Merv Smith

Merv Smith, QSM, hosted a top-rating 1ZB breakfast radio slot for 26 years. His on-screen work also spanned decades. In 1957 he was part of a public demonstration of the new medium of television. After TV launched locally in the 1960s, Smith hosted variety shows and read news reports on the Wahine disaster. In the 70s he hosted game show Pop the Question and acted on The Mackenzie Affair (as a sheep rustler). Alongside work as a narrator, he lent his voice talents to award-winning short Aphrodite's Farm, and animated shows Buzzy Bee and Friends and Buzz & Poppy. Smith died on 24 September 2018. He was 85.

His natural talent for talk, clarity of delivery, facility for mimicry, jokes, great laugh and all-round cheerfulness made him the number one choice of most Aucklanders for their first contact with the world every morning. Radio veteran Bill Francis on Merv Smith, in 2006 book ZB - The Voice of an Iconic Radio Station