August 11, 2025 • 35 mins
TVNZ 2 recently celebrated its 50th anniversary, and famed newsreader Jennie Goodwin is looking back on the role she played within the network.
Goodwin made history as the nation's first female prime-time newsreader, and she's looking back on a lengthy broadcasting career.
She joined Roman Travers to look back on the company's evolution.
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Speaker 1 (00:08):
You're listening to a podcast from News Talk zb Follow
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Speaker 2 (00:16):
Hello Roman, thank you very much for this invitation and
so lovely to be able to speak to you over
the airwaves.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
Oh that's very nice of you to say. I feel
like I'm very nervous at the moment because you are
like broadcasting royalty, aren't you really?
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Oh no, no, no, no, goodness me. That all started
decades ago. Well that's true, you know, I think it's
very I can't believe that it was fifty years ago
that TV two first started, and how the years of
world by I mean two weeks ago. I was only
thirty when I first read the news on television, so
that lets you know how old it was. It was
(00:54):
a wonderful time for the New Zealand public because we'd
only had one television channel ever since the day is
of AKTV two and WNTV one, christ Church, ch TV three,
nderned dn TV for and everything was local bulletins. Then
it changed to become and that was in the days
of the NZBC, so then it changed to everything coming
(01:19):
from just Wellington, all the local regional imports in ports.
I should say or went to Wellington, and it was
just the news that was read from Wellington. The weather
was given from Wellington. There were no more regional continuity girls,
or not much local import at all. So we were
(01:41):
ready for a second channel. Yes, and it was a
wonderful milestone that that came along in nineteen seventy five
because it gave the New Zealand public a choice of
programs to watch. Apart from the news, you know, there
were also wonderful programs that were put out by TV
two until it became TV and said in nineteen eighty.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
And it was very bloky. I've got memories of watching,
you know, a lovely, lovely consummate broadcast is all very masculine,
all very blokey. How did you break through that very
blokey glass ceiling, Jenny.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
It's interesting what you say, because prior to that time,
I mean organizations and companies, everything was men mostly, And
as far as radio announcing was concerned, it was it
was quite good. In those NSBC days they did employ
women as well as men, and I in the NZBC
(02:36):
days the women were announcers on the local radio station. Well,
let's let's talk about Auckland, because that's where I was
an answers on one said b in one way and
one said and as it was then. And they also
did television performances in the way of the women with
continuity announcing, and the men did the weather in Auckland
and local news breakouts on AKTD two, and so everything
(03:03):
was male oriented. I never even thought about it much
in those days, to be honest, You just sort of
put your head down and worked hard. But I suppose
I was very, very lucky in that the head, the
newly appointed Controller of News and Talent Affairs, Bruce Cross, and.
Speaker 4 (03:23):
This was at the.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Beginning of nineteen seventy five, kept getting in touch with
me and asking me to do an audition for the
new channel as their prime time network newsreader. And I
said to Bruce, I'll never have a woman, but of course,
you've got to remember I've had ten years in radio
and television presentation by that time. I sort of secretly
(03:44):
self inside myself that it was ready for me to
take on take up that opportunity, take on that challenge
with the experience that I've had, and I welcomed it.
It took about three or four approaches from Bruce asking
me whether I would do this, and in the end
I kept saying.
Speaker 4 (04:04):
They're never going to have a woman reading news.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Because we didn't. And I said to him, well, if
the director General, Alan Martin is interested in viewing the audition,
and he was newly appointed in nineteen seventy five director
General was PG two. If he's interested in what in
the audition, then I'll do it.
Speaker 4 (04:25):
I'll do it.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
And just as an aside mentioning Allan's name, I must
tell you this, Alan Martin was the director General in
TV two in nineteen seventy five. Do you know he
was fifty then, So if you're existing and fifty together, yeah, wow,
that gentleman today or next year will be one hundred
(04:45):
years old. He is still performing in Masters games around
the world, good lord, and is still getting gold medals.
So that's something to be acknowledged, and I'm sure next
year will be a big year of.
Speaker 3 (04:59):
It will be indeed. Well, what you say, what I'm
picking up from what you're putting down is that broadcasting
is good for you and I could live forever now, Genny,
what was the what was the general feedback and the
reaction from the new Zealand public to see you the
very first female anchoring the network news.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
I suppose general public. I was very lucky with press releases,
and then came magazine stories, you know, the Women's Weekly
and whatever, because I'd been seen on television as a
continuity announcer throughout the AKTV two region, which probably may
have gone down to as far as State tu Post's
not quite sure, but there was a general acceptance, and
(05:42):
I don't know. I never got any nasty letters. The
public were very kind to me. I got some lovely,
lovely letters, a lot of which I've said from them.
So I suppose there was an acceptance to a point
with the newsroom going from becoming a radio announcer, and
(06:04):
we were on the staff, and there were people like
Philip Sherry and Toom Bradley. Now I must mention both
those gentlemen because they also start came over from their
Arts and Star provided to the TV two newsroom, and
they read music ten and went about music ten Tom
did with Philip wasn't a two tuson show. It was
(06:27):
they did with about and of course Tom and Philip
had long stories to tell too. How Tom went on
to read the news with John Hawksby at Music six
and Philip went to TV three, and unfortunately he has
passed on. But where we will be up to we
(06:50):
were up about. Yeah, the public they were, they were
very good. I was quite lucky, I suppose. I don't
know how much that might have been things fed by
and closed doors.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
But well then it was a different time in the
sense Jenny two. There people didn't have the ability to
use social media. I know female brought casters who have
been quite public about the horrific you know, why do
you do your hair like that? You know you're putting
on weight kind of commentary. Let's go back. Let's go
right back to nineteen sixty five. You already mentioned some
of those early years. What kind of a career path
(07:22):
were you on, particularly in those early days of your twenties.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
I didn't have any.
Speaker 4 (07:28):
Career in mind back in those days.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
I really didn't. I mean, well, when you leave school
with quite good qualifications. I always wanted to be a
school teacher, and so I enrolled at training courage and
all of a sudden work up one day and said no, no,
I don't want to do that. And I would have
been sixteen at the time, seventeen and my parents said, well,
you've got to get a trade under your belt, as
(07:51):
they said in those days, and so I went to
a senior business course, did that for twelve months, came
out and oh, I suppose it was about eighteen months
later I ended up working at once they'd be as
a shorthand typist. I'd also go to the Academy.
Speaker 4 (08:07):
Of Elegance in my assumnment. Listeners more, remember.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
This particular school down in downtown Auckland and Auckland City,
and it was run by a league called Pete Wilson.
And it wasn't just a modern school per se.
Speaker 4 (08:24):
It taught you.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
How tower the telephone, how to get out of the
car gracefully, how to set the table with the correct
couctory position, positing and whatever. And it did put us
through the ropes with makeup and hair and modeling and
whatever to the end. When I graduated from that class,
they said, oh, you've got to go into the miss
(08:45):
Auckland Beauty contest. We very much a thing in those
days going to the miss Auckland competition, which I did.
