Killer Bits: August 2004

	Sandy Darts to AudioNET®
	CRA Launches Alluring Advertising Award
	Nova Parents Fund New Melbourne FM Licence
	Banking on Regional Radio
	Your Bits - Studio News
	Our Bits - AudioNET® news

Sandy Darts to AudioNET®

Sandy Campbell is joining the AudioNET® team to manage our new Sydney office and provide personal support to our growing list of Sydney-based clients.

Managing Director Dave Cox says Sandy was the natural choice to represent AudioNET® in Sydney.

"Sandy has extensive industry experience and a thorough understanding of the unique needs of production studios and radio stations as well as agency requirements," Dave says.

"But the two main reasons we chose Sandy are her devotion to her clients and her enthusiasm for life. We believe she's a natural fit for our team and we're looking forward to having her on board."

Melbourne and Adelaide clients won't miss out - Sandy will be spending some time in Melbourne when she first joins AudioNET® - and will be making interstate trips from time to time, so if you'd like to catch up with her for coffee, give us a ring.

It's expected Sandy will start mid September.

CRA Launches Alluring Advertising Award

Commercial Radio Australia's new radio advisory committee has decided to launch a new national advertising award to encourage more radio work from creative agencies.

The new Siren Awards are named from the Sirens of Greek Mythology who lured sailors with their irresistible singing.

The format will be different from the former Golden Stylus Awards, with winners announced every two months and then an overall annual winner. The annual winner will be automatically entered into the Cannes Lions Radio Awards.

CRA's Creative Advisory Committee is also being renamed the Siren Creative Council, to tie in with the new awards and council members will be the first judges.

...website entry and promotion...

Entry for the Award is free and entrants will be encouraged from creative and advertising agencies with the initial Award presented for material that has aired between January 2004 and March 2005.

Inaugural judging will be undertaken by the Siren Creative Council and then the bi-monthly winner will judge the next entries. The winning advertisements will be accessible on a new website which, over time, will provide an archive of Award-winning radio advertisements.

CRA chief executive Joan Warner said the new Award was an inspiring idea and highlighted the positive work the Council could do to promote radio advertising. "The Council will also consider other ideas to help promote radio advertising including broadening the education and training programs already on offer for radio copywriters and establishing a library of creative excellence including some of the best radio ads from around the world."

The Council, established in June to advise the radio industry on advertising issues and to help devise strategies to increase the industry's share of the advertising market, includes key creative directors and radio executives. Members include Ralph van Dijk (Eardrum); Peter Withy (KWP! Adelaide); Mike Edmonds (Meerkats Perth); Craig Moore (Campaign Palace Sydney); John Mescall (Smart Melbourne); Steve Yolland (Magnum Opus); Jonathon Kneebone (Glue Society Sydney), Ben Lilley (SMART); Sean Cummins (Cummins & Partners Melbourne) Matt McGrath (Young & Rubican); Mark Dove (George Patterson Partners, Sydney); Simon Collins (JWT Sydney); Rem Bruijn (McCanns Brisbane) and Bradford Grisaffe (Audio Brien).

The website for the awards will be www.sirenawards.com.au.

Nova Parents Fund New Melbourne FM Licence

DMG Radio's parent company won the last of Australia's FM licences at an ABA auction in August, paying $52million for a Melbourne FM licence.

Acting ABA chair, Lyn Maddock said the ABA was very pleased with the result, given the reserve for the licence was $1m.

The Daily Mail Group has until September 21st to pay the full amount to the ABA, and must begin broadcasting within one year of the licence being allocated.

The auction result means DMG now has two licences in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide. Sydney and Melbourne already have strong Nova stations and there's speculation that DBM will focus on an older demographic for the new licences in those markets.

It's also planning to roll out new Nova stations in Adelaide and Brisbane this year.

In all DMG Radio now has a network of 63 radio stations since launching in Australia in 1996. Its first station was 5AA in Adelaide which runs a news-talk based format.

Banking on Regional Radio

As of September 1st, the RG Capital Radio group will be owned by Macquarie Bank.

