Say Something...

That may be a crude and inappropriate metaphor for what is happening to me at the moment, but I'll try and make it work somehow. Yes audience, this week the goons at Triple M decided to drop a metaphorical anvil onto my plums with the announcement that the brilliant 'Get This' program hosted by Tony Martin, Ed Kavalee and panel operator adept Richard Marsland will not be returning in the new year.

The reason given by management is that they want to devote more resources to a new breakfast combination featuring Peter Helliar and Myf Warhurst. While I have no real problem with Myf, I can only imagine what Helliar is being paid to churn out his Bryan Strauchan character every other day on air, given that the joke will run out after the first segment. Plus who wants to listen to a station whose core demographic consists of dentally impaired Collingwood supporters? On second thought it is Triple M after all, which is full of great ideas such as M-One and Barry the record playing monkey, so no real harm done.

While we wait in hope that some other network will pick up the show, for now we have a little over a month to enjoy what is the best show on our airwaves. When that time comes, it will be time for us to say goodbye to talk of dizzy stuff like the lack of quality British imports on the ABC, talk of the film Shortbus and Ed's numerous "I'm Richard" jokes.

Get This has the effect on dwindling my productivity for two hours each workday with entire sketches built around cockney accents (if you love/hate My Chemical Romance click this) and soundbites of John Howard put way out of context. One of my favourites is when Ed gets electrocuted live on air while trying to wield a remote controlled helicopter inside the studio... let that be a public service announcement for the kiddies out there.

Being a show I love to bits, naturally you can assume it'll be too niche and cult for the rest of you unenlightened people out there. Therefore the best I can do is show everyone how excellent Get This is while I belittle you along the way. The best bits of the show are available on the Triple M website and via the podcasts (XML feed here) which may not remain up for too long, so get them while you can.

Ratings are not a problem at all for Get This, as shown by reports like these, so you would hope they wouldn't have too much trouble finding a new home. If all else fails, the guys could try and do what Ricky Gervais has been doing with his podcasts. With the help of sponsors and subscription fees, Gervais has been running a fairly successful podcast and people don't seem to mind paying for them. I don't know how much they cost but I'm sure for each one who pays, there'll be 20 others who will get it off BitTorrent several hours later.