This LP was released by our national broadcaster in 1987 to celebrate 25 years of television and 60 years of radio. It was marketed by that old reliable, K-Tel, on foot of a vigorous advertising campaign. The premise is pretty straightforward – one side devoted to television, the other to radio. In both instances selections of themes are played with panaché by The RTÉ Concert Orchestra.

The 15 minute suite of television themes serves up a feast of nostalgic thrills for anyone aged over 30 who grew up on a diet of one/two channel television. Most of the memorable ones are present. For the children we have Wanderly Wagon and Bosco while the Wesley Burrowes triptych that is The Riordans/Bracken/Glenroe is present and correct.

Sports fans will be delighted with the theme to that Saturday afternoon staple Sports Stadium (1:40pm – after The Wonderful World Of Disney/Daktari/The Invisible Man – take your pick) and the evergreen stomper that is James Last’s Jägerlatein a.k.a. The Sunday Game.

Current affairs are represented with News and Newstime, Today Tonight and 7 Days. The first two are reasonably groovy. Hats off to the orchestra for their stirring rendition of To Whom It Concerns – theme for the world’s longest-running chat show, The Late Late Show.

Here’s the first part of “Television Themes Down The Years”.

A competent cover of the Dallas theme tune follows. For those of us who grew up in Ireland during the 1980s, Dallas on a Saturday night was a ritual. Usually watched after a bath while drying one’s hair by the open fire.

Side 1 concludes with The American Connection – a medley of three classic cop/private eye shows. Hill Street Blues is reprised towards the climax.

The flipside is a different story and is likely to be of more interest to those of more advanced years. It’s all about the radio. Music On The Move is nicely funky and is taken from the Chappell library. Other melodic choices include Living With Lynch and the Irish Hospitals Trust while Hospital Requests‘ use of a Gershwin melody is oddly sentimental. My favourite remains Tico’s Tune which soundtracked The Gay Byrne Show for all those years.

Two traditional compositions conclude the LP – dramatic and expertly honed versions of An Chuilfhionn and The Raggle Taggle Gypsy (made famous by Planxty).

Full tracklist

Side 1
01 Television Themes Down The Years
(a) 7 Days (b) The Palatine’s Daughter – The Riordans
(c) Here Comes The Wagon – Wanderly Wagon (d) Today Tonight
(e) To Whom It Concerns – The Late Late Show
(f) Eireodh Mé Amárach – Glenroe (g) Strumpet City (h) Bracken
(i) Thrilling Spectacle – Sports Stadium (j) Murphy’s Micro Quiz-M
(k) Tolka Row (l) Bosco (m) Mart And Market
(n) Classical Action – News And Newstime (o) The Shadows
(p) Jägerlatein – The Sunday Game
02 Dallas
03 The American Connection
(a) Hill Street Blues (b) Magnum P.I. (c) The Rockford Files

Side 2
04 Radio Themes Down The Years
(a) O’Donnell Abú (b) O’Donnell Abú
(c) Fish And Sticks – Music On The Move
(d) The Wibbly Wobby Walk – The Town Hall Tonight
(e) A Fair Day – The Kennedys Of Castleross
(f) The Old Turf Fire – Round The Fire
(g) Someone To Watch Over Me – Hospital Requests
(h) Perpetuum Mobile – Question Time (i) Le Jet d’Eau – The Foley Family
(j) The School Around The Corner (k) Three Little Words – Living With Lynch
(l) When You Wish Upon A Star – Irish Hospitals Trust
(m) Tico’s Tune – The Gay Byrne Show
05 An Chúilfhionn – Nordring ’78
06 The Raggle Taggle Gypsy – Nordring ’78

In an ideal world the original versions of all these themes would have been compiled with extensive sleevenotes in some sort of fancy box set. However this highly enjoyable interpretation from the RTÉ Concert Orchestra is probably as much as you’ll ever get.

I’ll leave you with the second part of “Television Themes Down The Years”.

(by nlgbbbblth)

This is such an easy gratitude post to write – I am absolutely, totally overwhelmed by the amount of love, kindness and wonderful goodwill that has poured from beloved friends and supporters over the TT interview that aired last night highlighting Early Onset Parky here in Australia and those of us who deal with it.

There is no way I can possibly express my gratitude properly on this point. I never expected the incredible generosity that people have shown to me regarding something that I live with everyday and quite honestly don’t think about much of the time – simply because if I did, I would spend my whole time boo-hooing and saying ‘why me’. I need to stress that the whole reason I did the interview was not out of any sense of ‘please put my spasming head on the TV’, but because the general perception of Parky is that nobody my age gets it – and that needs to change. Now.

So to all those who watched the interview, and have since given to Parky research – my eternal and abiding gratitude. To those who have said such wonderful things to me through texts, Facebook, Twitter and messages – such huge thanks. I am so grateful to all of you for your immense support.

