The 2004 Olympics turn out a bit different for Johnny Kalimeris. A technical problem during the transmission of a pre-Olympic football match, yesterday, forced ERT's CEO to resign. For 30 minutes, no transmission was possible. The Greek governement starts an investigation and power failure was suggested.
The EBU, not involved with this breakdown, was able to tell us more about it: a technician had flipped the wrong switch! The respective technician resigned. This incident made headline news around the world and though everybody remains optimistic that the operation will run smoothly, the incident has been taken very seriously and apparently measures have been taken to make sure this type of error does not happen again.
Kalimeris took the initiative last year to involve Nikos Terzis in the Greek national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest, and supported the Greek delegation in 2004 to schedule and organise their promotion strategy. “Under his supervision, ERT spent a lot more energy in the Eurovision Song Contest”, the Greek-based website Oikotimes.com wrote.
In less than 24 hours, the opening ceremony of the 2004 Olympics starts in Athens, Greece. Tomorrow, esctoday.com will tell you more about the EBU and the Olympics, to show that the EBU is more than just the Eurovision Song Contest!
