He was the champion of New Zealand children's television, who made it cool to be a Kiwi kid. And now life has travelled full circle. Nigel Benson catches up with Rex Simpson.
Rex Simpson's easy and infectious laugh bounces down the telephone line from Thames, where he has just come off air at Coromandel FM.
The Thames Coast wakes to Simpson's naughty antics at 6am every weekday and knows that laugh well.
"I work six days on the radio, with one weekend off a month, so work takes up a fair amount of my time" he says.
"I'm in the studio at 5am, for on-air at 6am. I inform and entertain until 10am, then I prepare the next day and write some commercials until 12.30pm. Then I start work on my other interest, my online gift business allthebest.co.nz."
Simpson (57) moved to Ruamahunga Bay after a long career in television and radio, most recently as an announcer on Coromandel FM's Dunedin Mediaworks stablemate More FM.
"It is a very lovely area, with beautiful beaches and a magnificent pohutakawa-clad coastline. It is warmer, but wetter during the winter, though. Thames is small by comparison [to Dunedin], but the coverage of the station is wider, covering resort the communities of Whitianga, Whangamata, Waihi Beach and Matarangi, that bolster the population to 250,000 over the summer months," he says.
"I like the laid-back lifestyle; far more shorts, loud shirts and flip-flops than in Dunedin ... and that's just the bank manager."
Simpson is as busy as ever in his new home, running for the local community board in 2010, establishing the Thames Heritage Events Trust and its annual summer Pohutakawa Festival and chairing the Thames Musicians Club and Hauraki Safety Network.
He has also rekindled his love of acting, appearing on Shortland Street and in a roll call of television commercials, ranging from AMI Insurance to Life Savers confectionery.
Simpson originally trained as a teacher, before joining Television New Zealand in Wellington as a presentation director in 1976.
He moved to Dunedin two years later as a Playschool director, before redefining New Zealand children's television with programmes which treated children as thinking, rational people, such as Nice One Stu, Howz That?, You and Me and the landmark What Now?, which last year celebrated 30 years on television.
Simpson influenced generations of New Zealand children with his programmes wrapped in down-to-earth Kiwi banter, culture and stories.
"It came down to understanding the target audience and looking at what wasn't on the schedule that would suit the audience. In children's TV, I followed a behavioural model set by [Swiss child psychologist Jean] Piaget as my guide for elements that would appeal to the age group the programme was aimed at. Also, the shows had to have a bit of 'Rexy' flair and theatricality to them.
"I tried to create kids' shows that would entertain and stimulate action after the show had finished [and] which would inform and relate. I also made sure that the shows were inhabited by people that the viewer wanted to spend some time with.
"You have to treat your audience with respect and not dumb things down. Each and every one of us is just a 5-year-old in longer pants, with more experiences."
He also initiated church programme Praise Be and produced The Renovators (featuring Dave Cull, now Dunedin Mayor) and Beauty and the Beast.
At the same time, Simpson was indulging his passion for radio, popping up on Radio 4XO in Dunedin, although contractural obligations meant he had work under a pseudonym.
"'Dougy George' was my alter ego for a while. When I was told that Rex Simpson couldn't work on the private radio station in Dunedin, I invented 'Dougy'. I don't think I fooled too many people," he laughs.
"I have always kept my hand in with radio, right from the time I won a teenage DJ competition when I was 15, in Gisborne. I love the immediacy of radio. I like the contact with the audience and that I am director, producer and talent. I also really appreciate the fact that you have to be 'up'. You can't be a sad sack on the air," he says.
"I thank God I had radio when I did. It helped keep me sane, because I had to be happy. Otherwise, I could have easily slipped into a very depressing place."
Simpson was almost killed in a car accident in Dunedin in 1987, when he was producing Barnum, starring the late Rob Guest, at the Regent Theatre for Dunedin Operatic.
"It was the worst of times and the best of times. It was an horrific thing to go through for everyone concerned and it was the making of me. There isn't a great deal you can do trussed up in bed with most of your limbs broken, but reflect on your life and make some decisions about future directions.
"I got very depressed for a while and was offered counselling while I was in hospital, which was a life saver. The counselling gave me the serenity to accept the things I could not change; courage to change the things I could; and the wisdom to know the difference."
In 1991, he established his own production company, Kids TV, in Dunedin and Auckland.
"I was working for TV3 as head of the children's department, when they decided that they were going to do away with their production departments and contract out to independent producers. It seemed like an ideal opportunity to start the company," he recalled.
"I was fortunate enough to get some contracts for existing TV3 kids shows and then get the contract for the pre-school series You and Me, which enabled me to establish the studio in Dunedin to take advantage of the early childhood programme-making expertise in the city."
He established a stable of programmes, before funding started drying up in the late-1990s.
However, Simpson has some unfinished business in TV.
"I do regret not being able to get my idea for 7 to 12-year olds made, that encouraged them to use their imaginations and creativity.
"I also wanted to make a series called The Meanies that was a fun way of getting an anti-bullying message across and then there is the series that was story outlined by Margaret Mahy that I wasn't able to find funding for, that I would have liked to have completed. But, life is too short for regrets.
"I am thankful for what I have got and the life I have been given. I feel very fortunate to have had the experiences I have had.
"It could have all been so different for me. I was adopted by two fantastic people, who encouraged me to fulfil my potential, but it could have easily gone the other way where I could have been placed into a home where there wasn't the depth of love and care I experienced.""My life has sort of gone full circle. I started out training as an actor - in fact I had my own theatre company while I was at university - so now I have come back to putting together shows," he says.
"Dunedin still has an allure. I miss the view I had from the More FM studio out over the harbour ... I miss lots of things. My parents are in the ground there and their Rita Angus portraits were donated to the [Dunedin Public Art] gallery. There's lots of history for me in Dunedin."
