(15) WILLIAM YATES: The New NBS Secretary

New Zealand Listener, Volume 2, Issue 45, 3 May 1940, Page 12

(15) WILLIAM YATES: The New NBS Secretary

N unusual combination of business man and entertainer has just been appointed to a position which demands both qualifications in an unusual degree. The death of E. C. Hands, then Generai Manager, necessitated some re-organisation in the executive positions in the National Broadcasting Service. This has now been met by the appointment of William Yates as secretary to the Service. The appointment has just been ratified by the Public Service

Commissioner. Mr. Yates has had twenty years’ training in general departmental administration. He is a qualified accountant by examination as well as by this long experience. He has also six years’ experience in the arrangement of broadcasting programmes, and theirs presentation; in script writing, and in broadcasting administration; and he has had eleven years’ experience as a radio entertainer. Education, Unemployment, Plays He came to New Zealand from England in 1912, and in 1914

joined the Education Department in Wellington. He became a member of New Zealand Society of Accountants while in the Education Department, and in 1930 was appointed accountant to the first Unemployment Board. In this position he had the task of establishing and controlling an accounting system which had to deal with an expenditure of four to five million pounds a year through hundreds of local agencies. It was in 1934 that he joined the Broadcasting Board as Supervisor of Plays. The study of entertainment had always been an absorbing interest for him, and this appointment realised an ambition. Even before his appointment he had been busy as an amateur humorous entertainer. In 1929 he began to broadcast, and since then has hada wide

experience as a radio artist in concert parties, revues, minstrel shows, and plays. The Higginses’ And Others Listeners in the early days of the national service will remember his "Higgins’ Family." He wrote the script himself and alone played the six or seven characters in each sketch. As a radio actor he has broadcast in "Khyber," as Captain Michael Garvie; in "The Strange Adventures of Mr. Periny," as Mr. Penny; in "The Crew of the Maud

Woodlock," as the skipper; in " Mutiny on the Bounty," as Fletcher Christian, and five minor characters. He wrote, produced, and acted in the feature programme called "In Such Short Time," a cavalcade of broadcasting in New Zealand used in the opening programme through 2YA’s 60 k.w. transmitter in 1937, and was responsible for "A New Zealand Panorama," recorded in New Zealand for the BBC’s Empire Day programmes in 1938, His latest appearance on the air has been in

the "Look and Listen" series broadcast early this year from the Exhibition Studio. In these revues he supervised the presentation, wrote sketches, and acted leading parts. Outside Activities His outside activities include membership of the Khandallah (Wellington) School Committee, and a directorship of the Public Service Investment Society. As a young man he played senior grade hockey, and represented Wellington twice. Now, the limit of his active sporting interest is an occasional game of bowls. Most of his spare time is occupied with his dominating interest in broadcasting. He finds that his work chases him home from the office, and wherever he goes. He does not regret it, or _ try to escape it, for it is to him very congenial.