‘We’re after multi-skilled program makers to create stories across radio and online. As a cross-media journalist, you will publish original stories to the flagship Hack radio show, including packages and live crosses. You will also publish multimedia showcases to the Hack website that involve photos, audio and video.

‘Your stories will originate in bold, accessible and relevant program ideas for young Australians, 18 – 24.
This position requires an advanced level of technical skill – audio editing, video shooting and editing, online publishing – alongside proven editorial judgment and high level experience in researching and conducting interviews.’

The positions are being offered in Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne or Brisbane. Applications must be submitted by 17 September. Details of how to apply and what to include with your application can be found here.

The ABC has also advertised for cadet journalists to work its other news services for 2011.

Successful applicants will undergo a year of training in television, radio and online news on a salary of around $45,000.

The ad points out that applicants should have appropriate tertiary qualifications and/or some relevant media experience and potential and that applications close at 5 pm on 24 September 2010.

Those interested in applying should make sure they check out both the information leaflet and FAQs documents that are linked to the ad. These provide valuable details about the timeline of the selection process and the kind of people that the ABC are looking for.

Here at upstart we’ve also been able to put a few questions to the ABC’s  News Manager Staff Development, Heather Forbes, which we hope will help prospective applicants.

Heather, what kinds of backgrounds do your cadets usually come from?

ABC cadets represent Australia’s cultural diversity and come from all different backgrounds.

Do most have Journalism degrees?

Yes.

How many cadets are you planning to hire this year?

A minimum of eight and a maximum of ten depending on the quality of the applicants.

What can you tell us about the general knowledge test that candidates sit if they make it to first base?

Candidates need to be consumers of news and ABC news and current affairs in particular. The test is divided into three parts. Part A is news general knowledge of which 20% of the questions are based on the State the candidate lives in and 80% on national and international politics and events. Part B is grammar and punctuation. Part C is writing skills where candidates will be given a transcript of an interview and will be asked to write a 40 second radio news story from the transcript.

They will also be given three news stories and be asked to rank them (along with the radio news story they have written) in order of newsworthiness. They will then have to write headlines for each of the four stories.

Candidates need to get 75% in each of the sections in order to pass through to the voice and camera test.

Are there any practical things that those interested in applying can do to get themselves “match fit” for the selection process?

Candidates need to be able to speak and write clearly and concisely. They need to be consumers of news and current affairs.

………………….

Full details of the advertised positions can be found here. The ABC’s youth network triple j is also looking for four cross-media journalists to join its current affairs team. More on this here.

Tom Ballard

With a careers teacher for a mother, it’s not hard to imagine that Tom Ballard may have faced a bit of criticism over his decision to pursue stand-up comedy as his own vocation.  But after earning himself a slot on triple j and receiving the ‘Melbourne Airport Best Newcomer’ award at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival for his show, ‘Tom Ballard Is What He Is’, about his coming out to his family and friends in Warrnambool, this 19 year-old law drop-out is no longer just a ‘class clown’.

How was it for you growing up in Warrnambool?

It was both a blessing and a curse. I had a great family, went to a good school and had awesome friends. But if you’re not really into football or Nickelback, it can be a little bit suffocating. There is a relatively healthy arts scene there but you really want to get out of there if it’s something you want to pursue. It’s definitely provided me with material, that’s for sure.

Were there many avenues in Warrnambool to express your creativity?

On reflection, yes. I was involved in a lot of amateur theatre and made some of my best friends through that. I did drama and theatre studies at high school; my overarching ambition has always been to be an actor. I guess comedy just started to take me in a different direction and I’ve followed it.

How and when did triple j approach you?

Program Manager Chris Scaddan saw me in the RAW Comedy Final in 2006 and was apparently impressed. He got in touch with me, asked about my music interests and if I’d done any radio before. I sent in a tape of the community radio show I did with my friend Alex Dyson (which was truly a shambles) and for some reason they didn’t spit in our faces. Now we have a job and a desk and an email address and everything. It is mental!

