A major milestone for ZB, as the station celebrates its centenary on Sunday.
It’s grown from fragile beginnings filled with government regulations and restrictions on broadcasting hours into the commercial juggernaut of today.
Leighton Smith spent 33 years behind the ZB mic, hosting the weekday morning programme until his retirement in 2018.
He joined Mike Hosking to reminisce on the years he spent on the station and watching it grow from 1ZB into Newstalk ZB.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
So this Sunday a major moment in New Zealand broadcasting
as ZIBE celebrates one hundred years from the fragile beginnings
where governments ran everything and set the rules around broadcast hours,
to the publicly listed, fully commercial juggernaut that it is today.
Zedby's grown into the country's most successful radio station. Of course,
special programming will feature this weekend. There are various events
(00:20):
to mark the occasion. From the Department of vast Experience.
In this particular story, we welcome back to the ZIB
studios none other than Leighton Smith.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Good morning. It's very strange to be here at this
time of the morning. The how long has it been
since you left? Eight years? Eight eight You.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Haven't and I say this in all honesty, you haven't
changed visually at all.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
You happy to had a haircut. You had a haircut,
and I look, I think I'm aging poorly. I can
tip you in the right direction. Anyway.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
What do you remember so you see the various massinations
of ZIB over the years. I mean, obviously you don't
get back back to the very beginning. I can make
a joke about that, of course, but you don't go
back to the very beginning. But the ZB or the
news talk ZB was where you came and all that
were you before that in Wellington.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
In Wellington, Wellington, we did talk back. That was what
I was hired for in the first place. And then
I went from Wellington to Adelaide and they lasted six
months and I came here. And the story behind that's
in the book, so I'm not going to repeat it.
But the idea was to establish talkback on this station
(01:35):
between nine and twelve and then gradually move in the
rest of the station to the same sort of format
as it is today in fact, and it was fun
and games for quite a while. By that you mean
it didn't work well, depends on it depends on how
(01:56):
you described didn't work everything. Everything takes a while to
get off the ground, well, most things do. And i'd
actually just been through it in Adelaide, which gave me
some experience coming here. So that's enough of Adelaide. But
when I came, it was about eighteen months or fifteen
(02:17):
months before the changes started, and we were doing fine.
You want to know numbers. When I came, mornings was
on nineteen percent the first I came halfway through that
survey and I dropped at fifteen. I felt great and
then and then in the next survey of the new year,
(02:40):
it went up to twenty two and MERV Smith was
still there or here and Merv Merv was restless, he
was unhappy with what was going on, or what he
thought was going on. But nobody knew the real plan,
and that was to extend the talk side of the station,
develop it. Ah. I was in London at Christmas when
(03:05):
MERV quit and went somewhere else and very Holland filled
in at short notice. Three within three months they pulled
it together behind the scenes and that's when everything started changing.
Homes came up from from doing my old program in
(03:27):
in Wellington, and there were other people and you know,
other people and involved. But it was you know, as
you know, six to mid days is it is the
critical but nothing, nothing else happens. Halfwaard correct me if
I'm wrong, because I was near at the time. But
but this was an Auckland only adventure at this particular
point and it was that so it wasn't nationwide perce
(03:49):
it was it was it was one said B. And
then it became with the with the first round of changes,
it became news talk one said b and for a
period of time that's what it was, and then eventually
it grew up.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
Was that a plan do you remember or do you
know that the news Talk one ZB would become news
talk zeb nationwide or they went with it as it
became more and more successful in Auckland.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
I would say it was probably a combination. Right.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
Did you think as a seasoned professional at the time
as you were, that this was a good idea that
the market was changing, the industry was changing, and this
all made sense or not?
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Yes, absolutely made sense, right And you know you asked me,
you know, did it did it take a while to
get off the ground or whatever it was When we
were in Cook Street, which was I mean this was
all in Durham Lane, in the old building and with
long corridors that people used to scream down one end
(04:48):
to the other when they got angry. Went through a
bit of that. The the change, the change to Cook
Street solidified everything, brought everybody in. We had our own
owned offices, well we got them into Cook Street as well,
but we had our own offices down in Durah Lane
(05:11):
and the first thing I did was put a mini
fridge in and fill it up. Well, this was legit.
I mean, those are the days when you finished at
twelve o'clock your life was yours again, and we adventured.
