Bill McCarthy
Bill McCarthy started working in media in 1961. His entry into the industry was through radio as there was no television in his hometown of Dunedin. A year later, a television studio opened and he shared his time between there and radio for eleven years, before making the shift to full time television work in 1973.
Bill started out presenting sport but from 1975 – 1980 he and Dougal Stevenson alternated weeks reading the news. Bill covered some big events in New Zealand’s history including the 1975 Commonwealth Games and the Erebus disaster in 1979. He also played a big role in starting Top Town, which became a classic Kiwi TV show.
McCarthy still loves sport and enjoys yachting. He is passionate about classical music and is ‘coincidentally’ married to a concert pianist and has a daughter who is a world-class violinist. He started the Young Musicians’ Competition, which screened on prime time television in the early eighties.
Bill lives in Auckland with his wife Rae. They have two grown daughters and one granddaughter.
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