I think I was contestant number forty eighth. I was
very lucky to get into the finals. Of that particular show,
which was one of the first This would have been
in sixty three, one of the first outside broadcasts that
AKT two had ever done from the Auckland town Hall.
(09:08):
So much so that the announcer in charge, by the
irvine came into the typing room the next day and said,
come with me. So I went to have a radio
on television audition, which I do have to admit was
a terrible.
Speaker 4 (09:25):
Failure, and he said to me.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
Go away and have some voice production lessons, which I did.
Won't not speak training so much, but just learning to
lower my voice, not talks with my nose, various other pieces.
I went back twelve months later and he said, I've
been waiting for you. The next thing I'm down I
did the audition pass went down to was all black
(09:50):
and white. Of course, television went down to the announcer's
training score for a supposed six weeks course.
Speaker 5 (09:56):
There.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
At the end of five weeks, the captain on the
solvant said, you're back to Auckland, And one week later,
here I am on television as a continuity announcer. Now,
people who would have known me when I went to school,
I was a bit of a shrinking viole of fun.
Never saw the sauce doing anything like that, but I
thank you. Oh, I don't know in those days, if
(10:18):
you had somebody who believed in me and tapped you
on the shoulder for something, there must have been something
within me that taught, yes, maybe I can do that,
Maybe I can do that. And so it went on,
and so it started.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
Yeah, brilliant, I've seen it, but that.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
Was sixty six by then sixty six.
Speaker 3 (10:39):
Right now, I've seen a lovely photo of you which
people can find on the internet. I've seen this lovely
photo of you sitting there near a Christmas tree, delivering
continuity lines down the barrel of the camera. But in
those days, I've used auto Q before. It makes the
job a lot easier. There was no auto Q. How
did you memorize pages and pages of script?
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Auto two, of course, came in in nineteen seventy five
for both TV two and TV one. The I suppose
I had a photographic memory in those days. With continuity,
the pieces that we read in between the programs and
telling the viewers what was coming up was all written
by program directors. There weren't pages and pages of it. However,
(11:23):
when look North evolved in nineteen seventy two seventy three.
I used to pre record programs of for a Friday
night viewing on a Friday night, a Saturday night, and
a Monday night, and we would record them for about
two hours on a Friday afternoon. I got the scripted
(11:45):
about midday and I just used to I was lucky.
Speaker 4 (11:48):
I just said a photographic memory. I haven't got it
now by there, No, I haven't got one now.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
I yes, I was very very lucky to have it,
and so I used to deliver it to the camera
as if I was reading auto you. But the thing
was and the magical thing. But I used to tell people,
and I worked up with Singapore Broadcasting many decades later
and trained their newsreaders is to believe that the microphone,
(12:16):
when you're in a radio studio, the television camera when
you're on TV, you're not thinking of the millions of
listeners out there. It's disastrous if you do that. You
have to think of it just being as one person,
your best friend, and you're telling them a story, not
reading something. You're telling them whatever it is that you
have to tell them.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
Great way to think, Yeah, it's a great way to think.
Now these days, you're clothing, you hear your makeup. It's
all done by professionals titivating wildly in the background. Was
that the case in those early days of your television career.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
No, no, no, nothing was like that, and we didn't
we didn't know any different. It was black and white television,
so there were strict rules about you know, the cameras
weren't advanced like they are technically, so there were no checks,
no spots. Everything strobed on television. There were makeup artists,
(13:11):
but they usual, well, there would be one on probably
at about five o'clock in the evening, and she'd be
busy to bring up the men who were going to
be reading the local news or whatever with the five
o'clock shadow, as happened around that time of day with gentlemen.
And so I learned to bring my more and my
(13:33):
makeup myself. Thank goodness for heated rollers. I think I
lived in them in those days. And we got paid
the lawyer's son in Sterling of two pounds per shift
every time who appeared on television, and then it changed
to the dollars, so we got five dollars each time,
and that was meant to cover your clothing, your makeup
(13:56):
and your hair. I could do my hair myself and myself,
but really we weren't acknowledged for anything like that. It
was really quite difficult. But as I said, when you
look back, we didn't know any different because that's the
way it was. Yeah, exactly, we go into TV and
(14:17):
ZED and you've got wardrobe supplied, you've got your hair
cut and colored or whatever you have to do, and
your make up applied, all from scratch.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
Yeah exactly. Now, Ginny you I've got a text here
that might ring bells for you. Lovely to hear you
back on the radio, Jenny. I remember you on TV
News of course, but before that on the lunch date
show twelve noon to two pm on one zed B says,
and what was the lunch date show that was?
Speaker 2 (14:45):
And I used to do it. They were outside broadcaster
with radio so fantastic. They were outside broadcasts that I
did with Barry Holland and we would go out to
the Farmer's Trading Company and do lunch dates there. We
would go on Sian safaris in the summertime around all
the beaches. Broadcast time mastered. Note must tell you from
(15:07):
the back of a truck and we ran competitions with
all the people around, gave away prize as they were
sponsored by I can't remember. It might have been fall
Square or somebody like that. And we had a lot
of fun, a lot of fun doing that. And that
was the beauty of radio in those days because it
brought you into contact with the public. And you know,
(15:29):
that is really lovely if you can talk to the
public and be with them and get a reaction. Yes,
they were lovely days.
Speaker 4 (15:36):
I bet they loved that memory that text.
Speaker 3 (15:39):
Oh that's lovely. Keep those texts coming in, by the way,
nine two ninety two, or you can pose a question
or a comment or whatever you like right now by
calling eight hundred and eighty ten eighty. Judy Bailey once
said in The Australian Woman's Weekly back in twenty thirteen.
She said, I remember Jenny as an immaculately presented, thoroughly
professional news reader. I admired her as one of the
(16:00):
trailblazers for women in our industry. You were the trailblazer
and Judy Bailey was the mother of the nation. As
people once said, tell me about the other big names
you worked with over the years.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
That was lovely, what Judy said, and she certainly was
the mother of the nation and sawing this when she left,
and hard shoes to fill at some time. But time
passes on, doesn't The other names well as you know
that you'll remember the continuity lady. There was Margaret Moore,
Alma Johnson, Barbara Magna, Angela de Ordney, myself. We were
(16:36):
the sort of five main ones. And it's so sad
that out of the five of them, I'm the only
ones still here. But there were lots of other When
I worked down in Wellington, I worked with because I
went down there from sixty seven to sixty nine. I
worked with Bill Toft. Googled Stephenson, Philip Sherry. Came back
(16:56):
up to Auckland and were when it became TV, and said,
of course there was Judy and Richard long Wens there,
Tom Bradley, Tom Bradle, Tom and I are as the
same sort of bin and he worked I don't know
what station. I can't remember after the Annuncers Training school
(17:17):
where he went to from bed, but it wasn't Auckland.
He came to Auckland later on, certainly with TV two
fifty years ago, and of course he had a fella
career in television reading the news with various people on television,
John Hawksby and Angela do Me after many years until
(17:39):
he too retired.
Speaker 4 (17:40):
We all retired, you know.
