Well Done Sir Paul Holmes

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Paul Holmes and I share at least three things in common. We've both had open-heart surgery. We've both heard those terrible words "you have prostate cancer". And we've both been broadcasters and communicators. There the similarities end and the differences begin.

Paul Holmes created for himself a broadcasting and communicating legend the likes of which this country had never seen and which, because of changes in media technology, we'll never see again.

Paul Holmes and I arrived in Auckland at around the same time – he to 1ZB, which was pulling itself up by its shoelaces after the monumental shift from a traditionally inoffensive music radio format to news/talk, me to Radio Pacific which was well practiced in the art of talk at least.

Paul was brought to host the 1ZB breakfast show, I was a spare part, rattling round the halls of Radio Pacific mostly twiddling my thumbs.

Because the format shift was such big news in Auckland and so many people were amazed at the sudden axing of parts of the furniture like Merv Smith, some charity decided to organise a fund-raising debate in the Auckland Town Hall – Talk Radio versus Music Radio.

I forget who was on the music radio team, but on talk radio was myself, Jennie Anderson – and Paul Holmes.

Between the invitation to the debate and the event itself, I was suddenly given a permanent show on Radio Pacific – hosting the breakfast show!

I was confident enough. I had been a reasonably big fish in the small pond of Dunedin, a middle-sized fish at Radio Avon in Christchurch and I really thought that Auckland would be easy enough. But, come the debate and I was taught a lesson I never forgot.

Paul was supposed to be on the same side as Ms Anderson and me, but in reality he was on the Paul Holmes Team. I witnessed a sublime performance of self-promotion – and I mean no offence in saying that.

Paul charmed that audience. It was a golden opportunity for us all really – the place was chocka with Auckland society. But only Paul seized that opportunity.

I watched someone in action that night who was much, much more than me. I was a journalist with a turn of phrase – he was an entertainer who was totally secure in his own abilities. He literally threw himself off the edge of a cliff, secure in his own ability to fly – and fly he did.

I watched and I knew that I could never ever do that. I was well aware that Paul Holmes did not suffer from the national disease of "choking" come the big test.

I think talk radio lost the debate that night, not that it mattered a bit, but I thought we might have won had Paul been a Team Member. But how could he be a Team Member alongside two of his competitors?

He asked the audience to admire his sleek new, expensive suit bought for the occasion, he strutted, preened and made light-hearted fun of both Ms Anderson and myself. We were his competitors that night as much as the music radio team and he put on a sublime, cheeky and quirky one-man show.

Shortly after that night the radio industry went into survey, Radio Pacific defeated 1ZB and my boss Derek Lowe, graciously, credited my performance on the breakfast show with that. But I knew that that was going to be a brief victory. Paul Holmes on 1ZB Breakfast was soon joined by "Holmes" at 7:00pm on TV One and all I could do was sit and watch at the Paul Holmes career took flight.

The calculated and manipulated slaughter of Dennis Connor was the turning-point.

I met Paul a couple of times after that, when I was a guest on "Holmes" and it was always a pleasant enough experience.

The last time I saw him was when after he had made his ill-advised shift to Prime and a show that went nowhere. I got a call from Paul himself, not a producer, asking if I was interested in discussing some motoring issue on his show.

I was going to Venice that night, so my segment was pre-recorded. I thought I saw a man whose career had fallen to pieces and who wasn't coping at all well. I saw a man who was red-faced, perspiring profusely and couldn't really string ten words together without stumbling. The takes and edits were numerous, but eventually it was in the can.

Instead of seeing a man losing it, I had just seen a man giving his all. This was in his prostate cancer phase and he was undergoing radiotherapy. For most people, the side effects would have seen them taking the rest of the day off – but not for Paul Holmes. The show must go on.

And that's the way it's been in the past few months before his announced retirement. Despite obviously feeling unwell, he continued to appear on TV one's "Q+A".

The man is a legend, a superb broadcaster, a master communicator, a workaholic – and definitely never a choker.

Congratulations Sir Paul.