Going Down Under

A new week brings an out of town guest from the other side of the globe. Longtime friend and colleague, D'Arcy Waldergrave, pays Ben and David a visit for the first time in 2020. A sports junkie himself, D'Arcy discusses the similar situation he has faced in New Zealand due to the coronavirus pandemic. Like most pro's in radio, D'Arcy has made the pivot and done so in style to make sure his voice can still be heard while maintaining his focus on the things he loves most.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ka boom. If you thought four hours a day, minutes
a week was enough, think again. He's the last remnants
of the old republic, a sole fashion of fairness. He
treats crackheads in the ghetto cutter the same as the
rich pill poppers in the penthouse the Clearinghouse of hot
takes break free for something special. The Fifth Hour with

(00:23):
Ben Maller starts right now. A key wee delight. We
are in the air everywhere the vast powerful network of
I heart podcasting, the global reach and you've obviously found
the podcast. You know, wherever you get your podcast, you
can find us where there's on iHeart or any of

(00:45):
the platforms that carry podcast and we thank you. This
a spinoff of the radio show. We don't do guests
on the radio show. This is an interview podcast and
we will welcome in a friend in a minute. But
first of all, we've got to be asked for for
at least a couple of minutes, and for better or
worse yet again, joined by David Gascony for better, Ben always, always, always.

(01:10):
For about the last week, a lot of complaints about
the quality of the audio. Very upset by that, you
know they can complain. Why don't we complain about the
people listening to the audio. Yeah, no, we should complain
about them about them, yeah, I mean, and we don't
know who they are. I don't you know, Well, of
course you do. They're the ones kind of reaching out
to you email, text messages, Facebook posts, tweets. That's true,

(01:32):
a lot of complaints all platforms. People were complaining about
the audio, so they were complaining about the free content
they were getting. Yes, yes, that is that is correct.
That is accurate. So uh, anyway, before we get into
the person, I'm actually excited to talk to this guy
because I've known him for years and he's another one
of my radio friends. I don't have too many radio friends,

(01:55):
but I consider him a radio friend, even though we've
never actually met. Kind of dancing around this, but before
we get to that. I was very excited the other
day because I did another cameo guests Gun And the
only place I've mentioned my my cameo is on the podcast.
I haven't talked about it. I've maybe made some loose
references on radio on the radio show, but I haven't.

(02:15):
I don't think i've tweeted out anything. I don't think
i've put anything on the Facebook page or Instagram, which
is that they tell you to do that. They tell
you the people a cameo say you should put that
on Twitter, put that on Instagram. No, the only place
I talked about it is on the podcast. And if
you don't know what cameo is pretty cool. There's like
really big name people and then there's like nobody's like
me that are on there and uh, and you can

(02:36):
get a personalized video message and it doesn't have to
be you know, typically they say it's for birthdays or
for you know, big big events, weddings, you know, anniversaries,
things like that, which is all good stuff. It's all
good stuff to do that, but it doesn't have to
be I mean, I've had people who have requested cameos
for name Rundowns, your nickname Rundowns, or or just wanted
to hear a rift about you know, some random topic

(02:57):
or something like that. I have yet to get one
where you want asked for for Bella, for Bella to
be in the video that does not happened. I think
that might be a little tough because I gotta hold
the camera and then hold Bella. That might be tough.
But I'm only to try it. But anyway, so check
that out if you want. It'd be great. A lot
of stuff on the weekends pops up there, it seems
when we do the podcast, people and hey, that sounds

(03:18):
like a good idea and big super fans of the show.
So it's cameo dot com, Ben Mallard and uh, guests gone,
you're on there also right at David J. Gascon, Ben,
I was, I was looking online in honor of your
your guests, that your buddy that comes on and visiting
us here the next couple of minutes. Um, we could

(03:38):
get even during a pandemic, we can get round trip
tickets twelve dollars to fly down Under. And I know
you need some leg space, and I thinking today's climate,
today's pandemic, you'd probably find a lot of leg space
on the seven seventies seven right now, given the fact
that most people aren't flying, especially overseas and down How

(03:59):
long is that flight? How long is that? I want
to say it is a fourteen hour flight. No, it's
twelve hours and fifty five minutes. Oh man, this is beautiful.
It's a long time. No. Uh, I wasn't a plane
one time. For twelve hours. But that was because we
got grounded at O'Hare in a lightning storm. We had taxied,

(04:22):
we had started to get ready for the takeoff. We
had left the gate. Then they said, wait a minute,
there's a storm coming in off Lake Michigan or whatever,
and so we tried to come back but we couldn't.
There was no gate available, so way to park the plane,
and that storm took a couple of hours to pass over.
Now are you saying like lightning and thunder and rain?

(04:42):
Are you saying gunfire? No? No, No, it's although it
sounds you know that the thunder and all that kind
of sounds like like like that. But but anyway, Yeah,
so I know, I don't really want to spend that
long in a play. I'd like to go. I'd like
to go and can you beat me up or something
like that. We can talk to elon Musk. I'm sure
I'll have something an act couple of years exactly right,

(05:02):
Uh hey, before we forget, you know. Twitter Ben Maller, Instagram,
Ben Maller on Fox, Facebook, Ben Maller's show Gustcon. You're
on most of those Twitter at David Jake Gascon Instagram
at Dave Gascon. Alright, so joining us on today's edition
of the Fifth Hour, I am excited to welcome a
grizzled veteran of the radio wars and someone that I

(05:25):
worked with as a colleague as an international correspondent for
over a decade. Darcy walder Grave. Now Darcy walder Grave
does radio in New Zealand in Auckland, New Zealand, which
is a big metropolis of a city there in New Zealand,
the biggest city in New Zealand. And uh, it's an
interesting guy. He's gonna give us the New Zealand perspective