To my hero, Mike Fox, for speaking out in the first place, and making me realise that the only way forward with this crappy, crappy disease is to make people aware of how insidious and frustrating it is to live with it – but for emphasising that we do live with it, not feel like we are dying from it – such grateful thanks. If I ever got to shake (ha,ha) hands with you – dude, what a day that would be.

I am grateful to Laura Sparkes, the reporter from Today Tonight who could have made this a really sappy report and instead gave myself, Sacha and Clyde dignity and the voice that we wanted people to hear. Annette H – you are a wonderful support, as is Miss Whilemina, and Jodi and Amanda are also truly committed and gifted individuals who are passionate about getting the profile of E Onset Parky raised in Australia – and a cure found.

My most personal and humble gratitude? To the War Dog, our families, and my wonderful, funny, flippant, sarcastic, silly, non-judgemental and incredibly supportive friends who have been there for all or part of the ongoing journey.

To my fellow Parky and Dysto peeps – especially of course my wonderful birthday girl Rog and my beautiful Bailey – the journey is craptacular and long, but we have each other. The circle widens and strengthens every day.

I would not be on that screen, nor would I be coping as I am, without you in my life.

Gratitude as deep as the ocean to you.

Chloe Maxwell talks about her son Max, who has autism, on Today Tonight. She has written a book about her family’s experiences, named “Living With Max”. See the interview here:

http://au.news.yahoo.com/today-tonight/latest/article/-/13569569/chloe-maxwell-talks-autism/

So we get some hearsay from a female National Parks worker who has non-specific symptoms, has been bitten by lots of ticks, and therefore it has to be Lyme Disease.  Proof positive!.  And a gentleman who’s suffering lots of excruciating pain, has never been out of the country (gosh he doesn’t even have a passport) has been to lots of doctors and finally two of them have diagnosed Lyme Disease.  If that doesn’t convince then nothing will!

Maybe one is expected to switch off during these programs reaching a state of surfeited satiation in the stupidity index and not illuminating one’s little critical analysis neurons.  But even the most disconnected, prior to becoming cross and indignant at those ‘bloody denialist, bloody public servants – something needs to be done about them – bloody ratbags, etc, etc!’ must surely ask the most basic of questions: ‘OK, show me some evidence’.

But nothing, zilch, nada – not even one of the confirmatory doctors saying that they’d done this test, and that test and the evidence suggests that the patient had symptoms consistent with a Lyme type disease.  The male patient wasn’t even asked if he had ever been bitten by a tick (or ticks)!  Now I know that it doesn’t provide a definitive answer (he might not know that he was bitten), but they could have asked!

So here are a few factoids

Lyme Disease (aka Lyme Borreliosis) is a disease caused by at least three bacterial species Borrelia burgdorferi (in the USA) and B. afzeli and B.garinii (European cases).  It’s a common tick borne disease in the Northern hemisphere, generally carried by the Ixoides spps (the hard ticks).  Ticks can also transmit other parasites that cause Babesiosis and Human Granulocytic Anaplasmosis

Symptoms (early) fever, headache, fatigue, depression and erythrema migrans (a characteristic circular skin rash).  If untreated later symptoms may involve joints, heart, central nervous system.  Diagnosis is by way of symptoms, tick bite history and serological blood tests.  Apparently accurate diagnosis can be difficult.

In most cases (especially if treated early) infection is cured by antibiotics.  Treatment delay can lead to a more serious and difficult to treat disease.

The presence of Lyme Disease (or a Lyme Like Disease) in Australia has been controversial but recent evidence suggests that it may very well be present here.  A recent paper by PJ Mayne entitled ‘Emerging incidence of Lyme borreliosis, babeosis, bartonellosis and granulolcytic erlichiosis in Australia’ (International Journal of General Medicine 2011: 4, 845-852) forms the following conclusion:  ‘The study identified a much larger tick-borne disease (TBD) burden within the Australian community than hitherto reported.  In particular, the first cases of endemic human Babesia and Bartonella disease in Australia with coexisting Borrelia infection are described, thus defining current hidden and unrecognized components of TBD and demonstrating local acquisition in patients who have never been abroad.’

So there we go!  Now for some hypothesising.  Do we have ticks in Australia? – Yes.  Are ticks globally known to transmit diseases when they bite other animals? – Yes.  Is it likely then that Australian ticks (forgive the insult to the Oz ticks) are also likely to be bloodsucking little parasite transferrers? – Yes.  Is it a reasonable proposition then to assume that the Oz tick is just as likely to transmit parasitic disease as does its transcontinental cousins?  Given the FACTUAL evidence, and not a load of histrionic garbage, I’d suggest the answer is (with a high degree of probability), YES.

