Super vision

Many years ago, a disc jockey thought it would raise a smile if he played Oh Lord, It's Hard to Be Humble (Mac Davis). What made this all the more ironic was that in real life he was actually a very self-effacing person, despite his talents.

This spirit lives on; what with one if his peers saying that Call Me Number One (Underworld) had been penned especially for him, and another saying that Bello e Impossible (Gianna Nannini) alluded to him.

• The term 'interesting condition' gets a new, improved definition in this season's Liquorish. Andrea

Cassar co-ordinates and presents, in her inimitable manner, the adventures that the team went through in Malaysia. The clips shown during the launch on March 5 were fascinating - so it stands to reason that the series itself will be even more so.

Frankly, I am sick and tired of hearing how one person was asked to go off air because she was pregnant, another kept hiding her bump behind the desk, and another was asked whether she planned to have children when she went to audition for a position she did not get (ostensibly because of other reasons).

A child is to be celebrated, and its gestation period in the mother's womb is not an illness. Antonia Micallef had the right attitude when she kept on doing outside broadcasts well into her pregnancy a couple of years ago. Not many people know how close she was to giving birth when on December 21, 2008, she gave us the annual year's round-up. The same is true of the newscasters who sign the news for people with hearing impairments.

But I digress. Incredibly, for the second consecutive year, one of the participants drops out last minute. Considering that this person was a finalist selected from the total list of applicants that had been streamlined into semi-finalists, it could have been a major setback.

Viewers will have to wait for the second episode of Liquorish to find out who it was - yet this was the silver lining in the cloud of disappointment at not having been chosen, for the person who stepped in.

I couldn't resist, however, asking Ms Cassar what it felt like to be on this side of the sea and ocean this time around, since being in the third trimester of pregnancy precluded the journey.

"Talk about mixed emotions! This was an utterly heartbreaking experience... having to be all those weeks away from my husband, while having full knowledge of what the whole group would be facing. However, I must admit that for the first time, I had the unenviable opportunity of fully understanding what the loved ones left behind go through. It was quite an emotional rollercoaster. I wouldn't like to go through anything similar ever again..."

The programme's website is www.liquorish.tv. It will be launched on the same day as the airing of the first programme, on April 3.

• Most people remember Żurrieq-born Tony Gauci as 'Il-Kampanjol'. However, some of us remember him from when he had another, very different, nickname. This was even before he set up his restaurant (inevitably called Il-Kampanjol, at Il-Qajjenza); when he sang at Premier Cafe in Valletta. 'Tony Curtis' was deemed the natural moniker for someone who (a) was called Tony to begin with and was also a friend of the real McCoy; (b) wore his hair in the kiss-me-quick hairstyle so fashionable at the time and (c) was an entertainer. Tony died last Wednesday - a very young 65-year-old to whom we owe a lot, if we care about folklore and Maltese music.

Listeners of Bejn il-Ħbieb will recall how he always called to thank Enzo Guzman when he played one of his songs - and of course, certain other disc jockeys who, in private, boast that they never play Maltese music, have suddenly discovered a predilection for Gauci's music - songs such as Il-Kampanjol, Il-Kalendarju and Qatt Ma Kont Daqshekk Ferħan were opportunistically procured, dusted down, and played. Unsurprisingly, Guzman had a lot to say about that, on air.

Gauci used to present Blanzuni on TVM with Eileen Montesin in 1985.

• The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) represents over 600,000 journalists in 125 countries worldwide. It is currently backing protest demonstrations in support of the Israeli Broadcasting Authority (IBA) led by the Jerusalem Journalists Association, a group within the National Federation of Israeli Journalists, which is an IFJ affiliate.

It all began when someone with clout came up with the harebrained idea that public broadcasting is no longer necessary in the country; perhaps the fact that there had already been tense relations between the IBA and the Finance Ministry had something to do with these.

Aidan White, IFJ general secretary, was quoted as saying that the working rights of journalists and other media staff were being threatened, and that Israeli citizens had a right to an independent public broadcaster. "Israel, like any other vibrant and democratic society, needs public service broadcasting, free of political and commercial interference".

This is a very interesting topic; anyone who is in a position to go on air - for whatever genre of programme - is duty bound to be careful what he does and says. It is a pity that some stations expect their staff to toe a line, political, commercial or otherwise.

• Clips of crowds and traffic are still being aired without the details that make individual people or vehicles being digitally altered. Does this breach the Data Protection Act? On the other hand, people who agree to be interviewed, albeit even for a sound bite, must be adequately identified when they appear onscreen.

television@timesofmalta.com.