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Member LoginJill Elder
Jill Elder has been the switchboard supervisor at ATN Channel 7, Sydney for 29 years continuously. In that time the switchboard has moved from the front foyer (plug board) to the back foyer, to the transport office area and finally to the back foyer outside the newsroom.
Jill started at age 16 with the PMG in Goulburn, a manual exchange in those days. She moved to Sydney and became a radio operator with Northern District Taxis. One day she saw a Card Reader and was told that she would work among television cameras and for a very long time. A conversation with a stranger led to her going to 7 for a job interview and starting as a switchboard operator the same day. That was in 1972 and she is still there.
When Christopher Skase took control of 7 the back foyer was painted baby blue – seemingly it was his favourite colour. Jill remembers the conversation she had with Skase ‘Nothing will change – things will just go on the same’. 200 people went in the next 2 weeks.
More pleasant conversation memories are those with Bob Hawke, Harry Connick Jr, John Howard and Clive Robertson. He walked out of the Newsroom one night and a guest waiting said ‘You don’t remember me.’ Clive said ‘You’re right! I don’t.’
Telephonists have a rapport with people – they turn to Jill for help. The 7 switchboard is also a counselling service. A death in a soap and people take it to heart. They feel it as part of the family & ring up and cry into the phone.
Elderly people ring to chat with the switch because they get lonely. One woman calls at 8 am every day and asks about what she should wear for the day. One girl asked for tickets to ‘Kingswood Country’ (some years ago).Audiences have to be over 18 years and this girl sounded very young. When she told that she was too young she said ‘This is my mother speaking.’
Lots of calls were received the night someone in a switching centre somewhere switched from the tennis to a porn movie the switching centre people were watching. When they got the tennis back on the switchboard lit up with people saying – ‘forget the tennis, put the movie back on!’
When a presenter made some disparaging remarks about women’s breasts just on 4000 calls were logged. One year the tennis coverage over ran –Australia was playing – and at 5pm there were calls “Where’s Bugs Bunny?’
In ‘the good old days’ they played Monopoly or cards at the weekends, then it was booking a cab for Fatso the Wombat to go home to Featherdale Park and keeping film for Atlab under the desk. The biggest number of calls was the day that the AFL and Rugby League finals were on the same day.
An over weight girl contemplating suicide was talked out of it by one of the telephonists. But it is not all heavy stuff – one night the gatehouse called for help – the two security guards were fooling around with a fire extinguisher which went off and filled the gatehouse with foam. Jill ‘night switched’ the board to the gate and helped clean up the foam and answered the phone at the same time.
Jill says ‘we are in the communications business but we don’t communicate with each other and that is hard to cope with. After hours about 90% of the calls we get are nasty. Some people think that the telephonist has done the lot, shot the pictures, written the news and its all your fault and they will tell you at great length.’
In 1982 Jill appeared in Kerry O’Brien’s documentary Circle of Poison. It was a sequence about dangerous chemicals used to colour women’s hair. Jill had a complete colour change. A few days later Kerry walked past the switch and said ‘Your hair looks very nice. I just hope it doesn’t kill you.’
Jill survived the colour change and survived a spell in Royal Prince Alfred hospital with breast cancer. She got more calls than the rest of the hospital and offered to help out on their switch.
In 2002 Jill Elder really has become the ‘mother of ATN'
from Australian Cinematographer - Issue 14