It took around and hour or so to dig around and get the relevant information related to Lyme Disease.  It would have been much more illuminating and informative to the general public if the people at Channel 7’s ‘Sunday Night’ and ‘Today Tonight’ had taken the trouble to do the same – and presented a well research piece of reporting rather than just another scare-mongering stunt.

And that’s my Rant for today!

Related articles

• Lyme Disease Symptoms In Humans (mademan.com)

http://au.news.yahoo.com/today-tonight/consumer/article/-/12742541/struggling-landlord-s-hell/

Warner a future captain? I Have been out of it for a while!

I often get asked, in jest, how it is that I know specific pieces of info about sporting results, events or personalities, if I’m taking 12 months off sport.

How can I not know?!

Living in Melbourne, Australia, one of the sporting capitals of the world, means that if you have eyes or ears and are ever around people or a computer, you’re going to be ‘in the know’ to some degree about the sporting landscape.

It’s impossible to escape.

But I think I know why.

Michael Clarke after a recent century. (Haters - shhhhhh)

Never completely off the grid

It can come as a surprise to some that I know how Australia went in the cricket recently and that Ponting is hanging by a thread, my opinion over Clarke is being validated and that somehow, there is talk of Warner as a future captain?!

(The Warner story + Leon Davis making the AFL All Australian team have been the two most surprising news stories for me in these 7 months. In a related story, Davis looks like being teamless next year, so the world is making an effort to right itself, which I appreciate.)

I know that Warnie is back playing and that Liz Hurley is with him. Wow. So sad I missed that. I’m made aware of who wins tennis and golf tournaments, that Hawthorn has high hopes for next season (who doesn’t?!), that Man City is going gang busters in the EPL and that we are having an NBA basketball season after a lockout over a pay dispute, saving me from writing the most scathing piece ever.

Why??

I get online every day to take in the news. It’s a tradition I started while living in Shanghai 6 years ago. (Yes friends, it was that long ago.) Take a look at this screen dump of The Age from a few days ago and you can get a bit of a picture as to why I can’t completely escape from the world of sport…

The Age, December 19

This is actually a pretty light day for sports news. Normally in the middle column there’d be at least one sports-related story.

And another -

The Age, December 11

So, I know the cricket scores, talk over Jeff Kennett and Kieran Jack, and a story on Ponting didn’t fit in. There’s also debate over the Hurley-Warne saga (I’m giving them 2 years, tops), the Melbourne Victory-Heart rivalry / Christmas hat story which we covered recently and Ian Poulter made a 67 to win the Australian Masters.

See that daily and you can pretty well hold your own in most sports conversations that arise. I’ve chosen not to ignore or walk away from these types of topics. That would be taking things a bit far!

A ‘fascination’

It just goes to show what a fascination this city and this country has with sport.

And to be honest, that was going to be the ‘meat and potatoes’ of today’s piece.

Until I took at the other stories on offer that day.

Scroll back up if you like and take a look. Here is what else is on offer in the headlines –

• An Australian stabbed in Bali
• Porn threats at the air traffic centre
• Downsizing at Myer
• The sinking of a boat carrying 200 asylum seekers
• A horrible assault where someone was burned
• An incredibly irresponsible father drink driving

And, if that all wasn’t bad enough –

• Snake bites and spider infiltrations (my wife’s going to hate reading that last one…)

Hang on, Punter...

No wonder

It’s no wonder that so many choose to immerse ourselves in a world light on for meaningful drama or meaning when the real world throws this at us.

I mean, how much shocking and scary news can we take? I actually had to change radio stations last week during a 5pm news broadcast as they shared horrible specifics of an assault on a baby. 5pm. I don’t have to tell you what I’d rather talk about with my mates that night if I was given the choice of that assault or whether Ponting should stay or go.

The media absolutely has a case to answer for in this. What they choose to highlight or ignore and how they can sensationalise stories that need a bit of ‘oomph’ is disgusting. I was so glad that Today Tonight got ab-so-lutely canned in an article recently. (Or click on this link and pick one of the ‘Today Tonight is getting sued’ articles.) Just trash. Will anyone be able to line up the Herald Sun in a similar manner? Doubt it. We’ll move on – media coverage is a topic that can have its own blog series.

We as consumers also have our own case to answer. It’s the ‘chicken or the egg’ rationale. We buy it because the media sells it. The media sells it because we buy it. The biggest selling edition of the Herald Sun ever was the day that the Wayne Carey saga broke.

In the absence of a greater spread

It would be wonderful if a greater spread of world news, stories of substance and good news stories could be at the forefront of our news intake. In the absence of that, I think it’s completely understandable as to why people either switch off or shift their focus elsewhere.

Sport is a safe haven of common ground for so many of us. For men in particular, it is a connecting glue. It provides high anticipation, huge events, epic contests and unforgettable performances. We can debate and argue without fear of political incorrectness or offending someone. And we can come together as allies or adversaries, depending on the contest.