(05:47):
on how they see American sports life in America. I imagine, Well,
at some point get to the famous name of the
national team, they're the All Blacks, which always comes up
on our show, showing that up at some point. So
Darcy had it been on the radio for almost two decades,
and he actually had and I know we'll get to

(06:09):
this as well, his network. When the apocalypse began, they
shut the entire thing down, They fired everybody. Everyone was
out of work that had been broadcasting as a part
of that. So let's give it up here for Darcy
waldor Gray, my longtime radio friend and Darcy, how the
heck is live treating you? My man? I'm good. I'm

(06:32):
sitting here as the sun's coming out and good old
New Zealand, and I've got my hat on my left
and I'm gonna my dressing game. And the beautiful woman
that I just meet three weeks ago, I was asleep
in my day, so I couldn't be happier. That's a
good thing. That's a great start. That is a good start.
So what is that, Darcy for? I think most people

(06:53):
who we obviously talked about this already in the open
for this podcast. But we worked together remotely for how
long was I on? I was on your show when
you started you were doing a morning show when I
first popped on as an international correspondent. But we we
worked together for it probably about ten years, I think,
somewhere around that neighborhood right somewhere. Tenious plus. Yeah, that

(07:15):
was a long time on my um hold on my
Little Girls coming Up team, and I was doing the
breakfast show at Radio Sports when um I when when
my wife was pregnant with her my ex wife. So
that's that's yes, it's tenious plus yeah. And uh, and
so when I when I talked and on my show,

(07:36):
I talked about your show and in your your station
carried the show. But people are like, why would you
know a station in New Zealand and network in New
Zealand want to have somebody on from the US. But like, explain, Darcy,
like you've covered sports there a long time, Like how
what American sports are big in New Zealand? Like what where?
Where is the pulse of the people there when it

(07:58):
comes to the sports in North America, it's quite it's
quite funny. It's it's almost almost cool to have an
American sports team. There's a great movement of New Zealand
sports fans that have chosen and they've got American basketball
teams that they follow, American football teams that they follow,
American hockey teams that they follow. That there are three
main sports. Obviously, there's a lot of people who enjoy

(08:21):
golfing as you guys see going thinking them and around
at golf. Of course, Tiger Woods is huge, and we're
always keen to listen to what's going on in America.
But's it's basketball, football, and it's hockey. And then there
are three sports that a lot of guys really really
hook and do it. Say guys, because genially it's men.
There's a lot of women as well into their American sports.
There's there's something about it, and there's our breakfast. Guys

(08:43):
probably took more American sport than New Zealand sport in
the morning sometimes, which can can infuriate some people. But
there's a there's a huge movement. People really always have
their teams, may identify with the team. I'm not quite
sure how they catch up with their teams, but they
identify with these teams. And a lot of people go
back to the States, go to the States just to
experience live sport in the States, be at basketball or

(09:04):
football or hockey. They're the ones that they get a
real kick on it. I've chosen to follow the worst
teams in American sport just because of funny more than
anything else. And you know, being that, I started following
the Jackson Bille Jaguars on your recommendation because they were,
as you'd like to score it, a dumpster fire. So
I've been following the dumpster fire for a number of
years now. I find it highly entertaining my own personal

(09:27):
involvement like everybody else. When Michael Jordan's first got onto
the scene. I was a massive basketball fan of the
Bulls right the way through that dynastry. I used to
sell real estate back in the days um and I
was a realtor, and I used to disappear from the
office around about mid day every time Jordan was on,
go to the local pub over the road and sit
there for four hours. Instead of selling real estate, I'll

(09:48):
be watching his anders playball and hockey. I have no idea.
I've watched it live a few times over here, but
it's just too fast. I can't even watch the park.
I can't even follow. I don't know what those guys
are doing. I just no, they really fit and really aggressive. Yeah,
well that's the same compla because here, like with hockey,
that the problem is it doesn't translate to television very much.
You've got to like be in the arena to watch

(10:10):
it in In that way, it's more enjoyable and and
as as a real estate mugul Darcy, I think it's
expected that you don't actually do your job and you
just kind of hang out and watch sports a lot.
Like it's like those sales guys at radio stations that
golf all the time. You know, it's like that same,
that same concept, right, because in real estate, you sell
a house, you're making a great profit on that right

(10:31):
of a great return and you don't have to sell
that many houses. Yeah, but all was terrible. Let's not
forget that. I mean, I look at myself. I was
twenty three years old when I started selling real estate,
and who would buy a house, a used house off
the twenty three year old guy with a sports habit
on the side. It was. It was a disaster to
be frank. I did it for two and a half
years and and I really realized that I was never

(10:51):
gonna make any money out of it. More, I really
wanted that there was get on the radio and talk.
So I left real estate and I became even more
impoverioused and chased my dream of being a radio host.
And then I moved up to Auckland, and after a
year and a half of serving drunks and cleaning astrays
in a local bar, I got a break to do
the night show at at Radio Sport, the national station.
So I did a show from eight to on midnight,

(11:14):
and I did that for four years. I was very stubborn.
I refused to leave and then I kind of moved
up through the ranks. And then only three or four
months ago, at the start of COVID, the powers that
be at en Z Meat, which is our parent company,
decided that radio sport up to twenty two years was
no more and they pulled the plug on it. They
gassed us, and that ended my eighteen year career as

(11:34):
a radio host. But I'd like to see myself as
a cockroach. And I lived for eighteen years under the
radio sports fridge. And when they moved the fridge, I
scuttled under the News Talk zb oven and I'm living
there now. And News Talks d B as the runaway
juggonnaut of broadcast radio talk radio here in New Zealand.
So I was handed a lifeline by the people at

