Television&Radio

It never ceases to amuse me that what irritates one person is balm to another. This is evident in the fact that whenever a presenter leaves a programme and another takes over the same time slot, some viewers and listeners complain about the outcome, whereas others praise it.

I was particularly intrigued by the number of mails I received about how at Radju Malta "tħawwad kollox" (everything went belly-up) - because the current afternoon schedule has an almost totally different layout to the preceding one.

Frankly, I think the station is trying to save some money by including the equivalent of carts and music sets rather than having a disc jockey in the studio.

I am glad to see, however, that Gordon Caruana is back with his traditions and folklore programme. This is a wonderful addition to the PBS portfolio - and the steady flow of interesting incoming calls shows that the programme has a steady listenership base.

Gossip has it that there is an equally interesting, new radio series in the pipeline; it will be presented by one of my favourite people, and will also be connected to 'memories and memoirs'.

• The favourite topic of conversation in media circles of late must have been the 'revelations' of how the EPSO fund, to the tune of €1.1 million, is apportioned between different companies, programmes, individuals and programmes.

The money is provided by the government so that programmes that would not otherwise garner enough advertising revenue to make them viable would nonetheless have funding, provided they have social, cultural, or educational bearings.

Moira Delia found no objection to being quoted. She told me she had been surprised to discover that she had allegedly been paid € 2,159 for Puss In Boots, which is, however, only funded thanks to the financial back-up and trust of her sponsors.

She also explained that the procedure she follows is that of selling spot adverts during the advertising air time allocated to her by PBS for the programme.

"It is up to me to cover all the production charges and ex-penses. I know for a fact that PBS always has to cover transmission and overhead expenses.

Thanks to all the contributors who have formed part of my team, I deliver a weekly programme," she added.

• I am astonished - and a bit ashamed, that The Station of The Nation did not manage to get an exclusive interview with Laura Pausini.

This scoop went to Calypso Radio, and it went out last Wednesday at 3 p.m. Pausini spoke about her latest album, Primavera In Anticipo, and harked back to her first hits. She sounded very glad to be here.

• Chatterboxes get free rein in Esperti, the One TV programme in which they are asked to share various and varied views on anything and everything.

I am told auditions for a new group of nine children will be called over three days, during the first half of August; watch this space for further details.

• I caught up with Glenn Bedingfield, the new head of News for One TV and Super One Radio, and asked him whether he would be engendering any changes with regard to the political and other content of the news. I also asked him whether they would be doing more human interest stories, whether or not they present the government in a bad light (as was seen to be the trend in times past).

I asked Bedingfield whether his journalists were free to cover what they thought had news value, and whether he had a say in what went into news-magazine programmes.

Mr Bedingfield told me his vision was for a news bulletin that portrayed what was really happening, and what had news value.

This policy was being thoroughly implemented as of July 1; news coverage was pithier and items shorter. Press releases that were merely reworded advertisements, rather than news items, have been slashed off the scripts.

Mr Bedingfield remains aware that he works in a political environment; however, this will have no bearing on the human interest stories that will be selected for following up, because they are deemed newsworthy.

It is his policy not to interfere in his journalists' assessment of a news item; and yes, if there is fine news to report about government policy, he will do it - in fact he has already done so, several times.

• I tried to find out why E22 was off air last Tuesday; however, the person who is currently replacing Joyce Grech has yet to reply.

television@timesofmalta.com