AUSTRALIA
- [QLD] Logan,
Tamborine Mountain, (Wk.2 of 3
weeks)
Week
54 of World Tour
Who
Said Pigs Can't Fly?
Bernice was determined
to show me a 3-D wall mural of Karawatha Forest which had been made
by school children. It was at Woodridge State School, but when we got
there classes were still in progress. Not a good time to intrude, Bernice
thought.
Just across the
road was 101 FM Logan Radio, the local community radio station. Maybe
we could ask if they’d be interested in booking me for an interview
sometime.
The fibro office
building looked quite old and was very plain inside. In fact, we’d
managed to come in through the back door without realising it, and surprised
the secretary in the process. When we made our enquiry, the receptionist
asked us to wait a few minutes because Don McLaughlin, the radio announcer,
was still on the air.
Once he cut to a
commercial break, the secretary went in to see him. Soon she returned
and said, “He’ll be able to interview you in about 10 minutes”.
What a stroke of luck!
“I’ve
just had a couple of cancellations this morning, so I can interview
you now”, Don said as soon as he saw me in the office. And as
he ushered me into his interview room, he continued, “Tell me
a little about this travelling the world without money”.
I’ve had several
unfortunate experiences with radio announcers over the years, and feel
cheated if I don’t get a copy of my interview as payment for filling
in some of their airtime. So after I gave him the 30-second version
of my travels, I asked if he could give me a tape of the interview.
“Sure”, he said, and slipped a cassette into a tape deck.
The interview lasted
about 22 minutes, and flowed beautifully. Don was genuinely interested
in my travel adventures and experiences and kept the interview alive
with appropriate questions, laughing at all the right places.
I was sure to ask
for the tape before I left, and he gave it to me happily. But something
didn’t look right. The tape was fully rewound. And seeing he’d
just pulled it out without rewinding it, either it had stopped before
the interview ended, or it hadn’t started at all.
“Can you please
check if the interview recorded properly?” I asked the receptionist.
So she gave it to one of the staff in another office and they checked
it out. It was blank!
“Can you get
a copy for me off your master tapes?” I asked.
“Don is back
on air again, but I’ll get him to ring you back and tell you what
he can do”.
But Don never rang
back. So I called again the next day. There was a different receptionist
on duty and she didn’t know anything about my problem. She’d
give Don the message.
By Friday, 4 days
after the interview, I still hadn’t got a reply. So I rang again.
This time I got the office manager on the phone. She sounded annoyed.
“You’re
lucky we were able to fit you in on Monday morning. We’ve told
you that this is a very specialized task and that we only work with
volunteer staff. As soon as we can get access to the log we’ll
copy your segment and get back to you.”
Well, I was due
to leave Logan in 2 days time, so I just accepted that I’d finally
get it when pigs could fly. It’s such a shame when I do everything
right, and the end result still comes out wrong.
Two weeks later,
Jenny from Caboulture, was driving me down to my next host in Tamborine
Mountain. I’d forgotten to return some keys to Bernice so, seeing
we were passing through Logan, Jenny organised for Bernice to meet us
at a major intersection in the Logan area. Bernice was pleased to finally
get her keys, and then she gave me a CD. “It’s your Logan
Radio interview”, she said. I couldn’t believe it. And there
I was thinking horrible things about them. I was so relieved.
And the interview
sounded even better when I played it again. After all, this was an interview
that I though would be lost for eternity.
This
article is taken from the ebook,
400-Day LETS Odyssey
About
the book
|
James
Taris web sites
JamesTaris.com
LETS-Linkup.com
Rich-Bastards.com
Honey-BeeBooks.com
TheGloryOfAthens.com
TravelWithoutMoney.com
ChineseArt-ChineseArt.com
ShanghaiPhotoGuide.com
ShockProofMaterial.com
2pups.com
