Obituary: Waldo Maguire

* Waldo Maguire, BBC editor, creator of Town and Around. Died age 85.

Waldo Maguire, a pioneer BBC journalist whose influence is still felt within state broadcasting in New Zealand, has died, aged 85, in the south of England.

Irish-born Maguire, as editor of BBC TV News, was seconded to the then NZBC in 1965 to invigorate news and current affairs coverage. He created the popular Town and Around programmes in the four main centres.

He also masterminded the BBC's coverage of President Kennedy's assassination in 1963. He returned to Auckland in 1975 as head of South Pacific Television's information programmes. A year later he retired.