A straw poll of the people around our table and the tables around us concluded that as ACRAs go, this was a pretty good one. Fresh from his live radio stint filling in for Kyle Sandilands, Australian Idol and Take 40 presenter, Andrew Gunsberg (the artist formerly known as Andy G) seemed energised and eveready to repay CRA for the honour of being invited back for a second year as host with a fast paced and polished performance. But the honour of the best presentation in years went to Merrick and Rosso who masterminded a powerpoint and video display that had the audience in stitches and proved that you can poke good natured fun at the industry and your competitors without being offensive. The only bad word M&R had to say was aimed at the absent Sandilands. And who could blame them, given the torrent of abuse they’ve copped from Kyle lately?
The only really sour note was, once again, the discourtesy shown by such a large section of the crowd who despite Gunsberg’s most insistent admonishments refused to stop talking during the presentations and musical acts. It was the same the night before at the NA2R concert when young Sinead Burgess fought to be heard above the noise despite having a couple of thousand watts on her side.
That brings us to the conference. What was lacking? To summarise what many told us; some real substance that delegates could take away.
It started well enough with Harold Mitchell, not just because he showed us some useful graphs and projections, but because it was worth hearing an assurance from the nation’s biggest advertising buyer that he’s likely to keep investing his clients’ money in Radio while the future of TV and Press looks far less certain.
Then it was the turn of the keynote speaker Sir Michael Parkinson. Now, Parky is a great talent and a gentleman, universally admired by all in the room for his remarkable career in Television. But having spoken for an hour and showing a number of videos of himself with famous guests, a question came from the back as to what the venerable knight could tell us about his experience of Radio. Like Imran Khan last year, he’d listened to it quite a bit when he was young. When pressed he admits that he actually was on air in London for a stint following Mike Carlton when he was there (they’re good friends) Yet he chose to tell us precious little about that even though the sign on the podium made it clear that he was at a conference about Radio.
The feedback we got was that some of the presentations offered pedestrian advice and little new information, in light of the upper level of management that made up the majority of delegates. As one told us, “Here we are in the middle of the biggest upheaval the industry has seen since the introduction of television and we get a guy out here from Canada to make motherhood statements about programming and show us snapshots of radio 20 years ago. Where’s the guy with real insights into maintaining market share through brand loyalty over multi-media platforms where you don’t have the exclusive protection of a broadcast licence?”
Even the panel sessions drew complaints that panellists too often simply agreed with each other and seemed reluctant to divulge anything of value that could be of use to their competitors.
If the Commercial Radio Conference is losing its sparkle, whose fault is it?
It would be unfair to point the finger at the hard working folk at CRA who will, no doubt, be exasperated when they read this because they go to great lengths to elicit feedback from all who attend. But you know how it is. In a restaurant, even as you sit complaining about the food and service with your friends, and you’re interrupted by the manager who asks if everything’s alright, nine times out of ten you’ll all smile sheepishly and nod your approval.
It seems that the same type of disconnect is happening in regards to the Radio Conference. As a sign once often seen in small establishments used to say; If you liked the food and service, tell your friends. If not, tell the boss.
In this case the boss is Joan Warner. If you have a complaint and you don’t let her know, don’t blame her if the conference isn’t to your liking next year.
Place your complaints – better still, your ideas and suggestions here along with anything else you have to say about Radio’s special weekend in October. We promise you Joan will read them.
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