I was thrown in the deep end’ — Kora

Press, 11 June 1987, Page 11

I was thrown in the deep end’ — Kora

“Eyewitness” newsreader Robin Kora may be feeling the pressure of his high-profile; job, but he is by no means •• ready to “throw, in the towel.” , \ “Tremendously high standards have been set on ‘Eyewitness’,” he says. “Lindsay Perigo is tops arid Mike Brockie may not have been presenting items before, but he has been involved behind the scenes on ‘Eyewitness

Rews.’ I’ve been thrown deeP 3B%ear-old newsreader, who moved to his present position from the weekly Maori programme “Koha” selects and writes material for the 7,8 and 9 p.m. news headline bulletins, as well as reading the hews itself at 10 pm.. on "Eyewitness.” He says he loves the writing side’ and would like to do more once he has polished his

newsreading skills. Recently he dropped the 9 o’clock news headline bulletin so that he could concentrate on rehearsing for bls main news bulletin. He likes to go through what he has to read at least three times. “Angela d’Audney and Nell Billington spend anything up to three hours rehearsing,” says Kora. “I didn’t realise how. much time had to be put in.” Robin Kora had no initial training for the job apart from his reporting experience on “Koha,” but- over the last two , months has been undergo? ing formal voice lessons. With .. the director he watches .videos, of himself to monitor his.performances and with;, his voice coach rehearses pace and pitch. He is critical of his performance on screen but says it is getting better as he grows in confidence.

Kora feels that viewers fall into two camps, v “There are those who look at the news on ‘Eyewitness’ to be kept informed and those who treat it like a motor rally, waiting for a crash. They are the ones who can’t wait for, me to make, a mistake."

“Of course the nights I enjoy most are . those when I don’t make errors. I sleep well on those nights. If I do mess things up, I stew about it for hours afterwards.”- ;

“I’m trying to develop a tougher mental attitude to the job. After all, the news is here one day and gone the .next I’m trying to start each night’s programme fresh.” , ; . “Eyewitness” screens Monday to Friday, at 10 p.m. on Two. <•; >