Another radio ranter
Posted September 20th, 2009 by debritz
"It was absolute entertainment and if anyone didn't like it they can go and get f---ed."
That's how Adelaide shock jock and complete charmer Bob Francis responded to South Australia's The Sunday Mail when they asked him about a tirade of abuse he directed on-air at an elderley woman. Francis is a serial offender in this regard, and an expert quoted by the paper says it's a matter of conflict creating good radio. Well, it's one thing to have a lively on-air stoush (as my old friend Peter Dick seems to enjoy) and another thing to call an elderly female listener a "dick brain", a "stupid bitch" and, somewhat curiously, a "wanker". The station, 5AA, says it's all part of Francis's act, and the night-time DJ himself says: "It's after nine o'clock and under the rules of radio you can do almost what you like." Really? I wonder if the ACMA will agree when it completes its Kyle Sandilands-driven review of radio standards. I also wonder what this all says about the way Australian society is heading.
PS: Francis, 71, holds 23.6 per cent of the night-time radio audience in Adelaide -- probably not a huge number of actual people but enough to mean that his bosses won't care about broadcasting standards, just about the money he's making them.
Perhaps a change of tack is required.Instead of penalising idiot boofheads like Sandilands,Francis and our mutual friend Mrs Morrow,perhaps we should be hitting the radio stations themselves.Maybe a total 24 hour off the air ban for any station breaching a mutually agreed code of conduct.Perhaps the only way we can really control these idiots is to let them feel the wrath of their (through no fault of their own ) off the air colleagues.
If we dont draw a line in the sand now,in 5 years time
what are we going to be hearing and watching ?
ps I'll always remember the advice of a good friend of mine many years ago.When I told him I was off on a long awaited 12 month trip around Australia,he told me Adelaide was good for either recovering after a serious heart attack or to embark on a career as a serial killer...Nuff said !
It seems to me that if anybody thinks abusing an old woman is "entertainment" then they're not a true entertainer. I worry about the people who listen, though. Maybe it's because people of a certain age who listen to 5AA don't have much choice. They're hardly going to switch to a music station that's aimed at teenagers.
...so they continue to listen with idiot indifference.