From the New Zealand TV Weekly. January 30, 1967
Auckland
Arrival of extended hours of viewing early in April will pose personnel problems. Odds are, we will be seeing some new faces among the announcing team before long. Plans for educational sessions could open up scope for talent-finding among local teachers, unless the idea is to take the easy way out and buy most of this material for a kick-off. . . . . General feeling that Auckland's Town and Around team boo-boo-ed in picking its best for the year for network screening. Concentrated too much on trivial personality pieces and not on some of the worthwhile, more representative, clips. . . . . Visit of starlet Elizabeth Logue could have useful angle in New Zealand publicity in Honolulu and California as film clips were whizzed back to show Liz in local settings. . . . . Should be time soon to hear new rumours of visits by Shari Lewis or Diana Rigg, both of which are still on the cards. . . . . Slump in interest in teenage pop shows may pose problems in getting talent for TV variety productions. Too many New Zealand popsters are heading for the more profitable opportunities in trans-Tasman entertainment world, and it makes costs a bit steep if they have to be flown back for local appearances. . . . . NZBC newsman Dion Minhinnick still finds people get him mixed with his well-known cartoonist dad. It was worse when they both worked for the same paper.
Wellington
Shattered political fences will probably be mended when the Prime Minister, Mr Holyoake, opens WNTV-1's new transmitter on top of Mount Kaukau next month. Government-Corporation relations have been strained for some months-and even Mr Holyoake has occasionally joined in the recent criticism of the corporation. The corporation can be expected to turn on all its charm when the Prime Minister arrives at the transmitter building on February 22. The ceremony will be televised and Mr Holyoake will become a television technician for a moment when he pushes the switch to start a live relay of the Australia-Wellington cricket match at the Basin Reserve. The NZBC will have its fingers crossed that there are no technical hitches. . . . . Christmas had an extra sparkle for Family Game hostess Rosalind Walker. She announced her engagement to top NZBC producer Kevan Moore. No date has been set for the wedding but the couple spent the holidays at the Hawkes Bay home of Miss Walker's parents. Moore has produced the Wellington edition of Town and Around and for the next three months will be working on the new teen programme C'mon! for AKTV-2. . . . . It seems Wellington viewers hardly get to know a face on their screens before it disappears. Two television personalities who signed off within days of each other were Judith Pate and Alan Lyne. One of the Capital's better news readers, Lyne has taken leave to make a return trip to Britain with his family. Judith Pate also has overseas travel plans.
CHRISTCHURCH
Looking back on it, CHTV3 did stay-at-home viewers pretty well over the holiday season and the continuity people put on a sunny front even if the weatherman didn't. . . . . Incidental information: Apparently some 21 miles of news film was shot by local newscameramen last year-seems a lot. . . . . An Evening With Nat King Cole bridged 1966 and 1967 in Christchurch. This was peak viewing stuff and those who were otherwise celebrating and have since heard about it should really agitate for a "repeat" of this occasion. . . . . From all accounts former CHTV3 producer Brian Bell, now working in Wellington on the first major TV plays written specifically for making and showing in New Zealand, is not rushing any fences on this drama project. It's likely to be late in the year before the plays, now in the hands of the NZBC, reach the screens. Maybe we've seen just about the last of half-baked local drama after all. . . . . Good to have Bernard Smyth and his Town and Around team back again even though some local viewers felt they did not make the most of the best of Town and Around. for 1966. . . . . Local TV addict just back from a quick round-the-world swing managed to take in the odd National Film Unit Pictorial Parade in the U.K. and Australia and is now wondering why the NZBC and NFU can't get together for the benefit of local audiences.
DUNEDIN
There were probably few viewers and listeners who really appreciated Catherine Dowling's effort on December 31, 1966-January 1, 1967. Those who saw in the New Year on television would have been most unlikely listeners for Radio 4ZB at six next morning. But during Catherine's New Year's Eve visitations, she called in at DNTV2 on the stroke of midnight, wished viewers "a Happy," continued on with First Footing with friends and relatives, arrived at ZB next morning armed with cleansing cream, astringent, coffee, toothbrush and toothpaste and maintained her usual bright style of announcing until noon. What it is to be young! . . . . . The Town and Around "Bests" were not so adjudged by the majority of viewers. Because they were screened on consecutive nights in the pre-Christmas week, hardly anyone seems to have seen all four, and no one seems particularly impressed with any. Two Wellington visitors to Dunedin deplored the selection from WNTV1, yet a Dunedin viewer thought it the best of the four. Perhaps a nation-wide "Best," just the one programme of really top-notch items, would be the answer next year. . . It will be interesting to see if many, or any, local actors are "discovered" for TV when Brian Bell makes his auditioning visit prior to the proposed NZBC-TV venture into more concentrated drama. . . . . Nary a comment to be heard around about the proposed extended hours for television comes April. Quite the contrary in fact-many people abhorring the fact that television is on daytime at all in the summer. So much so that viewers hesitate to comment on the Sunday afternoon movie for fear of ridicule for having been inside on a summer afternoon!
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