That’s why I don’t walk away when the topic arises.

This time 14 years ago I received my HSC result and UAI.

I was devastated. My UAI was 80.10, more than 15 points below the minimum entry requirement to study journalism at Charles Sturt University. Despite the endless television news work experience I had done during high school, community radio and newspaper work, I was turned away from CSU.

But for the past 14 years, I have been working as a television journalist, and now read a national television news bulletin. 

My point, is that there are many paths to the career of your dreams.

I always knew I wanted to be a journalist.

In 1993, I worked at a community newspaper in Port Kembla called “The ConneXion” after school.

A few years later, I contributed to a current affairs program on community radio station 2VoxFM interviewing local politicians about issues impacting Wollongong.

I also knew I needed a print portfolio, I so wrote numerous ‘Letters to the Editor’ which were published in various local and state newspapers.

But television was where I wanted to be.

In year 11, I wrote to and called every television station in Wollongong and Sydney to let me do work experience.

They said no.

Three months later, I called and wrote to them again.

They said no, mainly because I wasn’t doing it as part of a school or university program.

I tried for a third time, and once again they said no.

So I wrote to numerous journalists around the country asking for their advice, journalists like Chris Bath, Paul Barry, Ray Martin, Kim Watkins, Mike Munro, Sandra Sully, Joanna Rouse, Tara Brown even Bert Newtown, just to name a few. I just wanted to know how they got into the business. I told them about all the community work I was doing and wanted their advice. To their credit, every single one of the journalists I wrote to, replied (To this day I still have their letters, many of them handwritten).

Many of them said the Bachelor of Journalism course at CSU Bathurst was the way to go. So I booked myself an appointment with an advisor at the university, and by sheer coincidence, Jessica Rowe, a CSU graduate herself, and Ten newsreader at the time called me on my mobile while I was taking a look at the university in Bathurst. She told me her story, and how she started and offered to help me if I needed it. So seizing the opportunity, I asked if she could help me get some work experience at Ten Sydney.

Four weeks later, I organised my own work cover insurance, and I was sitting at the Chief of Staff desk with Allan Croft watching the television news process come to life. I went out on stories with other journalists, held equipment for them and ran errands.

After my stint at Ten, Seven and Nine Sydney also allowed me to watch how they put their news together, followed by WIN News Wollongong. Once you do one network, it’s easier to do work at the others.

So, even before I finished high school, I had competed copious amounts of work experience in the industry and made the trip from Wollongong to Sydney to do work experience at Ten a few times. I was absolutely certain I’d be given a place at CSU.  As a back up, I chose the Bachelor of Commerce degree at Wollongong University. Paul Barry, a financial journalist presenting the Channel 7 program ‘Witness’ at the time, said in his letter in a letter, that maybe studying a specialisation like business, finance and economics wasn’t a bad idea because there was a shortage of good financial journalists in the industry. I always had a keen interest in business so it was a good option.

All through high school, I was a straight A student and in my final year took challenging subjects like 3 unit English (I’ll never forget that damn ‘Utopias and anti-Utopias module) I was the captain of my school, Edmund Rice College. So I held high hopes for what I’d do after school.

You can imagine my disappointment, no extreme disappointment, when my UAI came in at 80.10. From memory, the minimum requirement at CSU was above 96. I called the university executive. I pleaded with them and explained all the experience I had already gained hoping my enthusiasm alone would make up for the lack of marks.  But it didn’t work.

I didn’t let that deter me, although part of me did think I’d become a boring accountant (I now know not all accountants are boring).

In the end, I went to Wollongong University and chose subjects which I believed would add value as a journalist. I majored in Marketing and Economics.

But the key here, is that I continued with my unpaid work in the industry.

Firstly, I did supplementary journalism courses while I was at uni; a radio intensive workshop at the University of Technology Sydney over the summer, a multi-media workshop through SCEGGS Darlinghurst and a television presenting course in Pymble.

I should also note, that I had to fund these activities myself. I come from a very hard working, blue collar family. Mum and Dad gave up what they could for our education. Still, I worked as a sales assistant at David Jones Wollongong to fund my extra curricular activities, mostly to pay for these extra courses I wanted to do, and the expensive insurance to cover me to do work experience at the networks.

While at uni, I continued to do work experience at WIN News Wollongong, one day a week, for free, for two years. Yep, two years, for free.

I first started by following journalists, carrying tripods, held up sun reflectors/shades for the other journalists to do their pieces to camera and answered phones.

Eventually, Paul Scott and Stella Lauri, the newsroom bosses at WIN News, believed in me enough, to be able to do my own stories. My first on air piece was about the Smiths Hill rock eisteddfod rehearsal. A simpled voice over story I put together at age 18.

