Barry Soper and Heather du Plessis-Allan — standing their ground in dark days. PHOTO: ODT FILES Listening in to everybody’s favourite broadcasters. HEATHER DU PLESSIS-ALLAN Oh. My. God. Have you heard about what BSA has said? BARRY SOPER No, but did I ever tell you about the time I was drinking a few wines with Winston in a motel in Hastings in 1981? Or was it 1991. It may have been sometime in between. Dear old Winston. What a character. HEATHER Yes, dear, you have told me that story, many times, but I’m talking about something which just happened this second. The Broadcasting Standards Authority has upheld a discrimination and denigration complaint about comments we made on my show. BARRY But I’ve just been knighted. HEATHER Named an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit, but same thing. So the BSA has upheld the complaint, and found that we mocked former Green Party MP Benjamin Doyle, saying that we went far beyond legitimate political critique during the September 5, 2025 broadcast, using language that was ‘‘insensitive, disrespectful, and dehumanising’’. BARRY Well what other language is there for God’s sake. HEATHER I know, right? Why would you listen to Newstalk ZB otherwise? BARRY So Winston said, ‘‘Let’s demolish this bottle, and start on another. What do you think, Baz?’’ And I said, ‘‘That sounds like a plan to me.’’ [Laughter] Even then he was making coalitions. HEATHER They’ve taken offence to us calling Doyle ‘‘Bussy’’. But I often refer to politicians by various nicknames, e.g. ‘‘Chippy’’ for Chris Hipkins, and ‘‘Bish’’ for Chris Bishop. Same thing. BARRY Or ‘‘old mate’’ for Christopher Luxon. HEATHER Exactly the same thing. BARRY Doyle was not a great contribution to politics, I must say. The only thing they’ve done is being the first non-binary person that’s entered the corridors of power in Parliament and that’s about it because if you look at anything else, there’s nothing. Nothing. Not like Winston. Did I ever tell you about the time I was drinking a few wines with Winston in a motel in Mosgiel in 1987? Or was it 1997. HEATHER NZME has argued the finding. BARRY Love NZME. HEATHER The BSA has ordered NZME to broadcast a statement censuring my show. BARRY I thought the BSA had been scrapped. HEATHER The BSA has been scrapped, but they’re making a few farewell decisions before they get shown the door. BARRY Can’t come soon enough. Bye-bye BSA. Doyle is gone. Woke is dead. Thank goodness we’ve passed that era and let’s hope nothing more comes of it. HEATHER They were very dark days. BARRY We stood our ground. HEATHER We stood firm against the forces of darkness. BARRY We saw Ardern off the premises. HEATHER We held on and maintained a straight-down-the-middle approach in favour of the Right. BARRY So Winston said, ‘‘I can match you glass for glass.’’ And I said, ‘‘You’re on, mate.’’ And do you know what he did? [Laughter] Dear old Winston. What a character. I mean, say what you like about him, but he’s always been good fun. So there we were, in a motel room in Westport, or was it the East Cape? Anyway, you’ll never guess what he did next. HEATHER What? BARRY I honestly can’t remember.
