Morning Report turns 40

"Good morning from Radio New Zealand. This is Joe Cote." And with that greeting 40 years ago today, Morning Report was on air.

Since then, the programme has covered major national and international news, from the Christchurch earthquakes, to the 9/11 terror attacks, the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior, the 1984 snap election or the Mt Erebus crash.

"It's a real privilege to work on Morning Report with all that history," said presenter Guyon Espiner.

"One minute you're speaking to someone across the world in some conflict zone, the next minute there's a New Zealand politician live on the line."

Guyon Espiner and Susie Ferguson are the latest of the more than 30 broadcasters to have presented the programme. They include longest serving presenter Geoff Robinson and some of his co-presenters over the years, Simon Mercep, Lindsay Perigo, Mike Hosking, Maggie Barry, Kim Hill and Sean Plunket.

For Susie Ferguson the variety and the breaking news are one of the programme's strengths.

"You never know quite what happens next or what you are going to walk into when you go in the morning.

"And one great thing about doing Morning Report is that you know people's alarms go off, they switch the radio on, they're having their breakfast and you're actually bringing them breaking news that is happening as you speak."

Bringing the news of the 9/11 terror attacks on the United States to listeners has stayed with the programme's longest-serving presenter, Geoff Robinson.

"It was exciting. It was horrible. Probably the most important news story I'll ever cover. You get carried along by the excitement of the story but then when you finish, the emotional realisation of what you've been talking about takes over."

View highlights from Geoff Robinson's last Morning Report programme on 1 April 2014.