(11:54):
News Talks d be so dramatic cut an hour's reasonable,
dramatic cut and salary. To be fair, I've lost a
lot of my fat. But I'm doing something I absolutely loved.
And uh, as long as I got enough to buy
myself the odd CROSSI beer of the weekend, and uh,
you know, play for a bit of food and put
my girl through school, IL really don't care. And I'm
doing what I love and that's the main reason, that's
why I existed. Be sure to catch live editions of

(12:16):
The Ben Maller Show weekdays at two a m. Eastern
eleven pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the I
Heart Radio app. Well listen, it's it's great. And I
did want to talk about that, Darcy, because people were
you know, people have asked. I've gotten some some guys
who were big fans in New Zealand who started listening
to me because of your show, and and and Radio
Sport actually carried my the syndicated show some of the

(12:39):
Fox products overnight. Uh well, not even overnight. We were
on in the evenings, I guess right. We were on
kind of like late nights in New Zealand. They would
carry our show at night. And then I went on.
I was on with you for so long, and we
built up a little following there, the Mini Mallard Militia
in New Zealand, which was kind of cool. And then
all of a sudden it stopped when the apocalypse hit.
And so you know what, give me the inside skinny

(13:02):
dicey was this? I mean, it certainly seems like they
just shut it down because of the pandemic, But was
this going to happen anyway? It was this just a
case where the people, the overlords of the radio station
just saw this as an opportunity to shut it down,
or were they never going to shut this down if
this pandemic hadn't happened. Well, a number of a number

(13:23):
of situations arose because of the pandemic. And previously we
Radio Sport was covering our national summer game cricket, which
is something I'm not even going to try and explain
to my American breather, and it's far too complex. I'll
put it that way. Eleven guys stand around on a
field wearing all white while two other guys wearing all

(13:43):
white with a bat all day there all day, The
innings go for six hours of the day, and they
go for five days and probably you know, six times
out of team, nobody wins the game after that. After
that five days, it's a very straight sports so and
trying to explain it to you, I could use some
baseball analogies, but even that would be too much. So

(14:06):
we covered that and that's how I got into actually
sport radio. I used to sit down in my backyard
hitting cherries, as a off my off my tree is
an eight year old boy listening to radio sports Sports
wound up coverage of live cricket and that started my
passing for the trade. So we lost the coverage rights
of that after seemed like generations and a lot of

(14:28):
people think that once the cricket wink, which is one
of our main stays, that that made it a little
easier for the company maybe to let the concepts go
now that this is what people think. Management are like, No,
we we just could not afford to run it anymore
because we're a very expensive station. As you know, sports
rights do not come cheap when we cover off predominantly

(14:49):
we're a live sports station. We did a lot of rugby,
with a lot of rugby league, with a lot of cricket.
We covered as much as we could. We go to
Olympic games, we've got to come off games. We go
to World Cups, we go to football World Cups. We
got Rugby World guards, Cricket World Up. So we've seen
the palons of people over the cover these sports. And
even though the station itself made a lot of money,
it also cost a lot of money to run. And

(15:11):
I think when the bottom fell out of the market
and there was no money anymore. Some of the bean
counters we looked, listens, we can't justify this anymore. Um.
Other people will say the writing was on the wall
when we lost the cricket, so as a transpired, they went, look,
we can't do this anymore and they plugged it. It It
was a very surreal hour at the start of the
COVID crisis, sitting here on my couch being told by

(15:33):
everybody you know in management that the radio sport was
now long. It was that was I don't want to
trivialize death, but it was like a death in the family,
which is something that I've been doing, as I said,
for for eighteen years. It defines me as a human
and it was quite gut wrenching, and we thought it
might come back at the post COVID look and strange thing.
One of my favorite sayings, guys is the only constant

(15:55):
is change. So we don't know what the future might hold,
We don't know how it goes. And now we're back
in the only place on the planet where you can
actually watch live sport and a crowd of people who
knows what may transpire over the coming years. It may
count back. But I can't hold onto those hopes. All
I know is that I've got a role at Newstalk
z B, and we do have live rugby coverage on
newstalks it be, and I've got I've got a role

(16:18):
in a position to to talk about sport and as
I said, the runaway juggon of talk radio in New Zealand.
So I can't look back at anger. I can't all
I can do. And this is what happened when COVID
came and strike us. My initial thought pretn was I
cannot change what's happened. I cannot control is what happened.
But I can control my reaction to what has happened.

(16:40):
And that's what I chose to do. And that's the
only way I think you can get ahead of things.
There's there's no point and crying over spilt milk, as
they say, though it's a lot of milk, it's a tanker.
I mean they're drowned catch everywhere. So that's basically in
a nutshells But we're not going to get up hope.
But currently as it stands, radio sport up to twenty
two years of polluting the airway, UM just ticked off

(17:01):
and see good. Huh yeah, yeah, it's great. And and
it's it's weird because you were there eighteen years. I've
been at Fox Sports Radio for twenty. I can't I
can't believe it's been that long. And you know, these
the pandemic started in the advertising market globally went in
the toilet as as you know, don't you know. And
so it's it's a little it's a little frustrating because

(17:23):
we we both love doing radio and I love you know,
the fact you're you know, lifetime I consider you a
lifetime radio guy. Now you've been in so long and
so but without the advertising, you know, it's like we
had John Sterling, the Yankee broadcaster, on this podcast a
couple of weeks ago, and he pointed out, you got
to sell the soup. The most important part is you've
gotta sell it. And it's very difficult right now, uh,

(17:45):
in the in the business, and hopefully that's gonna turn around.
Has it turned around at all? In New Zealand, as
you said, you know, you've got live sports there and
things are seemingly more normal than here in America. Right now.
I'm we're broadcasting from California. Darcy where the King of
California here has shut the entire state down again. But
it's not like that in New Zealand. So it is