Can you adventure? We ventured into various various areas of
(05:32):
experimentation that were fun. I mean, you open up a
bottle and have a glass twelve o two. Then you
go across the road and have lunch. And I've forgotten
the name of the restaurant that was under where whit
Cools is now. It was a grand restaurant. What happened
to those days? What happened to them? Yeah? They died? Yeah,
(05:55):
I think when we moved to Cook Street we were
deprived of access to any, to the drink, any and
the lunch. No. I I took the fridge to Cook Street.
But you couldn't walk out the door as you can
in this building, yes, and walk into takeaway places and restaurants.
(06:16):
You had to walk halfway through town. And so everybody,
well side as I'm aware, everybody stopped doing it.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
So as far as the ratings are concerned, or were
concerned at the time, it didn't go well immediately, did it?
And then it did eventually come right? Do you think
that was about what was that about?
Speaker 2 (06:30):
Just change?
Speaker 1 (06:31):
People don't like change, and they take a while to
get used to it precisely. Do you want the figures, Well, sure,
well I can give you mind because they're embedded from
that twenty two percent. When we changed on that Monday,
(06:53):
everything changed. And when the ratings came out, every show
was down under Breakfast was on eight or eight point
five maybe no, it was on eight. Mornings was on
ten point five, and everything else was in the gutter.
And it was a case of persistence of learning. It
(07:16):
certainly helped when Holmes got onto television started abusing people
that sort of you know that that was magnetic. But
the ratings started going up, and they went up further,
and here we are today, well here you are today
anyway where they say his history just briefly, when you came,
(07:37):
Paul came, and it was the one ziby aspect of
news talks, there'd be as opposed to the nationwide thing
we see today. How much of the fact that you
guys weren't necessarily known or stars or big names held
you back?
Speaker 2 (07:52):
Do you think how long have I got to think? Think?
I think that? But we got known pretty well pretty quickly.
When I when I came, Alice Worsley had been doing
the program for five years and they took her off
and there was a lot of objection to it, and
(08:13):
I understand, and it was in the paper because I
read it in Sydney. I understand. There was a there
was a demonstration march down Queen Street against it, black
bands and her producer, who came to kind of work
with me for a short period or stayed on, was
(08:33):
the organizer. So I felt constantly underwatch.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
It's funny, you wouldn't You wouldn't get No one's such
a big deal these days. That's one of the changes,
isn't it. As much as things change, they don't change.
No one is that big a deal anymore that anything
like that would ever happen again.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
Don't you reckon? Well, you could leave, yeah, but if I.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
Left today, no one's marching in a street.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
No, there'd be mourning. I don't even think that'd being
every well become husking in the morning.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
How tense was it when things weren't going well at
that particular point, And obviously, with the benefit of hindsight,
you waited out. But of course in those moments and
we've all been there. You don't know whether they're going
to wait it out or not, and you might be
looking for work.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
No, never got like that. As close as it did
is when those ratings dropped. I walked into Brent Harmon's office,
the manager, and said, I'm going to resign and go
back to Australia, and he said, I don't think so,
(09:40):
I've got something to talk to you about. And so
we talked to a new contract and stayed on and
it made all the difference. And I've got to say that,
you know, I was behind the microphone for thirty three
years doing that program, and when I stop and think
about it now, I can't believe it. Amazing. I just
can't believe thirty three years of my life has been wasted.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
I could have been doing something productive. The competition and
I'm trying to truck carefully here. So competition has come
and gone. They haven't survived. How do you explain that?
Are we really that good?
Speaker 2 (10:24):
Unhesitated? More hesitated? So let's start again unhesitatingly. Yes, And
I'll justify it. It's a case of to answer your
first question, it's a case of having the right people
in the right place at the right time. It doesn't
matter whether it's behind a microphone or in the manager's office.
And it took a while to sort some of that
(10:47):
out on both sides of the microphone. But once it did,
things fell into place. People worked well together. They didn't
for a bit, I guess in Sinde waited there were
shouting matches down the long corridor. But when you get
(11:08):
it right, what can I say? You've got it right
and people notice it, and so there was never there
was never any thought of not having a job tomorrow.
That's good, I asked. At one stage, I asked, you
(11:29):
remember were you here when we had the Australian in
who was English actually, but he was from Australia and
he managed to GB in Sydney and then came over
here trying to think of his name. And I had
met him before because they offered me a job at
TOGB and I turned it down. I said to him,
how long do you think I've got This is when
(11:52):
I was busy formulating for the future. He said, as
long as you want.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
It's not bade, Shall we gather again for another one
of these in the one hundred and fiftieth Do you think.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
Well? I can be here.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
Nothing about you exactly. Joy to see you, mate, Thank you,
Thank you for the stories and honors for both.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
Of us, Ye well more in honor for me. Nice
to see you late and Smith. Thank you for more.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
From the Mic Asking Breakfast listen live to news talks
it'd be from six am weekdays, or follow the podcast
on iHeartRadio
So this Sunday a major moment in New Zealand broadcasting
as ZIBE celebrates one hundred years from the fragile beginnings
where governments ran everything and set the rules around broadcast hours,
to the publicly listed, fully commercial juggernaut that it is today.
