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Speaker 1: On What a way to start a Friday and head

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Speaker 1: towards the weekend celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of this show.

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Speaker 2: There were two amazing guys associated with Countdown, one of

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Speaker 2: course was Molly Meldrum and the other is the voice,

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Speaker 2: Gavin Wood. And we are so thrilled to have Gavin

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Speaker 2: join us this morning. Hello morning, there's the voice.

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Speaker 1: Thanks.

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Speaker 2: Can you believe it's been fifty years.

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Speaker 3: Oh, I'm so old. We're getting there.

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Speaker 1: You're all good, You're all good.

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Speaker 3: Well, I was lucky I joined in eight. Paul Turner

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Speaker 3: was the original voice over guy. Yeah, it started off.

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Speaker 3: It started off as a half hour show in November

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Speaker 3: Today with Grand Goldman, John O'Donnell and a couple of

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Speaker 3: the other DJs, And then they realized that they needed

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Speaker 3: to have it compare and a talent coordinator and Robbie

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Speaker 3: Weeks and Michael Shrimpton were having a beer at the

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Speaker 3: pub and all of a sudden, this green selika mounted

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Speaker 3: the curb and this mad guy with a hat ran

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Speaker 3: out into the bottle shop and picked up a bottle

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Speaker 3: and came back into the car and took off, and

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Speaker 3: Robbie Weeks said, there's you knew host to Countdown and

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Speaker 3: it was Molly Meldram.

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Speaker 2: That's amazing.

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Speaker 1: Is it true the original black and white episodes of Countdown?

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Speaker 1: Was that first series or whatever? Were raised, Gavin? Is

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Speaker 1: that myth or true?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, that's true. The ABC wanted wanted to reuse all

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Speaker 3: the tape and that Ted Emery who was running Trouble.

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Speaker 3: Ted Emory, who's probably one of the greatest comedy directors

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Speaker 3: in this country, he actually took episodes of Countdown and

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Speaker 3: hit them in the boot of his car and drove

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Speaker 3: around with them for about three months so they could

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Speaker 3: get over this purge that the ABC were doing.

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Speaker 2: Oh that is fantasticational there's a movie in that belt

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Speaker 2: in the boost.

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Speaker 3: Well, it just goes to show the passion that everyone

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Speaker 3: had for this show. Absolutely, we were all into it

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Speaker 3: one hundred percent.

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Speaker 2: Being there on set each week was did you feel

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Speaker 2: sometimes like you were going to have to be herding

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Speaker 2: cats there with all the madness going on around you?

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Speaker 3: Lisia, I was terrified one because one because there were

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Speaker 3: big black curtains all around me, and then the stars

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Speaker 3: would come from the VIP dressing room across the hallway,

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Speaker 3: past my boots and up onto the stage, so at

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Speaker 3: any moment I could have Elton John or Boy George

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Speaker 3: behind me. But the most terrifying one was Bolly. He

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Speaker 3: had come in and put his hand over the mouth

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Speaker 3: in the middle of the reed.

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Speaker 1: Terah, Molly, There's no one like Bally, right. I remember

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Speaker 1: interviewing Molly about five or six years ago, and just

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Speaker 1: as an exercise, after we did the recorded interview, we

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Speaker 1: edited all the arms and ours out and it literally

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Speaker 1: sounded like a totally different human being. It was so weird.

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Speaker 1: He's like that right. No, No, it wasn't right. He's

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Speaker 1: like nobody else is he.

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Speaker 3: Well, I've got to stick up for him. Here. The

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Speaker 3: old ABC videotape machines took five to ten seconds to

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Speaker 3: sync up. So if he was going to if he

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Speaker 3: was going to say, here's the Boomtown rat, yep, you know,

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Speaker 3: there'd be another four or five seconds.

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Speaker 1: Because he had to feel.

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Speaker 3: Right, and that happens covering the old professional Well, there

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Speaker 3: you go.

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Speaker 2: We've been We've been talking with our listeners this morning about,

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Speaker 2: you know, some of our favorite memories and a couple

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Speaker 2: that have come up a lot are Molly with Prince

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Speaker 2: Charles and and a rather excited, inebriated. Eggy Pop was

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Speaker 2: another that.

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Speaker 3: Was an actor. That was an actor. I can tell

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Speaker 3: you all about that.

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Speaker 1: Oh yeah, pretty good.

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Speaker 3: Especially let's talk about Prince Charles. It's just flown back

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Speaker 3: from London, right, So those flights back then were brutal,

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Speaker 3: twenty four hours to get back to Melbourne and he

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Speaker 3: had to learn all this stuff for the Prince Charles. Trust. Yeah,

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Speaker 3: now you try sitting beside of you know, Prince Charles

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Speaker 3: and remembering what you've got to say. The ABC didn't

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Speaker 3: give him an autocue, remember it, so they threw the

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Speaker 3: poor bugger to the wolves. I'm going to stick up

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Speaker 3: for that.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, no, absolutely.

