Off The Record: Adelaide TV network news in cold war over cheeky Channel 9 promo
Adelaide’s two major TV networks are embroiled in a cold war with one of them rolling out a provocative ad promo that has infuriated the other.
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In the latest edition of Off the Record; behind the scenes of a TV news fight, Treasurer Rob Lucas’s footy comeback (of sorts), a bizarre food fight number plate, a renowned Adelaide conservative backs Joe Biden, and Labor and Liberal powerbrokers come together over lunch.
TV news sniping
HOSTILITIES are not quite at the level of the hilarious Anchorman movie fight scene but a Nine News Adelaide TV promo has infuriated rivals at Seven, by cheekily implying their bulletin is no longer made in Adelaide.
“They’ve switched to Melbourne, so why would you switch to them?” the promo rhetorically asks, as it shows images of Ten News’ 5pm and Seven’s 4pm weekday bulletins.
Both are now read from Melbourne. Crucially though, Seven’s main 6pm bulletin is presented in Adelaide by the renowned Jane Doyle.
The Nine promo goes on to boast that it is live and local on weeknights at 5pm and 6pm, before imploring viewers to “support the news made in Adelaide, for Adelaide.”
We hear people at Seven are pointing out their locally made bulletin has been the industry leader for a decade. For example, it had Monday night ratings of 110,000 viewers to Nine’s 60,000.
They also are accusing Nine of poor taste by trying to capitalise on job cuts in the media industry during a severe recession.
At Nine, though, we understand they believe their network has been polite to Seven for years and still come second – that’s clearly changed. Nine has made some ground - Sunday night’s ratings were 106,000 viewers to Nine and 99,000 to Seven.
They reckon Nine is the only station with two locally produced evening bulletins, despite also struggling through some job cuts during the coronavirus-induced recession like many other industries.
Adelaide’s other commercial TV bulletin, Ten, appears to be stacking its daily headline news segments with SA stories, even though Jennifer Keyte is reading them from Melbourne
Seven Adelaide news director Chris Salter, Nine counterpart Jeremy Pudney and Ten executive editor Adelaide Fiona Clark – all former Advertiser journalists – declined to comment.
Of course, at South Australia’s biggest newsroom – The Advertiser, Sunday Mail and Messenger – we produce numerous digital and paper editions every day for the state’s biggest audience.
Treasurer’s footy comeback
LET’S just hope, for the sake of the South Australian economy, that Treasurer Rob Lucas presents a recession Budget with the skill he applies to footy tipping.
We can reveal that Lucas won both the Parliament House and Legislative Council tipping contests this season.
Perhaps it was the unexpected success of his beloved St Kilda – his passion for the Victorian club was inherited from his father.
But the email from the Parliament House tipping administrator gives a clue: “Rob Lucas has come from the clouds and stolen victory with two amazing final rounds, including playing a Joker in R18 and scoring wins in all games for a total of 19.”
A typical Treasurer, Lucas is nervous about the collection of outstanding revenue – tipping competition entry fees for his prize kitty that haven’t been paid yet. He’s worried that now political rivals know he’s the winner they won’t pay up.
Fruity language
OUT in the eastern suburbs, John Kapiris, the owner of St Bernards Fruit and Veg, has been fighting the good fight against the multinational Aldi supermarket group. Kapiris has posted various clips on YouTube railing against Aldi and sells T-shirts on Facebook that are also none too complimentary.
But his latest venture has been thwarted by the ever cautious mandarins at the Department for Infrastructure and Transport. Kapiris has had his application for a set of new number plates rejected.
The plates in question were to read “FKALDI’’. Off the Record assumes the FK is some kind of abbreviation and probably doesn’t stand for free kick, friendly karma or feeling kind. Whatever it stands for the Transport Department wasn’t too happy.
“Please be advised that your application has been declined on the basis that it may offend some members of the community and is not considered to be an appropriate message to be displayed on a vehicle,’’ the department wrote in a letter to Kaparis.
A none-too-happy Kapiris posted the letter on his Facebook page, with some additional words added, some of which started with the letter F and at least one that started with a W.
Up is down
What is the world coming to? Well-known Liberal identity and businessman about town Ian Smith is urging his American friends to vote for their traditional enemies on the left in the looming US election. Smith, who worked for the notoriously non-left wing Victorian premier Jeff Kennett, tweeted this week: “Please America, for your sake and indeed the sake of the world, please do not re-elect @realDonaldTrump #PresidentialDebate #CountryOverParty’’.
Please America, for your sake and indeed the sake of the world, please do not re-elect @realDonaldTrump. #PresidentialDebate #CountryOverParty
— Ian R Smith (@ianrsmith65) September 30, 2020
Lying down with the Lambs
IN these ever-more polarised political times it is encouraging to see that Labor and Liberal can still unite for a common cause. In this case – lamb and wine.
Last weekend Labor Senator Don Farrell and former Liberal senator Sean Edwards came together at the Watervale Hotel for the inaugural Clare Valley Festival of the Lamb. And some festival it was. A five-course degustation menu in which lamb featured in four selections.
The food was paired with wine from Farrell Wines and Edwards’ Kirrihill Wines.
It wasn’t just the lamb that was being roasted. Farrell and Edwards displayed best parliamentary traditions by roasting each other as well.
Farrell told the crowd that he “was going to go by Comcar but when I found out I couldn’t bring my family I decided to drive myself’’. A reference to the time Edwards landed in trouble for incorrectly using the taxpayer-funded cars to transport his family who were in Canberra for his maiden speech.
Edwards, a former Liberal state president, returned fire, telling the assembled that when he first met Farrell “ I wasn’t sure if his name was Don or that was his job description’’. Farrell has long been referred to as The Godfather in political and media circles for his power within Labor.
