Friday 24 April 2009

John McKenzie's recording

I've finally popped onto the CairnsBlog file server, two rather telling portions of John McKenzie's radio show yesterday, for your delight.

You can listen to John, in full stereophonic quality, over your morning weeties.

I love this bit....

  • "May I make this point to Kevin [Byrne,former Mayor] and anyone else, had the Council, which is a sizable advertiser, Councils always advertise, they have to get the message out. They have a budget for getting the message out. It goes to commercial operators, and I suppose it goes to the ABC, I don't know what the arrangement is there. It goes to television stations, to newspapers, and radio stations. There's nothing new about that."

    "We have and have always had, in the 25 years I have been here, had a commercial relationship, and very sizable relationship with the Council. We're not a charity and neither is the Cairns Post, and neither is the television stations. So when Kevin says we never paid, I can assure Kevin that had the Council of the day decided to move all it's advertising spend across to another commercial radio station, we would not have continued to extend the gesture on a [weekly] arrangement for the Mayor."

Priceless.

The fact is John, when a Councillor or the Mayor is talking on your radio station, they are not 'advertising', as you incessantly insist. They are publicly-elected representatives of the community. They are not running a Tupperware store, trying to flog off the latest range of burp-free self seals.

NB: Download the MP3's here for you Pod, or simply play directly on your puter. Please, these are not to be played in earshot of children under 15 years of age, otherwise they will need to undergo speech therapy lessons with Wendy Richardson.

Part 1

Part 2

8 comments:

AO, ex-journo said...

Well done Mike, and that is exactly the understanding of the Licensing Agreement that McKenzie and 4CA have breached...their OBLIGATION to the community, not to their own commercial interests.

No Balls on our Mayoress said...

Sadly, our lame excuse for a mayor couldn't summon the courage to "call" McKenzie on this fact when given the opportunity. She dodged and weaved like a slightly more feminine version of Muhammad Ali. Instead of landing a knockout blow, pointing out to McKenzie that the airwaves are owned by the public, and he had an obligation to the community, she folded faster than a cheap tent.

Sad, really.

Dutchie said...

Any regular listener of Macca knows that he will always have the last word. Therefore, there's no point in engaging in arguments. And he's a bad and vindictive loser too.

Oshiz Macleod said...

I laughed when I heard McKenzie say time and time again that "it's the advertising department" responsible for the kerfuffle. I too am quite sure that the reports about his arrangement with Prime Radio are completely accurate. As such, he's totally responsible for the "charge" that has been laid on council for his "public service".

He's clearly running for his life like the rodent he is.

KitchenSlut said...

Dutchie said...
Any regular listener of Macca knows that he will always have the last word. Therefore, there's no point in engaging in arguments. And he's a bad and vindictive loser too.

Dutchie, i'm confused? Why are you a regular listener of Macca as seemingly admitted?

Quickie said...

MacKenzie buys 4 hours "air-time" per day from Radio AM 846 Easy Listening at $150 per hour.
To earn a modest living of $50 per 8 hour day he needs to generate income of $250/hour.
If he doesn't charge for air-time, he would need to constantly interrupt Val with commercial breaks.
So it's a commercial deal, simple as that.
KB generated and attracted a commercially viable audience though his engaging personality and witty charm.
There was no need to pay Radio AM 846 Easy Listening.
There is no conspiracy.

Constance Lloyd said...

So Quickie………


Based on your calculations 52 weeks of Val for 1 hour would be 52 x $250 = $13,000.

So it’s either been a furphy with the $20-26K discussion or he is NOT earning what you quaintly term a “modest income” but something a little more than modest?


I almost puked when I read your comment that:

“KB generated and attracted a commercially viable audience though his engaging personality and witty charm”

Well from what I have read recently her on this blog, the image springs to mind of the French Revolution, and the entertainment value as people were led to Madame Guillotine. That too could be classed as a “commercially viable audience” and I am sure the operator of the guillotine was full of “engaging personality and witty charm”

Stop making excuses for McKenzie and his practices – or are your actually John McKenzie himself, (some insider knowledge is apparent in your posting), but shifting blame on to the other KB crony Dennis Quick?

Johno, City said...

Hahhah Quickie... loved the bit "engaging personality and witty charm"