Some people are comedians simply because they have quick wit but others see it as a more creative outlet. What is comedy for you?

I was initially attracted to stand-up purely for the attention. Everyone has to shut up and listen to you and you’re the only one on stage and everybody loves you because you get to make them laugh. Since then I’ve realised that comedy is significantly more than that. It’s so varied and challenging and raw and honest and chilling and thought-provoking and stimulating and joyful and instantaneous and you can do whatever the fuck you fucking want to. Daniel Kitson made me change my whole perspective on what comedy can be, but that’s also been blown out and expanded by the likes of Patton Oswalt and Bill Burr.

But we’ll see.

…………………………………..

You can listen to Tom Ballard and Alex Dyson on triple j  Weekend Breakfast program from 6am-10am. And since this interview was completed it’s been confirmed that Tom and Alex will take up the reigns as weekday breakfast hosts at triple j in 2010. Tom Ballard’s own website can be found here.

Tyler Cameron has just completed his first year at La Trobe University in a Bacherlor of International Relations.

There’s been a lot of comments about the popularity of older music in the latest list, and yes –  more than a dozen songs from the first chart are still kicking on in 2009. And that doesn’t include Bohemian Rhapsody, which was just edged out of the 1989, when it was number 101. But now, the only pop song ever to use the word “fandango” is number six.

I don’t want to gloat but I was spot on about two of the tracks. Like just about everyone, it seemed a no-brainer to me that Smells Like Teen Spirit would end up in the number one slot, 17 years after it first topped a Triple J Hottest 100.

I also turned up trumps predicting that Stairway to Heaven, which was number 30 in 1989, would be the curtain-raiser on this years top 10. This means it has ebbed up the list at the average rate of one rung a year, putting it on track to complete it’s climb to the very top of the stairs in 2018,  by which time many of its fans will no doubt feel gratified just to be defying the fate of the subject of the song by getting about on their sturdy walking frames.

…………………

Have you figured out what’s going to be number one? It’s certainly been more than interesting being drip fed the “bottom 80″ of Triple J’s Hottest 100 of all time this week. There’s some wonderful inclusions, and – as anyone would hope - a wildly unpredictable mix of  music championed by the Js and public radio, along with a range of more overtly “mainstream” tracks.

If it all means anything, it’s that Triple J has a refreshingly broad audience. And just as we discovered 20 years ago, this is not the kind of  list that could have been generated by a commercial FM audience.

But how does this help us figure out what’s going to make it into the Top 20? With any luck, there’s still going to be room for some surprises. Still, the punter in me can’t quite help myself. As well as treating past charts and what we know about this year’s list as my form guides, I’ve been following the posts on the Top 20 prediction thread of Triple J’s site, which include some apparently informed speculation about the breakdown of the top 20 tracks by decade, and I’ve come up with this.

20 – Bohemian Rhapsody – Queen

19 – Weather With You – Crowded House

18 – Wish You Were Here – Pink Floyd

17 – Bittersweet Symphony – The Verve

16 – Lullaby – The Cure

15 – Power and the Passion – Midnight Oil

14 – Dancing Queen – Abba

13 – Wuthering Heights – Kate Bush

12 – Young Folks – Peter, Bjorn, and John

11- The Ship Song – Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds

10 – Stairway to Heaven – Led Zeppelin

9 – Sympathy for the Devil – Rolling Stones

8 – Paranoid Android – Radiohead

7 – Under Pressure – Queen and David Bowie

6 – Primary – The Cure

5 – Under the Bridge – Red Hot Chili Peppers

4 – Wonderwall – Oasis

3 – Last Goodbye – Jeff Buckley

2 – Love Will Tear Us Apart – Joy Division

1 – Smells Live Teen Spirit – Nirvana

I could be outrageously wrong of course. So if you want to engage in some wild predictions or even resort to a flurry of wishful thinking, send your submissions to us here at Upstart before midday Sunday. Lawrie Zion