RG Capital Radio shareholders voted in late August to accept a $3 per share offer from Regional Media, a wholly owned subsidiary of Macquarie Bank.

The largest shareholder was Reg Grundy with 56% of the issued shares.

The rest of the shares were held by staff and institutions.

Your Bits - Studio news

Kara from Good Audio Sense in Adelaide gave birth to baby son Jake, on July 18th. Mother and baby are doing well and Jake's already had his first visit to the GAS studios.

Brian Cadd was in GAS Adelaide recently recording with local vocalist Urszula Reszczynski-White for his new album due out later this year.

The staff at GAS have been keeping an eye on the TV in between sessions, to see if they can spot boss Nick Burton among the spectators at the Olympics in Athens. Apart from arriving in Athens with a stomach bug, Nick's reportedly been having the time of his life.

Rowland Productions has just finished work on a video game "Heroes of the Pacific" for That Game. The job included casting 89 American voices as well as all the music and sound effects. Two of the local voices cast included Gus Mercurio and Chris Kirby. They're now working on another game for Tantalus Now - both video games are for international release.

Another American based project at Rowlands included work on Masterfoods TV ads, for the US market. Rowlands' General Manager Paul Gildea says the great thing about the US work is that they have a greater appreciation for post-production and spend much more money than Australian clients.

Martyn Zub from Best FX has joined Imagination Digital Design in Adelaide to set up their in-house sound design studio. The new studio's equipped with Pro-Tools HD and is busy with work for interactive DVD board games as well as TV and radio commercials.

Sound Reservoir has received its Dolby licence and now has a steady stream of work through the Dolby Studio at Jones Bay Wharf.

Gusto Music's been busy with short and long form TV work. They're doing music for a TV Movie "Big Reef" destined for channel 9, they've just finished music for 40 episodes of an ABC Kids series called "Silver Sun" and they've worked on TVCs for Target, Latina Fresh and Red Energy.

Cameron and Brigid at Gusto Music have a new non-music production on the way. Baby Giles-Webb is due at the end of January.

Extra AudioNET® Services at No Cost! - KillerBits has reunited families across the world! KB received an e-mail from a woman in North Yorkshire asking whether the Justin Astbury mentioned in KillerBits was her nephew. Justin from Timms Tunes in Adelaide hadn't had contact with his aunt Diane for many years... but now they're keeping in touch.

Our Bits - AudioNET® news

New Download Function For Studios - AudioNET® now lets you download and play the spots you've sent, so you can hear EXACTLY what's been sent to the radio stations. Because AudioNET® doesn't process your ad in any way between you and the radio station, you know that what you're hearing is what they've received!

Quick Tip for Radio Station Search - If you're searching through our list of 350 radio stations and can't find what you're looking for - here's a nifty trick to save time. When you're on the radio station page or Send page, type 'Ctrl F' on a Windows PC or 'Apple F' on a MAC to activate the Search option. Type in some letters or numbers of the frequency of the radio station you're looking for and hey presto - if it's on the page, it will be highlighted for you. It's a great tool for those days when your eyes just won't work.

Remember the Holding Pen - If you upload spots to the Holding Pen while awaiting client confirmation or station lists that are likely to be coming in late in the day, or close to deadline, YOU CAN FINALISE DELIVERIES FROM ANY COMPUTER WITH INTERNET ACCESS. No more trips back to the office to dispatch a delivery. Just log on from home or wherever and finalise the delivery. Or we can do it for you, if you're not near a computer. Your clients will be impressed with your speedy service and you'll lose less leisure time.

Ring Ring - PLEASE REMEMBER WE HAVE A 1800 NUMBER - 1800 003 155. We know it's rare for a commercial delivery service to offer a free call service but we encourage you to use it because:

• It's monitored 24 hours a day 7 days a week.
• We can monitor this number from wherever we are. Dave wants to get back onto the golf course and Vaughan's taking up gliding - but we can still help you wherever we are. For that matter, if you remember to use the holding pen we can help you wherever YOU are too!

AudioNET® Thought For The Day

"There is less to fear from outside competition than from inside inefficiency, discourtesy and bad service." - anonymous.

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