If not Nikki Osborne - then who?

Every since I wrote that post lamenting the lack of women on Australian television shows I have been inundated with emails and phone calls. Alright, most of the emails have been spam and the phone calls have usually been from my mum. But that's not to say that this hasn't struck a nerve with someone somewhere. There is a lot of talk about this in the industry and I hope there will be a lot more grumbling in the various media outlets soon.

Last Monday Meshel Laurie had Nikki Osborne as her guest on the Nova Breakfast radio show in Brisbane. Meshel asked Nikki about her role in Mick Molloy's new show, The Nation and the fact that all the guys are comedians and the girls, well...aren't. Nikki went on to chat about her 'acting ability' and that she is heavily involved in the sketch element of the show. Listen to it here.

On the fist episode of The Nation Nikki Osborne did pretty much nothing except a pathetic Paris Hilton imitation so if that's what she deems as 'heavily involved' then don't blink or you could miss the rest of her extensive body of work.

It's easy to see why Nikki Osborne would take the role. What a great opportunity for someone whose been soliciting text messages from late-night pervy viewers to jump into a prime-time show with some experienced players. It's not her fault she was born drop-dead gorgeous. But it does tell us a lot about the thinking behind the Molloy Boy production team.

OK, so I'm not happy with Nikki or Jackie O.

So who are re: soundings favourite women we would love to see on television? Below I've listed some favourite personalities/broadcasters/writers/comedians and other chicks we dig.

• Denise Scott


• Judith Lucy


• Kate McLennan


• Julie McCrossin


• Sam Lane


• Catherine Deveny


• Jennifer Byrne


• Meshel Laurie


• Fee Bamford-Bracher


• Kate Langbroek


• George McEncroe


• Bev Killick


• Kim Hope


• Myf Warhurst


• Sonia Kruger


• Fiona O'Loughlin


• Libbi Gorr


• Cal Wilson

I have searched high and low to try and find some footage of Libbi Gorr in her Elle Mcfeast role from the Live and Sweaty days but alas no joy. Instead I'll leave you with this youtube clip of Max Sharam performing on Elle McFeast's show in 1998. More live music on tv will be addressed in another post.

NB: re: soundings will be returning to radio/streaming/podcasting reviewing very soon

What's the frequency Luttsy?

What on earth is going on with Nova breakfast co-host and all 'round funnyman David "Luttsy" Lutteral?





First we read this story:

Radio personality and TV comedian David Lutteral is at a loss to explain why he was bashed and left for dead during a night out in Brisbane's
city centre. Lutteral, known as "Luttsy" in his roles on commercial FM radio in Brisbane and free-to-air television, suffered a fractured skull, broken cheekbone and broken nose after being attacked not far from a nightclub on Sunday night.


Lutteral said he was lucky to be alive, but the incident had made
him think twice about where he next ventured out in Brisbane.
"I guess alcohol plays a large part in a lot of these attacks ... but it's just no excuse,'' he said.

Now Luttsy has withdrawn his complaint:

Media personality David Lutteral has been accused of tarnishing the
reputation of Brisbane's city centre after withdrawing a bashing
complaint.

The Ten Network said the footage showed Lutteral in a "heated
discussion" with a female patron minutes before the attack. It also shows the woman leaving with two male companions and Lutteral following soon after along Charlotte Street, where he was later found bleeding in a gutter.


The television station said it had spoken with a man who claimed he
was involved in the incident, and contacted police to give them his side of the story. He reportedly confessed to punching the comedian once, after Lutteral pursued his group.


Phillip Hogan, who jointly owns Jade Buddha and is chairman of the
Brisbane City Licensee's Association, said he was annoyed the incident had painted a poor picture of a normally safe city.

Now I understand that the good folks of Brisbane are quite reasonably miffed by Luttsy's claim that he has no idea what happened when security footage says otherwise. It is a bit rough that Luttsy has questioned the safety of his home town, quite unfairly it would seem. And it is baffling that Luttsy hadn't made a connection between his earlier "heated discussion" with a young woman and then waking up from a coma in hospital.




However, that said, I won't hear a bad word about him. David Lutteral and his pal Ashley Bradnam were once the highlight of my televisual week when they clocked on as The Fat cadets. At a time when I needed cheering up I could tune in and be guaranteed at least five minutes of pleasure for that day. [Also I always quite fancied him as he reminds me of my good friend Tim.]

