'At what age did you decide you wanted to be a presenter and why?'

 

'I was about twenty-two. A friend of mine David Bentley and I were chatting one day in Wellington about what we were going to do after university. Two friends of mine had just started a TV show at the university I went to in Dunedin in the Otago university and I thought that I should get involved with that because that would be a good start so as luck would have it they needed another presenter. I said I could help out for a show and then it started from there.

I wanted to be a journalist when I was twelve years old but then to be a TV presenter, probably a bit later in life.'

 

 

 

'Was being a presenter your first choice of career?'

 

'When I was young I wanted to be a cop. But both my parents worked in Radio and so being a presenter I wanted to do something in media as well. My dad was a sports reporter and producer for the New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation and then I got to spend a lot of time in the office watching journalists and presenters and Radio announcers do their work and go out and do stories and stuff. So that’s where I started to rub shoulders with that kind of media.'  

 

 

 

'Who has been your greatest influence professionally on your presenting career and why?'

 

'Personally that I’ve known it’s been friends who have been in the industry there’s a good friend of mine named Nathan Rarere he and I have been friends for about ten years now and I used to work with him at TV3 he was on my favourite TV show called Iced TV back in the 90s. Getting a chance to work with him was pretty cool. I watched a lot of sports centre on ESPN when I was a teenager, I watched a lot of Basketball as well and so commenters like Marv Elbert. He influenced me and then all the old sports centre presenters in the way they treated sports and the way they had fun doing it, that really influenced me as well.'            

 

 

 

'How important have your friends and family been in terms of realising your dreams?'

 

'Very, very important I think my parents never tried to steer me in any one direction they always supported the choices that I made and they also made sure that they backed me when I decided that I could do this presenting stuff because they aren’t a lot of jobs going around, they were back then but obviously there’s a lot of TV channels around now but there weren’t many TV channels back in the day. Dad started out being a junior reporter so that’s how I sort of started out as well. So friends and family are very important to help you decide where you want to be. Because there is nothing worse when people are trying to tell you that you shouldn’t do that when that’s what you want to, because that’s what really affects you, it affects your confidence as well.'

 

 

 

'What three attributes do you think you require to succeed in today’s competitive world of presenting?'

 

'You have to be genuine, that’s one aspect, I think you also have to be knowledgeable I think you really have to do a lot of hard work behind the scenes, staying up with the play as such. I think you also have to be really passionate and happy that you’re doing it. I think a lot of people try and get into presenting for all the wrong reasons; they want to be on TV or on the radio without actually thinking how they are going to go about it and do it and what they are going to do essentially, they just want to be on TV or on Radio. You have to be pretty transparent, you have to be who you are in real life or people will see through you who you are at home.'

 

 

 

'What one piece of advice would you give to a young person embarking upon a new career path?'

 

'I would say work hard, study hard, make sure you have a lot of balance in your life don’t do too much of just one thing, balance really helps whether you have a part time job and a passion that you want to follow and you also have extra curricular activities whether it be sport or the arts or anything like that. I think you have to do a whole range of things; it makes you a well-rounded person.'

 

 

 

'Can you describe the most defining moment of your presenting career?'

 

'When I left university and went and worked for a radio station called the edge and went to live in Hamilton for nine months. Then the whole station moved to Auckland and I wasn’t really enjoying the role that I was in it was more in marketing promotions beside radio. I decided that I would leave this job and go and live in Japan in Tokyo with a mate and teach English it was really cool at the time, it was great but when I was over there I decided that getting out of New Zealand and getting away from what I was doing and then really deciding where I wanted to head to I actually had the intention of going and doing my OE. After six months I headed back to New Zealand and got in touch with a friend who introduced me to the executive producer of three sports. They needed a reporter for their delayed coverage of the rugby and that’s how it started. Timing is everything.'

 

 

 

'What does an average week of work consist of and how many hours a week do you put in?'

 

'Long days. I start work at the rock at 05:30 am; I get up at 04:30 am. I go there and I am at the rock for three and a half hours on air and two hours off air. After the radio (on some days) I go to the gym and maybe do a bit of running and a bit of boxing because I’ve got to do the half marathon in November. After that I’ll come home, have a bite to eat then head out to the Crowd Goes Wild, I’ll get there at around about three o’clock, I’m there till seven thirty when we finish the show and then I have an hour before I go to bed at about eight thirty/9 o’clock and that’s my day.'

 

Andrew went to say that he is always looking for useful information that will help him on the show and is always checking the Internet for stories of interest.

 

 

 

'What did you have to sacrifice in order for your presenting career to survive?'

 

'I don’t really think I’ve had to sacrifice too much to get where I am now. I’ve been in the right place at the right time and I think a lot of people sort of realise that you can be really good at your job but if there is no job for you to be good at then it’s pretty hard to keep a job. So I haven’t really had to sacrifice too much, I’ve had to spend a lot of time away from home whether it’s working or doing different jobs on the weekend or having to go to bed early when I could be hanging out and talking to my wife. On the weekend it’s really important I have that time with my friends and family. So time away from friends and family is the main thing I have sacrificed, and bags under my eyes!'

 

 

 

'How important was your team in ensuring the success of you presenting career?'

 

'Very important. We’ve got a really good team at the Crowd Goes Wild. We’ve got some really good people that I work with. We are all on the same page, which makes it really easy to do our jobs together.  Some days are really busy and we’re stretched when somebody’s away then we are really under the pump.'

 

Andrew went onto say that teamwork really helps with what they do and a good work ethic allows for great results that motivates him and the team to do better.      

 

 

 

'What is the greatest challenge you have faced and how did you overcome this?'

 

'In TV we are pretty luck to be doing a TV show where it’s every night at seven o’clock. But we’ve had a couple time changes over the years where they haven’t really decided if they are going to continue with the Crowd Goes Wild. Those have been some big challenges trying to convince the people who give us the money to make the show that it’s worth while and the people who watch the show caught wind of it and didn’t like the fact that they might loose the Crowd Goes Wild. So a lot of people got together and made it known that the Crowd Goes Wild is popular and that it was always watched by people even though the range might not suggest it, but it was a popular show. I think that was one thing that we overcame was people not believing it in who made the big financial decisions.'

 

 

 

'In your own words, what is the key to success?'

 

'I think the key to success is probably trying to be as good a person at your job as you can be and not taking anything for granted. Because if you start reading too much about yourself, especially in media, if you start believing in the hype then I think you can loose sight of what you are trying to achieve if you’re a good grounded person and you make sure that you do a lot of hard work, then that will translate into your job, then I’ll think that  if you stay grounded and work hard  and be true to yourself  I believe that’s probably the main thing  when you’re in media.'