ScreenTalk: Bill McCarthy
20 Jul 2014
Veteran broadcaster Bill McCarthy was the popular face of TV news and sport in the 1970s.
Veteran broadcaster Bill McCarthy was the popular face of TV news and sport in the 1970s. Starting as a sports anchor, he later moved to primetime news-reading, and then became a producer on the classical music series Opus, as well as one-off big event television such as the 1987 Rugby World Cup and Telethon.
In later years, McCarthy has produced host broadcasts for the 2004 and 2008 Olympics and become involved with Christian broadcaster Shine TV.
In this ScreenTalk, McCarthy talks about:
- Having to learn on the job in the early days of NZBC news
- How the 1974 Commonwealth Games changed broadcasting
- Being initially reluctant to read the news on TV One
- Why he didn’t really like hosting Top Town
- Moving to producing with the classical music show Opus
- Having his greatest experience ever filming the yachting documentary Two Boats Two Dreams
- The stress and satisfaction of producing the 1987 Rugby World Cup
- The chaos of producing Telethon
- Having one of the most varied careers in television
This video is available on YouTube to embed and distribute via a Creative Commons licence.
NZ On Screen: Camera and Editing – Andrew Whiteside