My real break came when a pipeline burst on the Illawarra escarpment. No other journalists were around, so off I went with a cameraman, hard hat in hand, in the rain, shooting my piece to camera in the mud for the story. My Doc Martins were ruined.

The WIN team also noted my business studies, so I was often given business related stories like the GST introduction into the Illawarra and most stories relating to BHP Billiton, which at the time owned the Port Kembla Steelworks.

Eventually, WIN put me on the casual payroll after two years. It was an unfortunate time for me because rival Prime News had just shut down its newsroom in the region, so many of those journalists came across to WIN, meaning a fulltime position for me wasn’t available.

I even did a few days of work experience at WIN Orange to see if something would come out of that.

Even so, I felt a sense of accomplishment that I was able to do some sort of work on air. So in 1999, I set up a website allowing other high school students to contact me if they wanted advice about study techniques and different ways to enter their career of their dreams. Producers at Channel 7′s ‘Today Tonight’ saw it, and before I knew it, they asked me to help them with a couple of HSC related news stories for their program. I voiced them, did pieces to camera for them, and Stan Grant presented it in 1999.

(You can see my first news stories on my website by clicking here, then scrolling to the bottom of the page – yes I know I had bad hair and clothes.)

At university, I wrote for UOW’s newspaper, ‘The Tertangala’ and decided to do subjects like labour force economics, macroeconomics, contract law, accounting to name a few to give me a solid business background.

As I was approaching graduation at university, the pressure was mounting to find a full time reporting gig.

I sent my showreel of work to all many networks, and received some good and some not so good feedback.

Peter Meakin for example (Channel 9 news boss at the time), who now runs Seven’s news department, replied in a letter something along the lines of “Based on the tape that you have sent me, I don’t see that you have a future in television”. Mum still has that letter somewhere in the garage back in Wollongong. What I now appreciate about that letter, is that it was to the put, and honest. You get a lot of that in TV news.

Granted, maybe the showreel wasn’t the best in the world, and I was overly ambitious. But it was another knock. But you’ve got to take them in this industry. For the record, SBS turned me down to be a cadet too. Countless knock backs. In fact, a folder full.

But just as I was about to graduate, lady luck played her hand.

I saw a three line, twenty word advertisement in the Sydney Morning Herald classifieds. It said something along the lines of “Finance Journalist wanted to work for a well know broadcast finance team”.

I applied, received a phone call, drove myself up from Wollongong to Chatswood, and had a meeting with the team behind David Koch’s Palamedia (Back then it was called “My Money Group”). At the time, he provided content for Seven News, Sky News and numerous radio and print outlets.

Kylie Merritt, for whom I had so much respect for, ran the news department in Kochie’s business, and offered me my first paid gig in metro television at the age of 21.

The gig? I was based at Channel 7 Sydney, well, Epping, sourcing vision for finance stories to be played on Sky News.

My role evolved and developed to, producer, video journalist, presenter.

But even that evolution took a further four years before I was reporting for National Nine News Melbourne, six years before I was presenting national bulletins on Sky News, and nine years before my role on SBS.

And the challenges, and sacrifices made during that time were great, I haven’t even gotten to my favourite interviews, exclusives and what journalism is all about, getting the news to the public. You’ve got to get your foot in the door before you can do the good stuff.

I’ll leave that experience for another time… or a book… there’s a lot to tell.

One side note: At the beginning of my career, in fact, ever since primary school, I was called, Richard Goncalves (Gone-calves). The nuns at school thought i was best. Hence my early work with that name before I reverted to Ricardo at SBS.

MEMO>ricardo

This time 14 years ago I received my HSC result and UAI. I was devestated. My UAI was 80.10. More than 15 points below the minimum entry requirement to study journalism at Charles Sturt University. Despite the endless television news work experience I had done during high school, community radio and newspaper work, I was turned away from CSU.

But for the past 14 years, I’ve been working as a television journalist, and now read a national television news bulletin. 

My point, is that there’s many paths to the career of your dreams.

I always knew I wanted to be a journalist.

In 1993, I worked at a community newspaper in Port Kembla called “The ConneXion” after school.

A few years later, I contributed to a current affairs program on community radio station 2VoxFM interviewing local politicians about issues impacting Wollongong.

I also knew I needed a print portfolio, I so wrote numerous ‘Letters to the Editor’ which were published in various local and state newspapers.

But television was where I wanted to be.

In year 11, I wrote and called every television station in Wollongong and Sydney to let me do work experience.

They said no.

Three months later, I called and wrote again.

They said no, mainly because I wasn’t doing it as part of a school or university program.

I tried again, and once again they said no.

So I wrote to numerous journalists around the country asking for their advice, journalists like Chris Bath, Paul Barry, Ray Martin, Kim Watkins, Mike Munro, Sandra Sully, Joanna Rouse, Tara Brown even Bert Newtown, just to name a few. I just wanted to know how they got into the business. I told them about all the community work I was doing and wanted advice. To their credit, every single one of the journalists I wrote to, replied (To this day I still have their letters, many of them handwritten).

