Murray "Muzza" Inglis

ROCKHAPPENZ Public Collection

Murray "Muzza" Inglis - inspirational and revolutionary announcer/DJ in the heyday of Radio Avon in Christchurch

Born in New Plymouth on May 12th, 1943 Murray "Muzza" Inglis grew into one of the country's best-known radio personalities in a career that spanned five decades.  He died on May 14th, 2023 at age 80, after a myeloma diagnosis in 2018 and subsequently, a long battle with the cancer. He joined the state-owned New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation then known as the NZBC as a clerk in 1962 auditioning to go on air, but those auditioning saw announcers as needing to match the posh-voiced BBC model, saying Murray's accent was too nasal and Kiwi, and he was thus rejected - so he headed to Sydney where he began a career that spanned commercial stations throughout Australia.  In recent years, he broadcast on a small Devonport-based station called the Flea, and then from 2028, he ran his own classic hits internet station from his lounge.

Muzza's heyday in New Zealand was in the era of the big independently owned commercial radio stations, such as Radio Avon in Christchurch, Radio Hauraki and Radio I, the FM pioneers 89FM and 91FM in Auckland and Radio Windy in Wellington.  In 1977, he won a United States award from Billboard Magazine as the South Pacific Personality of the Year. As long as the list of radio stations he worked on was, the list of music industry stars he met and spent time with during his radio career was equally as long. In 2016 Muzza was recognised at the New Zealand Radio Awards for Services to Broadcasting.