NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Herald NOW
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • World
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
  • Herald NOW
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Politics
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Herald NOW
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / New Zealand

Real Life: Brian Kelly on King’s Birthday honour for pursuing childhood radio dream

By Matt Burrows
Newstalk ZB·
9 Jun, 2025 07:53 AM5 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Tauranga radio announcer Brian Kelly has been made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to broadcasting in the 2025 King's Birthday Honours.

Tauranga radio announcer Brian Kelly has been made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to broadcasting in the 2025 King's Birthday Honours.

Brian Kelly, MNZM, was just 5 years old when he decided he wanted to be a radio announcer.

Growing up in Whanganui, the now host of Gold Sport’s The Country Sport Breakfast would play games pretending to run a radio station and broadcasting live.

As a child, he’d call into his local station 2XA frequently for dedications – “I was probably a pain in the backside to the announcers,” he reflects – and as a teen, he would participate in quizzes run by the late radio legend Bill Leathwick and go into the station.

“I always had a hankering for it, I guess. It fascinated me, radio, and I thought ‘Maybe I’ll do that’,” he told Newstalk ZB’s Real Life with John Cowan on Sunday night.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Fast-forward six decades, and Kelly is himself revered as one of the country’s icons of radio – as evidenced by becoming a member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to broadcasting on last King’s Birthday.

Kelly told Real Life the King’s Birthday honour was “incredibly unexpected”, especially given as “I basically sit on my bum and talk to people”.

“It was a surprise, a total surprise … but a real honour, that’s for sure,” he said.

“I mean, I don’t go to work to get gongs. I enjoy doing what I’m doing, and I tell people I’ve never worked a day in my life. But also I’m doing something I love. When I was 5 years old, I decided I wanted to be a radio announcer – and I’ve just followed that dream.”

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
 Tauranga radio announcer Brian Kelly was made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to broadcasting in the 2025 King's Birthday Honours.
Tauranga radio announcer Brian Kelly was made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to broadcasting in the 2025 King's Birthday Honours.

Funnily enough, radio wasn’t his only interest as a young boy. He was also involved with the Sea Cadets from the age of 12, and decided that Navy life might be an eventual career path – that was, until he went out on a frigate on the HMNZS Waikato once and got violently seasick.

“So, that was the end of my dream to become a sailor!”

Kelly told Cowan the response to his King’s Birthday honour has been phenomenal.

“I was hearing from people that I hadn’t heard of for years and years, that I’d worked with over the years in motorsport or in radio, whatever it might be, even listeners … it’s very humbling.”

Kelly got his first job in radio at 19, earning $41 a fortnight as a programme trainee for National Radio in Wellington, supplementing his income by driving back to Whanganui on the weekend to play gigs at hotels.

“[I would] programme the all-night national programme from midnight on Friday night, right through to 6am on Monday morning, just selecting all the music, which was great.

“My desk had a turntable, a pair of headphones, and the next room was the head office music library and there were 20,000 LPs in there. It was the greatest learning curve ever because I was a teenager growing up in the ‘60s and ‘70s, and there were the Beatles’, the Rolling Stones’, The Doors’ [albums].

“I just sat at my desk, put headphones on and selected tracks from these albums. I told people I’d died and gone to heaven.”

Later, having decided he wanted to be a radio announcer, he hit dead end after dead end.

Brian Kelly on Gold AM's The Country Sport Breakfast in May 2024. Photo / Alex Cairns
Brian Kelly on Gold AM's The Country Sport Breakfast in May 2024. Photo / Alex Cairns

“After about half a dozen attempts of trying to pass the audition, I was told my voice was too light ... So I thought, ‘Well I love sports’, so I started going out covering local sport in Masterton,” Kelly told Real Life.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

“And then the late Rob Crabtree came to Masterton to cover a round of the New Zealand Rally Championship, and he wanted me to come with him, and I loved it so much. He said: ‘Look, there’s a vacancy coming up in Wellington sports, how would you like it?’ And I took it.”

Kelly has made motorsport his home, having covered the World Rally Championships, Formula One, Supercars and many more events across his more than five decades in radio.

And now, as host of Gold Sport’s The Country Sport Breakfast, it’s become a family affair. His youngest son, Mark, is his producer.

“I bow to him with his sporting knowledge, I absolutely bow to him. I think I must have brought him up the right way because he’s passionate about sport … he’s the brains behind the show, you could say.”

And Kelly still loves the gig.

“My life’s not over yet, I might say – 55 years in radio, and I think I’ve still got maybe another 50 to go.”

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
  • Real Life is a weekly interview show where John Cowan speaks with prominent guests about their life, upbringing, and the way they see the world. Tune in Sundays from 7.30pm on Newstalk ZB or listen to the latest full interview here.

Sign up to The Daily H, a free newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

Save

    Share this article

Latest from New Zealand

New Zealand

Herald NOW: Rotorua Homelessness: Local wants to buy cabins to fix problem

New Zealand

Herald NOW: Business with 2degrees: June 10 2025

New Zealand

Herald NOW Sports update June 10 2025

Why Cambridge is the new home of future-focused design

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from New Zealand

Herald NOW: Rotorua Homelessness: Local wants to buy cabins to fix problem

Herald NOW: Rotorua Homelessness: Local wants to buy cabins to fix problem

A Rotorua local wants to import cabins from China to fix their homeless problem, Rotorua Daily Post senior reporter, Kelly Makiha spoke to Ryan Bridge about the issue.

Herald NOW: Business with 2degrees: June 10 2025

Herald NOW: Business with 2degrees: June 10 2025

Herald NOW Sports update June 10 2025

Herald NOW Sports update June 10 2025

Fog cancels flights at Auckland Airport, thunderstorms forecast

Fog cancels flights at Auckland Airport, thunderstorms forecast

09 Jun 07:33 PM
Clean water fuelling Pacific futures
sponsored

Clean water fuelling Pacific futures

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • What the Actual
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven CarGuide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP