Today, My buddy Steve and I finally got around to closing a life changing chapter on our lives, the XFM chapter. What is XFM? Check out this link for some back ground information.

XFM 94.3

Long time readers of this blog, and I mean back to the first post long time readers, will remember that I made mention of being on the come down from the Jamboree at the time. I didn't really reflect on my experience in detail though, and I think that now is the time. I need to say from the outset, I owe scouting a lot. Most of my greatest experiences and achievements have come from the scouting movement, and I would have never met my wife or any of my closest friends if I hadn't been involved. Scouting has given me the chance to attend Jamboree's, Ventures, Moots, travel internationally, perform in theatre and get involved in some very rewarding community service. However, the jewel in the crown of my 20 something year association with the scouts was the Jamboree just gone, AJ2004.

Steve and I built and ran the radio station. Doesn't sound like a life changing experience when you put it in a sentence like that, but believe me it was. We planned it for nearly two years, and we put in countless hours to make sure that we put on the best station we could for the 9000 scouts and 2000 leaders in attendance. We didn't do it on our own of course, we had a team of helpers, and what a team they were! Talented, dedicated and a whole lot of fun - they are all now friends for life.

I won't spend too much time talking about how the station ran for the two weeks of the Jamboree, you can read about it in detail on the official website liked above. I do however want to mention what a great time we had, and I hope the kids memories of it are just as fond as mine.

So why was the final chapter of the XFM experience closed finally today, when the station went off air over 5 months ago? Well we used the OB caravan from PBA as a production studio for the operation. As you can imagine, its not something you can tow with any old car, so we didn't get around to towing it back to PBA from Woodhouse until tonight. My dad came and towed it with his Commodore, which is a story in itself, but that's for another time.

It was a strange experience to go up there and get it that's for sure. The site that was so vibrant and full of life, with infrastructure everywhere and multitudes of kids having fun on long summer days while we were broadcasting is now cold, stark and empty. All that is left now of XFM is a website and the studio caravan that we spend so long restoring, standing like a silent monolith overlooking the creek at Woodhouse, with the cardboard cut out of Max still smiling out the window.....



Myself, Carolyn and the Sorfadet on the way to present the Live and Exposed program