Saturday, November 12, 2005

Hark, we hear a distant rumble

Molesworth and Featherston's Weekend Update has some interesting insights on Radio Lifeless, and CanWest (its owners) generally:


Radio Live is sputtering along without going anywhere. We predict shake-ups... CanWest's Brent Impey made the far-fetched claim it is the number one network because more people tune into its eight stations than any other. Yeah, the size of the bloc doesn't matter much though, and the number tuning in is only part of the deal - you also have to look at how long they listen, which in Canwest’s case isn't that long. This was a bad survey for CanWest.
M&F did well in prediciting the percentages won by each party in the last General Election, and have a reputation for usually getting it right. Commenters with some radio knowledge have already alluded to the importance of how long people listen - called TSL or Time Spent Listening in radio parlance. Perhaps the Mayor - or one of his remarkably well-informed supporters - would care to share his TSLs with Watchers? Just how many of the massive 2% audience switch across for a brief chortle at the on-air antics of Mad Mickey before switching back to their usual station?

Comments on this post are now closed.

42 comments:

Anonymous said...

I realise this is a new thread, however I wanted to ask, is Dot loosing the plot? Her column would suggest it, and her appearance out in public would suggest a extremely unhappy women. How's she getting along with her landlord, wasn't Ted a Laws-hater?

Anonymous said...

Re the TSL - I accidently exposed my budgie to toxic levels of Laws on air and it is now undergoing psychotherapy.

Anonymous said...

Me again - sorry about this but a PR agency in Wellington knows as much about radio as I know about trains in Mongolia. The last radio survey results on length of time a listener listens are important but you can't lump eight stations (talk and music) into one. The length of time people listen to Radio Live lets you know if people who do listen like it and you need those figures and then compare with other talk stations. Can I suggest LW that you get RL or NZB or RP o similar to give you those?
I might be able to get them from an old contact and if so, I;ll post them.

Anonymous said...

That NBR editorial is posted on
www.mayormichael.co.nz
It says Wanganui is undergoing a revolution but it reaches some very different conclusions to the losers that are here.

Anonymous said...

Tram handover at A & P Show today.
Deputy Dot and Cr Rangi doing the honours with the mayor and 2 MPs in the audience. What gives?
PS Does Ross M-A ever wash? Just curious.

Anonymous said...

Dot owns the Avenue you dork and she looked a million dollars today. Perhaps you're confusing her with Carol.

Anonymous said...

Stop nagging, anon. Here it is.

------------------

12 November 2005

National Business Review
Editorial: Friday, 11 November 2005

‘The rule of Laws’

A revolution is stirring in Wanganui. It is one that should be felt throughout local government .

Mayor Michael Laws, away from his public personae as celebrity TV show performer, radio talk host, newspaper columnist and all-round controversialist, is changing the way a city is run.

He has outlined his methods both the NBR in person and to this week’s Federated Farmers’ annual conference in Wellington. It is highly instructive and has led to major improvements, as the citizens of Wanganui already appreciate.

The message needs to be spread further as local government is, as Mr Laws correctly diagnoses, over managed, underperforming and too costly. Councils also have a growing number of functions, most of them necessary but some that are not.

Mr Laws has tackled the problems of Wanganui with gusto and has done it without increasing the rates (probably unique in the country) and by giving citizens a more direct say in major decisions.

The use of referenda is a major innovation. Citizens in Wanganui were earlier this year asked to rank the council’s top priorities. This immediately derailed lobbyists and interest groups with pet projects, such as costly extensions to an art gallery.

Another referendum next year will seek opinion on other issues, such as water treatment, fluoridation, a reduction in council members and the abolition of the ward system. Oh, and citizens will also decide whether Wanganui gets an ‘h’.

------------------------

Anonymous said...

Dot owns the lease on the Avenue, not the building itself, as far as I know. And yes, judging from her latest debacle, I'd say she is losing the plot.

The NBR editorial counts many eggs, none of which have yet hatched. It's pretty shoddy, a beat up for Mickey with little of substance to back up its wilder claims. We'll see how happy people really are come buy-election time. Not to mentioon the Splash Centre tick tock.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...
Tram handover


And the Diva provides further evidence of his OCD cleanliness fixation.

Anonymous said...

That's helpful of Michael to let us have the NBC "editorial" -- presumably he already had it on his hard drive and they ran it as he supplied it.

Anonymous said...

And the Diva provides further evidence of his OCD cleanliness fixation.

In the interests of accuracy, it should be pointed out that the mayoral disorder is not specifically an obsession with cleanliness. It is an obsession with faeces, particularly his own.

Laws Watch said...

anon @ 4.15 - that would be helpful if you could obtain the TSLs... we've tried, but Research International charges its subscribers (the stations) lots of money for such info and understandably doesn't release it publicly. And the stations seem to have a tactic agreement (or perhaps it's part of their agreement with RI) that they don't talk publicly about that level of detail. So if you can source it unofficially, please post.

Anonymous said...

LW - will do my best. It's the TSL data that is the most important to advertisers (and commercial radio stations) because it tells them how effective their ads are likely to be. As a rule, talk TSL is longer than music.

Anonymous said...

Ross M-A does need some soap and I'm no Diva supporter.

Anonymous said...

if you malcontents want to dis da divas radio waves why don't ye look at his low comments on radio about picking up foreign women hitch hikers...
he mentioned a current and a past tradgedy by names..

I was revolted he made some flippant capital, some frivolous audience titilation by such low comments.

it was on magnificent media lunch to, anyone git a transcrip?

maybee he could get a full time job in greater fame elsewhere and move on like GT ?

in fact the watchers should be talking up his ratings so the fat offer comes sooner...
3 mill for a
a permanant place on celeb cockroach island
we could put it on tic and take the interest out of rates.

