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Paris Olympics


red750

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3 hours ago, facthunter said:

I think it's a great concept

You're not wrong, and those involved and who like to follow the disciplines are welcome to it. It's just that it's not my cup of Gatorade, and I don't want to be part of the jingoism that surrounds it. 

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It's supposed to be a peaceful thing but there's been a lot of debate and criticism of the IOC's decision to allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete as neutrals. Conditions are that they must not be active supporters of the war and not work for the country's military or security services. In more normal times almost 50% of Russia's Olympic athletes are members of the military in their day job. Of the 57 Russian and Belarusian athletes declared eligible, an investigation by the Netherlands-based Global Rights Compliance found 33 had backed the war. According to Ukraine’s Ministry of Youth and Sports, at least 487 Ukrainian athletes and coaches have been killed over the course of the war. In Russia athletes and the elites don't go to fight in the war. It's in sharp contrast to Ukraine where they have lost so many talented people from the fields of science, sports, education and the arts, all fighting in front line jobs. It's easy to excuse the IOC by saying politics shouldn't come into it, but in my opinion Russian and Belarusian athletes should be banned, whether competing under a neutral flag or not. A lot of Ukraine's athletes who would have been competing are now dead because of those two countries.

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But then again, I'm no judge of popular tastes. As an example, I can't stand Macca and would rate him as Australia's most boring radio presenter, yet he has a huge almost cult-like following nation wide.

 

This is a typical Macca segment:

(radio caller) Jim: "G'day Macca, this is Jim".

Macca: "G'day Jim, where are you calling from?"

Jim:   "I'm out on the Birdsville Track fixing a flat tyre".

Macca:  "Which tyre is it Jim?".

Jim: "The flat one Macca".

Macca: "Yes, I had a flat tyre once. Oh well, time to play the magpie recording again until I can think of something more to say".

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Have you ever come across a truly genuine radio "star". They're full of BS, it's their job to keep up a steady stream of patter to fill the airwaves.

 

I can recall radio station 6NA in Narrogin W.A., they struggled to get radio announcers of any quality, so the patter was minimal - and they had only one spare record, it was "Volare", by Dean Martin. So when things got slow, we got "Volare" belted at us - 150 times a day!

 

I used to get driven insane by the constant repetition of Deano belting out "Volare" from 6NA. The worst part was, in the S.E. Wheatbelt, 6NA was the only commercial station. The ABC was generally boring as bats**t.

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2WEB Bourke community radio used to be amusing to listen to. These days it's a lot more professional and has lost a lot of the character it used to have. Back in the 80's there was an old Aboriginal bloke who would do a segment. He was known as 'the man of many mistakes' due to continual stuff-ups. If a record stuck he wouldn't lift the needle and move it forward; he'd ditch it and put Slim Dusty on. He loved Slim; every time something went wrong he'd put Slim on. Another long time legend there was May Watkins who did a country music segment. The station started as a school project broadcasting out of the cleaner's storage room and grew from there. I can remember one schoolkid used to do a show. He was fairly young and didn't have any concept of genres of music. He'd just play them as he found them so you never knew what you'd get on his show. Back in those days it was often the only radio station you could pick up in the SW corner of Queensland and over the border around Moomba and Innamincka.

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I just remembered something. Once I was listening to 2WEB at work and the man of many mistakes put a record on. As was fairly common, the record played about halfway then stuck on a crack. The static clackety clack sound of the stuck record kept broadcasting for about 40 minutes. Turns out he went out to lunch so it must have been an LP record. After his long lunch break he came back on air, took the record off, declared that it was stuffed and put Slim on. I think it was fairly common to play an LP album while they had lunch.

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Well, obviously, the Paris games has our attention 😉

 

My favourite radio segment was Doug Aitken on ABD Radio Melbourne (3LO). He did the afternoon drive segment was was genuinely interesting to listen to; it was a magazine style show full of all sorts of interesting things. He had some regular guests incluuding a solicitor that proclaimed ot be a PC expoert, and I have to admit, I shiddered at some of the advice he was giving listeners. He also had on a travel journo on Fridays and they would talk about wonderful places of globe to trot to. They also have their wine of the week - in '95/'96. it had t be under $$5 a bottle. I learned about Tyrell's Long Flat White, which albeit a blend, was not too shabby for the price.

 

When I moved to the South West and started commuting at 3:30am, there was an overnight radio show presented on BBC Radio 5 Live. It was hosted by an old-timer who had an engaging manner and again, all sorts of interesting things icnludign a regular science spot with an Aussie scientist (all the Brits were asleep) and a PC Gaming segment, too. He sadly retired, and I am going to be contaversial, but they replaced him with what I think is the diversity and inclsuion hire - dead pan boring and puts everyone to sleep. So now, I listen to aither ABC or MMM depending on the mood I am in

Edited by Jerry_Atrick
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Pretty poor when a person with XY chromosomes can fight a fully fledged female in a match and be declared the winner, anywhere else it’s abuse.

probably to be expected with queens in the opening ceremony, this all inclusive bs wins again

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