Over and out from Gary and Frank

Gary Cooper (left) and Frank Martinac have called it a day with Paradise Radio Kaitaia. Photo / Peter Jackson

Gary Cooper and Frank Martinac will be on air once again with Paradise Radio Kaitaia (87.8FM) tomorrow, together this time, from 7pm, but they're not sure when they'll be knocking off.

"We will stop when we get sick of it I suppose," Martinac said last week, as he and Cooper planned their final broadcast.

The station, which operates out of Cooper's garage in Kaitaia, has been sold, and will rise again from Doubtless Bay next month (on 87.6FM), which will not reach as far as Kaitaia.

It's not known whether PRK's fan base at Waiharara will be able to pick it up, but it will definitely not be popping up on radios in brand new cars sold in Kaitaia, which Cooper said had unfailingly latched on to 87.8FM when they were asked to search.

Paradise began as Kaitaia Country Rock (KCR), assuming its new identity eight years ago, after Doubtless Bay man Bob Cooper (no relation) bought the station and decided that there would be no place for DJs.

"So we went out on our own," Cooper said, "just the two of us."

Martinac has been behind an array of controls that, to the uninitiated, suggests that he's out to take on the BBC, on Monday and Wednesday nights, country music Mondays, Pacific Islands and rest-of-the-world music Wednesdays, while Cooper has been at his much more minimalist laptop every day.

He once hit the airwaves at 5.30am, but in recent times has slept in until 8.30, carrying on through to midday Monday to Friday, with six hours of "rock 'n roll and stuff" on Saturdays.

'Less talk and more music' had always been their motto, they said, and both had compiled lengthy careers. Cooper said he had been DJ-ing in Kaitaia for 24 years, while Martinac started with Te Hiku in the late 1980s, based at Kaitaia airport alongside the late Dion Hobson.

With nothing to commit themselves to as of Thursday morning, Cooper was looking forward to travelling around the country, catching up with his children, while Martinac said he planned to continue working part time at Eric and Sandra Shackleton's vineyard, overlooking Ahipara.

"It's sad," Martinac, clearly a believer in the theory that things get better with age, said last week, "but I'm 80 now, and I suppose you have to retire sooner or later."

Cooper was hoping that his radio colleague would also join him in making cider, or sherry, or perhaps parsnip wine.

On the upside, he expected his dog to be pleased to shed her role as producer.

"It gets up to 40 degrees in this shed in summer, and neither of us are going to miss that," he said.