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Former regional reporter and post-Cold War pioneer dies aged 76

Rod PounsettA former regional press journalist who started the first western news bureau in Moscow after the Cold War has died aged 76.

Tributes have been paid to Rod Pounsett, pictured left, who also worked for the Daily Express and BBC Radio 4, where he served as senior producer for the Today programme.

Rod, who died last week, started is career as a reporter and photographer on the Worthing and Shoreham Herald newspapers in the early 1960s.

He went on to host a daily show on BBC Radio Brighton in the 1970s, one of the very first phone-in radio shows, before his move to Radio 4.

While there, he was at the helm in covering the death of John Lennon in 1980 and the great storm of 1987.

From 1990 to 1996 he worked as Moscow operations manager for Andersen Consulting in Russia. In his later career he edited European Politics Today, among other ventures.

Rod was the uncle of Nic Outterside, former editor of the Denbighshire Free Press, Argyllshire Advertiser, Galloway Gazette and Buchan Observer, who paid tribute to him in a blog post.

Wrote Nic: “I had not seen Rod for many years, but he was the person who got me into journalism when I was just 17-years-old, by securing me an interview with the editor of my local newspaper.

“I have many happy memories of listening to off-the-record tapes of interviews he had with the likes of Denis Healey, Jim Callaghan, Jimmy Young, Norman Tebbit, Clive James and many others.

“It took a further 10 years before I became a fully-fledged hack, but it was Rod who started me off.”

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  • December 18, 2015 at 11:44 am
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    Rest in Peace Rod.

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