Speaker 3 (17:43):
For me, when I think back about the voices, and
I can still hear the voices of the people You've
just mentioned two of those that stand out for me.
I love the voice of Google Stevenson and Tom Bradley
as well, beautiful rich Tomborough.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
Absolutely, and so many people remember the good old days.
It was many or when was it about nineteen eighty two, No,
two thousand and two. Gosh, you're testing my memory here,
Raman and two two thousand and three Television New Zealand
(18:18):
put on a bit of a I do in their
in their building there on the corner of Pobs and
Victoria Streets, and they invited newsreaders from the early days
as well as the current ones. And Doogle was there,
and I think Lindsay Perigo was as well. Anyway, the
upside of it was that, of course there was the
(18:40):
TV and said good morning, breakfast show and learn those days.
It was done by Paul. I'm jumping the traces here
a bit Roman. It's talking about Google.
Speaker 4 (18:49):
It's really good.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
See the newsroom decided that it would be a good idea.
It's on the Breakfast Show, which in those days was
fronted by Paul Henry and to the Weetzels, and that
they would ask Google Stevenson David Beatson, who was a
news editor, actually he was a news editor at TV
(19:12):
two in later years. Wonderful man to work with. He
sadly no longer was a stronger with us. So there
was dourgle David Beatson, Mensi Perigo and myself and we
were asked if we would read a news bulletin of
the day every hour or half hour on the Breakfast
Show the next morning. And that's exactly what happened. And
(19:33):
I can remember Google even wore the jacket that he
used to wear away back from the old days.
Speaker 3 (19:40):
So oh, that's lovely. That is lovely, a lovely voice.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
Now you're you're so fondly remembered by so many people, or.
Speaker 3 (19:48):
Hick you now you're. It's not a rare thing, but
there aren't too many broadcasters that are lucky enough to
work in both television and radio without thinking. I want
you to answer this without thinking, right, which did you
have the great love for radio or TV.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
I had a love for them both.
Speaker 4 (20:04):
Okay, I loved the news.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
I love it's time to dare No, I did you know?
News was very I'm still a new sound. You know,
the radios are on every oh it's three o'clock. We've
been on the radio, listened to the news or the
TV radio. Did write a little bit above that it hadn't.
(20:26):
It has an intimacy it has even with news, and
immediacy that the evening news bulletins don't often have unless
it's breaking news. And also we were very lucky, as
I've said before, in that we could get out amongst
the public. And that's where you just you can score
(20:47):
is with the public because you're dependent upon them to
actually like you or they don't and meet you and
lovely for us to meet them too. And there was
such a variety on radio that I did. There were interviews,
royal visit commentaries, shopping reports and mean, I went through
the whole gambit of ten years of doing so many
(21:08):
different things. But probably an answers don't necessarily get the
opportunity to do all that.
Speaker 3 (21:18):
No, no, they don't. In fact, I'm putting a proposal
together to buy a caravan and broadcast in my day
around the country. We'll see how that goes down. Jenny,
I've got a text here, Hi, Jenny, did you assist
contestants on TV's Stumpers. I took part in both Crypto
cross and Stumpers and seem to recall you being there.
If you did, then thanks because I won, says Deborah.
Speaker 4 (21:40):
Good for her.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
No, I didn't appear on that progress but you know
you refer.
Speaker 4 (21:45):
To is royalty. I was just like everybody else.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
Well, that's how I used to think of it in
the day.
Speaker 3 (21:53):
Well, becoming the first, but becoming the first woman in
the Commonwealth to read the primetime national news came with
some controversy, didn't it?
Speaker 2 (22:02):
In what way? What do you mean?
Speaker 3 (22:04):
Well, didn't some people have a bit of a crack
at it was no place for women, And I'm talking
talking about people who were broadcasters.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
Don't recall that. I do know that. I didn't even
know that I was the first woman in the Commonwealth
Commonwealth to read primetime network news until I read it
in the Auckland Star. And the television critic there at
that time was very sure. And he's obviously done some research,
(22:32):
and I was quite stranded. I think that, of course
later on, I actually left in nineteen seventy six and
went to live in England, and Angela Rippin by that
stage was a primetime network newsreader with the BBC. I
don't think at the end of June. She didn't start
until maybe a few weeks or a couple of months later.
(22:53):
She used to read news from BBC Birmingham, I think,
but that was regional okay, Yes whatever, Barry Shore Research
was probably correct. There we go, and there was a
time when Andrew Giordani was called in as an emergency
as one off to read the network news, which he did,
(23:15):
but it wasn't It didn't become a regular thing. This
was prior to nineteen seventy. Yes, that tearing things up there.
Speaker 3 (23:24):
We've got lots of questions to come. I want to
find out more about the big stories that would have
rocked you completely, and some of the good news for
yourself too, Jenny. But first of all, got to call
here from Sue. Welcome Sue, oh.
Speaker 5 (23:36):
Hi Raman and a book Helo to you too, Jidney.
I thought the women were great when they appeared on
the screen, and I'll remember you very well. You were great.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
I recognize your voice from listening to you know, I said, older,
you have trouble sleeping.
Speaker 4 (23:55):
So what do you do?
Speaker 2 (23:56):
You turn on the radio and soon they're calling.
Speaker 5 (24:02):
I'll tell you who you used to ring me after midnight?
Was nearer and of course old lady.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
Yes, she was a lady who worked at one million years. Yes,
she was with a father.
Speaker 5 (24:20):
And Margaret Moore was or wasn't Margaret on in the sixties.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
Margaret Moore? Yeah, he was a continuity Annnswer. She was
a wonderful mentor to me.
Speaker 5 (24:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
She was about probably at least eight years old, probably
more than that, I would think, and really lovely though.
Speaker 4 (24:41):
They were all good.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
I mean, there was Alma and there was Angela de
Ordine was around the same time as me. I think
she was fifteen fifteen months older than me. But do
you know so Angela and I actually went to school together.
We were in the fourth form at had actually started
at once, said b sometime before I did. So she
(25:07):
had well and true a leg in the door there
a long time before.
Speaker 4 (25:11):
Well on board, thank you sir.
Speaker 3 (25:13):
And it's lovely for you to call oh and she
has like you a very distinctive person and almost a
broadcaster in her own right. Jenny Now, both in nineteen
seventy six and in nineteen eighty the public voted you
their favorite New Zealand female television personality. How did you
cope with public approaches like, for example, down at the
local butcher in the supermarket, when people would come up
(25:34):
to go I know you, It didn't.
Speaker 4 (25:37):
Really bother me at all.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
I used to read in magazine articles about other teev personalities,
women in particular, who used to say, you know that
they sort of wore scarf or sunglasses when they were
walking down Queen Street and absolutely hated people staring at them.
So what the people did is and if they came
up to me and said hello, Jenny, I would turn
the conversation back on them, ask them their name, ask
(26:01):
them about their families. And it was an act to
doing it. And I didn't find it difficult at all
because people would so kind and personal. O, that's lovely.
That's how I coped with it.
