up with. The problem is Jas, if your station isn’t ‘mainstream’ well it probably won’t have a large enough slice of ratings to turn a profit. And if that happens regularly, they’ll sack you and get somebody else to do it.

There are a lot of ‘experts’ in here who know all about what’s wrong with commercial radio but they seem to be commenting from their personal perspective rather than a big picture view. If we turned a station over to them, I wonder how long they could continue to turn a profit.

I guess the other thing is this. Don’t be thinking that because I worked at Mix for 10 years that I embrace everything that they do. My son worked at Dominoes for 2 years….he can’t eat pizza now. It’s just a job man ! It’s what I did to earn a quid for 10 years.

Hey and Jas, I’ve never really considered pilates…..I must check it out and have a go and right after that I’ll have serious words with my parents for giving me such a knobby name.

My facts right? Anyone who knows anything could tell that that was an obvious generalisation on the whole genre of music that is played on 106 (and 104 also)which I prefer to refer to as “totally shite love ballads and nickleback”. You could insert many lame bands/artist reference in there just as relevant to the generalisation such as our man Loinel Richie as done above.

Here is a fact for you, commercial radio stations suck, not just 106, but this is what the topic is about. I listen to music to listen to music, not some jerk off crapping on about how congested the traffic is on Northbourne Ave. Even Triple J is no good anymore and it doesn’t have ads so I stick to CD’s all the time in the car.

Unfortunately the girls in the main office at work do listen to it so I can’t escape too well, luckily I have my own office and silence is golden at all times in there.

Your not Parton himself are you Zanzibar?

Both the commercial FM stations have suffered greatly when they were taken over under one Management, Austereo. They sahre a building for goodness sake there’s very little autonomy or creativity in that. When i first moved here in ’90 104.7 and 106.3 or KIX as it was known were two failry good, but different stations but to be honest I tire of both fairly easily now. I would question if Canberra has the advertising support base to have a third commerical player in the market here. The long and the short of this whole thing is Lisa went to the boss cause she got sick of Mark taking the p#ss out of her all the time on air. She got what she wanted!!!

zanzibar01 said :

It’s like anything different or new. People spend huge amounts of time whinging about programs, and how bad they may be. Why don’t you just switch it off and move on. And it concerns me that most of you are probably posting these comments at work on your bosses time.

I think you’ll find I am whinging about the distinct decline in quality from the commercial FM stations in Canberra over the years due to tight-arsed directors/general managers/boards who do not support the creativity of the people on air.

And don’t worry about my bosses time mate! She’s taking the company car to a long lunch today.

Good morning,

It’s always nice to read posts from people who obvisouly have no idea about what the’re talking about. You lose all credibility.

The Jas – I listen to 106 regularly, and I don’t think I have ever heard them play Human Nature or Michael Bolton. Well, not in the last 12 months anyway. Get your facts right.

It’s like anything different or new. People spend huge amounts of time whinging about programs, and how bad they may be. Why don’t you just switch it off and move on. And it concerns me that most of you are probably posting these comments at work on your bosses time.

Have said it before and will say it again: When I first moved to the ACT in 2000 I liked 106, until every third song was Lionel Ritchie singing “Say you say me….”. As for Mark and Lisa, Lisa sounds like she is half asleep most of the time. That could be a mic desk issue though. On 104.7 poor old Knuckles is always at a lesser volume than Scotty and Nige also.

I’m glad I only listen to CD’s in the car and not lovesong dedications or whatever crap they play on 106 these days. I mean Mark Parton….. the name itself makes him sound like a knob, Maaaaark Paaarton. His name sounds like he should be a male pilates instructor, which in all respects would suit someone who hosts on a lame ass station like 106 that mainly plays Michael Boltons best hits and the latest Human Nature single 10 ten times a day.

One less Moron on the airwaves 🙂

Duke said :

“I’d be curious as to wether or not anyone could put a price on that.”

They have put a price on that, and it’s low, very low. People work in radio to exercise ego and/or they do it as a part-time job to pick up a few extra bucks. Few Canberrans are making a decent living out of it unless, as you say, they are in corporate.

Knowing this, corporate is likely unwilling to sink too much time, cash and loyalty into
revolving-door talent.

I think you’re probably right there Duke, but I think there is a minority who work in radio that don’t wish to excercise ego at all, some have a real passion for entertaining people, making them laugh and putting something back into the community.

Surely corporate aren’t blind my friend, incentives to stay would be all it takes to kill off this revolving-door culture. I know that there is music to entertain on the radio too but without a decent talking head you’re not going to keep your listeners through to the next ad break, and as a consequence your sponsors wont get heard (probably what is happening on 106 during breakfast right now).

“I’d be curious as to wether or not anyone could put a price on that.”

They have put a price on that, and it’s low, very low. People work in radio to exercise ego and/or they do it as a part-time job to pick up a few extra bucks. Few Canberrans are making a decent living out of it unless, as you say, they are in corporate.

Nurturing talent is a nice idea but a pipe dream nonetheless. Most producers arrive fresh out of UC, work the breakfast shift for six months, then move on to the ABC or some quality broadcaster – commercial radio is simply an in-between, an apprenticeship.

Knowing this, corporate is likely unwilling to sink too much time, cash and loyalty into
revolving-door talent.

Growling Ferret said :

I thought Mark Parton did a far better job MC’ing at Manuka than Robbo does at the Raiders….

