Christopher Robin Parkinson (30 April 1941 – 27 April 2016) was a New Zealand broadcaster. He was one of the co-founders of

Radio Hauraki Radio Hauraki is a New Zealand rock music station that started in 1966. It was the first private commercial radio station of the modern broadcasting era in New Zealand and operated illegally until 1970 to break the monopoly held by the state-o ...

in 1966.

Early life and family

Born in

Wairoa Wairoa is a town and territorial authority district in New Zealand's North Island. The town is the northernmost in the Hawke's Bay region, and is located on the northern shore of Hawke Bay at the mouth of the Wairoa River and to the west of ...

on 30 April 1941, Parkinson was the son of Benjamin Edmund Parkinson and Esther Mavis Parkinson (née Couper).

Broadcasting career

In 1966, Parkinson—along with David Gapes, Derek Lowe and Denis O'Callaghan—was a founding director of the

pirate radio Pirate radio or a pirate radio station is a radio station that broadcasts without a valid license. In some cases, radio stations are considered legal where the signal is transmitted, but illegal where the signals are received—especially w ...

station Radio Hauraki, which broke the state-controlled broadcasting monopoly in New Zealand. Starting out as a studio technician working for Broadcasting Corporation of New Zealand (BCNZ), Parkinson trained himself to become an on-air announcer, but was told by the corporation at the time that his ability lay in the technical field and they could see no future in his voice. He proved them wrong by becoming one of the most highly sought after voice over announcers of his time. Later using both his technical and announcing talents on Radio Hauraki. Eventually the station was granted a broadcasting licence in 1970. From 1968 to 1970, Parkinson was an announcer and newsreader in Australia, on Sydney radio and television stations

2GB 2GB is a commercial radio station in Sydney, Australia owned by parent company Nine Radio, a division of Nine Entertainment Co., who also own sister station 2UE. 2GB broadcasts on 873 kHz, AM. In 2010, 2GB held 14.7% of the total rad ...

and

TCN-9 TCN is the flagship television station of the Nine Network in Australia. The station is currently located at 1 Denison Street, North Sydney. The licence, issued to a company named Television Corporation Ltd headed by Sir Frank Packer, was one of ...

. Between 1975 and 1976 he was a news presenter on TV2 in Auckland alongside

Jennie Goodwin Jennifer Goodwin (born ) is a New Zealand journalist, television newsreader and continuity announcer. On Monday 30 June 1975 she became a news presenter on the newly launched TV-2, making her New Zealand's first female television newsreader, an ...

. He was operations manager for

Radio Pacific TAB Trackside is a New Zealand horse racing and sports broadcast network, incorporating two pay TV channels. The TV channels are available on Sky (New Zealand), Sky channels and the Spark New Zealand#Spark Sport, Spark Sport streaming service. ...

from 1982 to 1988, managing director of Radio Pacific (Waikato) from 1988 to 1989., and a Radio Pacific director between 1986 and 1999. He was the corporate voice for

TVNZ , type = Crown entity , industry = Broadcast television , num_locations = New Zealand , location = Auckland, New Zealand , area_served = Nationally (New Zealand) and some Pacific Island nations such as the Cook Islands, Fiji, and the So ...

news and current affairs (1991–99), Sundance Channel (1999–2003), Solid Gold FM (1999–2005) and Radio Pacific (1982–2007). Parkinson was awarded the Pater Award for "the golden voice of Australasia" in 1987. He also won nine New Zealand Radio Awards between 1982 and 1999.

Death

Parkinson died in

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

on 27 April 2016.

Popular culture

The story of Radio Hauraki was told in the 2014 New Zealand television docudrama, ''Pirate of the Airwaves'', in which Parkinson was played by actor Benjamin Murray. Parkinson was also interviewed for the 1996 television documentary, ''Rock the Boat: the Story of Radio Hauraki 1965–1970''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Parkinson, Chris 1941 births 2016 deaths People from Wairoa New Zealand businesspeople New Zealand radio presenters New Zealand television presenters