Zedby's grown into the country's most successful radio station. Of course,
special programming will feature this weekend. There are various events
(00:20):
to mark the occasion. From the Department of vast Experience.
In this particular story, we welcome back to the ZIB
studios none other than Leighton Smith.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Good morning. It's very strange to be here at this
time of the morning. The how long has it been
since you left? Eight years? Eight eight You.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Haven't and I say this in all honesty, you haven't
changed visually at all.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
You happy to had a haircut. You had a haircut,
and I look, I think I'm aging poorly. I can
tip you in the right direction. Anyway.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
What do you remember so you see the various massinations
of ZIB over the years. I mean, obviously you don't
get back back to the very beginning. I can make
a joke about that, of course, but you don't go
back to the very beginning. But the ZB or the
news talk ZB was where you came and all that
were you before that in Wellington.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
In Wellington, Wellington, we did talk back. That was what
I was hired for in the first place. And then
I went from Wellington to Adelaide and they lasted six
months and I came here. And the story behind that's
in the book, so I'm not going to repeat it.
But the idea was to establish talkback on this station
(01:35):
between nine and twelve and then gradually move in the
rest of the station to the same sort of format
as it is today in fact, and it was fun
and games for quite a while. By that you mean
it didn't work well, depends on it depends on how
(01:56):
you described didn't work everything. Everything takes a while to
get off the ground, well, most things do. And i'd
actually just been through it in Adelaide, which gave me
some experience coming here. So that's enough of Adelaide. But
when I came, it was about eighteen months or fifteen
(02:17):
months before the changes started, and we were doing fine.
You want to know numbers. When I came, mornings was
on nineteen percent the first I came halfway through that
survey and I dropped at fifteen. I felt great and
then and then in the next survey of the new year,
(02:40):
it went up to twenty two and MERV Smith was
still there or here and Merv Merv was restless, he
was unhappy with what was going on, or what he
thought was going on. But nobody knew the real plan,
and that was to extend the talk side of the station,
develop it. Ah. I was in London at Christmas when
(03:05):
MERV quit and went somewhere else and very Holland filled
in at short notice. Three within three months they pulled
it together behind the scenes and that's when everything started changing.
Homes came up from from doing my old program in
(03:27):
in Wellington, and there were other people and you know,
other people and involved. But it was you know, as
you know, six to mid days is it is the
critical but nothing, nothing else happens. Halfwaard correct me if
I'm wrong, because I was near at the time. But
but this was an Auckland only adventure at this particular
point and it was that so it wasn't nationwide perce
(03:49):
it was it was it was one said B. And
then it became with the with the first round of changes,
it became news talk one said b and for a
period of time that's what it was, and then eventually
it grew up.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
Was that a plan do you remember or do you
know that the news Talk one ZB would become news
talk zeb nationwide or they went with it as it
became more and more successful in Auckland.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
I would say it was probably a combination. Right.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
Did you think as a seasoned professional at the time
as you were, that this was a good idea that
the market was changing, the industry was changing, and this
all made sense or not?
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Yes, absolutely made sense, right And you know you asked me,
you know, did it did it take a while to
get off the ground or whatever it was When we
were in Cook Street, which was I mean this was
all in Durham Lane, in the old building and with
long corridors that people used to scream down one end
(04:48):
to the other when they got angry. Went through a
bit of that. The the change, the change to Cook
Street solidified everything, brought everybody in. We had our own
owned offices, well we got them into Cook Street as well,
but we had our own offices down in Durah Lane
(05:11):
and the first thing I did was put a mini
fridge in and fill it up. Well, this was legit.
I mean, those are the days when you finished at
twelve o'clock your life was yours again, and we adventured.
Can you adventure? We ventured into various various areas of
(05:32):
experimentation that were fun. I mean, you open up a
bottle and have a glass twelve o two. Then you
go across the road and have lunch. And I've forgotten
the name of the restaurant that was under where whit
Cools is now. It was a grand restaurant. What happened
to those days? What happened to them? Yeah? They died? Yeah,
(05:55):
I think when we moved to Cook Street we were
deprived of access to any, to the drink, any and
the lunch. No. I I took the fridge to Cook Street.
