THE PEOPLE ON YOUR SCREEN (8)

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32252, 21 March 1970, Page 3

THE PEOPLE ON YOUR SCREEN (8)

JOE COTE was born in Ontario 28 years ago and was on his way round the world, on a working holiday, when he reached New Zealand in 1965. He met and married a Christchurch girl, and joined the N.Z.B.C. in the TV newsroom, after a brief period teaching Latin and English at Burnside High School. He has a daugl ar Anna, IJ, and a cat, Tangerine, a blue-cream Oriental with evidence of its paternal parent, a red Tonkinese. “I have had the cat two weeks, and it has now stopped scratching my daughter,” he said. He is programme editor for “The South Tonight” and fronts in it with Mary Dick. It is a strenuous but enjoyable job, he says, the hour and a half in the studio at the end of the working day being the most relaxing and pleasant part of it. He has not found his Canadian accent a handicap in broadcasting and television and in fact conducted the Christchurch “Top Mark” programme. He has always been a journalist, and has a deep interest in the work: he is also keen on his home garden and handiwork around the house. He plays squash rackets and tennis and has “a developing interest” in cricket, through playing with the N.Z.B.C. team. He relates modestly that he has made scores of 13 1

and 16 in his two batting ventures, and has taken two wickets each time he has bowled. “I was,” he said, “accused of chucking and the complaint was not without basis before I learned how to bowl.” His favourite programmes are overseas documentaries and the British programmes “Vendetta," “Softly, Softly,” and “The Trouble Shooters.” I His most embarrassing mo-

ments have been, mainly, l on the air. But on TV recently he said that 15 i children had been to the Show Grounds to see the! Queen, when he had meant to say 15,000. This I ruined what was to have been mention of the fact that all those children had braved the rain and! that the Progressive: Youth Movement had not. It also meant, next evening, apologising to 14,985 children.