Mr Weatherall (45) was ‘‘chuffed'' to have been awarded the Antenna Award for best theme music composition.
‘‘It doesn't matter where you are these days. You can live and work in a place like Oamaru and still get your stuff out internationally,'' he said.
He writes the music and does all the animation for the children's show Penguin TV, or Jumping Jellybeans, as the television show was renamed this year.
The show is broadcast throughout New Zealand on Stratos TV and regionally on Triangle TV in Auckland, Family TV in Rodney, Central TV in the Waikato, 45 South Television in Oamaru and throughout Australia on a community television network.
Mr Weatherall, who did not attend the awards function in Melbourne, has a PhD in philosophy from Cambridge University. For the past 10 years, he has devoted himself to writing music and, more recently, making animated music videos which he uses in his television show.
Mr Weatherall would like his work to become viable so he could have a full-time living making the show, doing performances and selling his DVDs and CDs. Winning the award was a ‘‘big boost'' as it helped get him known.
‘‘And it's nice to beat the Aussies on their home turf. It's a bit like a horse from Oamaru going across as an outsider and taking out the Melbourne Cup," he said.
