The Country
  • The Country home
  • Latest news
  • Audio & podcasts
  • Opinion
  • Dairy farming
  • Sheep & beef farming
  • Rural business
  • Rural technology
  • Rural life
  • Listen on iHeart radio

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • Coast & Country News
  • Opinion
  • Dairy farming
  • Sheep & beef farming
  • Horticulture
  • Animal health
  • Rural business
  • Rural technology
  • Rural life

Media

  • Podcasts
  • Video

Weather

  • Kaitaia
  • Whāngarei
  • Dargaville
  • Auckland
  • Thames
  • Tauranga
  • Hamilton
  • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Tokoroa
  • Te Kuiti
  • Taumurunui
  • Taupō
  • Gisborne
  • New Plymouth
  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Dannevirke
  • Whanganui
  • Palmerston North
  • Levin
  • Paraparaumu
  • Masterton
  • Wellington
  • Motueka
  • Nelson
  • Blenheim
  • Westport
  • Reefton
  • Kaikōura
  • Greymouth
  • Hokitika
  • Christchurch
  • Ashburton
  • Timaru
  • Wānaka
  • Oamaru
  • Queenstown
  • Dunedin
  • Gore
  • Invercargill

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / The Country

Furious George: More like Mike Tyson than Mike Hosking

Dom George
By Dom George
The Country producer·The Country·
4 May, 2016 09:45 PM4 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Mackay is trying to be more "like Mike" but is acting like this guy instead of Hosking. Photo / Animal Planet

Mackay is trying to be more "like Mike" but is acting like this guy instead of Hosking. Photo / Animal Planet

Tensions are at an all-time high at Farming Show HQ - sorry, The Country HQ. Yes, the gold 'ol Farming Show is now The Country. It's all about integrating the rural brands under one platform... um... or is it aligning print, digital and?... oh God, I can't actually remember what the reason is - it's wrapped up in the kind of corporate jargon that doesn't make any sense to me, but the upshot for all you wonderful listeners out there is it's pretty much business as usual. It's the radio name-change equivalent of 3News changing to NewsHub.

I hope it's not as tumultuous as that though with news emerging last week Hilary Barry's hung up the mic. She'll be greatly missed, a brilliant broadcaster with broad appeal. Surely it's not a precursor for what's to come down south, although if the stress levels of host Jamie Mackay are anything to go by he may be joining Hilary in the broadcaster's retirement village. Let's hope not as The Country is now being broadcast on the juggernaut that is Newstalk ZB, alongside its traditional home of Radio Sport and associated affiliate stations.

But Monday's near seamless on-air launch was preceded by some less than amicable off-air autocracy. As the team made its way to Kim Jong Jamie's office for the scheduled 9am daily meeting we discovered it was vacant; he'd relocated to the studio to record an interview, breaking his own steadfast edict that under no circumstances will the 9am meeting be missed by anyone! A classic case of "do as I say, not as I do". Our inquisitive gaze was met with an angry flip of the bird and a tersely delivered vignette of abuse, informing his workers that they wouldn't be standing there with puzzled looks slapped all over their faces if they'd simply read their f@^#n emails! (An email that was delivered at 8.57am!)

It was the culmination of months of stress but there have been plenty of helpful examples of stress relief to take heed of in the last week. The Warriors certainly know how to unwind after a big loss - mix a load of prescription drugs with energy drinks! Winner! Alternatively, Jamie could have come along to Forsyth Barr Stadium on Saturday night to see Black Sabbath - plenty of 'stress relief' there! Or he could have taken a leaf out of the Louis van Key, ah, I mean, Louis van Gaal playbook. The Man U manager astutely pointed out this week it's unacceptable to grab a human being by the hair, except when engaging in "sex masochism, then it is allowed". I think one or two other New Zealanders could learn a lesson from Loius here.

However, there may be some genetic pre-disposition to explain this unreasonable level of grumpiness. Unlike McKay, or Mckay, our glorious leader derives his surname from the 'Mackay' clan, a small yet important distinction. Tuesday marked the death of a chap with the same surname, Charles Mackay, a former Mayor of Wanganui. He was shot dead by a German policeman during communist riots in Berlin on May 3rd 1929. He had left New Zealand a few years earlier after serving six years in jail for the attempted murder of a poet. The poet had accused him of making 'advances' towards him and demanded an apology, hence the shooting.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

So let us compare one with the other and see where we end up. Public office? Public limelight. Tick. Provoking a foreigner into violent recrimination? He's from Southland, so bound to have happened. Tick. Attending a communist get-together? May explain a deep-seeded and over-compensatory hatred of the left. Tick. 'Advances?'... I think the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle fit rather nicely!

All this is very rich coming from a man, as Jamie would say, "as angry and bitter" as me, but I feel like I'm getting somewhere here. After all, it's now my job to help Jamie be 'more like Mike', just minus the Ferrari, designer clothes, wit, humour, talent... How am I going?

Save

    Share this article

Latest from The Country

The Country

Beekeeper advocacy group comes under pressure

The Country

The Country: Luxon on coalition friction

The Country

Man lost wife and daughter in Waiuku triple-fatal


Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from The Country

Beekeeper advocacy group comes under pressure
The Country

Beekeeper advocacy group comes under pressure

Rifts among industry groups, charities and agencies in the beekeeping industry.

16 Jul 03:00 AM
The Country: Luxon on coalition friction
The Country

The Country: Luxon on coalition friction

16 Jul 01:42 AM
Man lost wife and daughter in Waiuku triple-fatal
The Country

Man lost wife and daughter in Waiuku triple-fatal

16 Jul 12:37 AM


Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

06 Jul 09:47 PM
NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP