A quick checklist on how not to have a good night in a radio station
1. Have a sore throat and almost no voice
2. Find that virtually every scheduled break is wrong, and you need to find a way to fix them all…meaning dropped breaks and probably needing to find a slot for them later in the night
3. Voice nearly gives up on you during a weather read
4. Miss the start of a break due to trying to get water from the kitchen to help with the sore throat (and the interview being unexpectedly cut in half)
5. Have the end of the break mangled by the computer, forcing manual correction of the next break Updated6. Startrax declares that it won’t play an ad because of top of hour timing issues, so I move it to the first spot in the next break…it then decides to play the ad and prevent me from skipping the manually inserted ad, forcing me to mute Startrax and create dead air while I abort the ad and force the next one to play. The break was already well over the allocated time, so I returned to the show with only moments left before Sheridan started talking again.
7. Lose my voice during the final weather read and start squeaking!
8. Now for the walk home…if I wasn’t carrying stuff which I don’t want to get broken, it would be great if somebody could run me over and cause me to become unconscious for a while as my throat heals.End Update
This week’s award goes to Paul Kelly, and I have been waiting anxiously for the random number generator to pick this song ever since Jim Ball moved from 2GB to 2UE back in March last year.
The feature song this week is Jim Ball’s theme song, Paul Kelly’s “Sydney From A 747”.
Have you ever seen Sydney from a 747 at night? (yeah)
Sydney shines such a beautiful light
And I can see Bondi through my window way off to the right (yeah)
And the curling waves on a distant break
And the sleeping city just about to wake
Have you ever seen Sydney from a 747 at night?
Now the red roofs are catching the first rays of the morning sun (yeah)
My eyes are full of sand from my midnight run
And the captain says belt up now we’ll be touching down in ten (yeah)
So I press my seat and I straighten up
I fold my tray and I stash my cup
As the red roofs are catching the first rays of the morning sun
Have you ever fallen for a girl with different coloured eyes? (yeah)
And sent her letters with one or two lies
Have you ever longed to see the sun fall where it used to rise? (yeah)
And quit your job on the spot
Bought that ticket yeah spent the lot
Have you ever fallen for a girl with different coloured eyes?
Have you ever seen Sydney from a 747 at night?
Have you ever seen Sydney from a 747 at night?
Have you ever seen Sydney from a 747 at night?
Me I’ve never seen Dallas from a DC9
I just love that cheeky little line at the end. That subtle wit is a great match for Jim’s show.
3AW seem to be having trouble with their tieline link to their commentary team at the AFL this afternoon, as it has dropped out multiple times this afternoon. They’re lucky that 5AA Adelaide (who regularly relay 3AW’s coverage) have their own commentary team out there today because AW are using AA as their backup team.
Current outage over five minutes duration, one wonders how many extra sponsor mentions they will have to fit in to the next quarter if they even get the link back.
Update: 3AW’s commentary team were back online for the half time wrap, but Rex Hunt was audibly ranting at somebody on the phone in the background. Now for the second half they’ve decided to stay with 5AA’s biased coverage. End Update
Update 2:37pm: Somebody told 5AA that 3AW’s commentary team will be back on-deck shortly. I hope they were right. End Update
Update 3:48pm: Full time, and still no sign of the 3AW commentary team…and it only took 5AA until very late in the final quarter to concede that Adelaide’s opponents might just be worthy winners. End Update
I normally wouldn’t ask publicly like this, but the whole “two buses and a train” option is less than appealing and hardly convenient.
I’m looking to borrow a car from late Saturday the 16th of May until either late Friday the 22nd or early Saturday and 23rd. I’m willing to pay a negotiable fee for the use of the car (up to about $200…and yes, that applies to the people who have already turned me down) and I’ll pay for my own fuel.
Car needs to be registered, running and be capable of making it to Deniliquin and back (approximately 500kms there and 500kms back), but I don’t care if it would pass a roadworthy inspection.
If you think you can help, or you want more information, please contact me on 0405 302 499 or email samuel@samuelgordonstewart.com