On Wednesday, September 28, the Pattaya City Expats Club (PCEC) was privileged to have a well-known Australian radio and TV presenter as their speaker. Alan Gaskell recently retired from a lifelong career as a news/sports announcer, primarily with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), and now residing in Pattaya. Alan also provides training to others as a voice coach.
Alan said he knew he wanted to be an announcer in his early teens, but took some convincing to his parents as they wanted him to be an accountant. Further, being involved in debating at his university helped his career tremendously as it involved stepping up to talk on many subjects and was great training for public speaking. He notes that to present well on television, requires the ‘right’ training just like a champion athlete, a steady intention, and a lifelong dedication to the field.
In 1969, at age 19, he began his career by auditioning and being accepted by the New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation. He quickly established himself initially in radio before being enlisted to present prime time Nightly National Television News which he rapidly took to the top of the ratings. Also, at this young age, he did a TV commercial (showing a video of it to his PCEC audience).
Following this success, he achieved his lifelong dream of working for the BBC in London. He then crossed the Atlantic to join the competitive radio market in Philadelphia, USA. He then made his mark in Australia where he joined Sydney’s number one commercial radio station 2UE. In the early 1990’s SBS Television headhunted Alan to become one of the founding presenters of its prime-time nightly sports program, “World Sports” which was a first in Australian television. Alan also anchored the Network’s biggest sporting events. He would go on to become the program’s Executive Producer.
In 2000, at the Sydney Olympic Games, he was a Commentator/Presenter for Gymnastics and Weightlifting. In 2006, he was an Announcer Presenter for the Asian Games in Doha, Qatar. Alan joined Australia’s number one racing channel, SKY, in 2010. He has always been a horse lover, and during this period he not only was involved as a commentator for harness racing but was also involved as an owner.
During his presentation, Alan mentioned many celebrities he met during his career and offered a few humorous antidotes about them. He also presented a YouTube video showing excerpts of his TV persona over the years. This video can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24EhjHmUeYA.
Upon conclusion of the presentations, MC Ren Lexander brought everyone up to date on upcoming events. He was followed by George Wilson conducting the Open Forum portion of the meeting where members of the audience can ask and answer questions about Expat living in Thailand. For more information about the PCEC, visit their website at https://pcec.club. To view a video of Alan’s presentation, visit the PCEC’s YouTube Channel at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ll9Q3GRT5DM
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