‘Ikonic’ rural broadcaster hangs up mike

It ended a near 30 year career in that role, on top of 10 years in daily newspaper journalism.

Kevin Ikin was the consummate journalist and broadcaster and a personal friend and colleague. I claim some credit for his career in that I hired him when I was editor of Radio New Zealand ‘Rurals’ in early 1986. When he phoned me from Dunedin asking for a job I didn’t do the formal interview stuff – just made a few calls to colleagues who told me I’d be nuts not to hire him. So I rang him back and the deal was done in a matter of hours.

Although I left Rurals 18 months later to work on the ‘dark side’ -- public relations – we have remained great mates and Kevin has never faltered in his commitment to rural NZ. Think of any event in the primary sector in the past 30 years and he has been the person who has brought it to the nation -- into the cowsheds and over lunch tables – on Radio NZ ‘National’.

He has reported on the transformational changes in the sector at home and in markets abroad. Ikin has covered major floods, droughts and biosecurity incursions, not to mention the intriguing politics of farmer and industry organisation.

All the while, the staff at Rurals has slowly been cut back from the heady days of the 1980’s (19 rural journalists) to a mere two of today – himself and an assistant. Speaking of assistants, in the course of his career Ikin has trained many new and young people in rural journalism and all speak highly of him. 

Ikin was not a person to seek the limelight and his quiet manner often disguised his ability to ask probing and hard questions and to get great stories. He was firm and unyielding in seeking answers, but never aggressive or abusive, and he valued facts and truth.

There is another side of Kevin Ikin: he’s an amazingly talented musician with a passion for folk and especially Celtic music. 

Tributes have come from high places in the primary sector -- ministers, officials and captains of industry, all of whom hold Ikin in the highest regard. 

His farewell from Radio NZ saw some of his mates from the 1980’s there to see him sign off in style and this he did. Few people realise Kevin wrote and recorded the theme for the Saturday morning rural programme ‘Country Saturday’ (now ‘Country Life’).  His last act at his farewell was to play this theme for an appreciative audience.

There have been many great rural broadcasters – Barnes, Torley and Follas immediately come to mind. They were great broadcasters and nice people to boot. Kevin Ikin should rightly be placed alongside these greats.