Halloween trick-or-treaters found talkback radio pioneer Tim Bickerstaff dead in his home in Whitianga at the weekend.
The young visitors could see the 67-year-old diabetic through the window in his lounge chair, but could not rouse him with their door-knocking.
They entered the house and set off his medic alert bracelet. Ambulance officers responding to the call found him dead from a suspected heart attack.
Bickerstaff entertained and shocked New Zealanders for 40 years.
The outspoken radio host, a constant critic of the New Zealand Rugby Union and the Warriors league side, earned his reputation through exhaustive sporting knowledge and blunt humour.
He was known for his irreverent style and gained a degree of notoriety for his "Punch a Pom a Day" campaign, a playful dig at the large number of British migrants to New Zealand in the 1960s.
Partner Jenny Wheeler said he had been cheerful on Saturday and looking forward to watching the All Blacks play Australia in Tokyo.
But he never got to see the test.
In recent years, Bickerstaff used his marketing nous to become a face and voice for men's health products, boldly promoting herbal supplements.
Ms Wheeler, a former editor of the Sunday Star and the Listener, said his willingness to be provocative and controversial made him an ideal spokesman for the difficult subject of erectile dysfunction. "I always thought he was a honourable man with a juvenile delinquent inside of him."
Bickerstaff began his broadcasting career as a TV sports reporter with the New Zealand Broadcasting Service in Rotorua, Dunedin and Wellington.
He worked for 3DB in Melbourne in the 1960s before he returned to Auckland with his young family and began broadcasting with Radio I.
He pioneered talkback on Sportsline with Geoff Sinclair on Radio I, and then moved on to more general talkback with a two-hour show at Radio Pacific.
There he interviewed more than 2000 world personalities in popular hour-long sessions.
Bickerstaff was also credited with giving Peter Leitch his "Mad Butcher" title, which Leitch later used to name his store and brand.
A keen sportsman, Bickerstaff took up golf after damaging his knee competing for the junior national hammer throw title. Golf gave way to billiards, in which he won the New Zealand Masters championship in 1982.
Bickerstaff's former wife, Sue, their son Scott and daughter Brenda all live in Queensland.
Trick-or-treat kids find radio pioneer dead
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