(18:05):
the advertising market back is it's starting to come back.
Have I stood here and tried to tell you that
I understood the vagaries of advertising would be alive? Excuse me,
it's not COVID. It's okay, it's all right. I've had
to swap, I've had to thing up my nose. I'm fine.
Us on the way back. We're really interested to be

(18:26):
here to see if there is a second wave. We
seem to be very good right now. We've only got
it's twenty two active cases and they're all on quarantine.
We're bringing people back New Zealand. Nationals are all coming
back on maths from the rest of the world so
they can actually live a regular life again. And the economy,
it hasn't tanked quite as much as people thought it
would that the housing market, for example, we have got

(18:46):
a very vibrant housing market and it's still going. It's
still charging along, and it's it's bizarre that that's the
case when so many jobs have been lost. But I
think that we're waiting for the settling in time because
the government have spent billions of dollars with job subsidies
and wage subsidies keeping people unemployment. Now they do it

(19:07):
to lapse, So we're in that lapses. Then will see
what the next way it actually looks like and how
much is out there. But we're pretty vibrant. Pretty what's
the best word to describe the way New Zealanders are.
We we work hard, we put our heads down, our
butts up, and don't look at things. I think this
is a reason to fail. That we're just going to
make it work, and I think that view on life

(19:28):
is going to work out. Really, what's going to stand
Guys that I've been hearing the land we're about great
big farm. Now we've got everything we need to survive.
We can generate our own electricity through hydro dams. We
are essentially a farm from tip to tie. We're surrounded
and water, so we've got all of that marine life
to eat as well. And we're we're quite We're good

(19:50):
in the film industry, we're good at electronic industry. We're
we do a lot of things, are very self contained.
We can export that out to the rest of the world.
So as a po to seeing COVID as being an
absolute disaster. I think there's a core of people over
here who she's find a reason to make it actually
work for us. And there's a in sport particularly I've

(20:10):
been no I won't say leaving the charge on us.
We were talking about this in my radio program, about
the factors that we can have crowds of people come
to games. Now, there's a rugby Championship. If you don't
know about rugby, the All Blacks are one of the
most successful teams in history. They've got a winning rate
of something like crazy over the last hundred years. Now
they're not the world champions at the moment, they got
beaten out of the last World Cup. But we have

(20:32):
a yearly championship called the Rugby Championship, and it's between Australia,
New Zealand, South Africa and Argentina in the Southern Hemisphere
teams under a cap called SANSAR. That championship now is
being mooted to go ahead purely in New Zealand, where
would bring all those other nations over partner and quarantine
for two weeks at the cost of the ben of

(20:53):
SANSA and then run a six week competition in the
lead up to Christmas, where all of these teams play
each up and down the nation at all of the
stadia that we have that the ticket receipts will be
fantastic because people will clear up on mass news enermors
because we're absolutely addicted to rugby is a drug for us.
And also it gives the the Union something to to sell.

(21:15):
Sam's already have big deals in the broadcast right, so
that would be renegued on if they had nothing to
look at. But we're trying to work out a way
we can actually bring a viable and relevant competition with
crowds and people want to buy into that. The UFC
Israel this. So the middleweight champion is very keen to
get Dana White and has next title defense here in

(21:37):
awkwand at the Spark Arena you would have seen the USC.
It's great to listen to guys have their skulls crushed
by their feet and the like. You can hear at
the detail of the pain. But there's something about a
crowd that really is the lifeblood of sport. And I
know we've got soought behind closed doors, but I think
all of us look at it. It's just not right,
there's something not right, Whereas over here in New's in

(21:59):
we can prove I've even gone the star and say,
why don't we bring the pg O over here. Look
at some of the most beautiful golf courses in the
world here in New Zealand, get them over here. Why
don't we look to stretch out globally and say, hey,
we're living real, We're living in existence that you guys
all want to live. We're a very lucky country the
way we've behaved and what we've got, which is unique.
How can we benefit that? How can we make that

(22:20):
work for us and make it profitable? My other idea,
I said California should just move over here. Would quite
likely your tech companies and your money, and I'm sure
that the california As would all up to move over
here in New Zealand. It's a beautiful place. Maybe a
little cold, and it rains. I'll give you that rain.
It's the stuff that comes out of the sky. I
don't know if you Californias have seen it make scot wet.
So we've got some that aren't quite as good. But

(22:40):
you guys come on over man. We'll bring your money,
bring your tech and come to New Zealand. It's a
beautiful place to live. A Dercy. On that note, better
and I have tied to good length about some of
the bucket list things that we want to do here
in the United States or even in North America. You're
talking about like the the Calgary Stampede or the Kentucky Derby. UM.
Some of the like the tennis and golf majors that

(23:02):
we haven't been to. But one thing that I've had
friends internationally say to me is that no matter what
you do, you need to make sure that at least
go to one event internationally that's a part of the
World Rugby Sevens series. And I've had friends say, you
need to go down to New Zealand or go to
Hong Kong for the for the sevens. Um have you

(23:23):
ever been to any of those events? Um outside of
New Zealand. Not outside of New Zealand. When I leave
New Zealand to watch sport, I've I've got a real
problem with motor cars. I love race cars. You talk
about bucket list, I need to get to Indy. I
need to see that race. And of course one of
our finest Scott Dixon, was absolutely dominating any car at

(23:44):
the moment has done for I think he's been any
cars along. I've been at Radio Sport and you know
I talked him on a regular basis. But when I've
not been to one of the seas, I would like
to go to the Hong Kong Sevens. Again. It's a
it's a bucket list situation. But when I leave the country,
it's team me. So I can go and watch Formula One.
That's something we don't have over here. And of course
the Supercar Series out of Australia, which is a fantastic

(24:07):
tin top race car series and one of the dominant
forces there. Another Scott called McLachlan is going to be
racing for Pinsky next year in the Indy Car Series
and he's a guy that you would have watched for.
He is phenomenally quick. You think Scott dixmon is good,
when Scott mclackland turns up, it's going to be two key.
He's fighting it out for your chocolates. Over stateside, what
was the last time you're here in the United States? Well,

