Peter Sinclair (New Zealand)
Encyclopedia
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
personality and radio host.
Born in Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, he rose to fame in the 1960s and early 1970s firstly on New Zealand radio and then as host of Let's Go, Happen Inn and C'mon, New Zealand's primary rock music
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
television shows of the time.
In the late 1970s he reinvented his place in New Zealand television as presenter and quizmaster
Quizmaster
Quizmaster can refer to:*Australian game shows:**Quizmaster - a 2002 game show produced by the Seven Network**Temptation Quizmaster - the 2006 series on Nine Network's Temptation...
on University Challenge
University Challenge (New Zealand)
University Challenge was a long-running New Zealand television quiz show. The format was based on the British show of the same name, which was itself based on the American College Bowl...
and Mastermind, two popular television quiz shows which ran until the late 1980s. Sinclair's measured on-screen personality was suited to these kinds of interactive game shows. As a quizmaster he made the phrase "I've started, so I'll finish..." (originally coined by Magnus Magnusson
Magnus Magnusson
Magnus Magnusson KBE was a television presenter, journalist, translator and writer. He was born in Iceland but lived in Scotland for almost all of his life, although he never took British citizenship...
on the British version of Mastermind), a New Zealand cultural cliché. Sinclair also hosted the 1982 Mastermind International contest.
Sinclair was also a noted writer, penning a novel called The Frontman and writing regular columns for the New Zealand Herald newspaper. In later years he was a radio announcer from 1986, for Radio Avon, in Christichurch, the city he grew up in, which became C93FM
C93FM
C93FM was a New Zealand radio station based in Christchurch.C93FM broadcast on 92.9 FM and, after it merged with Radio Avon, also broadcast on 1260 AM. C93FM has had several music formats during its time on the air...
, then Classic Hits FM
Classic Hits FM
Classic Hits is an Adult Contemporary music radio network broadcasting in 25 markets throughout New Zealand, targeting 25 - 55 year olds. Its a family-focused radio network with some of New Zealand's most experienced broadcasters on air and behind the scenes. It currently has around 387,000...
and Easy Listening i98FM, hosting the popular "Lovesongs till Midnight" program. While still in Christchurch he helped raise money to build a Police Kiosk in Cathedral Square
Cathedral Square, Christchurch
Cathedral Square, locally known simply as the Square, is the geographical centre and heart of Christchurch, New Zealand, where the city's Anglican cathedral, ChristChurch Cathedral is located...
, for people who needed a safe place to go at all times of the day in case of emergencies. In his later years, he developed a passion for computers and was one of the first New Zealanders to become actively involved with the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
. He wrote widely on internet issues, software developments and content.
Sinclair died in Auckland
Auckland
The Auckland metropolitan area , in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest and most populous urban area in the country with residents, percent of the country's population. Auckland also has the largest Polynesian population of any city in the world...
on 8 August 2001, from leukaemia, aged 62.
