Ali Pugh is making the move to radio.
The former host of TVNZ’s Breakfast will be fronting The Hits breakfast show in Christchurch, alongside her current gig as a reporter for 1 News.
“I’m so excited, Christchurch is a great city and holds such a special place in my heart so to be joining Dave [Fitzgerald] in the mornings and bringing some laughs to Canterbury is a dream come true,” she said in a statement.
Ali, who welcomed daughter Thea with her partner Jo Barus in 2015, left Breakfast in 2016 to move back to her hometown of Christchurch to raise her little girl.
Shortly afterwards, it was announced that Ali would be returning to her former reporting role on 1 News part time.
“I feel almost blessed with how it worked out,” she told us at the time.
“I think I’d said to someone, a few weeks before it all happened, my dream job would be three days a week, in Christchurch.”
Now the veteran journalist will be adding more to her plate with the addition of the Christchurch radio show alongside co-host Dave Fitzgerald.
She joins her fellow Breakfast alumni, Sam Wallace and Toni Street, in making the switch to radio, after the duo took over hosting duties on The Hits’ Auckland breakfast show alongside Sarah Gandy earlier this year.
The news comes after it was announced last week that veteran The Hits hosts Polly Gillespie and Grant Kereama had chosen not to extend their contract with the radio station. The duo had been on the air together for more than 25 years, with 23 of those spent as hosts of the ZM breakfast show.
Ali and Dave will be on the air weekdays from 6am-9am on 97.7FM.
