Year in Review: Jamie Mackay celebrates The Country’s 30th anniversary

The Country host Jamie Mackay looks back on 30 years in the radio business.

The Country looks back at some of the biggest and best stories of the past 12 months, including readers' favourites, news events and those yarns that gave us a glimpse into rural lives and livelihoods across the country.

Originally published April 5.

The Country radio show has come a long way since its humble beginnings at the Gore Showgrounds in 1994.

Then, host Jamie Mackay was happily commentating club rugby in exchange for a dozen cans of DB Bitter from the Mataura Licensing Trust.

But the broadcasting bug had bitten him, and he decided it would be a great idea to buy the local radio station, 4ZG, from the government of the day.

Cut to 30 years later, The Country has a loyal following all over New Zealand and Mackay is a household name in rural broadcasting.

This year The Country’s 30th anniversary will be celebrated with a show from the Hokonui studios, where it all began on April 11.

This will be followed by a less formal affair live from a farm in Mackay’s hometown of Riversdale on April 12.

While the show has gone through many changes over the years, its host has remained a constant, so what better way to celebrate The Country’s 30th than with the man himself?

Here, Jamie Mackay answers 10 burning questions about The Country, his career, and rural life in general.

1. Looking back on 30 years - what are you most proud of?

Well, firstly I’m proud that I’ve survived 30 years in a pretty cut-throat industry. I’ve always joked that 95 per cent of all radio jobs are lost when you’re on annual leave. And that there’s always someone younger, smarter and, most importantly, cheaper, ready to take your slot. But I’m most proud of the fact that I’ve been the first to take a rural radio show nationwide on a commercial network. And the biggest one of all to boot, in the form of Newstalk ZB.

2. What made you get into broadcasting?

Desperation and the frustration of being a house husband. I went to university to become an accountant, but the death of my father when I was just 19 meant I went farming. I ended up selling the farm because the Rural Bank wouldn’t loan me the money to buy a neighbouring block and expand the operation. I couldn’t see a way forward and didn’t want to be still shearing all my own sheep at 50 years of age. I initially got into radio as a passive investor, with no real ambition to be on air. I’m a big believer in fate. My career came about by accident, not design!

3. How has farming changed since your broadcasting career started?

I sold my farm in 1992 and bought a radio station in 1994. I think the biggest change in the farming landscape has been the dairy boom of the 1990s and early 2000s. To be honest, the boom overreached and we ended up dairying on country we shouldn’t have. I think we’re much closer to equilibrium now. The other obvious big change is the technology boom. Farming is now a hi-tech business.

4. Do you have any concerns about where farming is going?

Yes. It’s a tough gig at the best of times. The weather, international commodity prices and exchange rates all conspire against you. You can’t control any of them. I worry that farming will die a death of 1000 paper cuts, all inflicted by some clipboard-carrying bureaucrat. When farmers spend more time on paperwork than at the coalface; the industry is in trouble.

The Country radio show has undergone a few changes over 30 years but Jamie Mackay has remained a constant presence.

5. What’s your favourite interview of all time?

Ironically, it’s not a farming interview. In my days at Hokonui Radio, we used to do a Sunday morning two-hour sports show, where we could do long-form interviews. My father had raised me on stories of the legend of the great All Blacks prop Kevin Skinner, and how he had “sorted out” the Springbok front row in the third test of the epic 1956 series, arguably the most important in All Blacks history. To relive that in person with Skinner is an interview I will take to my grave.

6. Who is your favourite politician to interview?

Believe it or not, from someone with a centre-right political disposition, I used to really enjoy interviewing Helen Clark. She and Michael Cullen did a good job. Bill English, who I really rated, was ultimately knee-capped by Peters. For pure entertainment, it has to be Winston, or his loyal henchman Shane Jones, the self-titled Prince of the Provinces. Damien O’Connor is wonderfully argumentative. But the best of the bunch is John Key. He is the most impressive politician of my lifetime.

7. What’s your favourite tall building?

Long-suffering listeners of The Country will know I love dams and the world’s tallest buildings. Without a (long) shadow of a doubt, my favourite has to be the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, the world’s tallest building at 828m. Other favourites are the Shanghai Tower, the Tokyo Skytree, Chicago’s Willis Tower, the “Shard” in London and the Empire State Building in New York. I can’t wait to go to the top of the Freedom Tower in New York, which has arisen from the ashes of 9/11 when I’m in the Big Apple later this year ahead of the US election. And how good will the Jeddah Tower be when, and if, they finally build the 1km-high monster in Saudi Arabia?

8. What was your favourite farming and footy overseas trip with The Country/The Farming Show?

I’ve been lucky enough to lead touring parties to the UK and Ireland (twice), South America, South Africa, China and Japan (including three Rugby World Cups). But I think my favourite farming tour was to the mid states of the United States in 2018. We flew in via Houston, then headed up to Kentucky and back south via Nashville, and Memphis, then followed the Mississippi River down to the party town of New Orleans. It was 2018, two years into the first Trump presidency, and I don’t think I met anyone who hadn’t voted for him in middle America. History looks like repeating.

9. How does The Country differ from The Farming Show?

In name only, to be honest. The Farming Show was broadcast on Radio Sport and probably had a bit more of a sporting bent to keep some of the hard-out ferals off my back. Getting the show on Newstalk ZB was a great victory.

10. If you had one piece of advice for a young Jamie Mackay - what would it be?

You are going to make plenty of mistakes in your life, just don’t make the same mistake twice. And don’t be too tough on yourself. You’ve done OK for a broken-down Southland sheep farmer with a stutter.