commseng

…and finally

Can I just say that as one of the older members of this forum, I have been so interested to see that many of the posters on here were and are so young. For me that is wonderful, it is not just us older ones who could be stuck in the past, but a whole new group of people who are interested in bringing things of interest to viewers and listeners now and in the future.
Although the end of something is sad, which has been mentioned here on this thread so many times, as you get older you see that this is the way life is. It does move on, something else does come along. I have worked in buildings that are now demolished, worked on programmes with teams that have all moved on, doing things that are no longer required for shows that have been forgotten.
What is lovely is that we had fun at the time. What is great, is that sometimes people have mentioned something in the past which I have worked on, and for them it was special. To have that bought up years, if not decades, later shows it was all worthwhile back then.
I hope the generations after mine will achieve the same - I am sure you all will - maybe not on TV as we have known it, but on whatever is captivating the public next.
All of you, please do make your life’s work doing what you enjoy, as that is the key to a happy life, and that is where you will meet others who share your interests and will ultimately pull the rest of the public in.
Thanks Asa, and all the others. I have enjoyed my time on here, I am sure there are many others who have not been able to say how much they have also learned and moved on to create the next big thing. What you have done has driven a whole new pool of talent ahead for the future.
I wish everybody well, and look forward to seeing what you can deliver next.

2000 Today

I have some fairly grim memories of it all.
I was working for the BBC 1 programme and was looking after the radio links with a colleague who was so ill he could barely speak.
We were one of the main London hub sites, next to the new (and not yet working) London Eye.
The London Eye team were trying to blame our links for some of the cabins going upside down as the wheel went round.
We needed a 103 foot hoist to see the main hub site near Southwark, but only had a 100' hoist, so ours was on the maximum reach of its jacks.
The days were long, the kit was all pressed into service, including some of the less reliable stuff.
Watching the Prime Minister and the CEO of British Airways open the London Eye, on a very dodgy 5GHz link live to the nation and beyond with everything crossed.....
Colleagues and former colleagues, and anyone else we could employ who knew what a sync pulse was getting locked in and out of buildings.
Not leaving site for hours on end, and nothing to eat for 18 hours on the day itself.
Someone from production giving us a Mars bar which we cut in half and a small bag of Mini Cheddars, which we shared.....
The Scottish rigger producing a bottle of scotch that we drank on the roof of the nearby building having climbed a ladder that was about 2 feet shorter than it should have been.
The other rigger spotting someone in the crowd stealing some of our kit and boucing their head down the side of our Bedford links truck. Quite loudly.....
With no toilets anywhere on site, men were pissing everywhere, women were going underneath our hoist on its tippy toes.
Broken glass everywhere.
Leaving site to walk the mile to our digs through the crowds, finally getting there about 3am, with nothing to eat when we arrived.
Getting up again at 5am to go back to site.
The genny op not having any means of getting back to site, and the Unit Manager who was acting in the post, starting up the genny.
The electricity going off 20 minutes later, with a lot of shouting when the genny op arrived, and spotted the ventilation flaps weren't open and the genny was overheating.
Despite the technical crew being back on site, nobody else arriving for our breakfast commitments, no production or talent.
Eventually giving up and deriging in the broken glass and piss while slightly hungover, tired and very hungry.
Finally going home and ready for bed.
I have said, based on that, that I will never work another millennium ever again.