The People On Your Screen (19)

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32352, 18 July 1970, Page 3

The People On Your Screen (19)

DICK ALLARD has been with the N.Z.B.C. for eight years, for the last five of which he has been district sports officer. He was born at Rangitata Island, where his father was a fanner, and he attended the Belfast, Papanui, Alford Forest and Cheviot primary schools before going on to the Cheviot District High School and then Christchurch Boys’ High School. At school he had an intense interest in sport, an interest he still maintains. At Boys’ High School, he played Rugby, cricket and tennis, took life-saving, and was a member of the school shooting team. “I had some advantage over the others,” he says. “I had had a rifle a long time and had been potting rabbits for years.” After leaving school, - Dick Allard was an apprentice electrician with the M.E.D. and was a volunteer in the occupation force in Japan. It was there he had his first taste of broadcasting work. He went there as electrician to the Sixth New Zealand General Hospital, but later was seconded to the J Force broadcasting unit, set up by the N.Z.B.S. It had two stations, which were on the air nine or 10 hours a day with request sessions, sports sessions, news and music. Although he was a “buck private” he went there, he says, with the rather „ imposing title of power supply engineer. But with a staff of only about eight, everyone did everything, at one time or another, and if he was a technician at one moment, he was an announcer or programme organiser the next. He was there about a year, returning to New Zealand in 1948 and going to Cheviot, after completing his apprenticeship, as a registered electrician with a contracting business. He took a keen interest in amateur theatricals, and it was while setting up a stage for a charity performance that he suffered severe burns to a hand. He then decided to return to Christchurch, principally to have his children educated and he applied for a position in the N.Z.B.C. sports section. He was chosen from about 80 applicants. He started work on a Monday: the following Saturday he found himself before a television camera. He loves the work, and regards the N.Z.B.C.' as “tremendous" employers; but broadcasting and television requirements do, he says, make family life difficult He recently bad his first week-end off for seven years. Asked about his favourite television programme, he said that he liked everything he saw. What he

didn't like, he turned off. He is an omniverous reader. But he particularly enjoys sport, the news, “Gallery,” documentaries, and programmes of the “Forsyte Saga” and Mountbatten types. He plays golf when he can find the time, and is treasurer of a table tennis club, taking part in inter-club competitions. In the summer he has a swim and a run on the beach most mornings; he lives at South Brighton. He has, naturally, had a great variety of tasks with sports broadcasting and television. A day he recalls particularly is when he was required to describe, for radio, the final of a New Zealand bowls championship. He went there thinking the game would be slow and hard to describe; but he thoroughly eujoyed it and regards this as perhaps the most successful broadcast he has made. Being recognised by members of the public has not been a worry to him. But it was, he recalled wryly, to his two children. When he was in town with them, they were distinctly embarrassed, and insisted on walking five or six yards behind him through the streets. There was a difficulty with television sports broadcasts which many people did not understand. There was persistent pressure, mainly from minor sports, for more television time. Members of the public, he says, do not appreciate the amount of time required to get a television programme on the air, compared with radio. It had been estimated about 10 manhours for every minutes on the screen. Few people realised how much organisation in advance was required. But with all this effort, mistakes could still be made. And his most embarrassing moment on television became his most hilarious. He was the front man for a "Grandstand” programme. For it, there were four items on film, with four sound tapes to be run in conjunction with them. He

SATURDAY | NATIONAL LINK < [lncluding SYA, Chrlitctiurch . (690 kilocycle*); 2YA, Welling- ’ ton (570 kilocycles); 4YA, 1 Dunedin (780 kilocycles); and . 3YZ. Greymouth (920 kilo- . cycles).] ' 7.00 p.m.: Sports Review. 7.30: Stump the Brains Trust. ‘ 8.00: Those Were The Days. . 8.30: Weather and News, 8.40: ( Looking at Ourselves. 8.50: • Local Sports Results. 9.00: ■ I’m Sorry I'll Rea ’ That j Again. 9.30: Thirty Minute Theatre. 10.00: Sounds Great. - 10.30: N.Z.B.C. News, ■ Weather. 10.45: Cabaret Time. , 11.00: 8.8. C. News and Commentary. 11.15: Empire and . Commonwealth Games report. 11.25: Table Tennis report. 12.00: News and Weather. 12.06 a.m.: Light Music from the Netherlands. 1.25: Rugby. 3YC, CHRISTCHURCH (960 .kilocycles) 7.05 p.m.: Anne Pashley (soprano), English Chamber Orchestra under Colin Davis —Lyric Scene from The Death of Cleopatra (Berlioz). 7.29: Weller Quartet—Quartet Op. 3 (Berg). 7.52; Twentyfour Preludes, Op. 28 (Chopin). 8.30: 8.8. C. Music Showcase. 9.49: Profile—Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara. 10.12: Three Sonnets (Liszt). 10.33: Rossiniana (Rossini-Respighi). 3ZB, CHRISTCHURCH (1100 kilocycles) 7.04 p.m.: Party Night. 7.31: Platter Forum. 3ZM, CHRISTCHURCH (1400 kilocycles) 7.30 p.m.: Dionne Warwick. 8.00: Past Top, Still Pop. 9.00: It’s Folk. 9.30: Spotlight Bands. 10.00: From the Top Pops. SUNDAY NATIONAL LINK 11.0 a.m.: North Invercar-

made his preliminary remarks, and the first film began, Table tennis. But the taped commentary was of a boxing match. Then the cameras caught him, unawares, as he asked the technicians what was going on. They started again. This time there was cycling, with a table tennis commentary And so it went on; nothing they did came out right, and little wonder, for half the staff was just about helpless with laughter. Dick Allard, a popular figure among Canterbury sportsmen, is 43 and "a new grandfather.”