(24:30):
some in the those States would have been around about
sixteen years ago. It sounds odd. I had old friend
of mine who decided to get married, and his stag
party consisted of myself, him and two of his best
mates flying to LA for the weekend and that was
our stag party. So I went and experienced all A

(24:50):
for three days, and I didn't notice that everybody had
brand new shoes and you were definitely a hungry lot.
I would say that for sure, and not really good kasm.
You're not good at sarcasm at my might go to
and broadcasting is quite a sarcastic character, and I tried
that on the States and people just kind of look
at me like I was serious. I'm like, this is

(25:10):
not gonna last very well. In fact, you guys are
all armed. I might just leave my sarcasm back at
the hotel and just behave like a normal woman being
but a great time six Flags Magic Mountain over there.
I went to a number of flash restaurants, and I
found the best way to get service in the States
is order a bottle of eyewatering the expensive champagne, and
then suddenly they don't leave your loan. It took me

(25:30):
a while to work that one out, and I only
did it for the one night because you know, I
needed to fly home it was a good time, but
that was the last time I was there. I should
like to go to New York. Actually, I'm a doting
father of a nine year old girl, and he would
quite like to catch a trans continental train. We'd like
to go from New York across the l A on
a sleeper train and go right the way through the

(25:52):
heartland of the States in a train. That's something I'd
really like to do. So I'm looking to that the
next teen years, if you can actually get some kind
of control this Mars, because at the moment I ain't
leaving the land. I find it not even leave. Be
sure to catch live editions of The Ben Maller Show
weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific. Darcy has
been challenging though, because you've got states like California and

(26:14):
New York that are releasing prisoners, uh due to the
coronavirus outbreak, and of course is I'm sure you've seen
on on national news were you have riots all over
the place, and that includes some of the most h
I guess, most harmful in New York. So I don't
know if i'd recommend that. I don't know if Ben
would either. I'd say, go down south of Florida first
and then working exactly. But Darcy, what's the media covers?

(26:36):
They're like, what are you? What are you getting? It
is interest, because I'm sure it's different than the media
here is just going overload on this, But is it?
What's the reporting like in New Zealand and what are
you hearing on what's going on in in America? I
dest be careful. I don't want to rile any of
my American friends. What's going on right now? Um, we
are quite reserved in a coverage and reconably balanced, i'd

(26:59):
like to say, and how we cover international fears and
what we look at By that, the whole the Trump
situation is quite galling. That there is a constant denial
of what is happening. And it feels like there's a
constant denial at the very top, believe in the United
States of America about what you're doing and how you're
dealing with And it's not just at that the very

(27:22):
top level, it's a state side. Every individual states seems
to be coping within their own various ways. There seems
to be a huge disconnects between what authorities are attempting
to do and how it's done. But this is not
just the United States of America. We've got this in
England as well. We've got situations in Australia where there
are separate states running their place. They are all doing
their own things, and I think that's why he's worked

(27:44):
out so well. You would have heard of a phrase
the team of five million. Our Prime Minister Jacinda our Dorn,
who's been quite frankly stunning since he was elected, and
the New Zealand has got together as one and went right.
But we're going to fight this with what We're going
to join the party, and it's going to hurt, but
it's going to hurt only on short term and then
we're going to pop out the other side. So if
everybody dedicated themselves to the lockdown and everyone behave, we're

(28:07):
all good citizens. And that's because we're very small and
we feel like as one we can do it all.
You get big places with huge populaces, you're going to
get a divide and disconnect there anyway, just just by default,
because of the nature of the size of the populace
and the and the region itself. So we look to
the United States of America and we're puzzled, and we

(28:28):
scratch our head and we sit and wait and tap
our fingers. And we also hear constant stories about billionaires
in the States who are buying up huge tracts of
land in New Zealand and building shelters here. So when
it really does hit the fan the proverbial, they'll just
disappear over here and go and hide in their bunkers.
So we picking them out island. I don't know how

(28:48):
much truth there isn't that, but there's actually quite a
cute big money Americans who've got citizenship over here have
brought their way over here from many years ago, thinking
that that something might go horribly wrong. And now of
course that's um, that's the case that stood up so
once the way that so it was that careful enough
around your potus and what he's done. I find him

(29:10):
in an intriguing character, and I I'm looking forward to
this next election. I'm not sure what's going to happen,
and I don't think any of you guys know either,
But we have our own election coming up in about
nine weeks time, so we're ready much focused on on
the left, which is the labor party that ruled the
place at the moment, and the National which is the
right side, the right leaning Conservatives, if you will, and

(29:32):
they've just had a new leader elected, Judith Collins, who's
known as Crusher Collins. He's a quite a formidable character, um,
and she's going to be upper Jacinda our Dorn, who
comes from a place of of empathy and care. So
watching those two fight it out, these two very powerful
women fighting out at the top, it's going to be
a fascinating nine weeks here. So that will probably take

(29:54):
more of our attention than what your potus and the
rest of the gang are doing over the Be sure
to catch live editions of The Ben Maller Show week
days at two a m. Eastern eleven pm Pacific. Yeah. Well,
that's the great thing about elections. After the last couple
of elections here in America, Darcy, you can't you can't
trust the polling. Uh, you can't trust any of that.

