THE NEW DIRECTOR

New Zealand Listener, Volume 20, Issue 514, 29 April 1949, Page 7

THE NEW DIRECTOR

Long Experience in Administrative and Entertainment Fields

ILLIAM YATES, the new-ly-appointed Director of Broadcasting, has been associated with radio in New Zealand for the past 20 years. He first began to broadcast in 1929 as an amateur entertainer, and in 1934 he joined the Broadcasting Board as Supervisor of Plays. In 1940 he was appointed Secretary to the National Broadcasting Service, and four years later he became Assistant Director of Broadcasting. In January of this year he visited Britain, Canada, and the United States in a three months’ tour of the broadcasting services of other countries, and while in England he held discussions with senior officers of the BBC on administration, broadcasting techniques, and _ recent trends in radio. Mr. Yates was born in England, and came to New Zealand in 1912. In 1914 he joined the Education Department in Wellington, and while serving there he became a member of the New Zealand Society of Accountants. In 1930 he was appointed accountant to the first Unemployment Board, where he had the task of establishing and controlling an accounting system which expended four or five million pounds a year through hundreds of local agencies. His appointment in 1934 as Supervisor of Plays realised an old ambition, for the study of entertainment had always been one of his most absorbing interests, and for some years before this he had been active as an amateur entertainer. During New Zealand’s early broadcasting days he was responsible for many of the first feature productions to be put on the air, and he had in addition a wide practical experience of other branches of radio work. He became wellknown to listeners through his work as a producer, script-writer, and actor in concert parties, plays, and revues. One of the first radio serials heard here, The Higgins Family, was written and produced by him-and he acted in it as well -while he also played a prominent part in other early productions, such as Mutiny on the Bounty, Khyber, and The Strange Adventures of Mr. Penny.

When 2YA’s powerful 60 k.w. transmitter went into operation for the first time in 1937, he wrote, produced, and acted in a feature programme presenting the story of broadcasting in New Zealand, which was used in the first broadcasts. A New Zealand Panorama, the programme recorded in New Zealand for the BBC’s Empire Day broadcasts in 1938, was also his work, and a year later 1939-40, he took charge of the Stop, Look and Listen programmes broadcast every week by local artists from the Centennial Exhibition studios in Wellington. During the war he was responsible for the general direction of the 2YA Camp Entertainers, a group of talented amateurs who paid regular visits to the troops in camps throughout Northern and Ceritral Military Districts. The singers, musicians, actors, and variety artists in the group, working almost entirely in their spare time, averaged 150 performances a year from 1942 until the end of hostilities. While engaged on this type of work Mr. Yates became personally acquainted with many of New Zealand’s best amateur performers. In 1947 while in charge of the New Zealand Concert Party which visited the troops in Japan, Mr. Yates spent some time in Australia, where he obtained first-hand knowledge of broadcasting conditions in that country, under both the State-controlled Australian Broadcasting Commission and the privatelyowned commercial stations. During 1948 he again visited Australia, to negotiate the visit of the International Opera Company which is at present touring New Zealand. Mr. Yates has had long administrative experience in broadcasting, and during the 1930’s he was one of a small group, including E. C. Hands, the General Manager, and J. R. Smith, the Chief Engineer, which carried out the policy of the Broadcasting Board. His appointment as Secretary in 1940, and Assistant Director in 1944, led to his time becoming more and more predominantly occupied with administration problems, and it is as an administrator that he is best known within the Service.