MIKE'S MILESTONE 'News has changed my life'

THE POPULAR BROADCASTER’S CERTAINLY BEEN IN THE WARS

- Donna Fleming

It wasn’t the most auspicious start to a new job. On his first day as a newsreader at TV3 20 years ago, Mike McRoberts was driving to the studio when he realized he didn’t know exactly where the television company, now called Three, was based.

“It was before Google maps,” chuckles Mike, “and I remember driving there, thinking, ‘Where the hell is this place?’ I had to ring reception to find out.”

As it was Good Friday, he also had to get someone to let him into the building, tucked away in a side street in Auckland’s Eden Terrace. Despite suffering from first-day nerves, he felt comfortable straight away.

“I read the news with Carolyn Robinson and Wendy Petrie did the weather, and they made me feel so welcome,” recalls Mike. “I was so nervous and I can’t remember a single word I said, but I got through. I did the news for the rest of the long weekend and I immediately felt at home.”

In the last two decades, Three has become Mike’s second home. At his actual home, a stylish 1960s house surrounded by native bush, he’s reminiscing with the Weekly about his 20 years at the channel and recalling how going from the state broadcaster to Three was a big call, but one he’s never regretted.

“The culture of Three is “based on being the underdog but doing things better anyway,” he enthuses. “We revel in the fact that we can break things faster and there is not a massive chain of command that you have to go through. We’ve got an amazing team and I think we do a great job.”