You couldn't Mike this up

The four Northern Advocate Mikes around the four mikes in the The Hits Northland radio station studio, situated in the Northern Advocate building. From left, production editor/business editor Mike Regan, agriculture reporter Mike Barrington, chief reporter Mike Dinsdale and photographer Mike Cunningham. Photo / John Stone

Things can get pretty confusing in the Northern Advocate editorial department with a third of the staff named Mike.

It's often been a bit of a joke that if you're called Mike you've got a much better chance of being employed in the Whangarei newsroom.

So when it was announced that four more mikes would be coming into the building we got mighty worried that the confusion levels would step up several notches - morning greetings can be several minutes of "morning Mike, morning Mike, morning Mike' as the four Mikes come in for the day.

But the four new mikes are microphones that are in the new studio of The Hits Northland radio station, which is now under construction in the same building as the Advocate at NZME HQ in Robert St, Whangarei.

So we couldn't resist getting a photo of our four Mikes - production editor/business editor Mike Regan, agriculture reporter Mike Barrington, photographer Mike Cunningham and chief reporter Mike Dinsdale - on the new four mikes in the studio (pictures are far better than sound in this case).

Compounding our Mike issue is that we also have the female version, with Mikaela Collins also one of our reporters.

Do you have an unusual number of staff with the same first name at your workplace? Let us know at reporters@northernadvocate, ring the editorial hotline on 09 4702875 or check out our Facebook page.

- The Hits Northland host Charmaine Soljack will be broadcasting from the new studio in July.