Nobody is more surprised than Grant Kereama’s 11-year-old self that he has ended up talking on the radio for a living.
Back then, struggling with both a speech impediment and dyslexia (“I spelled my name TNARG”), little Grant hadn’t yet developed the smooth, deep voice that has made him an icon on our airwaves.
“I had a really bad lisp,” he says from his home in Lower Hutt. “We lived in Singapore for a few years because my father, George, was based there as a major in the Royal New Zealand Army.
“Whenever there was a cocktail party, it was one of his party tricks to go, ‘Son, come here… now say, ‘Sister Suzie’s sewing shirts for soldiers.’ Gah, Dad! But I started to force myself to say the ‘S’ sound and eventually got rid of the lisp.”
His journey to get into radio
Reflecting on 40 years in the radio industry, Grant, 58, who recently became the new host of Coast’s Drive show, concedes he fell into the career.
“None of this was intentional,” he says. “Broadcasting has a lot to do with luck and being in the right place at the right time – then having the ability to execute it when the opportunity arises.”
After finishing boarding school in Feilding, Grant became the lead singer of a Christchurch band called Idol Rumours. He met friends who were studying at the Broadcasting School there.
“These guys said, ‘Man, you’ve got a deep voice – you should be in radio.’ But I told them I had language- processing problems.”
Testing for radio
Their comment planted a seed, though. So when 18-year-old Grant returned to Whanganui in 1985, he applied to take a voice test at local station 2ZW, with the hope of being accepted into the Radio
New Zealand training school in Wellington.
Guiding him through the test was announcer Polly Gillespie, who he’d never met. She sported a perm. He had a Flock of Seagulls haircut.
“Polly went, ‘Good luck!’ and told me to push a button to begin. Then I got a letter three weeks later saying my voice test wasn’t good enough and I should consider elocution lessons,” he says.
“So I got speech lessons with Hazel Menehira, a director at Four Seasons Theatre in Whanganui, who was doing the play Awatea and needed a lead actor. I auditioned, got it and Polly was part of the cast too.”
While doing the play, Grant also met actor Tim Lee – a stuntman for the classic Kiwi film Goodbye Pork Pie.
“I went and studied stunt work with Tim – learning falls, fights and sword fighting – and he got me my first job in TV, where I played a policeman in drama series Open House. It’s nuts, aye!” he laughs.
Grant tried the radio voice test again, but was told, “Stop applying because you’re not cut out to be a radio announcer.” It’s something, he says, he’ll never forget.Fate had other plans though, as the 2ZW programme director offered to train him on the job if he’d like to do the weekend show.
Where it all started
Grant then started dating Polly. When she moved to Wellington to host the ZM breakfast show, he followed too, albeit without a job.
“I worked at an insurance company and some bars for a bit,” he tells. “I was home with Polly one Friday night when the ZMFM programme director Morrie Shanahan gave her a call and I happened to pick up the phone. He asked her, ‘Who was that guy who answered? Has he done radio before?’ Polly said, ‘Yes, he has!’ And Morrie asked, ‘Well, can he come and do Sunday morning?’ That’s how I got my break.”
Polly and Grant were exceptionally popular with listeners, hosting the longest-running breakfast duo in New Zealand radio history on ZM, from 1991 to 2015.
Close friends
After their 26-year marriage ended – shocking fans when they announced the split on air in 2015 – they continued working together and have remained close friends. (Along with their three children, two grandchildren and Grant’s wife Lisa, they still spend Christmas together.)
In fact, when Polly excitedly announced on her Facebook page about his new radio role, there were female fans asking when was he going to record bedtime podcasts, designed to help listeners fall asleep.
One woman said the broadcaster’s soothing “rustic” voice was our own version of American actor Matthew McConaughey, who narrated a story for a popular sleep app. “Oh, I have heard that before,” grins Grant, who also stars in the Lotto ads.
“The funny thing is, I used to read books to Polly to practise reading out loud with my dyslexia and I’ve since done that with Lisa too – I’ve just read The Stand to her and I change the voices for the different characters.
“I’d love to record them for others, but I’m too lazy!”
You can listen to Grant weekdays from 3-7pm on Coast.
