Good Charlotte ditch tastless radio stunt

The Good Charlotte boys Joel and Benji Madden have stormed out of a Melbourne radio station after taking offence to an interview segment about Britney Spears.

The normally laid-back twins began the interview with Fox 101.9 breakfast show hosts Jo Stanley and Matt Tilley by warning the pair that they were "pretty wrecked" after a big night out.

After answering a few preliminary questions, the Madden brothers were asked to play a game to test if they could sense what the other was feeling. Full story NineMSN

Nova 969 signals a change in breakfast radio

dmg Radio Australia has today announced that Nova 969’s Tim “Rosso” Ross and Kate Ritchie will not be returning to the station in 2010.

David Borean, general manager of Nova 969 said “Tim has played a big part in the station since it launched in 2001.

“We thank him for his contribution in helping shape what the station is today. This is the end of an era as Tim moves on to other personal projects.”

After two years with Nova 969, Kate Ritchie will be returning to her true love – acting – in 2010.

Vic Davies loses lung cancer battle

Vic Davies, who co-hosted the long-running Club Veg show, has died after a short battle with lung cancer. Davies, 55, passed away at 1.30pm (AEDT) yesterday, five months after being diagnosed with the disease.

He is best known for presenting the comedy music show, Club Veg, along with Mal Lees, which ran for 15 years on various radio stations in New South Wales. The segment featured song parodies and comic sketches, most of which were written by Davies.

He got his big break while working as a copywriter for radio ads, landing a gig on the ABC's youth station Triple J in 1984.

He and Lees moved to 2SM in 1987, and were poached by Triple M in 1989.

The station dropped the iconic show in 2002.

His family and a close friend, Rina Ferris, issued a statement today announcing his death.

"Vic was loved by many and we were honoured to call him our friend. We will always miss him and he will remain in our hearts forever," the statement said.

Industry announces digital radio report

CRA release: A new digital radio industry report - tracking who’s listening to the new technology, how many digital radios have been sold and the overall awareness of digital radio - will be released by Commercial Radio Australia in early 2010.

The industry report will provide a comprehensive market snapshot of digital radio and will include top line digital radio listening figures from Nielsen Radio Ratings, consumer research from Nielsen Panorama and Hoop Group, digital radio sales data from GfK and consumer survey information sourced from tracking studies on Commercial Radio Australia’s digitalradioplus website and facebook page.

Nielsen radio ratings survey 7

Survey 7 of the Nielsen radio ratings have been released today, one day early due to the Melbourne Cup public holiday. Check out the results for Perth, Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney here.

Vale Tim Bickerstaff

Veteran New Zealand radio broadcaster Tim Bickerstaff has passed away at home in Whitianga at the age of 67. It is understood Tim suffered a massive heart attack on Saturday (31 October) and his body was discovered by local children who had come knocking on Halloween Night.
Many would remember Tim from his time spent working at Melbourne station 3DB in the 1960's. He soon returned to New Zealand where he pioneered talkback on Sportsline with Geoff Sinclair on Radio 1 before moving onto more general talkback with his two-hour Radio Pacific show.