Broadcaster Lindsay Yeo dies at 78

Throughout her career, Lindsay Yeo has worked with many of the country’s top broadcasters.
Photograph: Provided

Broadcaster Lindsay Yeo died on Tuesday, aged 78.

A generation of Wellingtonians woke up to Lindsay Yeo’s breakfast show on 2ZB; At its peak, it received votes from more than 50 percent of the audience.

Listen to RNZ’s 2017 interview with Lindsay Yeo.

He was born in 1946 and started in radio in Invercargill in 1964.

He moved to Nelson, where he started the breakfast shift, before being promoted to Wellington, where he took over the breakfast show on 2ZB in 1972.

Those were the happy days of community radio in New Zealand, filled with a dazzling mix of music, news, comedy and competitions.

During the days when Radio New Zealand and its predecessor NZBC were based in Wellington, the station attracted many of the country’s top broadcasters – Paul Holmes, Leighton Smith, Doreen Kelso, Dick Weir, Wayne Mowat, Paddy O’Donnell, Geoff Robinson, Relda Familton and Murray Forgie are a few of them.

But Lindsay Yeo was still the star among them; he had a large audience who admired his quick wit, his jokes with the news anchor and regular guests such as Nancy of Naenae and Sir Nigel Noring, and most importantly his cheerful, cheerful patter.

He created a character for children’s birthday calls: Buzz O’Bumble, who became a phenomenon and broke five records.

In an oral history recorded in 2005, Lindsay Yeo described the creation of the character.

“A lot of people were wondering why I chose a bee and I was working at 2-Z-Bee… and the bees were obvious… I was fascinated by a trip to Anaheim and Disneyland and I love Walt Disney and everything he represents and “I was amazed at how he entertained the children.”

When Buzz married Belinda in 1974, the happy couple walked through Wellington and the Hutt Valley, with thousands flocking to the streets to see them.

Three children followed him, and Yeo created a villain to expand the fictional family in Wally Weta.

Yeo took Buzz on the road, performing stage shows around the area for years, and young kids filled town halls everywhere.

It was a family affair, with Yeo’s four young children dressing up as the O’Bumble family in costumes created by Lindsay’s wife Jan.

Yeo’s love of the stage and performance extended to the release of her own single in 1980, when she released a cover of The Sunshine of your Smile.

A music enthusiast, Yeo would sometimes create his own songs to celebrate community victories such as the Wellington rugby team winning the Ranfurly Shield in 1981.

Lindsay Yeo said she rebelled against the radio tradition of adhering to a rigid formula and scripted radio, often not deciding what to do or say on air until the moment arrived.

“I was loose because I wanted to surprise and be unpredictable and be fun. And sometimes you can’t plan unpredictability and fun, it just has to happen.”

He said he constantly had internal fights about his style, with patrons complaining that he wasn’t playing enough music.

However, Yeo believed that his comedy was often better than the music.

“Some of the people who were in a position to put wheel clamps on me had absolutely no idea and it was sad… Unfortunately, I worked for many years in an environment that did not allow for full creativity or was poisoned by greed for advertising.

“We had a constant battle, which contributed to my frustration that business was really declining.”

In 1987 2ZB’s sister station 1ZB in Auckland ended its free community radio format by switching to a news-talk format.

After initial problems, it was a ratings success and by the mid-1990s Radio New Zealand chiefs required all community stations to adopt the same format.

For a while Yeo tried to mix the format with some elements of his own programme, but in 1997 the call came that 2ZB would take over Auckland-based Paul Holmes’ breakfast programme, ending Yeo’s 25-year reign at 2ZB.

Lindsay Yeo says she is unhappy with how her career has ended.

“I learned from my father, I could never guess, and it helped me a lot.”

Yeo briefly moved to another station called Classic Hits, but later decided to retire at the relatively young age of 52, moving to a lifestyle property near Nelson, Richmond.

Lindsay Yeo is survived by his wife Jan and their four children.