The 2CC Bunnings Broadcast (and most of my afternoon)
It was about 12:30 when I finished lunch and caught a 116 bus (an orange one) to Belconnen, having forgotten my headphones I carried out my backup radio listening plan of turning the volume right down, putting the speaker to my ear and turning it up just enough for me to hear it clearly, at this volume it is impossible to hear the radio any further than 10cm from the speaker.
This early bus trip meant that I was well ahead of schedule, so I decided to have a coffee, but on my way across the bridge from the Belconnen bus interchange to the shopping centre I noticed this fantastic view down Benjamin Way, the road I would later walk down.
I went in to Westfield Belconnen and went to Cafe Mochalat (oddly enough, this cafe was the focus of a discussion I had been a part of earlier in the day where nobody could remember the name) where I had a flat white and a jam tart. I then visited an ATM and its associated queue as I realised I had almost run out of money, not that I spend much, but you never know when you might need it.
At 1PM (well, a tad after, Kris was already into the news) I left Westfield and made the journey down Benjamin Way. Near the end of the road to my right were the Belconnen Fresh Food Markets and beyond that Bunnings Belconnen, I wasn’t sure if the carpark was open at both ends though, so I opted to walk the long way around, onto Belconnen Way and then into Bunnings. I’m glad I did as it provided me with some very nice views.
Firstly Bunnings from near the corner of Benjamin Way and Belconnen Way
Then Bunnings from near the traffic lights shown in the previous picture.
Followed by the grass around Bunnings and its carpark, which was provided by Canturf (a Canberra grass business), hopefully they got a discount for showing the Canturf signs, of which the photographed one had fallen over.
Next up an overview of the Canturf lawn, the carpark and the Bunnings Belconnen store itself.
All Bunnings stores seem to have the same exterior, including the slogan “Lowest Prices Are Just The Beginning…”
Yet another angle, the radio of the pictured ute was tuned to 2CC and was clearly audible, when I heard it I checked to see if it was a 2CC staff member, which it wasn’t.
I started to have a look around Bunnings, and ran into some people I know, who were doing some shopping, they were very impressed with the new store, I accompanied them on their shopping adventure, before going with them to a coffee shop in the Belconnen Fresh Food Markets.
After this they left with their purchases and I returned the trolley to Bunnings and resumed my tour, I had finished all of two aisles when I spotted movement at the 2CC stand in the form of Mike Frame and 2CC office manager (whoops, sorry, I’m bad with names sometimes). I went over to say hello, and before long was embarking on a store tour with Framey…this was 2:30. Framey and I had a bit of a chat, mostly about the new Bunnings store, but also about lawn bowls and what we’d been up to lately. Whilst we were in the garden section we spotted some bonzai, which is when Framey came up with his catchcry for the day that “everything’s big at Bunnings except the bonzai”.
Between then and 2:55 I acted as “Mike Frame’s Shadow” and there were many chats with many people, including a Bunnings staff member who had never heard of 2CC before, and correctly guessed that John Laws was on there…well, more or less, I think Lawsie’s name just flew off his tongue at the mention of talk radio. A few familiar faces turned up including Kevin Woolfe (Aka “The Wolfman” or “Woolfie”) and 2CC’s manager, David Leitch, who seemed to have a smile on his face all day.
Sometime around 2:55 Framey sent me off to get him a can of Coke, which I did and returned during the news, just in time to take two photos of the 2CC Bunnings balloons, and to get a video of Framey’s first moment on air (the voice before the voice over is that of newsreader Kris McKenzie).
(Note about videos, my camera is terribly inefficient when it comes to video bit rates, needlessly enocoding at almost double the required bitrate (maybe it saves on processing power). I have re-encoded the video in a number of formats with minimal to no quality loss. In all cases, the MPEG 4 video is the smallest, followed by the quicktime video, followed by the Real Media, followed by the Windows Media. In all cases, the MPEG4 is the best quality, followed by Quicktime, Windows Media and Real Media.)
Watch Framey’s first moments on air from Bunnings Belconnen
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Quicktime
Windows Media
Real Media
A shortwhile thereafter they had their first OB guest, Bruce Huskings, complex manager of Bunnings Belconnen (I only remember his name because I wrote it down). In this photo from left to right, Bruce from Bunnings, Mike Frame and Kevin Woolfe.
There is also a short video of this interview where Bruce and Mike are alking about some of Bunnings Belconnen’s Grand Opening activities (Humphrey gets a mention). Note that this is before they fixed the PA so that the speakers emit the sounds from the microphones.
MPEG4
Quicktime
Windows Media
Real Media
The lights in the background were turned on prior to the beginning of the broadcast, which had me wondering if they were to a reverse television thing where, instead of having stage lights pointing at their faces (and everything else), they lit up their backs…I think too much, I must have gone potty from all the pots in the garden area (third time I’ve used that joke in the last 24 hours, I will desist now).
Here we have a random video clip of Mike summarising some of the guests who would be on the show later in the day…and the PA works.
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Quicktime
Windows Media
Real Media
The “coming off delay” seven seconds of silence prior to the 3:30 news gave everyone a fright, thankfully Gareth The Tech had dropped by and was able to reassure everyone that it was normal. Recent commenter T-Bone also dropped by.
I decided to take a couple photos of the store, firstly looking lengthways down Bunnings from near one end of the store.
And one looking in a direction at right angles to the last photo (it doesn’t give a proper perspective of the size due to a zoom accident).
Then we have the video which I think is the best one of the lot, and I am very proud of it. I successfully guessed the final ad in the ad break, and pressed record right at the start of the intro, I then zoomed in one Mike as remained zoomed in on him as he spoke. A passing trolley moving stock can be heard at one stage, and the camera did its “overly cautious about having enough battery power to save the video trick” and cut the video off about two seconds early, but I still think this is the best video of the lot.
MPEG4
Quicktime
Windows Media
Real Media
During the ad break aroud 3:45 I decided to make my way home, and said goodbye to those who were still there (and waved to those deep in conversation), once out of the store I turned my radio back on, and started walking back to the Belconnen bus interchange. On my way, I took this photo of Bunnings Belconnen (and the Belconnen Fresh Food Markets’ carpark).
It was around 4PM when I got back to the bus interchange, I soon discovered that the next scheduled orange bus would arrive at 4:30 or thereabouts, as I had some time on my hands I decided to avoid the green buses and wait for an orange one. Around 4:15 I gave Mike Frame a call, in which I jokingly informed him that it’s a good thing that David Young (2CC’s gardener) is in Africa and not in the garden section at Bunnings, because he will come back from Africa.
Some time close to 5PM I reached home and only heard a few more minutes of the OB, John B1_B5 informs us that there was a “music break” at one stage when the OB signal was lost, I can only assume that this was some time after the 5:05 “by the seat of their pants” appearance of the clown and the man on stilts, as I didn’t hear any break in transmission before then.
Anyway, well done to 2CC for the outside broadcast, and well done to Bunnings for their brand new Belconnen store, it is absolutely fantastic and I recomend that you take a look if you have some spare time or some hardware needs in or around the ACT. Mike Frame was right when he said that you could spend half a day walking around that place, there is just so much to see.
Samuel
18 comments February 11th, 2006 at 01:36am