The voice of Tauranga, long time broadcaster Brian Kelly, is signing off from Classic Hits in September and heading to Auckland.
His energy and enthusiasm, his unabashed support for motor racing, and his commentaries on current issues have become folklore in the city as he led 'BK and the Morning Team'
on 95FM.
The irrepressible Mr Kelly won't be lost to Tauranga altogether. He will commute at the weekends - his wife Roanna will stay on and continue to run Tuskany Agency.
And from October 3 listeners can switch over to 97.4FM early in the morning and hear him in his new job - presenting Radio Network's Coast breakfast show, which goes nationwide. He is replacing Kim Adamson, who has been filling in temporarily.
"It was the right time to switch, and let a younger, talented announcer step in here," Mr Kelly said. "When I saw the job advertised - I had never applied for a position for 40 years - I saw it as a really exciting challenge because I hadn't done network breakfast before.
"I've got a little older, Classic Hits is concentrating on the young mums 25-35 years, and Coast was the perfect fit. It plays music from the 1950s through to the early 1970s ... it's the music I grew up with and it targets the baby boomers; that's me."
Mr Kelly's final day at Classic Hits is September 23 and after 31 years he's become one of the country's longest serving breakfast announcers.
Joining New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation (NZBC) in 1970 as a programme trainee, he arrived in Tauranga five years later as a community and sports broadcaster for IZD.
Mr Kelly replaced Simon Marsh as the breakfast announcer for Radio BOP, now Classic Hits, in 1980.
For three decades Mr Kelly and his team has kept his entertaining show No1 in the Tauranga breakfast ratings.
"Brian has an enviable record. He has been very much a part of the Bay, a truly outstanding radio host who has held us together through his sense of community," said Louise Dean, Radio Networks Tauranga acting station manager.
He will be joined in Auckland by one of his sons and daughter, who live there.
