CTV owner talked about building shift day before earthquake

Murray Wood, managing director of Canterbury TV, talked about shifting the business just a day before he died in the building's collapse. Photo / Supplied

Murray Wood, managing director of Canterbury TV, talked about shifting the business just a day before he died in the building's collapse in Tuesday's devastating earthquake.

His business partner in CTV, Nick Smith, said he had been talking about a shift with Mr Wood, just 24 hours before the building collapse.

"We were sitting in the office there, ironically talking about the future of CTV and where we should be housed, because the building really in our current model, we should have been thinking of looking somewhere else. And I'm afraid, we were a bit too late, weren't we?" Mr Smith, who is the company chairman, told TV3.

Fifteen CTV staff are believed to be among an estimated to 122 people missing in the building rubble in Madras Street. That figure includes more than 80 students and staff from language school King's Education Ltd.

China Television reported 21 students from China were listed as missing, at least eight had been confirmed as buried in the CTV building.

They said a total of 32 Chinese were registered at the school.

Police have termed the collapse scene unsurvivable.

Mr Wood, a father of six, was described by long time friend Robert Bijl as an energetic and enthusiastic music lover with a big heart.

"He's extremely kind, extremely generous, enormously talented, very dedicated to his family and he adored his wife, Nicki," Mr Bijl told the New Zealand Herald.

- NZPA