30.05.09: Car Dealer Mag featured on BBC!
May 30th, 2009 by Richard Aucock
CAR Dealer Magazine was invited to speak LIVE on BBC News, this weekend, in a slot with anchorman Peter Sissons!
With the Magna-Vauxhall-GME deal making overnight headlines, they wanted some industry comment.
That’s why, afterwards, Car Dealer Magazine editor James called me. On Friday, I’d been covering the emerging deal for the website, so was fairly up to speed…
How did I fancy going on TV to talk about it?
Sure, no problem, I lied. Then felt my heartrate spike to a plateau it still has to start falling from. The Beeb wanted me over in their Birmingham studio, so it was on with the suit, a quick-fire dash over to The Mailbox, and into the BBC shop on the 7th floor. No, I didn’t know there was an entire film studio above it, either. But, there is. And on quite some scale.
If all this sounds like a blur, you should have been in my shoes. Rabbits would report less discomfort in front of headlamps. No headlamps for me; a tiny, deserted, fully automated studio would do instead.
Despite what the screenshot above suggests, there wasn’t really a skyline of Birmingham’s BT tower behind me. It was a grey curtain. In the studio, I had an earpiece to hear the feed, a microphone clipped to my suit, and was staring at a black box with a piercingly bright circle of green LEDs in the middle. This was the camera feeding back to London. Still can’t see properly.
Two million-watt lights from the roof slowly cooked me, as I sat there, listened to the news headlines… then, oh my, heard Peter Sissons (for it was he) start speaking about Vauxhall jobs. A gnats whisker later, I heard my name in the distance. Gawd. My cue to speak.
I then, hopefully, made some sort of sense, looking at the various aspects of the deal. I genuinely do think it’s good for Ellesmere Port, given how close the new Astra is. But what I actually said, I still don’t know.
Some time later, I think, the lights dimmed, a remote lady thanked me through the earpiece, and I was free to go. Still not quite sure where, or how, or what, or, well, what, or how… nothing like a bit of live TV to fry your head.
Then, it was out, and then it was away. Onto the phone, speak to James, check it looked OK, glad that Car Dealer Magazine’s news feeds are going to the right places. And back to the car – would you believe, a Vauxhall Insignia, this weekend. Of all the coincidences…
They’re right, I thought, as I walked through the sun. When they remind you to breathe, it is indeed because you forget to. The intensity of it means even stopping to take breath seems like an eternity.
All part of the training, I guess. For now, though, I think I’ll relax. Or, at least, try to get the heartrate below 160…
Richard.
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