Fun On Wheels, Buster

Illawarra Mercury

Thursday November 22, 2001

By CHRIS MOORE

The Channel V mobile communications convoy rolls into Wollongong tomorrow with the power to turn Lang Park into a TV studio.

Led by the double-decker bus affectionately known as Buster and hosted by Channel V's Andrew G and Andrew Mercado, the transmission is a free live event. The show will feature The Superjesus, Wollongong's pop rockers The Cherrypickers and interviews with Jimeoin and other guests.

Barry Chapman, the managing director of Channel V, said the music bus was a return to the glory days of touring bands.

``Buster is a travelling hotel ... it sleeps 10, has a kitchen, bathroom and shower and in the Almost Famous style, bands will use it to get around Australia."

There are three national tours planned for Buster in the next 12 months, the first travels through Wollongong and finishes at the Homebake festival in Sydney on December 8. After Channel V is finished, Buster will go on hire to national touring artists.

``Coming with the bus is a full broadcast unit, including satellite uplink truck, stage truck and other vehicles - it's a full-on travelling circus," Chapman said.

``This bus created the opportunity to take Channel V out on the road, because you can imagine that doing live TV on the road is usually a difficult and expensive business. Buster helps cut the costs with accommodation and organisation."

Covering 19,000km over 45 days, from Melbourne to Brisbane, the music bus will provides a stage for Superheist, Lash, Human Nature, Bardot, Jebediah, Something For Kate, Gerling, George and Tism as well as regional acts at each stop.

According to Mr Chapman, the average age of the Channel V audience was around 18, with the spread between 13 and 30. About 700,000 viewers tune in each week out of a possible more than 1.2million subscribers.

``Channel V isn't trying to produce a safe, homogenous or sweet view of music television," Mr Chapman said. ``We want to reflect youth culture with a cutting edge collection of dance, pop, rock, charts, metal, techno or whatever."

Channel V and the music bus will broadcast from Lang Park in Wollongong tomorrow, the pre-show starts at 5pm and is a free event. For more information check out www.channelv.com.au