Host with the most: Elaine Lees was glowing in her praise of the Rochester community’s response to Ian “Macca’’ McNamara’s decision to conduct a live broadcast of his Australia All Over show in the town. It was Elaine’s passion that led to Macca offering his services for the November event.
Iconic Rochester Sports Museum identity Bob Knight offered a typical moment of levity when the ABC microphone belonging to Ian ‘’Macca’’ McNamara was pointed in his direction on Sunday morning.
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At the event with wife, Marg, and proudly wearing dual hats as a member of the Rochester Lions and key part of the museum project, he was involved in three-way banter revolving around the nuptials between the pair many years ago.
It was just one of several light-hearted moments in the four-and-a-half-hour show, which featured a live performance from Born n’Bred singing students Evie Scoble and Shavanna Coghill.
They are part of Glenda Bancell and Paul Colyvan Rochester music school and sang Cover me with Sunshine live to the show’s national audience.
Shavanna is in Year 6 at St Joseph’s primary and Evie is a Rochester secondary student.
Elaine Lees and Denise Acocks also had their moment in the sun when they spent a short time explaining the Rochester recovery effort and just how important the visit was to the town.
Mrs Lees had become a semi-regular on the show in the lead-up to the live broadcast, having read a poem about the sounds that were lost to Rochester following the flood event.
The Sunday morning event, not designed as a fundraiser, yielded an unexpected return for the town as the Lions Club received several donations on the morning.
While not charging for food on the morning, Bob Knight said people insisted on giving money to the club.
“A lot of people handed over $50 for an egg and bacon roll. A Taggerty group, through the Rochester Hotel, did a raffle for us, which ended up raising about $600. We ended up raising more than $3000 on the morning, which was amazing” he said.
Live radio: Interviews were conducted with a variety of community representatives, along with random members of the crowd, all making for compelling and entertaining radio for the popular host — who began his journey as a rural journalist with the ABC.