Speaker 3 (26:14):
Now you've been You've been the presenter of many many
news bulletins over the years. Some would be more memorable
than others. How did you cope with having to deliver
the worst news.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
Well unfortunately up to this even today. I mean, look
at the news that's on television and radio today, it's.
Speaker 4 (26:34):
It's not good.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
And there were tragedies that happened in New Zealand in
those days. The first one that springs to mind, particularly
from early before TV two started, was yes, it was
with TV two. Sorry getting ahead of myself here thinking
back fifty years ago plus was in nineteen seventeen nine
(27:00):
with the terrible crash of the Air New Zealand flight
down in in Antarctica. That was hard, and I think
it always is because not only do you read a
major bulletin or a major story about it, but we
were all brought in at various times during the follow
(27:22):
the ensuing days after they've discovered its plant had crashed,
to read the names of people who perished on that
type space look life. And that was the key, I
think is to have a professionalism, but to have a
soul and a certain amount of empathy that you can
bring across and reading it without tremlin lips and tears
(27:46):
running down the face. You might have felt like that,
and you probably still do when you see footage on
television today. Yeah, I think I think most broadcasters developed
a professional knack of being able to go with that
and deliver it and in the right way.
Speaker 3 (28:03):
Yeah, and that speaks to your professional nature, Jinny, because
I know for a fact, as you mentioned that over
it slightly, but you had to read each and every
passenger's name on that night and that would have been
absolutely horrific for you and for the viewers and listeners.
To Jenny, you left your job in nineteen seventy six
to move to Britain. Why was that?
Speaker 2 (28:22):
I was given raman, I was given about eighteen months
two years of leaders up pay because I got married
for the first time into a New Zealand Army officer
who had joined the British Army and sometime a little
bit before that, and anyway, we got married and I
went over to England to live in Hereford, where twenty
(28:44):
two SAS was based at the time, and became a
British Army officer's wife. Hereford was out on the bit
of a beating track. It was an ar and a
half to Birmingham, anar and a half done to London,
plus plus or gown to Bristol, and it was further
on to London in those days, and so yes, that's
(29:05):
what happened. I lived over there and I fell back
on my short and piping skills and worked for as
a PA for a general manager of the world in
those days, largest sider manufactur for school time quite well. There,
did a bit of did a bit of modeling one
(29:25):
time at Ludlow Castle, which was another story to Telbert
for another time. And yes, so that the eighteen months
to two years went by quickly, and then we decided
that we were going to come back to New Zealand,
which I did. I did, and I worked with TV
n Z by that stage or was still TV two,
(29:46):
and then it changed to DBN said in nineteen eighty
and I worked for four more years before I was
overseas again.
Speaker 3 (29:52):
Yes, Singapore in nineteen eighty two. What did you do
in Singapore?
Speaker 2 (29:57):
Well, I again, I meant to get a job with
Singapore Broadcasting, reading news on radio quite frequently one NFE
week on television with Singapore Broadcasting and mainly training their
newsreaders in studio presentation. They had someone there from the
(30:18):
BBC who was teaching them. I don't even know what now.
I don't think they had anybody teaching them how to
actually write the news in the newsroom. But they were
quite proficient newsreaders. News were editors, I should say, the news. Yes,
so that's what I did. I taught them in studio presentation.
And the interesting thing about Singapore Broadcasting it was a
(30:41):
huge newsroom and they broadcast the news in about four
or five different languages. So there was an English speaking
news desk, then there was a Malosian one, then there
was the Mandarin one, then there was the camel ones
for the Indians. Oh, they were healthy in days, they
were wonderful. I was just so lucky because my husband
had the officer in the army, had been posted up
(31:04):
to he'd come back to the New Zeum and Army
and he was posted up there for two years. So yes,
I've got a job at Simple Broadcasting.
Speaker 4 (31:13):
Wonderful, wonderful.
Speaker 3 (31:14):
You really have been up until this point, of course,
you've been absolutely flat out a broadcast of work, work, work, work, working,
And then you really found out what work was in
nineteen eighty five. What happened in nineteen eighty five, Jenny, Well.
Speaker 2 (31:26):
Everybody thought I was a career woman, but during the
years I found out that I had a ghastly infertility
problem called endometriosis, which and I underwent a series of
about five operations in thirteen months. It was like somebody
was pushing me from behind. You know, I'm so desperate
(31:46):
to want to have a child. And we were very,
very lucky in nineteen eighty four to have conceived. I
considered IVS, but they weren't doing much in those days.
And I was in Australia by that stage again because
my former husband was an Australian military and Command college,
(32:08):
and so Virginia was conceived naturally and my days were blessed,
I mean nineteen eighty five. February nineteen eighty five, she.
Speaker 4 (32:18):
Was born and lovely, it was just wonderful.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
That's all I ever wanted was to be a mother.
Nobody ever knew it, and I sort of it was
very private about my problem with infertility. Everybody thought us
I was a career woman, but I wasn't really, not really,
not really.
Speaker 3 (32:34):
Well, it's lovely, lovely, lovely news. Where's your daughter these days?
Speaker 4 (32:39):
Oh she's an Auckland.
Speaker 2 (32:40):
She has a degree in a BA in ancient history
and wow or something else. And then she went to
board us in school did she went and she has
a journalism degree. She's followed me to a degree where
she works for an organization and she's a team leader
(33:05):
there which produces the captions for they're from hard of
hearing and audio description for the vision impaired. That's great,
and so she's sort of in an allied industry.
Speaker 3 (33:17):
Jenny, I've got a million questions, and of course I'm
not going to get through them all. But back in
nineteen eighty nine, you tried to make a comeback at
TV three and TV in Z. How was the comeback
process given that you weren't old, but you know, this competition,
there's a lot more people to compete with. What was
the process?
Speaker 2 (33:34):
Like I was forty four then my marriage had dissolved,
I had a four year old daughter. Forty four was
probably considered old. I don't think they liked that. They
Television had moved on as far as newsreaders were concerned,
and when you had one or two, if you had
(33:54):
a two news reading situation, two news readers, there was
this chip chat between them. Was it was not as
informal in my day as it is now and where
you could get little throwaway lines at the end of
the story that didn't happen when I was on television,
and so really, and I think now that women are
(34:17):
fifty plus plus and still reading news on television and
presenting those so but way back in nineteen eighty nine, No,
at forty four, I was considered too old and too
old fashioned.
Speaker 3 (34:33):
Good probably wow. In summary, which part of your career
do you recall most fondly when you look back across
the radio, the television, the time overseas? What was your
favorite time?
Speaker 2 (34:46):
Telethons were? You know, there were lots of times that
were fond I was very, very fond of and enjoyed
immensely in this New Zealand fashion preade that I used
to do for five years at the New Zealand. Yes,
they used to show at the Aukad Showgrounds there and telethons.
They were amazing times of television. And it's it's thing
(35:08):
TV two that telethons were first started and went on
for many years, raising so much money for so many charities.
Speaker 3 (35:16):
Jinny, it's been absolutely tremendous spending this time. I knew
this time would go so quickly. Thank you so much
for being available tonight.
Speaker 2 (35:22):
Oh, it's been wonderful to have been invited. I'm really
thankful for that. I've been blessed through the years.
