Live and Kicking

Day Two: In contrast to yesterday's anti-climax, I am assigned the story that currently is designated to lead that night's 6pm bulletin, and remains in the spot all day.

The future of the childcare centres formerly run by the collapsed ABC Learning has been revealed. Most to keep operating, a handful to close down for good.

I monitor a series of incoming feeds - the official receivers, the Deputy Prime Minister, the childcare union - and choose grabs for that night's story. Julia Gillard is dreadful talent when she chooses to be - dull, slow, and ponderous, all with the elocution of a wharfie.

I record the voiceover and head out to the western suburbs, to the ABC centre at St Alban's - one of those slated for closure. We are looking for distressed parents to give the story some bite, but our luck is out. The childcare centre is eerily silent. I talk to neighbours, passersby and eventually the centre manager, and discover there is only one child in care. Possibly this is why they have gone belly-up.

We set up for a live cross, involving two camera crews, arc lights, an earpiece so I can hear the broadcast, a three-ton link truck and about two km of cables. All this for fifteen seconds of live TV.

Once we have everything plugged in and wired up, and a live link established - about a quarter to six - the lone parent arrives to collect her child. Of course. We quickly disengage and doorstop her. She obliges with a few grabs, but is only mildly upset at best. "I'll find somewhere else, I guess."

We send back the vision so it can be included in my news story, and hook up again, ready for the link. Everything works. The newsreader throws to me cleanly and I do not stumble. It feels good to be back.