ZM Morning Crew

The ZM Morning Crew is the name of the team who present the morning show on the ZM network. The show is presented by Pauline Gillespie(Polly) and Grant Kereama, and produced by Marc Peard who is more commonly known to the listeners as "New Hot Guy." Polly and Grant are actually married together.

how History

Polly and Grant first teamed up together in the early nineties along with Nick Tansley presenting their show exclusively on ZMFM in Wellington this was at a time when ZM in Wellington was live and local 24 hours and day and not networked to any other region. The show has always been a top rating show in the Wellington market and Polly and Grant have won awards at the New Zealand Radio Awards.

The Wellington based breakfast show hosted by Polly, Nick and Grant was networked into Palmerston North in 1997 when ZM launched in Palmerston North. The Palmerston North show was the same as the Wellington show with live voice breaks mostly tailored to the Wellington audience. In 2000 Polly, Nick and Grant went off the air in Palmerston North when all shows on ZM in Palmerston North were replaced with Auckland based shows.

In 2001 the Wellington based ZM breakfast show went nationwide, previously other regions had the Auckland based morning show hosted by Marcus Lush this show did not rate that well so as a result the Wellington based show became the nationwide breakfast show. Originally ZM ran their breakfast show between 6AM and 9AM for all regions and then after 9AM the ZM Morning Crew would continue their show exclusively for Wellington only with other regions starting the workday show at 9AM, ZM chose to do this so that one hour of the show could still be treated as a local show for the Wellington audience.

At the start of 2004 ZM decided not to renew Nick's contract and the show was now presented by just Polly and Grant, Nick worked on the breakfast show on Wellington's More FM between 2005 and 2008. Later in 2004 ZM ran a competition to find an extra for their show who would be known as their "apprentice." The winner was Cam Bisley who was known as the "19 Year old virgin from the Hawkes Bay." Cam now takes on the role as the 'Out and About Guy' a role previously done by Nick although more recently Cam has less involvement with the ZM Morning Crew and spends more time as one of the ZM Wellington Black Thunder Drivers.

Previous ZM Morning Shows

While Polly and Grant have presented their show to the Wellington audience since the 1990s other region previously had their own local shows or a network show.

i and Phil (Christchurch)

During the 1990s the ZM Morning Crew on 91ZM Christchurch was hosted by Simon Barnett and Phil Gifford. The show rated well in the Christchurch market and was networked into Dunedin when ZM launched in Dunedin as 96ZM in 1996. Si and Phil left ZM in April 1997 after being offered a large amount of money to work on local station 92 More FM at the same time More FM was started in Dunedin as 98 More FM and Si and Phils show was networked onto the station but shows on More FM in Dunedin during the daytime were local. Today Simon Barnett still presents the same show on More FM but his co-host is Gary McCormick, the show is no longer networked into Dunedin but was recently networked into Nelson.

Rik and Katrina (Christchurch)

Rik van Dyke and Katrina Smith were the hosts of the ZM Morning Crew on 91ZM Christchurch between 1997 and 2001 after Si and Phil left. Their show was also networked onto 96ZM Dunedin and 96ZM Invercargill. Previously Rik and Katrina had worked together as the morning hosts on Taranaki's Energy FM (now More FM). Rik and Katrina were originally joined by Chuckie Shearer in 1997 until the middle of 1998 when Chuckie left to go to Christchurch's Classic Hits 97.7. After Chuckie left the 91ZM Christchurch drive host Jason Royal joined the show for a year as the third member of the crew. However Jason made a return to the drive show in 1999. Rik and Katrina's show was axed at the start of 2001 when ZM made a decision to close their Christchurch studio and network the Wellington breakfast show into Christchurch with other shows being based from Auckland. Rik accepted a job hosting the breakfast show on Classic Hits 97.7 in Christchurch and Katrina was also offered this position but instead took a job with Fifeshire FM (now More FM) instead. Rik is now the programme director for The Breeze in Christchurch and Katrina remains with More FM in Nelson.

Jaala and Sandy (Northland and Waikato)

Jaala Dyer and Sandy Antipas were the hosts of the ZM Morning Crew in Northland and Waikato during the late nineties. The show originated on Whangarei's 93ZM as a local breakfast show when ZM started in Northland, the show was moved to Hamilton and networked back to Whangarei in 1998 to 1999. Both shows were replaced with the Auckland based breakfast show in 2000.

Marcus Lush

Marcus Lush was the host of the 91ZM Auckland breakfast show after ZM made a return to the Auckland region around 1996. The show was later networked to northern regions such as Rotorua and Hawkes Bay after ZM began expanding to these regions and in 2000 the show went nationwide replacing network shows in all regions except Wellington and Christchurch where these regions kept their local shows. The show rated poorly and as a result was axed at the start of 2001 when the Wellington Crew took place as the new nationwide breakfast show.