Speaker 3 (35:29):
Oh You're lovely.
Speaker 1 (35:31):
For more from News Talks, B listen live on air
or online, and keep our shows with you wherever you
go with our podcasts on iHeartRadio.
You're listening to a podcast from News Talk zb Follow
this and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Hello Roman, thank you very much for this invitation and
so lovely to be able to speak to you over
the airwaves.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
Oh that's very nice of you to say. I feel
like I'm very nervous at the moment because you are
like broadcasting royalty, aren't you really?
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Oh no, no, no, no, goodness me. That all started
decades ago. Well that's true, you know, I think it's
very I can't believe that it was fifty years ago
that TV two first started, and how the years of
world by I mean two weeks ago. I was only
thirty when I first read the news on television, so
that lets you know how old it was. It was
(00:54):
a wonderful time for the New Zealand public because we'd
only had one television channel ever since the day is
of AKTV two and WNTV one, christ Church, ch TV three,
nderned dn TV for and everything was local bulletins. Then
it changed to become and that was in the days
of the NZBC, so then it changed to everything coming
(01:19):
from just Wellington, all the local regional imports in ports.
I should say or went to Wellington, and it was
just the news that was read from Wellington. The weather
was given from Wellington. There were no more regional continuity girls,
or not much local import at all. So we were
(01:41):
ready for a second channel. Yes, and it was a
wonderful milestone that that came along in nineteen seventy five
because it gave the New Zealand public a choice of
programs to watch. Apart from the news, you know, there
were also wonderful programs that were put out by TV
two until it became TV and said in nineteen eighty.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
And it was very bloky. I've got memories of watching,
you know, a lovely, lovely consummate broadcast is all very masculine,
all very blokey. How did you break through that very
blokey glass ceiling, Jenny.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
It's interesting what you say, because prior to that time,
I mean organizations and companies, everything was men mostly, And
as far as radio announcing was concerned, it was it
was quite good. In those NSBC days they did employ
women as well as men, and I in the NZBC
(02:36):
days the women were announcers on the local radio station. Well,
let's let's talk about Auckland, because that's where I was
an answers on one said b in one way and
one said and as it was then. And they also
did television performances in the way of the women with
continuity announcing, and the men did the weather in Auckland
and local news breakouts on AKTD two, and so everything
(03:03):
was male oriented. I never even thought about it much
in those days, to be honest, You just sort of
put your head down and worked hard. But I suppose
I was very, very lucky in that the head, the
newly appointed Controller of News and Talent Affairs, Bruce Cross, and.
Speaker 4 (03:23):
This was at the.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Beginning of nineteen seventy five, kept getting in touch with
me and asking me to do an audition for the
new channel as their prime time network newsreader. And I
said to Bruce, I'll never have a woman, but of course,
you've got to remember I've had ten years in radio
and television presentation by that time. I sort of secretly
(03:44):
self inside myself that it was ready for me to
take on take up that opportunity, take on that challenge
with the experience that I've had, and I welcomed it.
It took about three or four approaches from Bruce asking
me whether I would do this, and in the end
I kept saying.
Speaker 4 (04:04):
They're never going to have a woman reading news.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Because we didn't. And I said to him, well, if
the director General, Alan Martin is interested in viewing the audition,
and he was newly appointed in nineteen seventy five director
General was PG two. If he's interested in what in
the audition, then I'll do it.
Speaker 4 (04:25):
I'll do it.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
And just as an aside mentioning Allan's name, I must
tell you this, Alan Martin was the director General in
TV two in nineteen seventy five. Do you know he
was fifty then, So if you're existing and fifty together, yeah, wow,
that gentleman today or next year will be one hundred
(04:45):
years old. He is still performing in Masters games around
the world, good lord, and is still getting gold medals.
So that's something to be acknowledged, and I'm sure next
year will be a big year of.
Speaker 3 (04:59):
It will be indeed. Well, what you say, what I'm
picking up from what you're putting down is that broadcasting
is good for you and I could live forever now, Genny,
what was the what was the general feedback and the
reaction from the new Zealand public to see you the
very first female anchoring the network news.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
I suppose general public. I was very lucky with press releases,
and then came magazine stories, you know, the Women's Weekly
and whatever, because I'd been seen on television as a
continuity announcer throughout the AKTV two region, which probably may
have gone down to as far as State tu Post's
not quite sure, but there was a general acceptance, and
(05:42):
I don't know. I never got any nasty letters. The
public were very kind to me. I got some lovely,
lovely letters, a lot of which I've said from them.
So I suppose there was an acceptance to a point
with the newsroom going from becoming a radio announcer, and
(06:04):
we were on the staff, and there were people like
Philip Sherry and Toom Bradley. Now I must mention both
those gentlemen because they also start came over from their
Arts and Star provided to the TV two newsroom, and
they read music ten and went about music ten Tom
did with Philip wasn't a two tuson show. It was
(06:27):
they did with about and of course Tom and Philip
had long stories to tell too. How Tom went on
to read the news with John Hawksby at Music six
and Philip went to TV three, and unfortunately he has
passed on. But where we will be up to we
(06:50):
were up about. Yeah, the public they were, they were
very good. I was quite lucky, I suppose. I don't
know how much that might have been things fed by
and closed doors.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
But well then it was a different time in the
sense Jenny two. There people didn't have the ability to
use social media. I know female brought casters who have
been quite public about the horrific you know, why do
you do your hair like that? You know you're putting
on weight kind of commentary. Let's go back. Let's go
right back to nineteen sixty five. You already mentioned some
of those early years. What kind of a career path
(07:22):
were you on, particularly in those early days of your twenties.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
I didn't have any.
Speaker 4 (07:28):
Career in mind back in those days.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
I really didn't. I mean, well, when you leave school
with quite good qualifications. I always wanted to be a
school teacher, and so I enrolled at training courage and
all of a sudden work up one day and said no, no,
I don't want to do that. And I would have
been sixteen at the time, seventeen and my parents said, well,
you've got to get a trade under your belt, as
(07:51):
they said in those days, and so I went to
a senior business course, did that for twelve months, came
out and oh, I suppose it was about eighteen months
later I ended up working at once they'd be as
a shorthand typist. I'd also go to the Academy.
Speaker 4 (08:07):
Of Elegance in my assumnment. Listeners more, remember.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
This particular school down in downtown Auckland and Auckland City,
and it was run by a league called Pete Wilson.
And it wasn't just a modern school per se.
Speaker 4 (08:24):
It taught you.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
How tower the telephone, how to get out of the
car gracefully, how to set the table with the correct
couctory position, positing and whatever. And it did put us
through the ropes with makeup and hair and modeling and
whatever to the end. When I graduated from that class,
they said, oh, you've got to go into the miss
(08:45):
Auckland Beauty contest. We very much a thing in those
days going to the miss Auckland competition, which I did.
I think I was contestant number forty eighth. I was
very lucky to get into the finals. Of that particular show,
which was one of the first This would have been
in sixty three, one of the first outside broadcasts that
AKT two had ever done from the Auckland town Hall.