Many of them said the Bachelor of Journalism course at CSU Bathurst was the way to go. So I booked myself a viewing at the university, and by sheer coincidence, Jessica Rowe, a CSU graduate herself, and Ten newsreader at the time called me on my mobile while I was taking a look at the university. She told me her story, and how she started and offered to help me if I needed it. So, I asked if she could help me get some work experience at Ten Sydney.

Four weeks later, I organised my own work cover insurance, and I was sitting at the CoS desk with Allan Croft watching the television news process come to life. I went out on stories with other journalists, held equipment for them and ran errands.

After I did work experience at Ten, Seven and Nine Sydney also allowed me to watch how they put their news together, followed by WIN News Wollongong. Once you do one network, it’s easier to do work at the others.

So, even before I finished high school, I had competed copious amounts of work experience in the industry. I was absolutely certain I’d be given a place at CSU.  As a back up, I chose the Bachelor of Commerce degree at Wollongong University. Paul Barry, a financial journalist presenting the Channel 7 program ‘Witness’ at the time, wrote in a letter to me, that maybe getting a specialisation like business, finance and economics wasn’t a bad idea because there was a shortage of good financial journalists in the industry. I always had a keen interest in business so it was a valid backup.

All through high school, I was a straight A student and in my final year took challenging subjects like 3 unit English (I’ll never forget that damn ‘Utopias and anti-Utopias module) I was the captain of my school, Edmund Rice College. So I held high hopes for what I’d do after school.

You can imagine my disappointment , no extreme disappointment, when my UAI came in at 80.10. From memory, the minimum requirement at CSU was above 96. I called the university executive. I pleaded with them and explained all the experience I had already gained hoping my enthusiasm alone would make up for the lack of marks.  But it didn’t work.

I didn’t let that deter me, although part of me did think I’d become a boring accountant (I now know not all accountants are boring).

In the end, I went to Wollongong University and chose subjects which I believed would add value as a journalist. I majored in Marketing and Economics.

But the key here, is that I continued with my unpaid work in the industry.

Firstly, I did supplementary journalism courses while I was at uni; a radio intensive workshop at UTS over the summer, a multi-media workshop through SCEGGS Darlinghurst and a television presenting course in Pymble.

I should also note, that I had to fund these activities myself. I come from a very hard working, blue collar family. Mum and Dad gave up what they could for our education. Still, I worked as a sales assistant at David Jones Wollongong to fund my extra curricular activities, mostly to pay for these extra courses I wanted to do, and the expensive insurance to cover me to do work experience at the networks.

While at uni, I continued to do work experience at WIN News Wollongong, one day a week, for free, for two years. Yep, two years, for free.

I first started by following journalists, carrying tripods, held up sun reflectors/shades for the other journalists to do their pieces to camera and answered phones.

Eventually, Paul Scott and Stella Lauri, the newsroom bosses at WIN News, believed in me, to be able to do my own stories, and I voiced a school rock eisteddfod story that went to air when I was 18.

My real break came when a pipeline burst on the Illawarra escarpment. No other journalists were around, so off I went with a cameraman, hard hat in hand, in the rain, shooting my piece to camera in the mud for the story. My Doc Martins were ruined.

The WIN team also noted my business studies, so I was often given business related stories like the GST introduction into the Illawarra and most stories relating to BHP Billiton, which at the time owned the Port Kembla Steelworks.

Eventually, WIN put me on the casual payroll after two years. It was an unfortunate time for me because rival Prime News had just shut down its newsroom, so many of those journalists came across to WIN, meaning a fulltime position for me wasn’t available.

I even did a few days of work experience at WIN Orange to see if something would come out of that.

Even so, I felt a sense of accomplishment, so in 1999, I set up a website allowing other high school students to contact me if they wanted advice about study techniques and different ways to enter their career of their dreams. Producers at Channel 7′s ‘Today Tonight’ saw it, and before I knew it, they asked me to help them with a couple of HSC related news stories for their program. I voiced them, did pieces to camera for them, and Stan Grant presented it in 1999.

(You can see my first news stories on my website by clicking here, then scrolling to the bottom of the page – yes I know I had bad hair and clothes.)

At university, I wrote for UOW’s newspaper, ‘The Tertangala’ and decided to do subjects like labour force economics, macroeconomics, contract law, accounting to name a few to give me a solid business background.

As I was approaching graduation at university, the pressure was mounting to find a full time reporting gig.

I sent my showreel of work to all many networks, and received some good and some not so good feedback.

Peter Meakin for example (Channel 9 news boss at the time) , who now runs Seven’s news department, replied in a letter something along the lines of “Based on the tape that you have sent me, I don’t see that you have a future in television”. Mum still has that letter somewhere in the garage back in Wollongong.