And he didn’t feel the need to start up any chants to create atmosphere

Personally, I’d prefer option (c): no one.

Duke said :

The problem of crap radio in Canberra is not as simple as many here are suggesting.

The reality is that like many other businessess and organisations, radio stations have only a small pool of talent to choose from here in Canberra.

I beg to differ.

There is a great pool of talent here in Canberra, it’s just that the talent isn’t nurtured and so has to move on. That’s because the businesses are run by suits not DJ’s and let’s face it we probably wouldn’t want it to be entirely run by DJ’s because it would become all about them (a bit of balance would be nice though). Nurturing talent over increasing advertising revenue is not condusive to the bottom-line.

There have been some great media personalities who have established themselves in Canberra and gone onto bigger and better things, and that isn’t limited to the radio industry.

The radio industry isn’t as sustainable as it once was. The metro markets are stitched up by stand-up comics, former reality TV contestants and multi-media personalitites as opposed to people who have just made radio their career path. Canberra used to be a breeding ground for talent in the radio industry, maybe it’s due to a drop in standards, and management cutting corners, as to why that perception has changed.

How much is a bit of intelligent conversation in the morning and maybe a few laughs in the morning worth to us? I’d be curious as to wether or not anyone could put a price on that.

The problem of crap radio in Canberra is not as simple as many here are suggesting.

The reality is that like many other businessess and organisations, radio stations have only a small pool of talent to choose from here in Canberra.

If the presenters/producers are really any good they move to Sydney or Melbourne and earn better money, enjoy more prestige – the rest stay here or work in country radio.

As for music, well no station i’ve ever listened to got that quite right.

AngryHenry said :

Canberra is a Capital City, the Capital City of the entire country actually, and we, in our day to day lives have to swallow the second-rate, budget entertainment that the people who run these stations are forcing us to swallow. Yes we can, and do switch off. Stop treating us like a small country town with just an AM station to answer for. Put some money back into the creative people and entertainers in your industry instead of the greasy suits and interstate consultants that you seem to think know what is best for us, despite never living here, and give us some quality local entertainment.

Your idea of what’s best for us lowers the self-esteem of our fair city.

Canberra FM has always been the biggest radio outlet around the ACT, you should be raising the bar, leading by example, instead you take the cheap option. We all know cutbacks when we see them!!!

You can blame the ABA (now ACMA) for the poor state of radio in this city. When the ABA did their licence area plan they decided that two commercial FM stattions and two commercial AM stations were sufficient for a city of 350,000.

Compare this market with Christchurch, a city of nearly identical size (344,000). Christchurch has 14 commercial radio stations, 10 community radio stations and 3 national public radio stations. The formats for commercial radio are two Top 40/Contemporary Hit stations, one Hot Adult Contemporary station, one Classic Hits (80s,90s) station, one Adult Contemporary station, two Rock stations (one modern rock, one classic rock), two Oldies (50s,60s,70s) stations, two News/Talk stations, two Sports stations and one playing 100% New Zealand music (from 60s to 00s). Although there is a lot of networking and all the commercial stations are owned by two companies, the radio listener in Christchurch has a lot more choice than in Canberra.

I love my ipod.

I think that Mark and Lisa while seemingly united on air had a fair bit of trouble getting on. Mark was quite rude and erogatory to her at times and I’d say she just had a gutful. I was interested to hear that Cam from 104.7 is ‘on trial’ over there though. he had a good gig with the other half of the station wonder what is the go there?

Growling Ferret1:20 pm 15 Jul 08

Primal

I thought Mark Parton did a far better job MC’ing at Manuka than Robbo does at the Raiders….

And he didn’t feel the need to start up any chants to create atmosphere

Please tell me he won’t be MC-ing the next AFL game at Manuka either…

And what did this source reveal? Other than it’s official!?!?!?

Or does the BigBarry44 stamp of approval make it so?

And Aurelius, as long as they are doing right by their clients who pay for the ads and the money keeps rolling in they don’t care.

I think whilst people are using this thread to voice their opinion on radio stations we’re all missing the point.

Canberra is a Capital City, the Capital City of the entire country actually, and we, in our day to day lives have to swallow the second-rate, budget entertainment that the people who run these stations are forcing us to swallow. Yes we can, and do switch off. Stop treating us like a small country town with just an AM station to answer for. Put some money back into the creative people and entertainers in your industry instead of the greasy suits and interstate consultants that you seem to think know what is best for us, despite never living here, and give us some quality local entertainment.

Your idea of what’s best for us lowers the self-esteem of our fair city.

Canberra FM has always been the biggest radio outlet around the ACT, you should be raising the bar, leading by example, instead you take the cheap option. We all know cutbacks when we see them!!!

But what is the issue that gave Lisa cause to complain about Mark in the fist place?

When are radio stations going to start doing what’s right for their listeners?

What?
Like stop broadcasting??

Didn’t mind Mark but he was a cranky quiz host. Lisa is a waste of space on the dial.

I believe that their two listners have already commented Big Barry and neither of them seem to care.

106 sits on my balls list right after ABN.

I also freaked out and did a Vincent van Gogh one morning after hearing Lisa’s voice. I still pull the chix though.

Hear, hear, Blamemonkey.

Mark and Lisa made me want to gouge out my eardrums every time I heard them anyway. DIAF, both of them.

Mark Parton is an ACC and Today tonight wanna be, he was an idiot on the radio I am glad he is gone.

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