(09:08):
So much so that the announcer in charge, by the
irvine came into the typing room the next day and said,
come with me. So I went to have a radio
on television audition, which I do have to admit was
a terrible.
Speaker 4 (09:25):
Failure, and he said to me.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
Go away and have some voice production lessons, which I did.
Won't not speak training so much, but just learning to
lower my voice, not talks with my nose, various other pieces.
I went back twelve months later and he said, I've
been waiting for you. The next thing I'm down I
did the audition pass went down to was all black
(09:50):
and white. Of course, television went down to the announcer's
training score for a supposed six weeks course.
Speaker 5 (09:56):
There.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
At the end of five weeks, the captain on the
solvant said, you're back to Auckland, And one week later,
here I am on television as a continuity announcer. Now,
people who would have known me when I went to school,
I was a bit of a shrinking viole of fun.
Never saw the sauce doing anything like that, but I
thank you. Oh, I don't know in those days, if
(10:18):
you had somebody who believed in me and tapped you
on the shoulder for something, there must have been something
within me that taught, yes, maybe I can do that,
Maybe I can do that. And so it went on,
and so it started.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
Yeah, brilliant, I've seen it, but that.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
Was sixty six by then sixty six.
Speaker 3 (10:39):
Right now, I've seen a lovely photo of you which
people can find on the internet. I've seen this lovely
photo of you sitting there near a Christmas tree, delivering
continuity lines down the barrel of the camera. But in
those days, I've used auto Q before. It makes the
job a lot easier. There was no auto Q. How
did you memorize pages and pages of script?
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Auto two, of course, came in in nineteen seventy five
for both TV two and TV one. The I suppose
I had a photographic memory in those days. With continuity,
the pieces that we read in between the programs and
telling the viewers what was coming up was all written
by program directors. There weren't pages and pages of it. However,
(11:23):
when look North evolved in nineteen seventy two seventy three.
I used to pre record programs of for a Friday
night viewing on a Friday night, a Saturday night, and
a Monday night, and we would record them for about
two hours on a Friday afternoon. I got the scripted
(11:45):
about midday and I just used to I was lucky.
Speaker 4 (11:48):
I just said a photographic memory. I haven't got it
now by there, No, I haven't got one now.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
I yes, I was very very lucky to have it,
and so I used to deliver it to the camera
as if I was reading auto you. But the thing
was and the magical thing. But I used to tell people,
and I worked up with Singapore Broadcasting many decades later
and trained their newsreaders is to believe that the microphone,
(12:16):
when you're in a radio studio, the television camera when
you're on TV, you're not thinking of the millions of
listeners out there. It's disastrous if you do that. You
have to think of it just being as one person,
your best friend, and you're telling them a story, not
reading something. You're telling them whatever it is that you
have to tell them.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
Great way to think, Yeah, it's a great way to think.
Now these days, you're clothing, you hear your makeup. It's
all done by professionals titivating wildly in the background. Was
that the case in those early days of your television career.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
No, no, no, nothing was like that, and we didn't
we didn't know any different. It was black and white television,
so there were strict rules about you know, the cameras
weren't advanced like they are technically, so there were no checks,
no spots. Everything strobed on television. There were makeup artists,
(13:11):
but they usual, well, there would be one on probably
at about five o'clock in the evening, and she'd be
busy to bring up the men who were going to
be reading the local news or whatever with the five
o'clock shadow, as happened around that time of day with gentlemen.
And so I learned to bring my more and my
(13:33):
makeup myself. Thank goodness for heated rollers. I think I
lived in them in those days. And we got paid
the lawyer's son in Sterling of two pounds per shift
every time who appeared on television, and then it changed
to the dollars, so we got five dollars each time,
and that was meant to cover your clothing, your makeup
(13:56):
and your hair. I could do my hair myself and myself,
but really we weren't acknowledged for anything like that. It
was really quite difficult. But as I said, when you
look back, we didn't know any different because that's the
way it was. Yeah, exactly, we go into TV and
(14:17):
ZED and you've got wardrobe supplied, you've got your hair
cut and colored or whatever you have to do, and
your make up applied, all from scratch.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
Yeah exactly. Now, Ginny you I've got a text here
that might ring bells for you. Lovely to hear you
back on the radio, Jenny. I remember you on TV
News of course, but before that on the lunch date
show twelve noon to two pm on one zed B says,
and what was the lunch date show that was?
Speaker 2 (14:45):
And I used to do it. They were outside broadcaster
with radio so fantastic. They were outside broadcasts that I
did with Barry Holland and we would go out to
the Farmer's Trading Company and do lunch dates there. We
would go on Sian safaris in the summertime around all
the beaches. Broadcast time mastered. Note must tell you from
(15:07):
the back of a truck and we ran competitions with
all the people around, gave away prize as they were
sponsored by I can't remember. It might have been fall
Square or somebody like that. And we had a lot
of fun, a lot of fun doing that. And that
was the beauty of radio in those days because it
brought you into contact with the public. And you know,
(15:29):
that is really lovely if you can talk to the
public and be with them and get a reaction. Yes,
they were lovely days.
Speaker 4 (15:36):
I bet they loved that memory that text.
Speaker 3 (15:39):
Oh that's lovely. Keep those texts coming in, by the way,
nine two ninety two, or you can pose a question
or a comment or whatever you like right now by
calling eight hundred and eighty ten eighty. Judy Bailey once
said in The Australian Woman's Weekly back in twenty thirteen.
She said, I remember Jenny as an immaculately presented, thoroughly
professional news reader. I admired her as one of the
(16:00):
trailblazers for women in our industry. You were the trailblazer
and Judy Bailey was the mother of the nation. As
people once said, tell me about the other big names
you worked with over the years.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
That was lovely, what Judy said, and she certainly was
the mother of the nation and sawing this when she left,
and hard shoes to fill at some time. But time
passes on, doesn't The other names well as you know
that you'll remember the continuity lady. There was Margaret Moore,
Alma Johnson, Barbara Magna, Angela de Ordney, myself. We were
(16:36):
the sort of five main ones. And it's so sad
that out of the five of them, I'm the only
ones still here. But there were lots of other When
I worked down in Wellington, I worked with because I
went down there from sixty seven to sixty nine. I
worked with Bill Toft. Googled Stephenson, Philip Sherry. Came back
(16:56):
up to Auckland and were when it became TV, and said,
of course there was Judy and Richard long Wens there,
Tom Bradley, Tom Bradle, Tom and I are as the
same sort of bin and he worked I don't know
what station. I can't remember after the Annuncers Training school
(17:17):
where he went to from bed, but it wasn't Auckland.
He came to Auckland later on, certainly with TV two
fifty years ago, and of course he had a fella
career in television reading the news with various people on television,
John Hawksby and Angela do Me after many years until
(17:39):
he too retired.
Speaker 4 (17:40):
We all retired, you know.
Speaker 3 (17:43):
For me, when I think back about the voices, and
I can still hear the voices of the people You've
just mentioned two of those that stand out for me.