Granted, maybe the showreel wasn’t the best in the world, and I was overly ambitious. But it was another knock. But you’ve got to take them in this industry. For the record, SBS turned me down to be a cadet too. Countless knock backs. In fact, a folder full.

But just as I was about to graduate, lady luck played her hand.

I saw a three line, twenty word advertisement in the Sydney Morning Herald classifieds. It said something along the lines of “Finance Journalist wanted to work for a well know broadcast finance team”.

I applied, received a phone call, drove myself up from Wollongong to Chatswood, and had a meeting with the team behind David Koch. At the time, he provided content for Seven News, Sky News and numerous radio and print outlets.

Kylie Merritt, for whom I had so much respect for, ran the news department in Kochie’s business, and offered me my first paid gig in metro television at the age of 21.

The gig? I was based at Channel 7 Sydney, well, Epping, sourcing vision for finance stories to be played on Sky News.

My role evolved and developed to, producer, video journalist, presenter.

But even that evolution took a further four years before I was reporting for National Nine News Melbourne, six years before I was presenting national bulletins on Sky News, and nine years before my role on SBS.

And the challenges, and sacrifices made during that time were great, I haven’t even gotten to my favourite interviews, exclusives and what journalism is all about, getting the news to the public. You’ve got to get your foot in the door before you can do the good stuff.

I’ll leave that experience for another time… or a book… there’s a lot to tell

One side note: At the beginning of my career, in fact, ever since primary school, I was called, Richard Goncalves (Gone-calves). The nuns at school thought i was best. Hence my early work with that name before I reverted to Ricardo at SBS.

MEMO>ricardo

And as you know from my blog, this is about working with the innate or inborn ability of a child to get healthier and to heal. chiropractic for kids to me is vital, and this debate just starts to highlight some of the differences of opinion. I have put the video from today tonight, watch it and let me know what you think.

Happy healthy christmas,

Ali.

Chiro Crunch Time

Cause

A customer, Keara O’Neil had a negative customer experience and wrote to GASP. She shared her story (see emails below). An unnamed GASP representative replied with a scathing email. 

Effect

After receiving the email on the morning of Wednesday, 28 September, O’Neil elected to pass it onto her friends via email, with a note encouraging them to do the same. The first forward by O’Neil to her friends was after 4pm on Wednesday. By Thursday morning, the email had gone viral, begun trending on Twitter and featured in several blogs. By Thursday afternoon, it was the number one (unpromoted) Twitter hashtag, #GASP and #GASPFAIL was also trending strongly. The story featured on the first page of The Age and Herald Sun news sites.

Today Tonight, The 7pm Project, Sunrise and several other mainstream consumer (although not trade) media covered the story on Thursday evening. 

Response

Apart from the initial email, GASP were absent from the conversation for most of Thursday. A publicist called GASP to enquire as to whether the email was bona fide and this was confirmed, however no statement was made. A representative from GASP confirmed with The Age that the email was bona fide. Negative Facebook wall comments were removed from the page, and the page taken down late on Thursday afternoon.

A representative from GASP was interviewed for television segments, and defended their employee’s actions, both in their treatment of the customer, and in their response email.

The GASP Facebook page reappeared on Friday, promoting its online store.

Outcome

Whilst the impact on GASP’s business is yet to be seen, we can take this as an example of how not to handle complaints and crisis PR.

The speed at which a viral email escalated to mainstream media coverage is also of note.

Another way

It’s difficult to use GASP as an example of crisis management as its representatives do not acknowledge fault. For brands wishing to mitigate the risk of viral dissemination of negative material, it is useful to set up monitoring of social media platforms for mentions of your brand (and your brand plus likely negative terms) so that trending topics can be identified and addressed early and appropriately. If something is amiss most experts recommend an apology quickly, unequivocally and loudly.

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Emails

O’Neil’s email to GASP

Subject: customer complaint-Chapel St store

Hi Chad,

I had the privilege of shopping at your brand new Chapel St store on Saturday 24^th September with my three bridesmaids in tow. On the hunt for bridesmaids dresses and a hens dress for myself we walked into the store and were automatically pounced on by a male staff member, I understand that this is protocol for many retail outlets and ours is no different. The staff member was initially funny and extremely helpful with sizes etc. I chose a bright pink dress to try on but was unable to do the zip up so asked for the size up, when I eventually got the correct size and came out of the change room I was unable to discuss the likes or dislikes of the dress with my bridesmaids as the sales assistant kept saying “you should just get it”, when I told him I would think about it, he pulled me aside and whispered “Is it the price your worried about”. By now I was extremely frustrated, and again told him I’d think about it, I walked back into the change room and closed the door behind me, only to have it pushed open with the sales assistant half standing in my change room, again whispering “I think you should just get it”, when I gave him attitude and said rudely, “I already told you I would think about it”, he then replied, “With your figure I really think you should buy it”.