gill Presbyterian Church Service. 7.0 p.m.: The Plan for Church Union. 8.0: Local Programmes. 2YA, Denise Wilson (soprano) and John Morrison (piano). 3YA, Musical Miniatures. 3YZ, West Coast Sports Results and the Lyric Singers. 8.30: Weather and News. 8.40: Point of View. 9.5: The Pro Arte Orchestra under Gilbert Vinter. 9.30: Books of the Week. 10.0: The Versatile Koto. 10.49: The Epilogue for the Eighth Sunday after Trinity. 11.15: Empire and Commonwealth Games report. 11.25: Table Tennis report. 12.6 a.m.: Records to Remember. 1.30: Round the Horne. 3.3: As You Were. 4.9: Bob Barcham Trio. 3YC, CHRISTCHURCH (960 kilocycles) 7.0 p.m.: Ronald Webb (oboe), Barry Margan (piano) —Sonata No. 1 in C minor (Handel), Gavotte in G (Boyce), Sonatina (Malcolm Arnold). 7.20: New York Philharmonic under Leonard Bernstein—Symphony No. 3 (Roy Harris). 7.38: Grace Bumbry (contralto), Leonard Hokanson (piano)—Selection

from Schumann. 7.53: Earl; Wild (piano)—Reminiscences of Glinka’s A Life for the Tsar (Balakirev). 8.5: Vienna Octet—Cassation in B flat (Mozart). 8.34: Christian Ferras (violin), Pierre Parbizet (piano)—Violin Sonata No. 2 in E minor, Op. 108 (Faure). 8.58: The Old Curiosity Shop (5). 9.25: Mass (Stravinsky). 9.42: Masses and Men (8). Vaughn Williams and Stravinsky. 10.9: London Symphony Orchestra under James Loughran —Symphony No. 7 in A, Op. 92 (Beethoven). 3ZB, CHRISTCHURCH (1100 kilocycles) 7.2 p.m.: The Velvet Sound Box. 7.30: Steptoe and Son. 8.0: The Marx Brothers at Movies. 9.2: Such Men Are Rare. 9.45: Mike Dolan. 10.15: Brian Marston Orchestra with Grant Dickson. 11.45: The Epilogue. 3ZM, CHRISTCHURCH (1400 kilocycles) 7.0 p.m.: Strings Sing. 7.30: Walk Right In. 8.0: Great Film Themes. 8.30: Composers’ Corner. 9.0: Sunday Concert.

CHTV3 Saturday 2.00 p.m.: Headline news. 2.03: Cardus. “Down Under.” Biography. (Final). 2.30: Rugby league from the Showgrounds. 4.25: Here Come the Brides. “The Wild Colonial Boy.” Adventure. 5.14: Johnny Cypher. Cartoon. 5.32: Headline news, weather. 5,35: Skippy. “My Best Friend.” Adventure. 6.00: Freewheelers. “The Secret Base.” Last of five parts. Adventure. 6.25: Get Smart. “The Secret of Sam Vittorio.” Comedy. 7.00: Network news. 7.15: Weather. Local news. 7.25: Catchword. Quiz. 7.55: Fraud Squad. “The Biggest Borrower of All.” Detective. 8.50: Le Mans. (Repeat). 9.05: Newsbrief. 9.07: Marty. Comedy. 9.33: The Name of the Game. “The Emissary.” Drama. 10.54: Drink, Driving and the Breath Test. Documentary. (Repeat). 11.03: Late news, weather. 11.10: The Dean Martin Show. (Abbe Lane, Paule Lynde, Gordon Macrae, Bob Newhart). Variety. Sunday 2.00 p.m.: Headline news. 2.03: Film (1962) “Man in the Moon.” (Kenneth Moore, Shirley Anne Field). Comedy. 3.57: Soccer. Scottish F.A. Cup final. 4.37: The Infinite Pacific. Travel. 5.43: Headline news, weather. 5.46: Sexton Blake. “The Case of the Gasping Goldfish.” First of two parts. Detective. 6.10: Rugby. New Zealand v. Transvaal. Highlights. 6.32: Inter-Action. Church and Society Today. 7.00: Network news. 7.10: Weather. Local news. 7.18: Country Calendar. Farming. 7.34: The Moieyev Ballet 8.34: The World of Wodehouse. Ukridge. Comedy. 9.04; Newsbrief. 9.06: Dr Finlay's Casebook. “Criss Cross.” Drama. 9.55; Search For Tomorrow, r- “A Little Goes a Leng Way.’’ Science. 10.25: The Pre-Raphaelite Revolt. Documentary. 10.54: Late news, weather.