Roger Pittman

My father wanted a better quality of life and a higher standard of living for our family, so we left England bound for NZ, where I spent my teens on the North Shore in Auckland. I’d been interested in broadcasting from an early age and wanted to be part of the creative production of radio and television programmes.

After gaining my University Entrance I was offered a technical traineeship with the NZBC. After school, as a technical trainee, on completion of the training courses I was assigned to television in Auckland. Gathering invaluable experience in television working on outside broadcasts, I decided, after four years, to take my OE in Britain and found work with Independent TV News there. Also, the idea of seeing the world appealed to me. As a videotape engineer, my career involved engineering and creativity. As new technology came along, I found promotion as a videotape editor and edited news and documentaries in many locations overseas. ITN took me around the world, visiting the world’s trouble spots as well as covering the Olympic Games and many royal tours. I took a correspondence degree with Britain’s Open University, carrying my study notes to many overseas locations. In Afghanistan, I had to run a gauntlet of road blocks at night, to fax my test papers. In 1988 I gained a BSc in Technology, majoring in maths and computer science.

In the 1990s the television industry embraced multiskilling as a cost saving and I added news camerawork to my experience. I saw technological advances and among many other things, my computer studies taught me to upgrade computer hardware and write small programs. I embraced the fledgling internet using Compuserve, and newsgroups.

Spending time in China, South America and Eastern Europe, whetted my appetite to return on holiday. I want to explore the world. In 1998 I returned to New Zealand and set up a TV production company in Nelson. With multiskilling experience, and the convergence of television and computers, I produced high-end television productions at home for major national and international clients. On retiring in 2010, computing became a major pastime along with my love for music. As a “child of the sixties”, the golden era of pop music, I love discussing popular music with like-minded friends and I’m always keen to gain new information about it. I have tens of thousands of vinyl records, but hundreds of thousands of music files. Listening and viewing became simpler and more enjoyable when I copied my vinyl, CDs and DVDs onto hard drive. Now I can take my favourites to any part of the house, and beyond.

Graeme Valpy twisted my arm to join SeniorNet. He has been a great source of encouragement and Seniornet are lucky to have him. There are many others there I enjoy “sparring” with, and I would miss them if Seniornet didn’t exist. Apart from Seniornet in Nelson and Motueka I’ve been a member of the Nelson Video Club, U3A and the Science Society. I’ve also produced my own radio show at Fresh FM. I belong to the Nelson Bays Mac Users Group and the Nelson PC Users Group and enjoy meeting for brainstorming sessions about new technology. Whilst in London, I met my wife, Judy, a journalist. We’ve been married 26 years, and enjoy travel and entertaining. We travel the country buying antiques and old vinyl records.
(From Newsletter - February 2016)