I’m not sure exactly what he meant by that, but considering the attitude used to deliver such a statement I can only imagine that it was an immature dig in relation to my healthy size 12 frame. I got changed in a hurry and walked right out of the change rooms and out of the store, I could hear the sales assistant yelling out to me, but I just ignored him and continued to leave, assuming my bridesmaids would follow. After waiting down the road for my bridesmaids to come out of the store I was told by one of them that the sales assistant yelled out “Have fun finding something at Supre”, when one of them approached him in regards to his comments, he replied “I knew you girls were a joke the minute you walked in”. When my bridesmaids walked out of the store another two customers walked out with them, they too could not believe the immaturity of the sales assistant.

I have worked in retail for 12 years and have come across an array of customer complaints over the years, none of which come even close to what I encountered on Saturday at your store, I wish I was exaggerating but unfortunately for your company this person actually exists and is working in one of your stores. I am pretty laid back and was quite happy just leaving your store, it was my bridesmaids who felt the need to say something to him.

I dread to think how many customers he has not only offended but how many customers have left your store due to the pressure placed on getting the sale, and then to be harassed when that sale hasn’t taken place.

Ring me, don’t ring, not fussed………I’m just one retailer notifying another of an extremely inappropriate sales assistant.

Keara O’Neill

GASP’s email to O’Neil

Dear Keara O’Neil,

Having now had the privilege of having both version of events, I am now in a position to respond to your complaint.

From the very outset, one thing that you should be mindful of is; Our product offerings are very, very carefully selected, so to ensure that we do not appeal to a broad customer base. This is something which is always at the forefront of our minds when undertaking buying duties. The reason for this is to ensure that we only carry products which appeal to a very fashion forward consumer. This by default means that the customer whom is acclimatised to buying from “clothing for the masses” type retailers, is almost frightened by our range, sometimes we have found that this type of customer, almost finds our dresses funny, and on occasion noted comments such as ‘it looks like a dead flamingo’. When we receive comments like this, we like to give ourselves and our buyers, a big pat on the back, because we know we are doing our job right, and modus operandi is being upheld.

Our range is worn by A list celebrities to the likes of Kim Kardashian, Selena Gomez and Katy Perry to name only a few. Now, as one might appreciate, the style counsel for these types of celebrities are not ones to pick “run of the mill” type clothing, and they do so on the basis to ensure that the styles are cutting edge, and only worn by a select few. Similarly these items are priced such that they remain inaccessible to the undesirable.

Insofar as our employee goes; Similar to our product offerings, our employees are selected with a similar approach. Chris whom served you is a qualified stylist whom has a sixth sense for fashion, and Chris’s only problem is that he is too good at what he does, and as I am sure you are aware, people whom are talented, generally do not tolerate having their time wasted, which is the reason you were provoked to leave the store.

Whilst I concede that you work for chain retailer, unfortunately that does not make us like for like. It is probably fair to assume, a lot of what I have said in this email, either doesn’t make sense to you, or you totally disagree with it all, which is what I would expect (unless of course I have you totally wrong –which I doubt). Let me guess, you would never, ever hire Chris in the course of your duty, would you? This is the very reason, why your comment “from one retailer to another” is so disproportionate, it’s almost as though we are in a totally different industries. Chris is a retail superstar, who possess unparalleled ability, and I am sorry you feel upset by him, but he knew you were not going to buy anything before you even left your house.

So if you would like to do us any favours, please do not waste our retail staff’s time, because as you have already seen, they will not tolerate it. I am sure there are plenty of shops that appease your taste, so I respectfully ask that you side step our store during future window shopping expeditions.

Thank you for your enquiry.

GASP Online Customer Care

O’Neil’s email to friends

Dear friends, family and colleagues,

PLEASE READ THE BELOW THREAD

For your enjoyment I have decided to forward an email from a lovely employee at GASP Clothing, one who funnily enough chose to remain nameless.  In quoting the company I have been advised to do them a favour and “not waste their retail staff’s time, as there are plenty of other shops that would appease to my taste”.  To quote the gutless employee, I am what they consider to be a “broad customer”, if you too fit into this category then I suggest you also “side step” their store, as they have so bluntly asked.

Replying to the below email would be pointless, therefore I ask instead that you forward this email onto friends, family and colleagues, and by all means feel free to post on facebook or twitter, after all we would be doing GASP a favour by forwarding the below response on.

As my boss [name removed] has kindly reminded me, the internet is a very powerful tool and one in which a customer like myself would be silly not to utilise.

As shocking as it is, this email is real!! Happy Reading.

Thanks

Keara

Gallery

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Twitter role:

Article by: Lou Pardi: @loupardi @smkapac