Chappelli by Ian Chappell

Author:Ian Chappell [Chappell, Ian]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: SPORT
Publisher: Penguin Random House Australia
Published: 2012-08-14T16:00:00+00:00

THE SWEARING BOX

WHEN I JOINED Wide World of Sports in 1980, producer David Hill gave me two excellent pieces of advice. The first was to treat every microphone as though it was live and the second was a reminder that there are four words you don’t say on television.

What a pity I didn’t heed his words of wisdom Not long after, I managed to fit three of the four forbidden words into one sentence and they went to air because I’d forgotten the microphone was live.

It all started on a Saturday morning in the WWOS cottage. The cottage is one of the many freestanding houses in Scott Street, Willoughby, where the various Channel Nine shows are devised and prepared each week. The two presenters of that afternoon’s show, Mike Gibson and myself, were in a meeting with the producer, Stewart Richmond.

Richmond explained that some footage had arrived that morning from the Wallabies’ international match against Fiji. There was about forty-five seconds of their victory, but as ‘Stewie’ explained, ‘There’s no commentary. You’ll have to do voiceover if we use it.’ Both Gibbo and I nodded in agreement and then we moved on to the next subject to be discussed.

In those early days of WWOS we used to do two hours for Melbourne and four hours for Sydney. At the point where Melbourne was due to leave the show, we had to have a ‘common out’. That meant that while the host was wrapping up the segment, he received a countdown from the director via his earpiece, so that both stations took their commercial break at exactly the same time. At the completion of the commercial break, Sydney viewers would continue watching WWOS, while in Melbourne the racing coverage commenced.

Throughout the first couple of hours of the program there were a few mistakes. These were minor glitches that would only have been noticed on air by either a technical person or a viewer with an intimate knowledge of television.

With just a few minutes remaining before Melbourne was due to leave the show, Stewie came dashing onto the studio floor. ‘We’re about fifty seconds short,’ he explained, ‘so I’ll get you both to have a chat to take us up to the commercial break.’

‘Why don’t you use the Wallabies’ footage?’ suggested Gibbo. ‘It’s better to give them something to watch rather than just have two talking heads.’

‘Good point,’ nodded Stewie, ‘but just remember there’s no commentary. You’ll have to do voiceover and we’ll leave the mikes open.’

With that decided, Richmond left the studio and I said to Gibbo, ‘Mate, you know much more about union than I do, so it’s better if you comment on the Wallabies’ form.’

That settled, Mike was going to voiceover the Wallabies’ footage and then throw to the commercial break in time with the director’s count. This all went off reasonably smoothly, but right at the last moment there was another glitch. As Gibbo finished the throw and the commercial break appeared on screen, I was fuming: ‘Jesus

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