I love the voice of Google Stevenson and Tom Bradley
as well, beautiful rich Tomborough.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
Absolutely, and so many people remember the good old days.
It was many or when was it about nineteen eighty two, No,
two thousand and two. Gosh, you're testing my memory here,
Raman and two two thousand and three Television New Zealand
(18:18):
put on a bit of a I do in their
in their building there on the corner of Pobs and
Victoria Streets, and they invited newsreaders from the early days
as well as the current ones. And Doogle was there,
and I think Lindsay Perigo was as well. Anyway, the
upside of it was that, of course there was the
(18:40):
TV and said good morning, breakfast show and learn those days.
It was done by Paul. I'm jumping the traces here
a bit Roman. It's talking about Google.
Speaker 4 (18:49):
It's really good.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
See the newsroom decided that it would be a good idea.
It's on the Breakfast Show, which in those days was
fronted by Paul Henry and to the Weetzels, and that
they would ask Google Stevenson David Beatson, who was a
news editor, actually he was a news editor at TV
(19:12):
two in later years. Wonderful man to work with. He
sadly no longer was a stronger with us. So there
was dourgle David Beatson, Mensi Perigo and myself and we
were asked if we would read a news bulletin of
the day every hour or half hour on the Breakfast
Show the next morning. And that's exactly what happened. And
(19:33):
I can remember Google even wore the jacket that he
used to wear away back from the old days.
Speaker 3 (19:40):
So oh, that's lovely. That is lovely, a lovely voice.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
Now you're you're so fondly remembered by so many people, or.
Speaker 3 (19:48):
Hick you now you're. It's not a rare thing, but
there aren't too many broadcasters that are lucky enough to
work in both television and radio without thinking. I want
you to answer this without thinking, right, which did you
have the great love for radio or TV.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
I had a love for them both.
Speaker 4 (20:04):
Okay, I loved the news.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
I love it's time to dare No, I did you know?
News was very I'm still a new sound. You know,
the radios are on every oh it's three o'clock. We've
been on the radio, listened to the news or the
TV radio. Did write a little bit above that it hadn't.
(20:26):
It has an intimacy it has even with news, and
immediacy that the evening news bulletins don't often have unless
it's breaking news. And also we were very lucky, as
I've said before, in that we could get out amongst
the public. And that's where you just you can score
(20:47):
is with the public because you're dependent upon them to
actually like you or they don't and meet you and
lovely for us to meet them too. And there was
such a variety on radio that I did. There were interviews,
royal visit commentaries, shopping reports and mean, I went through
the whole gambit of ten years of doing so many
(21:08):
different things. But probably an answers don't necessarily get the
opportunity to do all that.
Speaker 3 (21:18):
No, no, they don't. In fact, I'm putting a proposal
together to buy a caravan and broadcast in my day
around the country. We'll see how that goes down. Jenny,
I've got a text here, Hi, Jenny, did you assist
contestants on TV's Stumpers. I took part in both Crypto
cross and Stumpers and seem to recall you being there.
If you did, then thanks because I won, says Deborah.
Speaker 4 (21:40):
Good for her.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
No, I didn't appear on that progress but you know
you refer.
Speaker 4 (21:45):
To is royalty. I was just like everybody else.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
Well, that's how I used to think of it in
the day.
Speaker 3 (21:53):
Well, becoming the first, but becoming the first woman in
the Commonwealth to read the primetime national news came with
some controversy, didn't it?
Speaker 2 (22:02):
In what way? What do you mean?
Speaker 3 (22:04):
Well, didn't some people have a bit of a crack
at it was no place for women, And I'm talking
talking about people who were broadcasters.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
Don't recall that. I do know that. I didn't even
know that I was the first woman in the Commonwealth
Commonwealth to read primetime network news until I read it
in the Auckland Star. And the television critic there at
that time was very sure. And he's obviously done some research,
(22:32):
and I was quite stranded. I think that, of course
later on, I actually left in nineteen seventy six and
went to live in England, and Angela Rippin by that
stage was a primetime network newsreader with the BBC. I
don't think at the end of June. She didn't start
until maybe a few weeks or a couple of months later.
(22:53):
She used to read news from BBC Birmingham, I think,
but that was regional okay, Yes whatever, Barry Shore Research
was probably correct. There we go, and there was a
time when Andrew Giordani was called in as an emergency
as one off to read the network news, which he did,
(23:15):
but it wasn't It didn't become a regular thing. This
was prior to nineteen seventy. Yes, that tearing things up there.
Speaker 3 (23:24):
We've got lots of questions to come. I want to
find out more about the big stories that would have
rocked you completely, and some of the good news for
yourself too, Jenny. But first of all, got to call
here from Sue. Welcome Sue, oh.
Speaker 5 (23:36):
Hi Raman and a book Helo to you too, Jidney.
I thought the women were great when they appeared on
the screen, and I'll remember you very well. You were great.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
I recognize your voice from listening to you know, I said, older,
you have trouble sleeping.
Speaker 4 (23:55):
So what do you do?
Speaker 2 (23:56):
You turn on the radio and soon they're calling.
Speaker 5 (24:02):
I'll tell you who you used to ring me after midnight?
Was nearer and of course old lady.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
Yes, she was a lady who worked at one million years. Yes,
she was with a father.
Speaker 5 (24:20):
And Margaret Moore was or wasn't Margaret on in the sixties.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
Margaret Moore? Yeah, he was a continuity Annnswer. She was
a wonderful mentor to me.
Speaker 5 (24:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
She was about probably at least eight years old, probably
more than that, I would think, and really lovely though.
Speaker 4 (24:41):
They were all good.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
I mean, there was Alma and there was Angela de
Ordine was around the same time as me. I think
she was fifteen fifteen months older than me. But do
you know so Angela and I actually went to school together.
We were in the fourth form at had actually started
at once, said b sometime before I did. So she
(25:07):
had well and true a leg in the door there
a long time before.
Speaker 4 (25:11):
Well on board, thank you sir.
Speaker 3 (25:13):
And it's lovely for you to call oh and she
has like you a very distinctive person and almost a
broadcaster in her own right. Jenny Now, both in nineteen
seventy six and in nineteen eighty the public voted you
their favorite New Zealand female television personality. How did you
cope with public approaches like, for example, down at the
local butcher in the supermarket, when people would come up
(25:34):
to go I know you, It didn't.
Speaker 4 (25:37):
Really bother me at all.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
I used to read in magazine articles about other teev personalities,
women in particular, who used to say, you know that
they sort of wore scarf or sunglasses when they were
walking down Queen Street and absolutely hated people staring at them.
So what the people did is and if they came
up to me and said hello, Jenny, I would turn
the conversation back on them, ask them their name, ask
(26:01):
them about their families. And it was an act to
doing it. And I didn't find it difficult at all
because people would so kind and personal. O, that's lovely.
That's how I coped with it.
Speaker 3 (26:14):
Now you've been You've been the presenter of many many
news bulletins over the years. Some would be more memorable
than others. How did you cope with having to deliver
the worst news.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
Well unfortunately up to this even today. I mean, look
at the news that's on television and radio today, it's.
