Meet The Man Behind The Nights Microphone

Meet the man behind the nights microphone

- Julie Jacobson

Bump into Bryan Crump on the street and chances are you wouldn’t recognise the bloke with the lopsided grin and bookish glasses.

But tune into Radio New Zealand (RNZ) on any weeknight between 7pm and midnight and Bryan is instantly recognisable. He is the voice behind the state broadcaster’s flagship evening show Nights and, as the Weekly discovers during a visit to his Wellington home, Bryan is a man of many talents.

The front door is wide open when we arrive. Toys and books are strewn around the large lounge and there’s washing drying on a couple of wooden frames, one inside, one out on the deck. There’s classical music (Concert Radio, naturally) playing from somewhere in the direction of the kitchen. But there’s no sign of the man himself.

We knock again, wondering if perhaps we should call out. But no, he’s just been downstairs and didn’t hear the tapping on the door.

He makes a coffee before launching into his own potted history; fourth and possibly spoiled son of a singing postmaster, whose childhood hobby of recording sounds – and destroying his brothers’ tape recorders in the process − would eventually become a long-term love affair with all things radio.

Of course there were hiccups on the way, largely, according to the 54-year-old, because “it took me a long time to grow up.”

Yes, having a son with partner Penny Miles, a bassoonist and former journalist, did help with that process, he laughs. John is now nine and by all accounts has inherited his parents’ musicality – he plays piano and often practises in the morning before school.