Nova Drive Time stars Ricki-Lee, Tim and Joel spoke about the incredible way they managed to host their show on Friday during the global Crowdstrike outage.
Veteran presenters Ricki-Lee Coulter, Tim Blackwell and Joel Creasey continued to host their show from Sydney and Melbourne after coming up with some makeshift solutions to ensure they could keep going after their competitors were taken off air.
The hosts, who were quick to react, shared a clip on Instagram revealing the workarounds they came up with to ensure their show could still air.
Since the outage affected Microsoft devices, the trio hosted their show using an Apple computer and Tim’s own Spotify account to play the music.
Meanwhile, Ricki-Lee, 38, and Tim, 42, used an analogue watch to tell the time from Nova’s Sydney studio and got Joel, 33, on air from Melbourne via mobile phone.
The shared footage clearly shows the clever presenters using their improvisational skills to present their hilarious show during a difficult time.
“Welcome to Nova, the hacked edition. I think we’re ready. It’s Friday afternoon, a small incident has occurred,” Tim told listeners.
“My heart is beating so fast, this is so much fun. I feel like I’m saving the world right now. We can’t talk to anyone, we don’t have any commercials, we control the music,” Ricki-Lee added.
Nova Drive Time stars Ricki-Lee, Tim and Joel spoke about the incredible way they managed to host their show on Friday during the global Crowdstrike outage. Pictured: Ricki-Lee (centre) with Tim and news anchor Michelle Stephenson. Joel is not with them as he works in another state.
“A nationwide Microsoft service outage has brought Australian radio to a standstill… except us! We’re doing the same old fashioned thing nationwide on Nova right now,” they wrote alongside the video.
Nova Group programming director Brendan Taylor praised the trio for finding a way to present the show during the global disruption.
“This is all a testament to our world-class production technology and equipment and the professionalism of our presenters,” he said in a statement.
This follows reports that the massive global Microsoft service outage that has plunged Australian businesses and airports into chaos could take days to resolve and the financial cost could be astronomical.
Veteran presenters Ricki-Lee Coulter, Tim Blackwell and Joel Creasey still hosted their show from Sydney and Melbourne after coming up with some makeshift solutions to ensure they got on air.
The hosts, who were quick to react, shared a clip on Instagram in which they revealed the workarounds they came up with to ensure their show could still air.
Cash registers at Woolworths and Coles supermarkets crashed on Friday afternoon and the outage also affected Qantas, Jetstar, ABC, Foxtel and 7-Eleven as computers across the country repeatedly crashed and displayed the “blue screen of death” error.
The flaw is the result of a conflict between Crowdstrike’s software and a Windows update package, the company’s CEO said, and servers and devices become stuck in “boot loops.”
An Australian government spokesperson confirmed that a meeting of the National Emergency Mechanism had been convened shortly before 6pm AEST, where government and industry leaders were briefed on the situation by Crowdstrike.