Paul White
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GATINEAU QC- Canada
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HI from Ottawa...
I joined the TVC Presentation Department in 1970 after arriving back from New Zealand. I had begun my broadcasting career there as a Network director for NZBC CHTV3 in Christchurch S Island. Before that I had swallowed the anchor having spent a few years at sea as a Merchant Navy Radio Officer with Marconi...the book is in progress !
At TVC in 1970 they gave me a 6 month contract as a holiday relief TV Presentation director working in Network, Presentation Programmes and Trails. They thought I was a Kiwi and would soon go away back to New Zealand as so many had done before !...but I hung on...had a couple more 6 month contracts and in 1972 I joined TV News as a News Director where I stayed until October 1993 taking early retirement. After leaving the BBC I freelanced for a couple of years on the Money Programme then went on to lecture for three and a half years in media Studies at Swindon College. Since then I have gardened and made a few home videos using my computer to edit and now have 2 Sony camcorders...both of them 16:9 and one of them HD. My partner Jessica Trinity (http://trinityenterprises.ca/) is a professional freelance news photographer and we like to cover events together mixing the media.
My happiest moments at the BBC were directing Outside Broadcasts for News and Current Affairs, even achieving a couple of Match of the Days with two cameras when Main OBs were snowed off !...(and a note of thanks from the Sports Department's Editor Sam Leitch) Also I spent 18 years working with News Review for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing where I was allowed to go and make films about fine art exhibitions and other subjects of special interest for the deaf. The first Editor Bill Northwood was a great friend and mentor. He instilled in me the need for accuracy in everything from spelling to facts and would not tolerate sloppy work.
I believe we had the very best years of TV Centre between 1970 and 1990 both at work and socially. I made many friends and found it extraordinary that this wonderful life in broadcasting was also moderately well paid. I remember a thousand laughs and happy times. Life in News was never dull and I took home many memories working at the live heartbeat and core of News. I feel privileged to have been a part of it.
Yes, it has been a Life in the British Commonwealth for me too....
I traveled all round the globe from London England, where I was born, visited S Africa, Jamaica, Trinidad, Malta, E Pakistan, India, Ceylon, W Pakistan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Pitcairn Island, New Zealand..even waved at Australia from the Barrier Reef. Now I have ended up in yet another Commonwealth country Canada and have begun a new and exciting period of my life.
Since arriving here in 2006 I have lived in French speaking Gatineau QC, English speaking Ottawa Ontario and moved back to Gatineau Templeton Quebec Province where the taxes are lower, the food is gastronomic and the people delightful.
Ottawa is a beautiful city with wide views of several rivers and spectacular countryside just a step away North of us with thousands of lakes, teaming wildlife and the potential to really get back to nature.
I have made contact with two old colleagues from my TV Centre days: Tom Dodd who was a trainee with me in Presentation on attachment from CBC and John Scully the ebullient Kiwi who was a a great friend and colleague of the sadly departed George James who also came to Canada and made a name for himself as a Senior Broadcasting Executive here. John, of course, has been a reporter and correspondent and is a published author and media guru here and abroad. His scathing Facebook comments http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/profile.php?id=564414368 on life and politics in this part of the World are a joy to read and he has a large following of devoted fans. I am hoping to meet him for a beer in the near future as he has just moved to Toronto and does visit Ottawa occasionally.
Any others who know me living in Canada...please get in touch. In any corner of the globe we can all get together using Facebook http://www.facebook.com/PaulWhiteADCB ..don't let us just fade away...God in two years I will be 70 !!! I refuse to believe it !
Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Though wise men at their end know dark is right, Because their words had forked no lightning they Do not go gentle into that good night.
Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay, Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight, And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way, Do not go gentle into that good night.
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay, Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
And you, my father, there on the sad height, Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray. Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light. ...pass the mustard
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