Andrew McLaren takes over 3AW over-nights
Harry Heidelberg
Jock's Journal is reporting that Andrew McLaren is taking over from
Keith McGowan.
Andrew has the "luxury" of a producer, Mark Petkovic, who was his on-
air "partner" last year when he filled in.
I find this quite surprising, as when he retired from Magic's
breakfast he quoted the odd hours.
I imagine he is being paid "serious money" for his new job.
It's a great move for the actual listeners, who don't want to listen
to the same people who Keith repeatedly spoke to, as Andrew, last year
did the program very differently.
Whether you like McGowan's current radio program or not, which I
don't, you have to give him credit
for doing it for so long, and he did it as a one man operation, unlike
what Andrew is going to do.
Seagull
wrote:
> Whether you like McGowan's current radio program or not, which I
> don't, you have to give him credit for doing it for so long, and he did
> it as a one man operation, unlike what Andrew is going to do.
Hmmmm ... I've been quite generous to Keith regarding his previous
successful career at heaps of radio stations, in particular Bay City
Radio 3MP in 1975.
However, in a way his Overnighters program on 3AW has almost
demonstrated the Peter Principle to a tee. Everyone continues to rise
in their employment career until they reach the position in which
they'll never be promoted to something better.
And 3AW should be ashamed of itself. The only reason it left Keith
there was that he consistently won the ratings ... as simply anyone at
3AW would have ... and probably did work cheap. It's disgraceful that
they didn't give him a producer who may have pulled him into line.
> Jock's Journal is reporting that Andrew McLaren is taking over from Keith
> McGowan. Andrew has the "luxury" of a producer, Mark Petkovic, who
> was his on-air "partner" last year when he filled in.
A good decision I guess, although very safe. Andrew did a wonderful
job last year.
Rather than burn him out, I reckon 3AW should do what ABC Local Radio
does at 2:00 am. Give the shift to one guy four mornings a week, and
another guy for the other three.
Good luck to Andrew!!
BearCave
> A good decision I guess, although very safe. Andrew did a wonderful
> job last year.
It is a very safe pick. That's both the problem and the opportunity
for 3AW. I don't listen much to AW, apart from their highlights (the
drive shift and Sunday Mornings). I find most of AW to be too low on
the hard talk that attracts me to MTR instead. Yet the ratings
clearly indicate which of the two commercial stations is more in tune
with Melbourne's listening culture. It should never have been expected
that 3AW would change suddenly just because of changes in presenter.
Such change conservatives are 3AW that they sat on the opportunity to
switch frequencies for a decade!
> Rather than burn him out, I reckon 3AW should do what ABC Local Radio
> does at 2:00 am. Give the shift to one guy four mornings a week, and
> another guy for the other three.
Or you could just switch stations yourself. I've found the best
overnight listening is on the BBC World Service, which now has an
increasing global audience of 43 milliion people listening to its
English service, in spite on an understandable fall in overall
listening after big budget cuts:
http://www.rwonline.com/article/bbc-world-service-audience-drop/23895
If you tune in on weekend nights or weeknights between 12:30am and
3:00am (switching between the two different timed feeds on Melbourne's
1026 and 1179), you'll get some great programs, apart from their news
programs, like The Forum, The Bottom Line, One Planet, Americana,
Outlook, Business Daily, Hard Talk and the weekly Documentary series.
They even have talkback, in the form of the program titled World Have
Your Say (which airs too late in the night for me).
>
> Good luck to Andrew!!
I'm sure Andrew will do very well with 3AW's audience. He certainly
has the credentials. Yet he just happens to now be up against a
junior McLaren in 2GB and MTR's Michael McLaren:
http://www.2gb.com/index.php?option=com_homepage&id=54&Itemid=423
McLaren, who took over from Jim Ball, is either 5 or more years
younger than I am (I'm 35) , yet his grasp of the talkback line is
more mature and articulate than other 2GB presenters. His abililty to
manage different points of view is also much better than MTR's other
Sydney syndicated voices like Mike Williams (who gets very defensive
of his views) and Chris Smith (who may as well be speaking through a
rally megaphone). Yet he's still able to deliver the end result of
that conservative opinion that's obviously his job.
So there you go. Both McLarens, yet quite different program offers.
Perhaps the way it should be.
...From Justin
Seagull
Nice post Justin.
The Melbourne Observer did a huge comprehensive liftout on Keith's
retirement with heaps of radio people congratulating him for so many
years in the industry. It was truly a Who's Who of at least Melbourne
radio.
He obviously was somewhat unique at The Greater 3UZ, 2KA Katoomba, 6PR
Perth, 3DB, Bay City Radio 3MP and many others.
For memory, 21 years ago he switched doing the midnight to dawn shift
on lowly rating 3AK to 3AW. (If I'm not wrong, I think that legend
Hal Todd swapped with him from 3AW ... which probably thought he was a
bit of a loose cannon.)
And history repeated itself. If you're talk program is on 3AW it will
rate well. If you did it on 3AK (and others in the last 30 years) it
simply won't. The same ratings apply to Derryn Hinch.
In a way it's a dreadful shame that 3AW can command so much respect
from its listeners. But in my opinion it's better than us having
shock jocks like Sydney's 2GB and their current younger copycats on
2UE.
Good luck Keith ... but I think you stayed far too long.
Seagull
Yo!!
Isn't Andrew doing a wonderful job!
atec77
>
> Yo!!
>
> Isn't Andrew doing a wonderful job!
>
>
--
X-No-Archive: Yes
Airnews
I worked with Andrew when he was a music jock at 3MP, so I'd be
interested to get thoughts on him as a talk host.
Artie
www.airnews.com.au
On 26/07/2011 7:38 PM, Seagull wrote:
>
Seagull
> Tell us what you like about him?
>
> I worked with Andrew when he was a music jock at 3MP, so I'd be
> interested to get thoughts on him as a talk host.
Hmmmm ... He seems to have a reasonable knowledge of current affairs
and politics. He has a nice open style not readily being
confrontationalist to callers who he might disagree with. I expect
this is why 3MP/Magic gave him the brekky post at Magic 693 at the
time.
I have no complaints so far. He seems to be doing overnights at 3AW
pretty well.
But I think it's a short-term decision as he's already too old for
this regular graveyard shift. I think 3AW should have been more
imaginative ... but let's face it ... That would be the day!!
- Seagull