DAYS OF OUR TELLY
Fifty years ago this weekend, the first nation-wide television news bulletin was transmitted in New Zealand. Over the past five decades, the presenters and reporters who bring us the news have covered any number of major events, from the funny to the surp
JENNIE GOODWIN
Goodwin was the first national female news anchor in New Zealand, and one of the first in the entire Commonwealth.
Previously a continuity announcer, Goodwin was asked to audition for a presenting role and became the news presenter on TV2 in June 1975.
‘‘Presentation then was very much fashioned on the BBC,’’ she recalled. ‘‘It didn’t allow that informality that they have with news presenting now, that more relaxed style.’’
One of the key stories that stands out in Goodwin’s memory is the Erebus disaster of November 1979, when an Air New Zealand Antarctic sightseeing flight crashed into the side of Mount Erebus on Ross Island, Antarctica, killing all 257 people on board.
‘‘That was really something. It drew on our professionalism to have an edge of empathy, a certain amount of detachment, because you had to.
‘‘We had bulletins right through the day, for days, and we were reading the names of those who lost their lives.
‘‘And there was footage but everything wasn’t technically as up to date as it is now. News is instant now, radio and television, everything, it’s just right there on the spot. But in 1979 we weren’t anywhere near as advanced as that. ‘‘So that was a very harrowing time and yes it did take a certain technique, because you do have to remain detached from it but there has to be a touch of empathy in your voice as well.’’ Goodwin was also presenting during the contentious 1981 Springbok Tour.
‘‘I was reading news in those days on a Saturday night. I can remember coming into the newsroom, it was an afternoon match and the light aircraft was flying over Eden Park dropping the flour bombs.
‘‘We had some monitors around the newsroom and everybody was crowding around the monitors watching that, couldn’t believe their eyes, and then of course the film crew would have been out there so it was a frantic news bulletin.’’
BILL RALSTON
After joining TVNZ in 1980, Ralston covered a number of beats including general news, politics and a lengthy stint as a foreign correspondent. He was a controversial reporter and later became an equally controversial television executive, heading up news and current affairs at TVNZ during a period notable for its aggressive budget-cutting measures, which included axing long-time and much-loved anchors Judy Bailey and
Richard Long.
‘‘I always found the election nights were always the things that really excited me,’’ Ralston said. ‘‘You had a massive outside broadcast operation in a programme that had no off-air time, in the sense that you could just keep going until the final result had come in and that could take several hours.
‘‘I can remember going until well into the early hours of the morning on a couple of those election programmes. Of course the coverage moves around but aside from getting up and going to the loo occasionally you’re just driven very, very fast by the pace of it all and you’re living on the adrenaline.’’
JIM HICKEY
Hickey trained in climatology and meteorology before joining TVNZ as weather presenter in 1998.
Instantly popular thanks to his witty and informal presenting style – he coined catchphrases such as ‘‘That’s a goneburger!’’ and ‘‘Come in, Dunedin!’’ – Hickey was on our screens almost every weeknight for 22 years before retiring at the end of 2014.
Among the major weather events he covered, Hickey recalled the unseasonable snow dump in September 2009 that snowed out the Homer Tunnel, which connects Queenstown to Milford Sound, and gave Hickey the distinction of becoming the first reporter to cross live from the Sound, where he stood outside the blocked entrance to Homer Tunnel on what he recalls as ‘‘three or four metres of snow’’.
Charmingly, however, it’s less the cross itself that Hickey remembers than the following day.
Hickey, an accomplished pilot, was joined on the South Island by reporter-turnedpolitician Tamati Coffey. ‘‘He was there doing it live for Breakfast, and the next morning we couldn’t get out, so I rang a friend in Queenstown who had an airplane and he flew over the Milford Sound to pick us up.
‘‘I said to Tamati, ‘I can get you back, I’ve got an airplane coming’ and he said, ‘Oh, cool.’ So Tamati sat in the back of the airplane and I got in the front. The pilot, Hank, said to me, ‘You fly,’ and I said, ‘All right, I’ll fly.’ Coffey turned pale, says Hickey.
‘‘His eyes opened wide and he said, ‘Oh – you’re joking.’ I said, ‘No no, I’m not, I’m going to fly.’ Well he was very quiet, Tamati’s normally fairly verbose, a pretty chatty sort of a guy. Well all the way back nothing from him. ‘‘We flew into Queenstown and landed on the ground, there was a very audible sigh behind me, even though I had a headset on (I heard it). Tamati was patting me on the back and saying, ‘That was great, that was great!’ So yeah, the day ... was quite memorable.’’
PETER WILLIAMS
Over nearly four decades at TVNZ Williams did just about everything, but he is probably best known as presenter of the daytime and weekend bulletins, a role he held for nearly 19 years until his retirement at the end of last year.
‘‘I was, on reflection, a bit sad I didn’t quite see out 40 years there,’’ he said. ‘‘In the end I was about six months short but life has to go on and I have no regrets.
‘‘If TV network news has been going for 50 years, I guess I was there for about 80 per cent of it.’’
Williams reported on many significant stories over his years at the network, but particularly recalled the Pike River Mine explosion in November 2010.
‘‘It was an unfolding tragedy from our first reporting and bulletin live from there on the Saturday, the day after the first explosion.
‘‘The second explosion happened while we were on air on the Wednesday evening and our live bulletin was an unfolding story, with scripts changing constantly as we knew on that night that there was no hope for the 29 men. It was a night on which, for one of the few times in my career, the emotion of the story was quite overwhelming and I found MYSELF, on camera, quite close to tears at times.’’
near Karapiro School, and am advised they’re undertaking safety improvements on the existing highway and actively investigating what else can be done to improve safety of the intersection,’’ Genter said.
‘‘The agency is also looking to bring forward investigations to upgrade the layout to a different form. A rural roundabout will be considered. Once funding is secured for this work, and early investigations are completed, the agency will engage with the community and relevant stakeholders as the project develops.’’
But Thatcher fears it’s only a matter of time until someone from the school community is involved in a tragedy.
She wrote to Waipa¯ District Council last year, suggesting road safety improvements were required around the school.
She received a reply from the Cambridge Community Board, but hadn’t heard from the council of any possibility of changes.
‘‘We’d be celebrating if we knew there was going to be some proposed speed limit, anything, out there,’’ Thatcher said. ‘‘Anything.’’