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JOHN'S MEMOIR Continues....
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| Each year throughout the early 60's
HSV 7 would broadcast the Miss Australian Ball. At the time I |
| was still a Junior Audio Engineer
and each year Alf Potter, the director of the outside broadcast would request
me to do the sound. |
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Alf Potter
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| I could never understand why I was
selected when there were so many senior engineers to me. I was later told
that my sound from |
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Junior John
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| the band was atsmopheric as others
would perhaps make it sound like a studio recording. I felt quite chuffed
at the praise and that Alf would specially request me. Whereas the real
reason was that the outside broadcast van's audio mixer only had a few
channels, so after subtracting the microphiones needed for the compere
and commentators there were only a couple of mic channels left. All I could
do was string a mic way over the top of the band and another on the double
bass. So naturally the sound was very much an echo, however it did capture
the atmosphere of all the clinking classes, chatter and the band. |
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The channel 7 OB Van
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| Planning started weeks before with
many meetings in Alf's office to plan the logistics of the event. |
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| The lighting was a huge operation |
| The Miss Australia Ball broadcast
was the glamor broadcast of the year. Everybody who was anybody was there,
the Governor Genera, the State Governor, the Prime Minister and all the
usual Toorak socialites. The lighting was a nightmare. The Palais de Dance
was a huge area and had to be lit so the in-sentitive black and white Tv
cameras could see something. The only way to light it was to get the light
level to at least half level and then use a powerfull arc spotlight to
focus on the models. |
| Ken Hancok who had worked on films
in England was the lighting director. he hired dozens of 5,000 watt lamps
to light the Palais de Dance. |
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Ken Hancok
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| HSV's largest studio lights were
only 2,000 watts. One could imagine the huge amount of electrical power
needed. George Morrison the station electrician would order a mini sub-station
from the State Electricity Comm. |
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Page 27
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| So much power was being pulled that
the huge circuit breakers would pop out. During the broadcast George Morrison
and one of his assistants sat with their feet up and their shoes on the
circuit breakers, forcing them not to open. Their shoes were hot and you
could smell leather burning. All the HSV staff were required to wear dinner
suites. The crew were provided with a table out of sight at the front side
beside the band. Before the broadcast we were given the same 3 course meal
as the guests, drink flowed freely, but we were forbidden to drink before
the broadcast. After the broadcast we returned to enjoy all the free drinks
we wished. I remember one year whilst John Gorton was Prime Minister of
Australia, he came and |
| sat at our table. Always the larrikin,
he said he preffered to sit with us workers, rather than the "boring fart"
official party. |
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John Gorton
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