2004-05-02

I am a big news nerd. Let me tell you the ways…

I am a huge radio fan. This love goes back twenty years, to when I would take my transistor radio (it was my most prized possession) into the backyard and dance around to American Top 40 on Sunday afternoons. The local station was 2RE. For years, I made my own mix tapes, sitting obsessively by the radio, ready to press play. I clearly remember my excitement when I ‘captured’ Paul Young’s “Love of the Common People” onto a cassette.

Through my wonderful (and now deceased, due to a teenage car tragedy where three girls in our year were killed) friend Tamra, I was introduced to cool music and the local community radio station. Through my high school years, especially after Tamra was killed, I spent all my spare time at the radio station. Even back then I was not interested in being in normal social sets, talking about boys and competing with clothes and hairstyles. I was not interested, much, in impressing the boys. I liked to talk about cricket, tiny details about pop music and read encyclopedias. So the nerd world of community radio was a great alternative! After awhile, I was doing all kinds of programs: Australian Music Show, Drivetime, the Saturday arvo show Slippery When Wet and would even get so desperate to play obscure tunes that I would do midnight to dawn shifts. They didn’t even NEED humans to do that shift! Usually it was a 6 CD stacker set to random. But sometimes I would relieve the 6 CD stacker, giving it a night off. And during most shows, I would have to set the link up to the news that came ‘down the wire’. So I learnt some pretty good radio panelling techniques. I believe they don’t use those panels any more, most of it driven by computer.

Those experiences established my love affair with the radio medium. For as long as I can remember, I have slept with the radio on. In my teens, my stepfather banned me from doing so, despite the protests of me and my mother that the power usage was minimal. But his argument remained, that I was using power. His true motivation was ego and power - perhaps where I learnt that wielding one’s ego to overpower another is pointless and looks kind of stupid. I always thought he was so stupid.

My current preferred radio habits include”

Adam and Will on Triple J breakfast. Very fucken funny, and informative. Informative does not have to equal staid and dry.

Daytime radio sees me flicking to local radio in the form of ABC 1233. I find it good for keeping up with what the local community is up to.

In the later afternoon, I have to listen to the sharp political satire of Today Today. Smart stuff.

Evenings, after 7pm its back to local ABC with James O’Loughlin. I love him and his easy way with callers, his playful, enquiring mind and of course, Norman the Quiz is a highlight.

On the weekend, there are deviations from this timetable as some of those shows do not exist on the weekend. News Radio is a favourite on weekend, arse to arse with news. Radio shows from overseas stations, detailed local news from all over the country, great arts reporting and Kel Richard’s Wordwatch. I freaking love it.

The weekend also sees the rise of local station 2KO, with Jukebox Saturday night making evening cruising SO cool.

Listening to the radio means I find out about big news items really quickly. What is a ‘big news item’ you ask? Things like September 11 are the motherlode for news nerd. I remember how S11 unfolded for me.

I had woken up quite early and flicked on the good old AM radio. I couldn’t get a handle on exactly what happened, but the bits I heard made me say “Something big is going down”. I went downstairs to the TV, and all was revealed.

That day, I had to work on the festival at the Octapod. I walked in and my friend Marcus (fellow news nerd) was already there. No words were exchanged, just the look that said “Fuck! What a news story eh?” I spent much of the day gobbling bandwidth, checking out US news sites and trawling for people’s photographs of the event which were popping up all over the internet.

The internet is a great tool for a news nerd. You can read about a news story from the source. For instance, you can read the newspaper from the country where big news events have occurred. Big US newsmeans I head on over to abcnews.com (I can’t bring myself to depend on CNN, though ABC America is probably no better). BBC Online is good too. Non-western sources are great as well.

There is a current news item that is quite confounding. There has been a huge explosion in North Korea. A fuck off huge explosion, caught on impressive satellite photos, no doubt causing some serious devastation. But this event has occurred in North Korea, one of the most closed, secretive countries in the world. As such, details are sketchy and often conflicting.

Originally I had heard that the explosion was due to a collision between two trains, one filled with gas, the other with petrol. That’s enough to cause a big KABOOM! Thousands dead, was the only statistic.

This morning, the information has developed. It now seems there were train carriages full of dynamite being shunted together, the electrical wiring above has been involved, igniting all the dynamite. They say 2,000 buildings have been destroyed. But details are still only hearsay, rather than from the horses mouth. For the first day, the North Korean officials did not acknowledge the disaster at all.

I am fascinated by this and almost impressed by the North Koreans ability to avoid the media game. I am sure this attitude is supplemented by a lack of care for the human casualties, and a disregard for the survivors. It is only because of the presence of satellite technology and the Red Cross that the outside world knows of it at all. In a world where globalism is almost total, its interesting to see a country refuse to play the game. I do, however, wish they were left wing non-conformists, rather than a right wing, dictatorial regime that is savage to its citizens.