New Zealand: Weird stuff on the radio

David Farrier
Fri, 06 Nov 2009 2:59p.m.

My friend Dan works on a radio show on 95bFM called Carnival in Rio. It's on Saturdays from 4 - 7 pm - click here to listen to a good one. It's a ramshackle but very listenable show, and Dan does the DVD reviews. They call him DVDan. Geddit? Sometimes I call him this in real life. He doesn't like it. Anyway, it's a great show, but by lord I wasn't going to let him dominate the airwaves.

So I've started up a show very early in the morning (8am!) on George FM with my mate Rhys Darby. Well, when I say mate, I mean we've intensely bonded over the topic of cryptozoology: The science of hidden animals (think Bigfoot). Which is exactly what this show is about. In his words, "The opportunity to work with David Farrier is... Something I have to put up with to do this show".

A lovely man called Alex Dron made us a logo.. a band called Carl and the Sargonauts made us an amazing themesong.. and boom, we were away. And good lord, after working primarily in tele-news for the last 3 years (with a bit of freelance writing thrown in), radio is living the dream. It's so fun and so immediate, you just can't beat it.

And the feedback, oh the feedback. 10 seconds on air during our first show and we get a txt: "Stop encouraging bullshit". We were stoked. Darby's enjoying it to, finally getting to rant on air about all the fun things that have been buzzing around in his head for years. Last week we talked about his hunt for the Loch Ness Monster. I tried to top it with my hunt for the Mongolian Death Worm. Not sure who won.

Then we chatted to the New Zealand representative from the Centre for Fortean Zoology, about weird stuff knockin' about in our own kiwi backyard. Then we reviewed a film called Giant Octopus vs Megashark. Then we read out some cryptozoological poetry. It's more ramshackle than Dan's show, and we love it, secretly happy most people are asleep at 8am. It's like our little club. But you can come and join, if you like. The Cryptid Factor, streaming 8am every Saturday on georgefm.co.nz.

Podcasts coming soon..... But for now, follow us on Twitter and join our Facebook group.

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