(30:16):
It's all Uh, it's all a lot of a lot
of bullcrap that seems to be be mixed in there. Uh.
It's gotta make you feel good though, as you said, Yeah,
you live in a place where it's like seen as utopia.
I text you we were talking the other day and
there was somebody was spreading, hey, they should move the
NFL to New zealand bring the entire NFL to your country, Parcy,

(30:38):
and that it was of course, it was just you know,
somebody throwing stuff against the wall. But do you guys
have enough stadiums there? I mean you you need like
multiple stadiums and crazy it's it's it's a wild card scenario.
But do you have the logistics to make something like
that work? The wait, wait, whole stadium concept over here

(31:01):
to We held the Rugby World Cup there back in
twenty eleven and no one thought the country so small
could hold such a big event. And we we did
it well. We did it with gold stars, we did
particularly well. The Auckland issue is the Auckland has a
very it's a it's a fractioned stadium situation. We have
a national stadium called Eden Park, which when it was

(31:22):
built teen years ago, a hundred of years ago. Since then,
it's it's now in the middle of suburbia. Um and
there are a small group of people that don't like
games being played there at night. But I don't like
the lights on. There's limitations from counsel about how many
games can be on me because it is a it's
a it's an area where people live. Now, it's not
like out in the boom Docks anywhere. So we've got

(31:44):
that that can sets fifty thousand people. In extend that
they had the final of the Rugby World Cup. We
have a North Harbor Stadium just slightly north of the city,
like you know, plant a half an out of the
central city, which has about twenty thousand. We've got the
Warriors at Rugby League side. They've got a stadium that
holds about only six thousand. Down at Wellington we've got
a thirty thirty five thousand enclosed stadium. And the capital,

(32:06):
christ Church, as you know, suffered um the outrage of nature.
Mother Nature's sorry. I come from christ Church when the
earthquakes came, killed a number of people and just destroyed
the city, destroyed their stadium and it still hasn't got
a proper stadium. It's got a temporary lego stadium that

(32:28):
they throw up in half an hour called the Orange
Theory Stadium. What I called the Orange Theory lean to
It's not a stadium, it's a corrugated iron nailed together
in a right hurry, and that's still the stadium. They've
got another one plan, so there's really nothing in christ Church,
you know, I think they can fit twenty thousand and
this horrible facility that no one wants to go to.
And then third the south in Dunedin and there are
other main cities basically four to five main stadiums. They've

(32:50):
got a an indoor stadium called Foresight Bar Stadium, which
conceived thirty thou dollars thirty thousand people. If pushed a
christ Chichs was looking at an indoor stadium. Ham Auton
also have an okay stadium, but I really don't think
we've got the facilities to to cover something that large.
What I'm saying that neither saying never. We're an industrious

(33:10):
punch and we're pretty good at doing things from time
to time, although I do one day what it's taken
so long for us to build a stadium in Canterbury.
Christ Church, which is the home of the Crusaders, who
are the runaway the best team in Super Rugby, which
is a Southern Hemisphere rugby competition. Um they're now on
the way to getting their fourth consecutive championships. They absolutely dominate,

(33:33):
yet they play in a tin sheet. It's bizarre and
dark on that. Now, when you're speaking about some of
the teams locally in New Zealand, are you guys going
through anything that the United States is when it comes
to the political correctness of athletic teams and franchises. I mean,
just for example, Ben and I have been talking earlier
in the week about the Washington Redskins, how they're gonna
retire the Redskins name, They're gonna come out with a

(33:55):
new name. And that's happened in college athletics too. You
have certain scots that have been retired, especially here in
California with with Long Beach State and some of other universities.
Has that happened at all in New Zealand? Is there
any kind of political correctness that's christ over into the
athletic realms? Yeah? There is. M I think if you know,

(34:16):
the term woke that New Zealand is reasonably what we're
reasonably accepted of new paradigms that people are willing to accept.
I mean people say I was traditional, when I'm right
into what Woody Allen once said. He said, tradition is
the illusion of permanence, and I think it is because
they say it's always been neigness, need stay. But in

(34:37):
a hundred and fifty years ago, woman couldn't vote and
it was okay to keep slaves. Now you're telling me
that that's still relevant in this day and age. Now,
it's not. Things change and everything changes your moving. I
think he's on the pretty woke to that and we'd
like to change. But the biggest thing we've had of
recent times, it will be familiar with the terrorist attack
that happened in christ Church where alone guvernment stormed into

(34:57):
a mosque and slaughtered for the Muslims. We never thought
anything like it would happen here and it devastated. Now
what what extended from that is that local team was
called the Crusaders, and if you know what a crusader is,
they were basically, you know, the men on many crusades
from England went and Muslims and they sported Muslims. That

(35:18):
was their motus apple under. That's what they did. So
the Crusaders. There was a lot of movement to change
the name of the Crusader after that mask attack. They
didn't want to be seen as that. In the end,
the name stayed, but all the iconography around the team disappeared.
I um, their their logo was a knight and chain
mail holding a great big sword. So they got rather

(35:41):
that they used to have horses that used to gallop
around the exterior of the study before the game played
mean dressed as knights with swords on these great, big personals,
these big war horses. So there was a lot of
conversation around the relevance of that does a crusader stand
for that? There was a crusader someone who crusades for justice,
someone who crusades for the good in life. So there
was pretty stern conversation around that, and it ended up

(36:03):
that the name stayed, but all the logos and the
visual around it was removed because we thought that in
this era it's probably not a good idea to do that,
and that was what the crusaderes came up with. Now
that it was quite devisive, I say we woke. There
is also a reasonable sway that the community that founded
unacceptable and they said the Crusaders to us does not

(36:24):
represent that you can't mess with our name. My thought
pattern on this is and I think it's the same
with your your Indian community when you look at what's
happening with the Redskins there now. I believe there was
polls taken and of the pulses didn't care. Of the
Indian pulses said it's not offensive to us, but team

(36:46):
percent did. So my figuring is, if you change the name,
I don't care. Well, they're not going to care if
you change the name, need it. But if there's team
percent that find it really offensive and it really is
upsetting and it's not going to work, why wouldn't you
change to night panthified? Will you balance you to to
the team to scene h But if the nine percent
don't care, why do I care if you change the name.