But you couldn't walk out the door as you can
in this building, yes, and walk into takeaway places and restaurants.
(06:16):
You had to walk halfway through town. And so everybody,
well side as I'm aware, everybody stopped doing it.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
So as far as the ratings are concerned, or were
concerned at the time, it didn't go well immediately, did it?
And then it did eventually come right? Do you think
that was about what was that about?
Speaker 2 (06:30):
Just change?
Speaker 1 (06:31):
People don't like change, and they take a while to
get used to it precisely. Do you want the figures, Well, sure,
well I can give you mind because they're embedded from
that twenty two percent. When we changed on that Monday,
(06:53):
everything changed. And when the ratings came out, every show
was down under Breakfast was on eight or eight point
five maybe no, it was on eight. Mornings was on
ten point five, and everything else was in the gutter.
And it was a case of persistence of learning. It
(07:16):
certainly helped when Holmes got onto television started abusing people
that sort of you know that that was magnetic. But
the ratings started going up, and they went up further,
and here we are today, well here you are today
anyway where they say his history just briefly, when you came,
(07:37):
Paul came, and it was the one ziby aspect of
news talks, there'd be as opposed to the nationwide thing
we see today. How much of the fact that you
guys weren't necessarily known or stars or big names held
you back?
Speaker 2 (07:52):
Do you think how long have I got to think? Think?
I think that? But we got known pretty well pretty quickly.
When I when I came, Alice Worsley had been doing
the program for five years and they took her off
and there was a lot of objection to it, and
(08:13):
I understand, and it was in the paper because I
read it in Sydney. I understand. There was a there
was a demonstration march down Queen Street against it, black
bands and her producer, who came to kind of work
with me for a short period or stayed on, was
(08:33):
the organizer. So I felt constantly underwatch.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
It's funny, you wouldn't You wouldn't get No one's such
a big deal these days. That's one of the changes,
isn't it. As much as things change, they don't change.
No one is that big a deal anymore that anything
like that would ever happen again.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
Don't you reckon? Well, you could leave, yeah, but if I.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
Left today, no one's marching in a street.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
No, there'd be mourning. I don't even think that'd being
every well become husking in the morning.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
How tense was it when things weren't going well at
that particular point, And obviously, with the benefit of hindsight,
you waited out. But of course in those moments and
we've all been there. You don't know whether they're going
to wait it out or not, and you might be
looking for work.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
No, never got like that. As close as it did
is when those ratings dropped. I walked into Brent Harmon's office,
the manager, and said, I'm going to resign and go
back to Australia, and he said, I don't think so,
(09:40):
I've got something to talk to you about. And so
we talked to a new contract and stayed on and
it made all the difference. And I've got to say that,
you know, I was behind the microphone for thirty three
years doing that program, and when I stop and think
about it now, I can't believe it. Amazing. I just
can't believe thirty three years of my life has been wasted.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
I could have been doing something productive. The competition and
I'm trying to truck carefully here. So competition has come
and gone. They haven't survived. How do you explain that?
Are we really that good?
Speaker 2 (10:24):
Unhesitated? More hesitated? So let's start again unhesitatingly. Yes, And
I'll justify it. It's a case of to answer your
first question, it's a case of having the right people
in the right place at the right time. It doesn't
matter whether it's behind a microphone or in the manager's office.
And it took a while to sort some of that
(10:47):
out on both sides of the microphone. But once it did,
things fell into place. People worked well together. They didn't
for a bit, I guess in Sinde waited there were
shouting matches down the long corridor. But when you get
(11:08):
it right, what can I say? You've got it right
and people notice it, and so there was never there
was never any thought of not having a job tomorrow.
That's good, I asked. At one stage, I asked, you
(11:29):
remember were you here when we had the Australian in
who was English actually, but he was from Australia and
he managed to GB in Sydney and then came over
here trying to think of his name. And I had
met him before because they offered me a job at
TOGB and I turned it down. I said to him,
how long do you think I've got This is when
(11:52):
I was busy formulating for the future. He said, as
long as you want.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
It's not bade, Shall we gather again for another one
of these in the one hundred and fiftieth Do you think.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
Well? I can be here.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
Nothing about you exactly. Joy to see you, mate, Thank you,
Thank you for the stories and honors for both.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
Of us, Ye well more in honor for me. Nice
to see you late and Smith. Thank you for more.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
From the Mic Asking Breakfast listen live to news talks
it'd be from six am weekdays, or follow the podcast
on iHeartRadio
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