Woke up at 5am and it was sunny! It still wasn’t enough to drag me out of bed for a run and I ended up at ABC Goldfields-Esperance at 7.30am in time for the morning editorial meeting.
The station only broadcasts Breakfast and Morning shows live as well as local news and the rest is networked from Perth. The editorial meeting was pretty relaxed and they gave me a story to work on right away – writing a script for Astro Dave, their space regular.
It’s pretty cool hearing your first script being read on air almost verbatim (meaning it wasn’t absolute rubbish), the host Natalie is pretty young and I was impressed at how cool and calm she was on air.
Later in the day I headed over to Boulder, about 10 minutes away from the main street of Kal. Boulder was once a separate gold mining town that had a vicious rivalry with Kal. The suburbs in-between took over, joined them up and eventually the city absorbed Boulder (much to resident distaste) hence the proper name Kalgoorlie-Boulder.
This week sees the 6-month anniversary of an earthquake in Boulder that severely damaged a bunch of beautiful heritage buildings. The main street looks like the set of a Western movie but with scaffolding all over it.
It was my job to chat to the locals and see what they remembered from the day and how the were fairing 6 months down the track. I always find it amazing and hilarious that people think they’re going to be on TV when you hold a microphone in your hand. The absence of a camera doesn’t seem to tip them off, nor does the fact that I introduce myself as being from ABC RADIO. Bless.
The coolest place I visited was the pharmacy where they had all of the old cabinetry and brown and blue tincture bottles that looked like they were from the turn of the century. And luckily for John, the owner, only two of about a thousand bottles broke in the earthquake.
All in all it was a great first day at work placement and I “stayed back” until 5pm editing my piece. My official finishing time is 3pm. Unheard of.
I’m about to head to beach volleyball match with a bunch of out-of-towners who all live here for work. It seems like a pretty social place. What I’m really looking forward to is a Skimpy breakfast on Friday morning. Apparently it's never too early for boobs in Kal.
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