Ali Mau joins Marc Ellis on rival radio station

TVNZ's Alison Mau will be joining rival MediaWorks for a five day stint on More FM's breakfast show with co-host Marc Ellis. Photo / Supplied

One of TVNZ's biggest names is joining rival MediaWorks next week on the radio airwaves. Fair Go star Alison Mau will front More FM's breakfast show with Marc Ellis for five days, starting Monday, the station's programme director Ande Macpherson told me.

The television stars will fill in on the morning radio show while the hosts are on planned leave.

Mau has dabbled in radio before, but I understand Ellis is a novice. The tag team combo is bound to draw a lot of profile for the station that has been somewhat fledgling in recent months.

The media celebrities will undoubtedly view it as a foot-in-the-door opportunity into the much-lauded radio industry.

It can't come soon enough for Ellis whose celebrity career appears to be on the wane. His star power is only half the wattage what it used to be in his heyday, when he articulately spoke bloke as the national face of all larrikin louts.

Mau, on the other hand, is one of TVNZ's secret weapons - and they know it.

She is part of the team that has completely reinvigorated the long-running consumer affairs show Fair Go and, since her split from One News anchor Simon Dallow, has demonstrated she is a true star in her own right. She is one of the celebrities on the television network's advertisements promoting TV One.

I imagine TVNZ would not welcome Mau entertaining thoughts about entering the high-paying radio industry on a full-time basis and juggling a role alongside her TV career - especially with the company that owns their nemesis TV3.

Since their former biggest star, Paul Henry, joined MediaWorks' RadioLive station (he starts in two weeks), TVNZ have nursed a very public broken ego. Those wounds won't heal any faster with the prospect of losing another company asset to their arch rival.

MediaWorks, and specifically More FM, would be wise to entertain such thoughts should Mau's turn on the airwaves next week prove fruitful. And I suspect it will.