Southgate, Bill
The People On Your Screen (The Press, 29 January 1970)
has been with the N.Z.B.C. for nine years, joining the service when television was beginning, and telecasts limited to about two hours a night. He was born in Christchurch and educated at St Andrew’s College, and when still in his teens went to Australia. He met a radio announcer who suggested he should have an audition. It was successful, and he began with the New England network in New South Wales. On his return he joined the N.Z.B.C. but at that stage had no particular interest in television work.
After some time in Christchurch, he spent three years on radio in New Plymouth, returning to CHTV3 last February. One of his interests is vintage cars, and he has a Riley Kestrel which he has been re-building, in leisure hours, for the last two years. He is also extremely interested in cricket, and watches whenever he can. He was 'in England in 1965 and followed the New Zealand team there that season to a considerable extent Be cause of his varied working hours he cannot play cricket to his regret but manages occasional Sunday matches with the N.Z.B.C. team. It is not he says, especially serious cricket But the broken hours are ideal for golf, and he plays, on a 16 handicap, at Russley.
He is 29 years old. is married, and has a 14-months-old daughter, Victoria Jane. Asked what were his most embarrassing or memorable moments on television, he recalled an evening when he was the news reader. Just before he began, the floor manager told him to start on item two. Within the second, he was in viewer’s view, riffling over his papers and if he found it a difficult moment so did his director, whose duty it is to follow the reader’s script and roll in the film sequences in the news—the director has to wind in the film eight seconds before the announcer fades from view. . . . But one of the most demanding moments any announcer could suffer came when he was news reading and caught sight, in the corner of his eye, of a woman member of the staff making minor but intimate adjustments to her wearing apparel. Half-way through the news he had great difficulty in suppressing his laughter, an awkward moment made none the less difficult when the girl realised what she had done and herself collapsed in a mixture of laughter and embarrassment
In A Few Words...
His interview with Prince Charles at the beginning of the year was a broadcasting scoop. “I’ve never been so nervous in my life,” he admits. But the Prince immediately put him at his ease when he arrived at Buckingham Palace by saying: “Did you have any. trouble finding the place?”