Speaker 4 (26:34):
It's not good.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
And there were tragedies that happened in New Zealand in
those days. The first one that springs to mind, particularly
from early before TV two started, was yes, it was
with TV two. Sorry getting ahead of myself here thinking
back fifty years ago plus was in nineteen seventeen nine
(27:00):
with the terrible crash of the Air New Zealand flight
down in in Antarctica. That was hard, and I think
it always is because not only do you read a
major bulletin or a major story about it, but we
were all brought in at various times during the follow
(27:22):
the ensuing days after they've discovered its plant had crashed,
to read the names of people who perished on that
type space look life. And that was the key, I
think is to have a professionalism, but to have a
soul and a certain amount of empathy that you can
bring across and reading it without tremlin lips and tears
(27:46):
running down the face. You might have felt like that,
and you probably still do when you see footage on
television today. Yeah, I think I think most broadcasters developed
a professional knack of being able to go with that
and deliver it and in the right way.
Speaker 3 (28:03):
Yeah, and that speaks to your professional nature, Jinny, because
I know for a fact, as you mentioned that over
it slightly, but you had to read each and every
passenger's name on that night and that would have been
absolutely horrific for you and for the viewers and listeners.
To Jenny, you left your job in nineteen seventy six
to move to Britain. Why was that?
Speaker 2 (28:22):
I was given raman, I was given about eighteen months
two years of leaders up pay because I got married
for the first time into a New Zealand Army officer
who had joined the British Army and sometime a little
bit before that, and anyway, we got married and I
went over to England to live in Hereford, where twenty
(28:44):
two SAS was based at the time, and became a
British Army officer's wife. Hereford was out on the bit
of a beating track. It was an ar and a
half to Birmingham, anar and a half done to London,
plus plus or gown to Bristol, and it was further
on to London in those days, and so yes, that's
(29:05):
what happened. I lived over there and I fell back
on my short and piping skills and worked for as
a PA for a general manager of the world in
those days, largest sider manufactur for school time quite well. There,
did a bit of did a bit of modeling one
(29:25):
time at Ludlow Castle, which was another story to Telbert
for another time. And yes, so that the eighteen months
to two years went by quickly, and then we decided
that we were going to come back to New Zealand,
which I did. I did, and I worked with TV
n Z by that stage or was still TV two,
(29:46):
and then it changed to DBN said in nineteen eighty
and I worked for four more years before I was
overseas again.
Speaker 3 (29:52):
Yes, Singapore in nineteen eighty two. What did you do
in Singapore?
Speaker 2 (29:57):
Well, I again, I meant to get a job with
Singapore Broadcasting, reading news on radio quite frequently one NFE
week on television with Singapore Broadcasting and mainly training their
newsreaders in studio presentation. They had someone there from the
(30:18):
BBC who was teaching them. I don't even know what now.
I don't think they had anybody teaching them how to
actually write the news in the newsroom. But they were
quite proficient newsreaders. News were editors, I should say, the news. Yes,
so that's what I did. I taught them in studio presentation.
And the interesting thing about Singapore Broadcasting it was a
(30:41):
huge newsroom and they broadcast the news in about four
or five different languages. So there was an English speaking
news desk, then there was a Malosian one, then there
was the Mandarin one, then there was the camel ones
for the Indians. Oh, they were healthy in days, they
were wonderful. I was just so lucky because my husband
had the officer in the army, had been posted up
(31:04):
to he'd come back to the New Zeum and Army
and he was posted up there for two years. So yes,
I've got a job at Simple Broadcasting.
Speaker 4 (31:13):
Wonderful, wonderful.
Speaker 3 (31:14):
You really have been up until this point, of course,
you've been absolutely flat out a broadcast of work, work, work, work, working,
And then you really found out what work was in
nineteen eighty five. What happened in nineteen eighty five, Jenny, Well.
Speaker 2 (31:26):
Everybody thought I was a career woman, but during the
years I found out that I had a ghastly infertility
problem called endometriosis, which and I underwent a series of
about five operations in thirteen months. It was like somebody
was pushing me from behind. You know, I'm so desperate
(31:46):
to want to have a child. And we were very,
very lucky in nineteen eighty four to have conceived. I
considered IVS, but they weren't doing much in those days.
And I was in Australia by that stage again because
my former husband was an Australian military and Command college,
(32:08):
and so Virginia was conceived naturally and my days were blessed,
I mean nineteen eighty five. February nineteen eighty five, she.
Speaker 4 (32:18):
Was born and lovely, it was just wonderful.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
That's all I ever wanted was to be a mother.
Nobody ever knew it, and I sort of it was
very private about my problem with infertility. Everybody thought us
I was a career woman, but I wasn't really, not really,
not really.
Speaker 3 (32:34):
Well, it's lovely, lovely, lovely news. Where's your daughter these days?
Speaker 4 (32:39):
Oh she's an Auckland.
Speaker 2 (32:40):
She has a degree in a BA in ancient history
and wow or something else. And then she went to
board us in school did she went and she has
a journalism degree. She's followed me to a degree where
she works for an organization and she's a team leader
(33:05):
there which produces the captions for they're from hard of
hearing and audio description for the vision impaired. That's great,
and so she's sort of in an allied industry.
Speaker 3 (33:17):
Jenny, I've got a million questions, and of course I'm
not going to get through them all. But back in
nineteen eighty nine, you tried to make a comeback at
TV three and TV in Z. How was the comeback
process given that you weren't old, but you know, this competition,
there's a lot more people to compete with. What was
the process?
Speaker 2 (33:34):
Like I was forty four then my marriage had dissolved,
I had a four year old daughter. Forty four was
probably considered old. I don't think they liked that. They
Television had moved on as far as newsreaders were concerned,
and when you had one or two, if you had
(33:54):
a two news reading situation, two news readers, there was
this chip chat between them. Was it was not as
informal in my day as it is now and where
you could get little throwaway lines at the end of
the story that didn't happen when I was on television,
and so really, and I think now that women are
(34:17):
fifty plus plus and still reading news on television and
presenting those so but way back in nineteen eighty nine, No,
at forty four, I was considered too old and too
old fashioned.
Speaker 3 (34:33):
Good probably wow. In summary, which part of your career
do you recall most fondly when you look back across
the radio, the television, the time overseas? What was your
favorite time?
Speaker 2 (34:46):
Telethons were? You know, there were lots of times that
were fond I was very, very fond of and enjoyed
immensely in this New Zealand fashion preade that I used
to do for five years at the New Zealand. Yes,
they used to show at the Aukad Showgrounds there and telethons.
They were amazing times of television. And it's it's thing
(35:08):
TV two that telethons were first started and went on
for many years, raising so much money for so many charities.
Speaker 3 (35:16):
Jinny, it's been absolutely tremendous spending this time. I knew
this time would go so quickly. Thank you so much
for being available tonight.
Speaker 2 (35:22):
Oh, it's been wonderful to have been invited. I'm really
thankful for that. I've been blessed through the years.
Speaker 3 (35:29):
Oh You're lovely.
Speaker 1 (35:31):
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