Everything's JUST DANDY

An on-air crisis caused Kerre to ponder: Mick Jagger or Bruce Springsteen?

- KERRE WOODHAM

It's a funny old thing when technology fails, especially when you're working on the radio and utterly dependent on it doing its thing so you can do yours.

My producer Helen and I have about six minutes at the top of every hour to discuss how the show’s going, nip to the loo, make a cuppa and get ourselves sorted for the next hour of live radio.

On Friday, at six past 11, I was back behind my microphone, listening to the last of the weather forecast. I turned on the mic and proclaimed, “NewsTalk ZB, Kerre Woodh...” I trailed off. Helen was gesticulating wildly to me, but I couldn’t hear a thing through my headphones. Clearly I wasn’t on air.

An ad started playing and Helen came rushing into my studio. “What on earth,” she said as she madly turned things on and off, but still the studio wouldn’t come to life.