Anonymous said...

Mickey's latest column in the SST is nothing but a re-hash of material that's been up on the council website for days. What's the matter Mickey: run out of things to say?

He even gives Carol a mention.

Anonymous said...

Yes he does but only to make fun of her for the entertainment of the rest of Enzed.

Anonymous said...

This posting below is a good example of why some people in Wangas need to travel, even if just down to the corner dairy ...

Mickey's latest column in the SST is nothing but a re-hash of material that's been up on the council website for days. What's the matter Mickey: run out of things to say?

He even gives Carol a mention.

7:14 AM, November 13, 2005

-----------------------

Yes, the 202,000 subscribers of the Sunday Star-Times (according to their latest circ figures) all read the council's website! Sheesh!

Anonymous said...

Could Carol sue? Laws has lined her up in the ST today and implied that she's mad. Its unfair she be held out for public ridicule like that.

Anonymous said...

This is just the latest manifestations of Laws' insecurity by slagging off people who go to council meetings, along with anyone else who might not agree with his methods. And he's even got Dotty trying to do the same and making a total fool of herself in the process.

Anonymous said...

I might be mistaken but I think Carol could sue if it was untrue. But hey, we all know it is true. Michael pretty much hits the nail on the head where Carol is concerned.

Anonymous said...

Michael projects his own demons onto Carol. I was her yesterday at the BFA - smiling & happy, and everyone wanted to talk to her. Unlike stand-offish aloof Mickey.

Anonymous said...

"Yes, the 202,000 subscribers of the Sunday Star-Times (according to their latest circ figures) all read the council's website!"

You missed my point; the editors of the SST pay for original material from Mickey, not a re-hash of something else.

Anonymous said...

We all know why Mickey doesn't like being recorded: it cuts down his opporunities for lying, and it brings back bad memories.

Anonymous said...

...I was her yesterday...

Isaw her yesterday - dyslexics untie

Anonymous said...

Isn't it lovely how Rangi is becoming Michael's favourite accessory, just like his handbag, really.

Anonymous said...

Whenever I've seen ML he's been amused by Carol webb - I've seen him give a wink to people in council meetings and then say something deliberately provocative. She's sport to him hence his embracing of her at the business awards. It was Carol's reaction that had people's eyes on stalks.

Anonymous said...

Rangi makes the council 7-5. The by-election result will have no effect so I don't think vision will put up a candidate. So far the only definites appear to be allan Anderson (no laws supporter) and john martin. Laws will want martin elected, and has been telling people so for months. Can't Jodie D be convinced?

Anonymous said...

Rangi Wills is the eighth member of the Vision team at Council but that should not be surprising because the Ratepayers Assn ran on exactly the same platforms and opposed the Sarjeant etc.

Anonymous said...

I see it quite differently. Carol Web is this mayors worst nightmare. She is strong, articulate and and is her own woman. Unlike Michael's girls who just do what they are told.
If things were happy at camp Vision they wouldn't find it necessary to attack people like Webb with such vigour, I think Vision are under pressure and this sort of behaviour makes them look bad.

Anonymous said...

Rangi might think differently if Vision loses the by-election.

Anonymous said...

Uncle Tom comparisons may be invidious, so perhaps we shouldn't go there

Anonymous said...

Got to disagree with anon 12.11pm. If you want to see some one used for sport, get a tape of last weeks game of two losers and watch as Holmes completely humiliates Mickey over his bad radio ratings. It was a good old fashion lesson for Mickey and he had absolutely no answer.

Anonymous said...

I agree, Laws will have to try and assert himself over the next few weeks on the programme otherwise he may find himself the whipping boy of the programme.

Anonymous said...

So you hate the mayor but still watch him on TV? That sounds like obsession to me. I caught that ep of OOTQ and the mayor did a good job so I guess that you exaggerate everything here too?
As for Carol Webb, I haven't heard the mayor talk about her or write about her since he labeled her & her fruity mates single issue nutters. Evidence au contraire?

Anonymous said...

Would sanity suggest that there is continual hope of our saviours downfall.....o dear, he may lose a radio hosting job...he'll only fall back on 5 other jobs!...boo hoo.

...oops Ive just realised that sanity doesnt suggest alot here at all so Im in the wrong place. Ok then...Im off to wash a friends hair (no, not who you are thinking you naugthy watchers..RMAs or MBLs, one wont allow it and the other will have done it 3 times himself today already :-)).

Anonymous said...

12.11pm Anon

So what was her reaction?

Anonymous said...

1.6 1.6 1.6 1.6 1.6 1.6 1.6 1.6 1.6 1.6 1.6

Anonymous said...

To Anon @ 1.47
You tell me I'm obsessed with Michael because I've watched him on tv. That makes Michael both obsessed and threatened with Webb if he has to write about her in his column

Anonymous said...

Michael Laws initial rating on Radio Live on the only national talk-show at that time:
New Zealand 2.3
Let's see how he goes April & Nov 2006 and if that rating increases on a new start-up talk show then he is going to be sweet.

Anonymous said...

To Anon @ 1.47
You tell me I'm obsessed with Michael because I've watched him on tv. That makes Michael both obsessed and threatened with Webb if he has to write about her in his column

2:22 PM, November 13, 2005

____________________________

There's a difference. He was writing in the ST today & giving an example of the weirdos on the fringe of local government.
You watch him despite hating him. You're obsessed and perhaps fellow obsessor and ex-shrink Jay Kuten could help you.

Anonymous said...

Your poor Mad Mayor does it again in the ST, Wanganui your not looking too hot from outside! You should make him take the 'Wanganui' email off the bottom of the column for a start.