Barry Jenkin

aka Doctor Rock


“Good evening, citizens.” Those words resonate with a generation of NZ music lovers and will be forever associated with Barry Jenkin (widely regarded as NZ’s John Peel, champion of all music considered left-field), the broadcaster who was once one of the most influential people in the NZ music industry.

There was time in the 1960s, after the NZBC opened the airwaves to “pop music”, when radio announcers (the NZBC frowned on the job description “disc jockeys”) gained regional and sometimes nationwide fame – Des Britten, Justin Du Fresne, Keith Richardson and Pete Sinclair to name a few – and they can rightly claim to have broken many recordings acts, both international and local. In the 1970s formatted radio crept in and then dominated the airwaves. Radio announcers no longer played their own music but were at the mercy of programme directors, regardless of their personal tastes. And then along came Barry Jenkin …

Bob Gentil and Barry Jenkin
Photo credit: Picture by Peter Fyers
Barry Jenkin in 1980
Barry Jenkin
Photo credit: Larry Killip
Barry Jenkin in the late 70s. 
John Doe, John Sweetman and Barry Jenkin at Dave McArtney's funeral, 2013
Photo credit: Peter Fyers
Barry Jenkin in the late 70s.
Barry Jenkin
Photo credit: Larry Killip
Barry Jenkin, 1978
Barry Jenkin
Photo credit: Picture by Peter Fyers
Barry Jenkin with Karyn Hay on Radio With Pictures (17 June 1984)
Barry Jenkin had a lifelong love of flying. He wrote on Facebook about his escapades in this plane during the pirate days of Radio Hauraki: “I wasn’t there then except for picking up tapes from Anzac Ave, motorcycle to Ardmore, fly ’em to Claris, give ’em to Ngaire Gibbs who gave ’em to Bill who took ’em out on his Marauder. This while working for RNZ. Lucky no one found out at the time.”
Photo credit: Barry Jenkin Collection
Barry Jenkin interviewed by Brent Eccles, 2020

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