KEY POINTS:
Paul Holmes presents his last breakfast show for Newstalk ZB this morning in a farewell broadcast from Auckland's Sails Restaurant.
The veteran broadcaster, who has long topped Auckland radio ratings, will be gone from breakfast, but not from radio.
He will remain "part of the Newstalk ZB family",
taking over the Saturday nine-to-noon show.
Holmes, 58, seemed close to tears yesterday as he completed the last breakfast broadcast from Newstalk's studios in Cook St and took calls from well-wishers.
One was a multiple sclerosis sufferer who said Holmes had "brought a light to my life", while others applauded his 21 years at Newstalk and his television career - 17 years of the daily Holmes Show on TVNZ and three years on Prime TV.
Holmes said: "Nobody should be getting this much niceness."
But Brent Harman, who established Newstalk ZB in 1987 and brought Holmes from his job as a 2ZB host in Wellington to Newstalk ZB breakfast, said the applause was deserved.
"He may be the best broadcaster New Zealand had ever produced," he said.
Holmes has always had his detractors.
But his unique style that breaks many of the rules - with mumbling, dead air and offbeat humour - has attracted a loyal audience.
In the last Research International radio ratings survey, Holmes had three times more listeners than his nearest competitor.
Harman established the Newstalk format for Auckland's 1ZB in 1987. The new show lost nearly three quarters of the audience 1ZB had under long-time breakfast host Merv Smith.
He came close to sacking Holmes, but they dug in, and Holmes says the rot stopped in mid-1988.
Now as chairman of broadcaster MediaWorks - owner of Newstalk ZB rival RadioLive - Harman says Newstalk is taking a risk with the change from Holmes to Mike Hosking. He is hoping some of the audience will move to RadioLive.
But Holmes said he was not expecting any exodus. The Newstalk format was strong, he said, and he backed his younger replacement.
"I don't think there will be that same sort of struggle and battle.
"Mike is well established in the market, around the country and on Newstalk.
"There will be some people for whom Mike is not their cup of tea, and some people probably already prefer him to me," he said.
The change was announced in March last year. Newstalk ZB, owned by The Radio Network, had hastened the change after Hosking received a job offer from rival Radio Live.
Holmes will be taking over Hosking's Saturday nine-to-noon "lifestyle" show.
He will also fill in for talkback host Leighton Smith when he is on holiday.
Holmes said he would keep the Saturday show's focus on lifestyle topics when he takes over January 17, but it would probably be more offbeat.
The Radio Network is half owned by APN News & Media, publisher of the New Zealand Herald.
