Just heard this report on TV in the US. Apparently it's old news in Australia! From the Sydney Morning Herald:

This old mob will get the hip-hoppers moving fast
June 30, 2006

FM radio stations seem awash with best-selling hits from last year, last decade and the decade before that, but none dare play the most hated songs and singers.

Yo! Give it up for Rockdale City Council. Tonight, Rockdale begins The Weekend of the Worst, a hard-edged, yet middle-of-the-road strategy aimed at driving hip-hop from their land.

Rockdale's city fathers and mothers consider the area's pristine beachfront violated by visiting hoons gathering in car parks doing doughnuts, burnouts and playing Eminen and Tupac. The desecration long predates Cronulla's stand against intruders last December.

From 9pm tonight, loudspeakers carrying the cloying Barry Manilow will be cranked up at Hashams car park in Kyeemagh to scare hip-hoppers.

Manilow can be lethal. US authorities used him to wear down the Branch Davidians in the 1993 Waco siege.

But should Manilow fail in Hashams car park, Rockdale has got plenty more blasts from the past. The Mills Brothers, Nat King Cole, Vic Damone, Doris Day, Frankie Laine, Patti Page, Johnnie Ray and Dean Martin are among the line-up of crooners and singers designed to affront the ears of hip-hoppers.

Rockdale's Deputy Mayor, Bill Saravinovski, said hoons have been gathering in the city's car parks for some years.

"They are driving away business from local restaurants and intimidating our residents and we want them out of our city. Enough is enough," he fumed.

The council has Australian music industry approval for its attempt to soothe savage beasts. Strange that Rockdale left Celine Dion off its list.

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Okay, that was a couple of weeks ago. Here's the latest update (this report from News24.com in South Africa):

Barry Manilow puts revellers off
17/07/2006 13:42 - (SA)   

Sydney - It could be magic for some, but the use of loud Barry Manilow music to drive away late-night revellers from a suburban Sydney park is getting on the nerves of nearby residents.

In a move reminiscent of US efforts to drive former Panama strongman Manuel Noriega from the Vatican Embassy where he took refuge in 1989, the local council in Rockdale, in Sydney's southern suburbs, started a six-month trial of high-volume hits by Manilow and Doris Day to chase away car enthusiasts who were gathering on weekend nights at Cook Park Reserve.

"Barry's our secret weapon," Rockdale deputy mayor Bill Saravinovski told The Daily Telegraph newspaper, four weeks after the start of the effort.

"It seems to be working."

'I just can't sleep'

But some people living near the park are less than enthralled. They say the barrage of Copacabana, Could It Be Magic and Que Sera Sera," blasting from 21:00 to midnight every Friday, Saturday and Sunday is driving them crazy.

"I don't know how I will cope," said Moya Dunn, describing how the songs have invaded her house.

"I just can't sleep when it's on, and to think there's going to be another six months of this."

Officials have given in a little, agreeing to turn down the volume a bit after residents complained.

Irritating

"The initial reaction was that they found it irritating," Saravinovski said.

"I'm not disputing what the residents are saying. I can't swallow some of the tracks like Mandy.

"We have tried to reduce the sound and we are reviewing the songs. I don't mind Barry Manilow, but I'm more of an Abba and Celine Dion fan."

In 1989, US soldiers blasted hard rock music and news bulletins about Panama at the Vatican Embassy in Panama City in attempt to drive General Noriega from refuge there. The Vatican complained, and US troops stopped the noise. Noriega later surrendered.