“UNCLE SCRIM" IN CHINA

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28794, 15 January 1959, Page 7

“UNCLE SCRIM" IN CHINA

TV Adviser To Communists

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) SYDNEY, January 14. Mr Colin G. Scrimgeour—“Uncle Scrim” to thousands of radio listeners in New Zealand and Australia—is in Peking, advising the Chinese Communist Government on television techniques, a radio authority said here today.

The authority, a spokesman for Radio 2UE, Sydney, for which Mr Scrimgeour broadcast a religious session, said he left for Peking late last year. Mr Scrimgeour, who was living at Kurrajong, about 40 miles west of Sydney, had come out of semi-retirement to take the post, he said. There was a certain amount of mystery about the appointment. No-one in Sydney radio or television circles seemed to know the terms of the appointment, who offered it to Mr Scrimgeour, or exactly when. The appointment was for “about a year.’’ the spokesman added. Mr Scrimgeour would advise the Chinese on equipment and programming, he said. “Uncle Scrim” has been one of New Zealand’s and Australia’s most colourful radio personalities. A former director of the National Commercial Broadcasting Service in New Zealand, he was a centre of controversy when his appointment was abruptly terminated. A former Methodist minister, he came to Australia and began

a religious session, broadcast by Radio Station 2UE.

The session, which preached religious tolerance, swept New South Wales and fan mail at one time flooded into the station at such a rate that the staff could not handle it.

Mr Scrimgeour returned to New Zealand for a time, then came back to Australia where for some time he was managing director of a large firm handling television programmes.