Enjoy what you have while you have it
After 14 years its time to leave the greatest job a dude could ever have.
Everything we do, we one day do for the last time. There’s a last time you will sleep in your house, drive your car, talk to your mum, take your kid to sports, or go to your current job. Focusing on this may seem morbid, but it actually makes life more enjoyable and significant. It’s a way of making everything we do feel a bit like the final dinner with a lover who is going overseas. If we keep the shortness of time in mind, when the good things go, we can leave knowing we appreciated and got the most out of them while they were here. - From A Life Less Punishing.
I’m leaving my beloved Radio Hauraki after 14 years, 11 of which I have spent with my good buddy Jeremy Wells on the Matt and Jerry Breakfast Show. I knew it would end one day, but I didn’t expect it to end next week. Coincidentally, I recently wrote about appreciating what you have while you have it in the Herald.
My Parting Message Enjoy Things While They Are Around
We have done a lot of silly things over the years at Hauraki that deserve to be appreciated. We made global headlines after asking Prime Minister John Key if he does wees in the shower, we ran ‘massive head of steam Fridays’ for a number of years right under the nose of HR, Paul McCartney once offered to pull down our pants and smack our bare bottoms, we travelled the globe together, and we’ve grown one of the biggest podcasts in the country which we recently released on vinyl (for no good reason). What Jerry and I have never done is have an argument.
Wells is a good man, but he is horrible to stand beside in a photo. He’s too tall and handsome. He makes me look like a warthog. Despite this, it has been a lot of fun hanging with the man this past decade. It seems ridiculous now that I complained about things over the years. The little problems I created. The niggles. Even in this amazing job, I still found ways to be unhappy from time to time. Now that it’s ending, I would happily relive any one of those annoying moments.
Radio was a surprise career. I thought I was going to be a rockstar, movie director, or, more likely, a dole bludger. Then something wonderful happened. Legendary shock jock Ian Stables got into a fight at the airport on the way up to Auckland to do the Drive show at Hauraki. He got fired before he started, and I got hired.
Not sure why they choose me. I didn’t have any skills in the area. Hauraki boss Mike Regal and head of radio David Brice heard me doing a show on bFM and offered me the gig. My show at the time was mainly profanity-laden and cocktail-based. Maybe it was a tax write-off or a prank, but whatever the reason they offered me the job, I’m glad I took it. Radio is the most creative, direct, and loose media industry in the world. TV needs lights, locations, and makeup. If you have an idea while you’re on the radio or recording your podcast, you just deliver it right into people’s ears. I feel very lucky to have made such a direct connection with listeners. Everywhere I go, people approach me and thank me for doing what I do. Well, they usually just come up, call me a punisher, bless me, call me ‘boy’ and tell me to get a drink in me, then suggest that I seem busy and walk off. I love it.
Some thank me for helping them through tough times, which is extremely humbling. A friendly voice day in and day out, whoever it is, can be huge when people are struggling and alone. But really, I should be thanking everyone who listens. They’ve given me so many laughs, kept me sane, and fed my kids.
My Hauraki career didn’t start well. On my first day, I was so nervous that I stopped by a bottle store. I figured the only way I could get through the show was drunk. Then, in a fit of uncharacteristic responsibility, I left the bottle of vodka where it was. I thought, if I get drunk to do the first show, I’ll always need to, and that won’t end well.
So, I faced my fears and the ensuing death threats sober. My co-host Tim Batt dubbed one of these angry callers, ‘Death Threat Dave’. On days one through four, DTD threatened to attack me with a tyre iron in the carpark for “ruining Hauraki”. But by day five, he was a fan. As was I. It was a party on the Matt Heath Drive Show. We often broadcast with 20 people in the studio. I loved it so much that at one point, I got Tim’s name tattooed on my shoulder.
At another point, I tried to kill him with a t-shirt cannon.
Hauraki famously started on a ship in international waters, defying the government broadcasting ban and creating commercial radio. That rebellious spirit runs strong in the station. Karyn Hay’s nose kai-based introduction to the station in the 70s is a testament to that. The first song that played on Hauraki in 1967 was Born Free, and we’ve been allowed to run free ever since. We basically do whatever we want. Despite this, Tim Batt decided to leave to follow his comedy career, and the opportunity came up to do the breakfast show.
The bosses wanted Havoc and Newsboy, but Havoc missed the audition, so it was Heath. We were joined by Laura McGoldrick and producer Chris ‘Banger’ Goodwin. Together, we put together the basics of the broadcast we’re doing to this day. Laura is wonderful and still a close friend, but she was always destined for higher honours. She left, and eventually, Banger left too. Both gone from us but never forgotten. We’ve had some great off-siders since then: Anastasia, Hanger, Shucker, Gravy, and Ma Clampert, to name a few.
Many bosses as well - Reg, McClung, Riddler, G Lane and now Pixie Campbell. At some point, a young man called Mash came into our lives. What a fantastic person he is. At first an intern but more recently a full blown co-host. The best young broadcaster in the country. In 2022, we got the lovely and very talented Rooda onboard as well.
Now, it’s my turn to leave. After all these years, the Matt and Jerry show comes to an end. Long live the ???? and Jerry Show.
We’ve made over 2500 Matt and Jerry Radio Shows. I’ve watched my kids grow up while I’ve been here. They’re getting ready to leave me and go off into the world and forge their own paths, and I’m kind of doing the same with my beloved radio station. As I write this a lump has appeared in my throat, my bottom lip has stuck right out and… opps, I pissed my face.
Change happens whether we like it or not. If you have a good thing in your life, I recommend taking the time to acknowledge that it will end one day. It makes it all the more precious while it’s here. Speaking of here, the Matt and Jerry Show is here for one more week from Mon the 30th of Sept until Fri the 4th of Oct. I’m going to appreciate the shit out of that final week.
Anyway, you seem busy, so I’ll let you go. Thanks for listening if you did. Bless, bless, bless. Give em a taste of Kiwi from me. Love, Matt Heath
I'm still absolutely not the better for this news, I have to say. Really looking forward to the last run of shows - although zero mascara will be worn to work that week! Something I've personally taken from this - I can't remember if it was Radio Highlights or Bespoke but you said change is evolution, and you speak so positively about your time there and your co-workers. It genuinely never occured to me before that we can leave jobs we are happy in. It's definitely given me lots of food for thought in my own career. Thanks so much for sharing yourself with us all these years, and especially for all the company and great laughs you and the lads have given me on the morning commute.
I’m still feeling super gutted about you leaving and knowing it won’t be the same. I do struggle with change sometimes so reading this article was good for me. Thanks for the great banter, the insightful chat and the laughs over the years. Really going to miss you and Jeremy together!