Frank Torley - consulting producer
Frank Torley always wanted to go farming when he finished school - but it didn't happen that way. After working on farms he joined a stock firm, but was plucked from the Feilding saleyards to join the NZBC as a rural broadcaster.
That eventually led to a job on Country Calendar - and he's remained with the show ever since. He became producer in the early 1980s and is now consulting producer, a role that lets him lend his wisdom and experience to the team, as well as allowing him to return to his first love - getting out on the road and making stories.
Frank has also presented Canterbury's local TV news, fronted 'Top Town', spent a short period in religious programmes and produced the doco series 'From Here to Maternity'.
The experience of 37 years in Country Calendar hasn't dampened Frank's enthusiasm for the job - but as he acknowledges, "We produce the stories, but it's the people we feature that make the programme great."
And although he's never achieved his childhood dream of becoming a full-time farmer, he runs a handful of sheep on a small Manawatu block.
