Bill Clinton in Christchurch NZ
On the 15th of September 1999, President William Jefferson Clinton became the first US President to visit the American Antarctic Deep Freeze Base in Christchurch, New Zealand. Since Chch. is my old home-town – and seeing I’d gone to the trouble of waiting hours for the chance to see Clinton in person – I wanted to make some sort of feature to commemorate the event.
Clinton was only the second President to travel to New Zealand while in office, and his visit had a profound effect on the locals who’d never before witnessed the enormous scale of the American political machine – and its surrounding entourage of media and security.
This audio slideshow is narrated by broadcaster Robin Harrison, and talks to those involved in Clinton’s visit to New Zealand, including former Prime Minister Mrs Jenny Shipley, along with extracts from Clinton’s speeches.
This documentary initially began back in 2000 when I was working for “Canterbury On Air” – a short lived radio station in Christchurch, New Zealand.
A documentary was produced to mark the first anniversary of Clinton’s first visit to NZ in ’99. This meant the recollections were still relatively fresh. I then gathered some new interviews in early 2009 for a package to help celebrate the 10th anniversary – including an interview with Ex-Prime Minister Jenny Shipley recorded by Thomas Watts in Auck. NZ – and added them to the old audio with new narration.
The final package was played during the week of the tenth anniversary on the “Sounds Historical” show, which airs Sunday nights on Radio New Zealand.
This is a non profit project intended to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Clinton’s visit to NZ for educational purposes only. Images and music sourced from the internet are respectfully included with much thanks.
Assistant Producer: Thomas Watts
Presented by: Robin Harrison
Featuring: Jenny Shipley, Prof. Scott Lucas, Gary Moore (the ex-mayor – not the guitarist – sorry), Diane Keenan, Christopher Moore, Martin van Beynen, Richard Benton, Ross Devereax,
With thanks to:
The Christchurch Press, The International Antarctic Centre, Thomas Watts, Prof. Scott Lucas from the University of Birmingham.
Hear the full documentary below…
President Clinton in Christchurch: The 10th Anniversary by samcoley
Title: “Clinton In Christchurch”
Commissioned by: Canterbury On Air (2000) Revised for Radio New Zealand (2009)
First broadcast: Sept. 2009
Equipment:
Sony TCD-D8 Portable DAT Recorder
Sony ECM-MS907 Stereo Microphone
Marantz PMD660 recorder
Beyer Dynamic M58 Microphone
Adobe Audition 3.0 digital editor