I have a vague memory of Luttsy in a kilt threatening to bash his band members while aghast passers-by looked on. Having one half of the cadets quoting Rosemary Margan to footballers while the other stared down the barrel of the camera was brilliant. And tossing around imaginary words and cliches with rugby players was always good telly.

They are probably best remembered for mucking around in racing car driver's Montoya's press conference and causing him to stomp off in a huff.


But today I'll leave you with a little snippet of Lutteral and Bradnam as The Aussie Cadets. They do not disappoint.







Update: Lutteral is now under pressure from Nova bosses to apologise for his behaviour.

MEDIA personality David Lutteral is under pressure from his employers to apologise for his behaviour and for bringing Brisbane's reputation into disrepute.Lutteral, who was assaulted on Sunday night after making advances to a woman, went to ground yesterday as tension grew for him to expound on the embarrassing incident. He was believed to be holed up at his girlfriend Nicole Matthews' place on Brisbane's northside

In related news the tabloids have gone mad for the headline:

Video Killed the Radio Star

Akmal with Kate Ritchie (occasionally) on Nova

Just when you thought radio was moving ahead The Akmal Show with sometime co-host Kate Ritchie on Nova brings us all back down to earth.

You might enjoy these two groundbreaking videos of Akmal shaving a listener's head. He even tells her she looks like a lezo. GUFFAW!

And here you can find Kate Richie pole dancing while Akmal and sound techs perv on the sidelines.*

Stay tuned for more cutting-edge clips from Akmal and Kate Ritchie:

• Akmal enjoys watching the footy while Kate runs to fetch him beers.


• Kate performs a striptease for Akmal and the guys in sales. Akmal records it on his mobile phone and posts it on YouTube.


• Akmal belches the alphabet in English AND Egyptian. Kate is so impressed she takes off her top.

* To be fair Akmal does have a crack at the pole dancing himself but doesn't flash his knickers.

Hughesy & Kate Nova 100

If you've been living under a rock for the past ten years you might not know that Hughesy and Kate on Nova 100 are Dave Hughes and Kate Langbroek. These two got their flying miles up over on community radio station Triple R with former team member Dave O'Neil. All three had a brief stint on Triple M before heading over to launch the station and their brekky show in 2001. Dave has since jumped to sister station Vega and quite a lot has happened since this show began. There have been proposals, marriages, babies and a huge increase in their profiles. So six years on how are they holding up? Not too shabby actually.

OK, I don't like the music on Nova and there have been quite a few disappointing moments when Kate and Hughesy have appeared to be completely sucked into the commercial radio vortex, (the girly liplock photo comp springs to mind there), but these two have got a good thing going. Their breakfast show still has that rare feeling of spontaneity that we used to be able to get from genuine live television. It takes a pretty unique team to harness the kookiness of guests like Australian Idol judge Mark Holden and make his on-air appearances so refreshingly enjoyable.

Take last Friday's show, Holden came on air at around 8.45am to talk up the Melbourne weekend auditions of Idol. The talk very quickly turned to The Logies and Hughes' dig at Kyle Sandilands. Holden revealed that Sandilands had confided in him about the incident, telling Holden that the head honcho of Nova, Paul Thompson, had called Sandilands and apologised for Hughes' behaviour. Apparently Sandilands also claimed that Thompson thinks Sandilands has the best breakfast show in Australia. Now apart from the obvious fact that the only 'best' Sandilands can claim to have is 'head for kicking in' let's not let the truth get in the way of great opportunity. And this is where the Nova team shine. They got Thompson on the line and he was quick to set the record straight - he has never met or spoken to Sandilands. Nothing could make Sandilands look like a bigger tool or provide an opportunity for Hughesy and Kate to show their ability to fly by the seats of their pants and follow through for the laugh.

It is interesting that Nova's largest audience is in the 18-24 bracket but the breakfast show is hosted by a 41 year old mother of three and a dentally challenged 36 year old.
Obviously genuine funny works, no matter what the age. In the last ratings survey Nova's breakfast dropped slightly, putting them in third place for the FM stations behind Fox and Gold but there's still a lot of love in the air for these two.