The Pitch

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If you’ve ever watch Gruen Planet on ABC Television you will have seen the segment titled, The Pitch.

The Pitch is a challenge between two advertising agencies who are asked to sell the unsellable.

Yesterday morning as part of Grand Final Live, a one hour combined broadcast of my morning radio program at 98five and Clayton Bjelan’s program at 89.9 LightFM, we ran our own version of the pitch. Clayton had to sell the benefits of Melbourne to our Western Australian listeners and I had to sell Fremantle to those listening in Melbourne.

Click on the play button on the audio player below to hear what happened.



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Grand Final Live

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I’m pretty excited about broadcasting into Melbourne tomorrow morning.

From 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. Perth time, which will be 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. in Melbourne, 98five will be teaming up with 89.9 Light FM for a combined broadcast which we’re calling Grand Final Live. Clayton Bjelan and I will be co-hosts for the hour.

With the Fremantle Dockers will be meeting the Hawks in Saturday’s AFL Grand Final. It’s the first ever Grand Final for Fremantle since joining the AFL in 1995.

Clayton’s a massive Hawks fan so we’ll be talking footy as well as comparing the cities of Fremantle and Melbourne. It promises to be a lot of fun so make sure you turn your radio on if you’re in Melbourne or Perth or listen online at either station’s website.



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Dumb Ways to Die

Melbourne’s Metro Trains has launched a viral advertising campaign aimed at reducing the number of train related deaths in the state of Victoria. Rather than the regular, scary, stay-off-the-tracks-it’s-dangerous type approach, they’ve commissioned a catchy little video that is sure to be watched around the world hundreds of thousands of times. (Watch the video below.)

A three-minute animated music video, written by McCann ECD John Mescall, is the centre piece of the campaign. The video highlights the many dumb ways there are to die, with being hit by a train – a very preventable death – among them.

Mescall said: “We’ve got people eating superglue, sticking forks in toasters and selling both their kidneys. But truth is indeed stranger than fiction, and we still couldn’t come up with dumber ways to die than driving around boomgates and all the other things people do to put themselves in harm’s way around trains. The aim of this campaign is to engage an audience that really doesn’t want to hear any kind of safety message – and we think dumb ways to die will.” – Mumbrella

What do you think? Brilliant? Tacky? Insensitive? Funny?

Do you think it’ll actually work to reduce deaths?



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The Most Beautiful Song

After wandering aimlessly around Melbourne for a while today I sat down to take a break for a few minutes.

A rather unkempt gentleman came and sat beside me. He asked me if I liked music. I couldn’t answer no to a question like that.

He then told me that if I gave him two dollars he would sing me the most beautiful song I’d ever heard. I had my doubts.

Somehow I couldn’t imagine sitting in the centre of a major city having another man singing to me. I said no.

I think I should have given Hume the two dollars anyway but I was a little surprised by the offer at the time. He was probably homeless or disadvantaged in some way and I should have coughed up two dollars or maybe a little more on the proviso that he didn’t sing.

The most beautiful song you’ve ever heard.

His promise to sing me the most beautiful song I’d ever heard got me thinking. Maybe I missed out on something amazing. Probably not. Either way, I’m wondering what you would consider to be the most beautiful song you’ve ever heard. Not your favourite or most popular but what is the most beautiful sing you’ve ever heard?

I’m trying to think what that might be for me. Maybe Diana Krall’s version of Joni Mitchell’s song A Case of You. If you haven’t heard it before you can check out the video, then tell me your most beautiful song.



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We Apologise for the Delay

I love flying but I also like being on time. Those two concepts don’t always coexist.

Our family was up bright and early this morning. Well maybe a lot more of the early and a little less of the bright. Today my adventure begins. I’m flying to Melbourne, taking a coach trip to Geelong, then getting ready for another early start tomorrow as I begin the 25000Spins Great Ocean Road Challenge. I’ll be cycling to release children from poverty through Compassion Australia. It’s not too late to support the ride. Just go to my Everyday Hero fundraising page.

We were all out of bed around 3:00 a.m. so that I could be at the airport early enough to check in my ‘oversize baggage’ for the 5:30 a.m. flight. Well, it was meant to be a 5:30 flight. The oversize baggage is my bike, expertly boxed up by the wonderful Phil at Cyclebuzz Canning Vale.

With the bike checked in we headed to the departure gate for the usual wait. Once the call came over the P.A., one of the only announcements we could actually understand, I said goodbye to Pauline, Emily and James and headed on through. It was all going like clockwork.

I boarded the plane on time with the other passengers and got ready for take off. We taxied out to the runway …. and that’s when it all went pear shaped. A passenger three or four rows behind me had some kind of medical issue. If I heard the banter correctly he may have had a hard night last night but I’m not sure. What I do know is that the flight attendants headed his way with the oxygen bottle and started shifting passengers to other seats.

One of the flight attendants had obviously practiced her “everything’s alright” smile well. She was moving between the passenger and the flight deck a number of times, each time wandering down the aisle with a confident, happy look. She didn’t look this happy before the ‘incident’.

And so we headed back to the gate.

Five or six medicos headed on board and attended the patient … er passenger. After a long while they helped him into a wheelchair and left the aircraft.

Finally, once the paperwork was updated and the ambulance drove away from the plane we pushed out and headed for the runway again. Then, almost an hour late, we took to the skies.

The passengers who were near the incident noticed that the bloke had left a bag with some food in it and a choc milk. Oddly enough no one put their hand up for it so it was binned … and maybe incinerated.

So that’s where things are right now. I’m in the air on Virgin Flight DJ 678, winging my way to Melbourne and my 12:00 p.m. arrival is looking like a 1:00 p.m. arrival. Of course I won’t get to publish this post until we touch down. Until then I’ll keep listening to my iPod and enjoying a rather quiet flight. It’s amazing how dazed most passengers look but I suppose that’s to be expected on a 5:30, make that 6:30 flight.



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