Kiwi radio legend Murray 'Muzza' Inglis, known for his colourful on-air personality, has died after battling myeloma. He was 80.
Born in New Plymouth, Inglis had been in the radio industry since the early 1960s.
In 1962 he worked at the state-owned New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation where he was given an on-air trial but was sacked because he sounded "too Kiwi".
Moving across the ditch to Australia, Inglis worked at dozens of radio stations, building a name for himself and his entertaining style.
He returned to New Zealand in 1969, where over the course of 10 years, he worked at Radio Avon in Christchurch, Radio Hauraki and Radio I, the FM pioneers 89FM and 91FM in Auckland and Radio Windy in Wellington, all during the country's boom of independent radio.
His most famous on-air antic was when he locked himself in the Radio Avon studio broadcasting live for two days, protesting changes to his contract.
It later came out that this was a publicity stunt to get an edge over the relaunch of a competitor.
In 1977, Inglis won a US award for South Pacific Personality of the Year which was given to him by Billboard Magazine.
In 2016, he was recognised at the New Zealand Radio Awards for Services to Broadcasting.
His later career included a show on Devonport-based station The Flea before switching to his own online station, where he broadcasted from his lounge.
He was diagnosed with blood cancer in 2021, which ended his radio career.
He passed away shortly after his 80th birthday.
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