Pop Shield

After a mere two hours sleep, I rise at 0130 to go to Telly Central.  Once there, I put the Cricket Special to air on the digital station Extra Sporty, feeding it simultaneously to Long Wave and the world.

Entering this pokey little studio is a bit like entering Narnia, but decidedly less magical.

At 0535 the line drops off.  Scuffle.

At 0545 the entire studio desk loses power.  I am alone in the middle of the night.  I call London Control, who help me to get the line transferred to LW and put a sustain loop on Extra Sporty.  Two maintenance engineers arrive.  They always travel in pairs, as if they’re trying to get aboard Noah’s Ark. They manage to get the desk working again and back on air in about twenty-five minutes.  Despite a brief blast of the Extra Sporty sustain loop on LW, the listeners won’t ever know the hell I just went through. Carnage!  The two maintenance engineers conclude the desk and consequent double network failure was caused by DUST IN THE POWER SUPPLY.