Grant’s open mic “WHAT I’VE HAD TO OVERCOME”

None of life’s hurdles could stop the radio star from his destiny

- Fleur Guthrie

Nobody is more surprised than Grant Kereama’s 11-year-old self that he has ended up talking on the radio for a living.

Back then, struggling with both a speech impediment and dyslexia (“I spelled my name TNARG”), little Grant hadn’t yet developed the smooth, deep voice that has made him an icon on our airwaves.

“I had a really bad lisp,” he says from his home in Lower Hutt. “We lived in Singapore for a few years because my father, George, was based there as a major in the Royal New Zealand Army.

“Whenever there was a cocktail party, it was one of his party tricks to go, ‘Son, come here... now say, ‘Sister Suzie’s sewing shirts for soldiers.’ Gah, Dad! But I started to force myself to say the ‘S’ sound and eventually got rid of the lisp.”

Reflecting on 40 years in the radio industry, Grant, 58, who recently became the new host of Coast’s Drive show, concedes he fell into the career.

“None of this was intentional,” he says. “Broadcasting has a lot to do with luck and being in the right place at the right time — then having the ability to execute it when the opportunity arises.”

After finishing boarding school in Feilding, Grant became the lead singer of a Christchurch band called Idol Rumours. He met friends who were studying at the Broadcasting School there.