(37:07):
If you're going to keep team PA scene happy and
show that you're you're home thinking, community and some things
that will back in the day, I'm no longer sitable.
Does that make seems from us sounding too much like
a liberal? What's kind of character? You are very woke, Darcy,
I mean, my guy. The only problem with that line
of thinking is that we live in the age where
people are upset about everything. I mean, that's the problem.

(37:29):
But I I did want to listen, Darcy. I I
can't have you on this podcast, and I love that
you're doing this and it's wonderful. But when we talk
about team names, and I think this is what Guscott
was going for because on our show, as we we
we asked these dopey trivia questions to try to get
people to listen. We go to break. You know, we'll
ask you a question we know we're not supposed to break,

(37:51):
and inevitably, at least once a week on our show,
usually it's Justin and Cincinnati or somebody else will answer.
If I have a team related question, they will say
the All Blacks as the answer, because that you know, globally,
people look at that says, oh my god, that is
the most offensive name in the world. In New Zealand

(38:12):
has the rugby teams called the All Blacks. But you
explained to me, and I need you to explain to
our our listener, Darcy, that that is one of the
great misspellings in the history of the world in sports.
How the name all Blacks came about? Is that correct?
That's what you told me the other day. Yeah. I

(38:32):
like the way you say. Tell our listener, is there
only one person listening to this podcast? And here I
thought that the break a few people. You guys are
obviously man, you're collapsed in all the writings that they
the story around the All Blacks and is they to
it England hundred something years ago and there was a

(38:53):
write up about the game is divided into two groups.
There the ford the ford packs who the the big
angry guys who do are the hard work. And there
are the back line and the backs are the fast
guys who do all the running and scoring all the tribes.
They're like the Glana Kits where the forward pack of
the big grizzled veterans. So when we went over there
and played that, the local media were stunned by this

(39:15):
team where it appeared that the entire team were backs.
They all played with the same verb and the same speed,
and they were described in one mem this is this
is the one of the tales go around their name,
that they were all backs. Of course they wore black.
That being moved to being from all backs to all
blacks because they all wore black. So there's a an

(39:39):
argument that says that it was a misspelling. Initially that
someone called them the all backs and then someone thought
they were on black. So I will just scored the
the all blacks, and well it's stuck and they're all
blacks ever since. So our whole national color is black.
That is our psyche. All of our teams we're black,
except the football team, the Sacre team, they've gone the
other way. They were white and they're called the all

(40:00):
the Whites. Now that's not a racist thing, that's just
because they were all white. Um, we've got the Black
Caps as a national cricket team. They were all black,
and I don't know it's gonna like this very much.
We have a national badminton team as well, and you
know when badminton they use a shuttle cart, so their
nickname for a while was the Black Cocks. Now it's

(40:21):
like we've we've got the Black Stocks. The Black Socks
are a softball team. So all of our national teams
have got either black or silver. A lot of the
women's teams are the Ferns, the black Ferns, the silver Ferns,
and an ex team. So it's very much intrinsic announce
society that all of our sports teams have got that

(40:42):
attachment to either the silver fern, which is out a
national emblem, or the black And we've tried to change
our flag a number of years ago, and basically we
all wanted a black flag with a silver fern on it.
But a lot of people pointed out that it's kind
of like a pirate flag and maybe an aggressive flag
to have. So at the end, you're not staying with
the older boy with the four stars in Jack in

(41:03):
the Corner. So that's a rough idea about where this
name comes from. It's not racially based. It was a
typo that someone jumped on, and some of might argue
against me on that one, but as far as I'm concerned,
that's the story, and I'll tell you what. I'm sticking
with it. If you say it was enough conviction, that's
the truth, right. But I love it. It's like you
know in America, right, the salon was the term. I

(41:25):
guess in England they call it salon, but in America
they called it salon. They misspelled it, so people pronounce
it salon. But but it is crazy, and I love
that these teams have a logos Darcy, like you know,
like the what what's the uh? What do you say?
The Bad Mitten teams, the Black Cocks, what was their logo?

(41:47):
I don't know if if it saw the light of day, guys,
I'm not I'm not sure if they even use that
terminology anymore. It could have merely been something that was
created by a number of fans out there because it
was kind of cheeky and kind of funny. I mean,
the hockey team are called the Black Sticks, and it
goes on. It just carries on. The Most of the logos,

(42:07):
as I said, are silver fern. It's um a national plant.
So it's a beautiful green fern on the on the
on the under side of it. When you turn it,
when the light hits it, it's a really iridescent silver
colors extraordinary. Same, that's something that we use. And of
course the Kiwi we used as well. A national bird,
which is odd because our national bird can't fly. Um,

(42:27):
what kind of birds? Explain this? Your national bird is
the how is it a bird? If you care fly?
What's up with that? Well, you've got to remember that
up until about eight hundred years ago, there was there
was no human life on yoursel. There was nobody here.
There was nothing here, so evolution the birds didn't have

(42:50):
to fly because there was no predators. There was no
there were no mammalian predators in dis country. Nothing. It
was entirely populated by birds. So the birds of old
over time, because they didn't have to fly away from
things to eat them, they ended up being ground dwelling.
And we had a bird called more m A and
the more it was it was an enormous and it

(43:11):
was only a hunted to extinction, probably a hundred of
years ago, maybe a little longer. And we're talking in
your money. This is like a twelve thirty ft thing
that had these massive legs but no wings and a
huge night neck. So there are a series of birds
that developed like that, and the Kiwi is one of them.
It's very shy, it's nocturnal. You never see it. It

(43:31):
only comes out at night. It's got a massive, long
beak and a big fat backside and it just picks
around in the undergrowth, eating grubs and the like. There's
a joke around the key we represents some your average
New Zealand male. It eats roots and leaves. Darius, speaking
of predators, and you mentioned being here in Las s Angeles,

(43:52):
so I have to ask, since you have a nice
female nestling in your in your bed this morning, m
give me the difference that you've noticed so far between
women that you've you've seen here in l A or
California and those in New Zealand, because obviously we get
a ton of people that always talk about going down
under because American men are are loved by Australian and

(44:15):
New Zealand women. Is that the case? And if so,
give me a sales pitch. Now, well, no, that sounds
like an urban myth, because I'm told that when we
go to the States, the American women love the Simlars
because they love our dull front of an accent. They
find an extremely disgusting. But I couldn't possibly comment on that.

