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I met Kim Blair back in 2013. He was looking to make a change in his radio career and was leaving Australia behind in search of a more a country that was going to offer more of a challenge for him. Consolidation has caught up with Australia and Canada as well. In the months after we had dinner together, he found his new home in Auckland, New Zealand, where the radio is as competitive as any radio market names New York or Los Angeles.
Kim grew up in Perth, Australia and started his radio career there. North Americans who have no grasp of Australia, don't understand the sheer size if the country. Firstly, there are those who call it an island... it is not. However, New Zealand is an island. I have never really considered how remote Perth is from other cities like Sydney and Brisbane. The driving and distance is the same between Toronto and Vancouver. We also discussed some of intricacies of radio in Australia, and how it varies differently with the radio in New Zealand. He also mentioned that New Zealand is a country that continually punches over his weight when it comes to performance. (See Below) Kim is also the first person from New Zealand to be in the podcast, and the third with an Australian accent after Ronnie Stanton and Matt Sutton.
You can connect to Kim's Voiceover website if you need an Australian voice for your roster.
Here are some facts about New Zealand that we lifted without permission from Sable International. They would be happy to help you emigrate to New Zealand or Australia one day.
The world’s first commercial bungee jump was a 43 metre leap off the Kawarau Bridge in Queenstown in 1988.
New Zealanders love their cars! 2.5 million cars for 4 million people (including the kids) makes New Zealand’s car ownership rate one of the highest in the world.
Although it is around the size of Japan, New Zealand’s population is just over four million, making it one of the world’s least populated countries.
In 1893, New Zealand became the first country to give women the right to vote.
Sir Edmund Hillary, the first person to climb Mount Everest in 1953, was a New Zealander.
Baron Ernest Rutherford, the first person in the world to split the atom in 1919, was also a New Zealander.
It’s no wonder New Zealanders have always been ahead with regards to things like inventions and politics…. New Zealand is after all the very first country to greet each new day!
While Rugby remains the most popular spectator sport in New Zealand, golf is the most popular participation sport, with more golf courses in New Zealand per capita of population, than any other country in the world.
Auckland also has the largest number of boats per capita than any other city in the world.
New Zealand won the first ever Rugby World Cup, held in 1987.
New Zealand has won more Olympic gold medals per capita, than any other country.
The Hector’s Dolphin, the world’s smallest marine dolphin, which grows to a maximum length of 1.5 metres, is found nowhere else in the world but in New Zealand waters.
New Zealand is also home to the world’s only flightless parrot, the Kakapo.
Dairy farmers produce a whopping 100 kg of butter and 65 kg of cheese each year, for each person who lives in New Zealand!
Notable New Zealand filmmakers include ‘The Piano’ director Jane Campion and Peter Jackson, who made King Kong and the ‘Lord of the Rings’ trilogy.
The most popular New Zealand films include ‘Once were Warriors’, ‘The Whale Rider’, ‘The Piano’ and the ‘Lord of the Rings’ trilogy.
Here’s a really good reason to visit New Zealand – there are no snakes in the country!
There are also no nuclear power stations in New Zealand.
The Maori name for New Zealand is ‘Aotearoa’. It means “the land of the long white cloud”.
Another great reason to live in New Zealand if you love surfing and other watersports is that nowhere in New Zealand is more than 120 km from the coast.