The 1985 Live Aid concert was broadcast all around the world. But it very nearly wasn't seen here. Produced by Katie Scotcher.

"We had nine days to put the production together."

Don Hutchings never liked the title 'Mr Telethon' but for more than a decade that was exactly who he was.

He helped introduce the fundraising television marathon to New Zealand in the early 1970s and has been stuck with the name ever since.

But after more than a decade on the job, Don decided Telethon 85 would be his last. It was a good one to go out on. Over 24 hours, New Zealanders donated more than $6 million to the Child and Youth Development Trust - a record breaking amount.

Bewildered by the amount raised and shattered after the broadcast, Don was ready for a nap - but there was no time. He had just nine days to prepare for a broadcast much bigger than any Telethon or anything this country had ever seen.

The Ethiopian Famine

Michael Buerk was the BBC's correspondent in Africa covering the Ethiopian famine. In October 1984, he filed a story about the 18-month-old crisis like he'd done many times before.

But this story caught fire. Pictures of malnourished children and heartbroken mothers flashed across television screens around the world. The cry of children starving to death was haunting. People were glued to their screens, watching, in Buerk's memorable description, a "biblical famine in the 20th century."

The situation was dire. An estimated 200,000 people had already died and up to 8 million more were at risk. Buerk called the crisis "the closet thing to Hell on Earth".

Irish rocker Bob Geldof saw the news report and was desperate to do something.

With mate Midge Ure from the band Ultravox, Geldof wrote a charity single, then asked some of the biggest names in pop music to perform it. Recorded in one day in late November, the single was released just a few days later, in time for Christmas.

'Do They Know it's Christmas' was the biggest song in the world that year. It reached the top of the charts in 13 countries and held the number one spot in the UK for weeks. Donations poured in, eventually raising millions for food and supplies for Ethiopia.

But Geldof soon found out that aid wasn't getting very far; a cartel operating at the Ethiopian port was blocking it. Geldof needed a fleet of trucks instead and several million pounds to finance them.

His solution? A giant charity music concert, featuring the biggest bands in the world, performed simultaneously on two stages; Wembley Stadium in London and JFK Stadium in Philadelphia. Beamed through 13 separate satellites, this 'Global Jukebox' would be broadcast around the world…

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details