My name is Ric Carlyon and these are my Dispatches. According to the dictionary “…to dispatch is to send off to a destination or for a purpose”. So, the destination is cyberspace via the internet and the purpose is to share!
Welcome to all visitors – I hope you find something of interest here, perhaps something new, or a fact, name or picture that jogs a memory. And, maybe, answers to a question or two!
I am an Aucklander. My career spanned more than 40 years with broadcasting in New Zealand and abroad.
I began as one of the pioneers when NZBC introduced radio news in the early 1960s. During 12 years reporting on both radio and TV I was assigned to cover many events at home and abroad… some are recalled in Dispatches from the likes of London, USA and the Pacific Islands including Mururoa Atoll where I witnessed the French testing nuclear bombs.
Later I had editorial positions, including heading TVNZ News and Current Affairs, ending my career working with overseas broadcasters and on special projects. Dispatches has behind-the-scenes stories associated with my career.
Dispatches also come from my 40 years as a volunteer in fire services in New Zealand, my avid interest in all things “fire”, tracing the history of Auckland fire brigades and my ownership of a unique 1930 Dennis fire engine.
More Dispatches, nothing to do with broadcasting or fire, reflect my very own ‘life and times’, my interest in social history and includes discovery of all kinds of people and things that caught my eye and I thought worthy of researching and writing about.
This collection, purpose unknown at the time of writing, is now Dispatches. Enjoy!
