Paula Nagel, Winnie Pelz raise status of women in TV current affairs on Adelaide's 'This Day Tonight'
Paul Nagel (pictured as a guest of Peter Goers evening Adelaide ABC radio show in 2017) and Winnie Pelz on This Day Tonight raised the profile of women in serious current affairs television in South Australia.
Kaye Withers was an early female newsreader on Adelaide ABC (Australian Broadcasting Coorporation) television but the South Australian edition of This Day Tonight, from 1967, saw women such as Paula Nagel and Winnie Pelz move into more intense journalism roles.
Nagel was the first female reporter on This Day Tonight after studying English and literature at Adelaide University. She stayed at the ABC for 21 years, going on to produce arts and education programs. Nagel went on to a rich post-television life, involved with the Opera of South Australia, the Jam Factory and the Adelaide Festival. As international education adviser to the South Australian premier and government cabinet. Nagel’s focus was to develop cultural and research collaborative programs and scholarship opportunities with Italy and Greece.
In 2007, Nagel represented Australia on the executive committee of the Educating Cities Conference in Lyon, France, as well as presenting seminars on “Women in Australian society” and “Contemporary Australian literature” at the University of Salento in Italy. As chairman of Education Adelaide, the successful marketing agency for international students, Nagel led education missions to India, China and Europe.
As compere of Adelaide’s This Day Tonight in the mid 1970s, Winnie Pelz took the programme to the highest ratings among all its counterparts in Australian states. German-born Pelz herself won the 1976 Logie for most popular South Australian female television personality. She was the compere of Adelaide's daytime current affairs program, Today at One, before moving on to This Day Tonight.
Her ABC-TV debut had been making Let's do macramé for national telecasting, reflecting her brilliance and interest in crafts. It’s a passion, along with gardening, that Pelz pursued further after television.