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Speaker 3: And then Eggy Pop he nearly decapitated one of the

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Speaker 3: girls in the audience of the mic stand after he

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Speaker 3: after he called Molly dog face, he jumped around, Yeah,

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Speaker 3: he said. He said, Oh, look, I'm on at Bombay

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Speaker 3: Rocks and I come down and see the show. So

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Speaker 3: Molly and I said, oh, we've got to go and

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Speaker 3: see this. So we walked backstage and here's Eggy Pop

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Speaker 3: sipping on a cup of tea and I've said, that's

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Speaker 3: not rock and roll, he said. He said, Gavin, if

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Speaker 3: I drank what everybody thought I drank. He said, I

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Speaker 3: would have died ten years ago. Yeah, exactly. It was

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Speaker 3: all in act.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, but like Georgie sorry good, I think he could

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Speaker 1: be a bit like that made the influence that Countdown

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Speaker 1: and Molly and all of the team had over careers,

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Speaker 1: like from Madonna to a lot of the Aussie acts.

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Speaker 1: It is incredible a lot of those international acts still

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Speaker 1: to this day, so that you helped to break them,

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Speaker 1: not just in Australia but internationally. It's pretty influential, isn't it.

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Speaker 3: Well, yeah, Martha, Martha Davis from the motel See you've

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Speaker 3: always credited Countdown and Soda Zabba. Yes, because because Molly

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Speaker 3: just played Mma mea non stop for five weeks and

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Speaker 3: they heard about it and then that's where that's that

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Speaker 3: was their platform to take off worldwide. You've got to

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Speaker 3: remember that. You know, if we back then, if we

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Speaker 3: got good, good chart positions because of Countdown, the rest

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Speaker 3: of the all the record companies around the world watch

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Speaker 3: the Australian charts so they can see what was happening

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Speaker 3: down here, what was hot and back then you know

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Speaker 3: you've got Elton John making eight hundred thousand dollars film clips,

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Speaker 3: you know, like I'm still standing and all that. And yes,

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Speaker 3: the record the record company would just fly them out

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Speaker 3: just to do Countdown. Yes, yeah, that's how influential it was.

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Speaker 3: But the good thing is, guys, Molly and I never

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Speaker 3: took the show for granted. He tried to work very

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Speaker 3: hard on making it a good show every week to

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Speaker 3: elevate the Australian music up to the international standard, and

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Speaker 3: it did.

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Speaker 2: Without Countdown, our industry would not would never have become,

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Speaker 2: you know, the force that it is. And Molly is

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Speaker 2: a national treasure. We love him and we you know,

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Speaker 2: sadly he did have that terrible accident a few years

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Speaker 2: ago and so we don't see so much of him.

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Speaker 2: Are you still in touch with him?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, Look, Molly's happily retired now. Yeah, you know, he's

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Speaker 3: eighty two and January. Yes, and he just wants to

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Speaker 3: I shouldn't say it, but he wants to favor Black.

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Speaker 3: I shouldn't say that, but he just wants to I

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Speaker 3: have a quiet He just wants to have a quiet

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Speaker 3: life and I think I think he deserves that. And

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Speaker 3: we're all there to support him. His a dear, dear friend.

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Speaker 3: He supported me. We supported each other. I was young.

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Speaker 3: I was a young DJ for in Brisbane when I

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Speaker 3: started at three, and I was too scared to talk

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Speaker 3: to him. It took me six months. It took me

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Speaker 3: six months to talk to him. Then we found out

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Speaker 3: we're both aquariums and both mad and that that was

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Speaker 3: the chemistry, that was the bond, and we just went

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Speaker 3: for it. Yeah, yeah, I never said I never said

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Speaker 3: that sounded a little bit different to the other.

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Speaker 1: One's not surprising. It was a bit daunting, man, I mean,

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Speaker 1: he produced a real thing. For Russell Morrison, he'd done

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Speaker 1: so much in his career it would have been one.

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Speaker 3: Of those things maybe as a life force. There is

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Speaker 3: no one else in this country that could have done

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Speaker 3: what Molly has done. You know, no one had the passion,

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Speaker 3: the enthusiasm, the madness, the craziness as Molly. He He lived,

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Speaker 3: eat and breathes it well.

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Speaker 2: Gavin. We we also thank you Aynonymous with an amazing

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Speaker 2: show that we all grew up with and just love

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Speaker 2: to pieces. And I hope you're going to have a

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Speaker 2: little bit of a celebration today and we absolutely love

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Speaker 2: that you joined us as morning.

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Speaker 3: It's my pleasure and look out for the live show

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Speaker 3: on the ABC Saturday Night. I've seen some of the

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Speaker 3: footage and it's just brilliant next weekend.

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Speaker 1: If I'm ever run in West Australia my past, I

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Speaker 1: know best to molly specting Bud because he's much loved.

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Speaker 3: I certainly will.

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Speaker 1: Guys, Thanks Kevin, say you about bye bye? Thanks by

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Speaker 1: bye Kevin. Good funny. You got to get the real

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Speaker 1: one just to hear his voice again.

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Speaker 3: Going