Photos: Robert Trathen
The first few mornings Simon Barnett drove to his new role at More FM Breakfast were difficult because something – someone – was missing: his beloved wife of 32 years, Jodi.
“For 25 years, at quarter past five, she’d ring me on my way to work,” shares Simon. “I’d see her name come up on the screen and, even after all those years of marriage, I would think, ‘Oh, yay, it’s Jods’ and we’d talk or pray. It was great.”
Sadly, Jodi passed away aged just 61 in October 2023 after an almost six-year battle with brain cancer. Since then, the pain and loss has run deep. And after a few days of driving to work with Jodi’s name no longer flashing up on the screen, Simon decided to start talking anyway.
“One day, I started to chat away with Jods,” he says of those early morning drives on the near-empty streets of Christchurch. “I said, ‘This is so weird, love.’ I don’t know how that works, and I don’t know how it works on the big grand scale. But, I believe somehow, in some way, Jods can hear and see, so now it’s fine. I’m fine.”
While Simon admits he’s not sure time will heal the massive gap left by the loss of Jodi, he’s beginning to find moments of happiness each day thanks to returning “home” to More FM and because of co-host Lana Cochrane-Searle.
“It’s brilliant,” tells Simon. “I genuinely couldn’t have wished for it to go better than it has.”
“On paper, it should work. But a lot of times it doesn’t,” Lana adds of any two radio hosts brought together in a new role. “Nine times out of 10, you have strangers effectively matching you up – it’s like an arranged marriage! And that’s what makes this even more special.”
The pair is speaking to the Weekly over lunch following our photoshoot at the beautiful Christchurch Botanic Gardens. And while they have only recently started working together and are 20 years apart in age (“In two years we’re going to turn 100!” jokes Lana), they’ve already found a deep connection thanks to their stellar work ethic, love of people and growing up in small towns – Simon in Ashburton and Lana in Dargaville.
“There’s something with the way we look at life,” explains Simon, 58. “It’s almost as though when people say ‘small-town mentality’, it’s often disparaging, but I think it’s really good.”
Continues Lana, 38, “Yes, you tend to look on the bright side of stuff. You have to be careful what you say about people!”
They’ve also discovered that despite their large on-air personalities, in private, things are a lot quieter
“We’re both extremely sensitive, but we also don’t really like people knowing it,” admits Simon. “It’s kind of like we’re just innocent flowers that don’t want to be trampled on. If a bad text comes into the studio, we both can’t read it because we could have had 100 or 1000 nice texts, but that’s the one we’ll hold onto. We’re perfectionists.”
It was this sensitivity and genuine connection that shone through in a moving on-air tribute Simon paid to Jodi, saying he’ll never be the same without her.
“Jodi was, and forever is, my wife, my hero, and truly the person I respect and admire more than anyone on this planet,” he told listeners.
He said that a return to More FM was part of his journey, adding, “I’m trying to find my life and my laugh again.”
Lana was quick to reassure him. “I will make it my mission that the home will be warm and we will laugh.”
Lana explains of her on-air promise, “I’ve lost three close friends suddenly in the past two years. So to even have a small, tiny glimpse into what is Simon’s experience every single day, when he talked about Jodi, I thought I would make that my mission for him.
“I want to be able to say that we helped on this horrendous journey that Simon’s on get a little easier with time. And if we can do that by just bringing a laugh, just making him smile, and over time things get a little more bearable, then that is my mission.”
And already Simon, whose grandchildren – Monty, five, Mila, three, Zebediah, almost two, Ella Jodi, eight months, and Maia, three months – call him “Chief”, has noticed a difference.
“It’s a bit like if you fake a yawn. You open your mouth, you fake the yawn and often it will induce a real yawn,” he muses. “When you come into work and you’re laughing because you’re paid to do it, you laugh. It’s not scripted, it’s not forced and that’s what I’m loving about this.
“I’m actually finding myself really laughing at what Lana says. Then as a consequence, when I’m driving home, I feel so much better. I genuinely do.”
And so far, there have been plenty of reasons to laugh with life anecdotes often shared on their show, like Simon taking his first-ever selfie and plenty of bloopers to keep them smiling. There was also a special meet-and-greet when Lana surprised Simon by bringing her stepson Jay, eight, into the studio.
“He was actually really nervous, but there was a moment when he hugged Simon and squeezed him tight,” recalls Lana. “I think Simon has an aura about him and Jay read that straightaway. Kids are amazing like that. If they’re a bit of a weirdo, they don’t go near!”
Simon explains, “Seeing Jay at the door and I don’t know why, he was like one of my own children. He turns up with a big smile, a beautiful little face and instantly I’m like, ‘Oh, I’m going to cuddle that kid.’”
Lana adds, “And Jay’s been talking about it ever since! He thinks he’s going to come in and work with Simon.”
Simon’s daughters, Bella, Samantha, Sophie and Lily, now all grown and who live near their dad in Christchurch, listen to the show. They’ve told their father how happy they are to hear him laugh again.
Simon’s return to More FM was a much-needed respite from his role as a talkback host on Newstalk ZB, which he resigned from last year.
“It’s really important that I say this: They were good to me with everything that happened with my wife, they were brilliant to me,” insists Simon. “But the job was very demanding. News is insatiable, so it’s just always got its hands around your throat and it’s all-consuming and really exhausting. I just didn’t have the mental capacity to deal with that.”
Lana is also very happy with their pairing.
“If you had told me a year ago that this is where I would be sitting, I wouldn’t have believed you,” she says. “I had all these other women in radio retiring around me – Sharyn Casey, Jay-Jay Feeney and Polly Gillespie. All these women were dropping off. It did start to play on my mind.”
Simon admits that he used to think commercial radio was a bit “lightweight”. However, he has since come to learn the importance of what a show like theirs does.
“Life is pretty tough for a lot of people,” he reflects. “Genuinely, you look at the news each night and it’s sobering. There’s Ukraine, cost of living, food banks under the pump, elderly people who can’t pay their rent. Life is hard. So if you can turn on something and you really derive joy from it, then that’s a good public service we do.”
As well as their sensitivity, Simon and Lana have also learned they’re introverts – something that may surprise listeners. For Simon, that means drawing his energy from Jodi and his daughters. For Lana, it’s her wife of two years, flight attendant Katie Cochrane, and Jay.
But over the summer, the pair both ventured out on their own on a days-long trek – Lana on the Keplar track and Simon walking the Abel Tasman.
“As I was doing it, I was thinking how good it is for you to just clear your mind,” says Lana. “You have nothing but nature around you and the odd person. You can talk to yourself – I was actually talking to myself out loud in the forest!”
For Simon, although it was a spectacular experience, it highlighted the deep pain of his grief.
“I loved it because the scenery was jaw-droppingly beautiful,” he explains. “I walked through native bush and the birdsong was phenomenal. It was gorgeous, but after five days, I was pretty lonely. That’s partly because I had a lot of time in my own head.
“This is where it gets tricky. Experiences are meant to be shared and for me, that sharing was Jodi and the kids. So around every turn, I was like, ‘Oh, my gosh, look at that… Simon.’”
But back home in the Garden City, with a new role, his tight-knit family and Lana by his side, pockets of light are returning.
“I’ve been pretty open about how I felt. Like, I was very comfortable with the thought of dying because I wanted to be with Jodi,” he tells. “I’m not saying that to make people feel sorry for me – I was genuinely happy to go. But now I think it’s just really nice to laugh.”
Help is here
For grief and loss support, visit mentalhealth.org.nz
Listen to Simon and Lana on The Breakfast Club on More FM from 5.30am weekdays or on Rova.
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