(44:36):
I can't speak for an entire nation about what they
like and what they find desires. I think that something
about New Zealand women because of the nature of how
far away New Zealand has been. We've got to thinklled
the number eight why philosophy, which means because we were
so distant back a hundred years ago, hundred and fifty
years ago, if we needed something here in New Zealand,
we had to make it ourselves. So it gets some

(44:56):
why and would do it ourselves because there's no way
we could bring it in from from overseas, because it
was six months on the leaky boat to get anywhere nearest.
So we become very very self sufficient. And I think
that the New Zealand woman is like that. That that
personifies them. They're very very self sufficient, very hard work,
not afraid to get their their hands dirty, and they
see themselves as as an equal to the male. And

(45:17):
you don't remember that New Zealand was the first country
in the world to allow women to vote. We're very
forward thinking and they women as well. We've got a
woman leader now, the leader of the opposition as a woman.
Our governor Genia was a woman. We're we're very proactive
in that space. I think that's something that we're proud
of is that women are on even standings that they
can do anything just like your average man has. And

(45:38):
I think that that sums up the New Zealand. New
Zealand woman really hard working, extraordinarily capable and will not
take any grief from anybody. And why but tide if
you get in their way, because I drop you on
your backside with a swift slap around the face. Quite
won't be a slap, not over here to be a
closed first, you're a cuff dunch mate, they're a tough bunch.
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports star line up

(46:00):
in the Natia and catch all of our shows at
Fox sports Radio dot com and within the I Heart
Radio app search f s are to listen live. Well, yeah,
I think Gascon was trying to he wanted some tips
because he's, you know, looking for later advice. Is kind
of curious if we got the real Housewives of Orange
County out here, darcys, So you get women that are

(46:22):
just pretentious, yeah, pretentious. Yeah, it's not good. But well
there are pockets of there. There pockets of that everywhere
as well. But I think in general, the women of
this country would like to see them as a very
self sufficient, extraordinarily capable and we'll give as good as
they get and they'll take on the boys. So when
you come over here, just be prepared. There's not a

(46:44):
lot of shy, retiring wallflowers over here. They're very upfront.
I put it this way. M my second marriage to
the mother of my darling child. She asked me. She
essentially dragged me by the throke to the aisle. I
want you, I want your deans. We're gonna make a baby,
and you've got no say in the matter. I mean,

(47:05):
she was my best friend for probably teen years, and
one day she just rocked around to the house all
dressed up, looking amazing. Sid, I don't want a best
friend anymore. I want a husband, and you will you
marry me? We weren't even seeing each other. She was
just my mate. Within three months we were married and
she was pregnant. And I'm who're standing there going, that's
a good story, Darcy. We we gotta wrap this up.

(47:26):
And how how can the people here in America they
want to hear you on the radio? The great thing
today is with streaming and all I know you're on Twitter, right,
You're you've got a Twitter account. How can people reach
out if they're they want to hear more of your
your wisdom and your knowledge and all that, well they can.
I think that these beest things to do is Facebook
is Facebook is also and infiltrated you sell them somewhat

(47:47):
extremely popular over here. I just do a search for
Darcy on z B. It's just d A. R. C
Y on z B. And on that Facebook page you
can find all the lengths. You can find all the
interview you you can find news and tips and bits
and pieces and through there you better get to my
Twitter feed, my Instagram feed as well. You'll find all
the links to that news talk z B is the

(48:10):
website news talk to CB dot co dot Nz. But
d A are c why is the best way to
to start off your your deep Southern hemisphere love of
fear with sports in the Shaky Aisles artio as we
like to call it, that's the that's Mardi name for
New Zealand art. It means landed on white cloud because
unlike l a um, yeah, we've got a big white

(48:31):
cloud over rain quite a lot a beautiful place here
And I can't you know, Darcy, I can't wait at
some point when the parkalypse ends and you get more
time on the radio and I can come on and
maybe they'll get cricket back. And I love bragging my
friends Darcy that I got pre emptied. I got bumped
from your should because of a cricket match that wouldn't end.

(48:52):
Several times that happened over the years. It's right, which
I loved. Thank you, Darcy, appreciate it have been wonderful
and thanks very much for giving me the opportunity to
to talk to your audience or one of them, you guys.
Separ wonderful, awesome, Thank you Darcy. That was great, man, Yeah,

(49:15):
we're great. That will air tomorrow at Friday for us,
which I guess is Saturday for you. It's gonna drop.
I'll tweet it out. It's gonna be like it, uh,
six in the morning our time, which is probably like
was it four in the morning your time? Maybe I
don't know. I don't know the time to it. But
just see that's a tweet with a link. We just
download it, listen to it. I didn't say anything that's

(49:35):
going to get me in trouble with my work around
the resumption of radio Sport if it will come back on,
because when push comes to shove, well, we all really
think that they were on the cross eas anyway, because
we're too bloody expensive, and as soon as they had
an opportunity, they just guessed as convenient, which is the
stupidest thing they've ever done. But I can't complain about
it because I'm still working. This approach is under the

(49:56):
z b Oven. I'm time. All right, man, be good,
I'll text you later, Darcy. Thank you may be good?
All right, good, Yeah, no worries you guys, fine,