Julie McCrossin made a hesitant plunge into
mainstream Sydney radio yesterday in the breakfast timeslot on 702, but
by this morning she was ad libbing more and seemed less eager to
please. This more relaxed approach is no doubt due to her being
“Gellered” yesterday in an assessment of her first morning’s
performance by Valerie Geller, the US radio consultant employed by ABC
Radio management.

After 12 weeks of on air auditions of various
people (Debbie Spillane, James Valentine and Simon Marnie) McCrossin
seems to have made the grade. Her voice is the best of the four, but
she had all sorts of panelling problems as she struggled to remember
which buttons and faders to use.

ABC local radio announcers do
all their own panelling (well almost all, some temporary fill-ins, such
as Wendy Harmer, have experienced producers panel for them). But ABC
Radio National announcers have a producer or a panel operator: the
announcer just speaks into the microphone and that’s what McCrossin did
on her Life Matters program.

So it was rough at times
yesterday for McCrossin, whose style was also a bit nervy, which was
understandable on her first morning in this most difficult of gigs. But
there were no real gaffes: it was a solid entry.

A couple of hours after her Monday shift ended it was time for assessment and analysis. This report confirms the assessment by Ms Geller, who, ABC insiders claim, is being paid $US500 a hour, or a daily fee of some $US3,000.

In
a new agey way, Geller urges her clients to open their personality to
the audience to get a direct emotional contact. Former breakfast host,
Angela Catterns had that ability in spades, as did the sacked morning
host, Sally Loane. Loane’s replacement, Virginia Trioli is reported to
have had a session or two with Valerie ahead of her start at 702 next
month.

So does Val bend spoons as well?