RNZ is delighted to announce the appointment of Bryan Crump as the new afternoon drive-time presenter for RNZ Concert. The host of Nights with Bryan Crump on RNZ National will wrap up his incredible innings on Nights in September and can be expected on air on RNZ Concert from October.
Bryan Crump Photo: Michael Bradley
RNZ Concert manager Liisa McMillan says she’s thrilled to have passionate music-lover Bryan joining the team.
“Bryan is an outstanding broadcaster, a generous interviewer and a huge fan of all kinds of music. We know he’ll be a wonderful addition to our station.
Joining RNZ Concert is something of a radio homecoming for Crump.
“RNZ National and Concert shared equal billing in our household. The first RNZ job I applied for was an RNZ Concert number. I missed out, possibly because I didn’t know how to pronounce Górecki, but I’ve learnt a few things about broadcasting since then”.
“Music is such a big part of my life. It’s a major change leaving Nights on RNZ National, but being part of the nation’s only commercial-free station dedicated to music, and helping to share the love; it’s great to finally have that opportunity”.
McMillan says the appointment of Crump is the latest step in an ongoing refreshing of RNZ Concert, with recruitment also underway for a presenter for the breakfast programme.
“We’ve made some great appointments within the RNZ Concert team this year, including promoting Clarissa Dunn to lead the on-air Presentation team. We’ve also created a new role of music programmer and added another person to our award-winning live music recording team to strengthen it for the future. RNZ Concert is an important home for music performance and composition in Aotearoa, and we’ll continue to work with our partners to showcase live music recordings.
“We’ve been working on a number of key projects behind the scenes including updating the broadcasting technology for RNZ Concert, and next we will focus on refreshing the music playlist.
The best thing we can do for the RNZ Concert audience and the wider classical music community is to grow the love for classical music in Aotearoa. That’s what we are focused on and I think our audiences will enjoy the on-air refreshment of the station over the coming months,” McMillan said.
Applications will open soon for a new host of Nights on RNZ National.
Additional information
In the latest GfK radio survey RNZ Concert had 222,500 weekly listeners (10+), up 3.3% on the same time last year.
Recent RNZ Concert highlights
- 2022 Lexus Song Quest, hosted by RNZ Concert’s Clarissa Dunn
- Te Matatini 50 – three programmes presented by Julian Wilcox and Rob Ruha celebrating 50 years of our foremost Māori performing arts festival and national kapa haka competitions.
- RNZ Concert’s recording of the NZSO’s world premiere of Gareth Farr’s Ngā Hihi o Matariki has recently won a silver medal at the New York Festivals Radio Awards for Best Live Sound.
Bryan Crump Biography
Award-winning journalist and radio presenter Bryan Crump has been making radio programmes ever since he discovered tape recorders as a child. He began his career as a rural reporter in Dunedin in 1993, then moving to Pōneke in 1995 to produce and present RNZ’s Saturday rural programme as well as training other radio journalists.
In the early 2000s, Bryan moved to Australia’s Northern Territories, becoming a rural reporter in the outback town of Katherine for the ABC, before becoming a Breakfast presenter in Darwin.
In late 2004, Bryan returned home, hosting Summer Nights on RNZ National, and then becoming the weeknights presenter in 2005. With an incredible network of contacts and guests, Nights touches on everything from current events to the science behind Marvel movies, presented in an intelligent, accessible and entertaining way. In 2020 Bryan was presented the Bill Toft Award for excellence in broadcasting. His entry covers the night leading up to Aotearoa’s first Covid-19 lockdown and judges said, "Bryan's work delivered a sense of belonging and community, a calming connection at a time of fear and uncertainty.”
Outside radio, Bryan has used his exceptional communication skills to MC many concerts, conferences and events, and for the last decade he has created choral arrangements of pop songs for his choir Doubtful Sounds. Bryan has also lent his rich bass voice to chamber choir Voices New Zealand and performed the voice of God in NZ Opera’s production of Noah’s Flood for New Zealand Festival of the Arts in 2014.
A lover of all kinds of music, Bryan has been a popular occasional guest presenter on RNZ Concert and now moves down the hall to permanently join the RNZ Concert team as a presenter, beginning in October 2022.