One of New Zealand’s longest-running radio programmes was honoured last night as Real Life with John Cowan celebrated 20 years broadcasting on Newstalk ZB.
The interview show, which has occupied a weekly half-hour slot on New Zealand’s largest commercial station since June 13, 2004, gets to the heart of New Zealand’s most high-profile people, providing insights into their life, upbringing, faith and the way they see the world.
It’s a successful marriage of show and announcer that is a genuine rarity in commercial radio in Aotearoa.
Amid years of turbulence in New Zealand’s media industry, the rising force of podcasting, and countless announcer line-up changes, Real Life with John Cowan has maintained a steady presence, producing 963 interviews across its two decades.
This has comprised 835 unique guests – including 24 knights, 13 dames, and 11 Prime Ministers.
In a celebratory hour-long special hosted by fellow Newstalk ZB hosts Jax Donaldson and Frank Ritchie yesterday, Cowan was honoured by former Real Life guests, including TV host Kevin Milne, former Children’s Commissioner Andrew Becroft QC, and comedians Te Radar and Michelle A’Court.
Cowan said he felt privileged to have hosted Real Life for so long.
“It’s the depth of intimacy that you can achieve – people being so unguarded, sharing about their heart,” he said.
“We often conduct our interaction as humans at a very superficial level and yet people are deep. They have depth of emotions and stories, and so that’s been the greatest privilege: to be able to hear people’s heartbeats and passions and what makes them tick.”
There have also been a slew of overseas celebrities – among them astronaut Buzz Aldrin, actor Sir Ian McKellen, US presidential candidate and neurosurgeon Dr Ben Carson, and musician Sir Cliff Richard.
Cowan says he takes particular satisfaction out of his guests expressing how impressed they are by the depth of his research into them.
“Part of my warped personality is that I’m a show-off, and so I enjoy it when people say things like that!” he laughed.
“I do like to dig around because it gives me the opportunity to shape the conversation, knowing the types of areas that are going to be interesting to talk about.”
Newstalk ZB host John Cowan interviewing a guest.
He says his early years of hosting involved a lot of research at libraries, digging through newspaper and magazine archives, before the internet enabled him to access much of that information more easily.
But his forays into new technologies haven’t always served him well.
“I used AI [artificial intelligence] to help me interview [Deputy Prime Minister] David Seymour and it gave me all the wrong information,” he said.
“It gave me a whole load of rubbish. It was the most embarrassing interview. I’m saying things like, ‘so you did your master’s degree in Chicago University?’ And he would say ‘No, I’ve been to Chicago, but I haven’t done that’.
“Everything was wrong and I have never blushed so much. He must have thought I was an absolute idiot. Sometimes I don’t get it right.”
One of Real Life’s distinctive features over the years has been the emphasis on providing a public platform to speak about spirituality.
Cowan says it’s surprising how many of his guests have referred to an act of faith or a spiritual influence having a major impact on their lives.
“I used to make a count of about 50 per cent of people that would talk about it being significant,” he said.
“Over the years, I think it’s shifted – it’s becoming less institutional and more constitutional.
“People are a little less involved in churches, but more appreciative of the influences and motivations that have come from a church background or faithful parents or something like that, motivating them into the good works that they do.”
Cowan says he hopes Real Life continues for some time yet.
Real Life is a weekly interview show where John Cowan speaks with prominent guests about their life, upbringing, and the way they see the world. Tune in Sundays from 7.30pm on Newstalk ZB or listen to the latest full interview here.
