Radio Karamea 107.5 FM “DJ’s Hall of Fame!”
The Queen of England and the British Commonwealth Her Royal Highness Queen Elizabeth II is pleased today to announce from Buckingham Palace the granting of an exclusive warrant to the Republic of Rongolia, Karamea, New Zealand the right to establish a Hall of Fame for Disc Jockey’s!
Rongolia El Presidente for Life, El Senor Palo Murrio has welcomed this news with the announcement today from Rongo that the “DJ’s Hall of Fame” will be housed exclusively in the VIP Lounge of the Radio Karamea 107.5 FM radio station complex!
Jazzy Jasmin Jangles: Karamea Radio Mascot
Nominees for 2014 induction into the “DJ’s Hall of Fame” include :
Radio Karamea 107.5 FM “International Requests Show” DJ – DJ Crap!
DJ Crap
Radio Karamea 107.5 FM “Soul and Gospel Show” DJ – DJ Echo!
DJ Echo
Radio Karamea 107.5 FM “Comedy Show DJ” – The Big Man!
The Big Man
Radio Karamea 107.5 FM: DJ Pukeko’s “An Evening with DJ Pukeko” Most Outrageous Song Dedicated to a Mother
Radio Karamea 107.5 FM “Bigga than Bateman Show DJ” – Bigga!
Bigga
Radio Karamea 107.5 FM DJ’s Hall of Fame 2014 Nominees – Profiles!
DJ CRAP – Paul John Murray: Custodian of Karamea Radio 107.5 FM and owner of Rongo Backpackers & Gallery (home of Karamea Radio)
DJ Crap
Biography – Of Australian extraction, DJ Crap came to New Zealand in 2003 to shake up the Kiwis and bring some West Island culture to the people of Aotearoa. He is responsible for looking after Karamea Radio for the Karamea community and has spent an unreasonable amount of his life in the DJ booth on his eternal quest to become DJ Competent.
Favourite singer – Tom Waits, Ray Charles, Jim Jones, Bob Log III and Shirley Bassey
Favourite band – The Jim Jones Revue
The Jim Jones Revue
The Jim Jones Revue
Favourite One-Man Band: Bob Log III
Bob Log III Live in Melbourne, Austrralia
Favourite song –
Best show – All DJ Crap shows are CRAP!! (But the International Request Show is the all-time most popular show on Karamea Radio…The DJ may be crap, but the fans LOVE him!)
https://soundcloud.com/rongobackpackers/dj-crap-echo-international-requests-showyoure-welcome
Most memorable on air event – Having a punch up in the studio with a disgruntled Eric Clapton fan who thought Clapton was GOD.
Favourite tipple – Japanese Holy Water
Best quote – “Dr John is the Eric Clapton of piano.”
THE BIG MAN – Brian Thomson or “The Big Man” to West Coasters!
Biography – Ex Aucklander who found a land of promise, opportunities and experiences abound. Helped the radio station into a new era and explored the music of the globe.
Favourite singer – B B King
B.B.King
Favourite band – The Flaming Mudcats
Favourite song – Itchin’ and Scratchin’
Best show – Musical Friends with DJ Crap
https://soundcloud.com/rongobackpackers/karamea-radio-107-5-fm-dj-4
https://soundcloud.com/rongobackpackers/dj-crap-the-big-man-musical
https://soundcloud.com/rongobackpackers/dj-crap-the-big-man-show-4
Most memorable on air event – The ousting of Dr Y Max – Mondayitis
Favourite tipple – Japanese Sake
Best quote – “Here’s a song for all the curtain twitches out there in radio land, “The Gossip Calypso.””
DJ ECHO – Tim Hawley, former owner of Echo Records in Dunedin!
DJ Echo
Biography – Spent over 40 years wandering the South Island and the globe before seeing the light and moving to Karamea in 2009. Hasn’t looked back since.
Favourite singer – Changes daily but Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan has been a favourite for 20 years plus. Latterly listening to a lot of Nigerian 70s singers- William Onyeabor is pretty special.
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan
Favourite band – Also changes daily/weekly but King Crimson (1970s version) has been a major part of my listening life since 1983!
King Crimson
Favourite Canadian artist called Neil – Neil Young, no question at all!
Favourite Neil Young album – On the Beach
Favourite album of all time – Blood on the Tracks, Bob Dylan
Favourite song – “Point That Thing Somewhere Else” by The Clean
Best show – Songs about Jesus (w/ DJ Crap, November 2013), Neil Young’s birthday show 2012, Labour Weekend show 2013 and many others
https://soundcloud.com/rongobackpackers/dj-echo-dj-crap-special-songs-about-jesus-nov-27-2013
https://soundcloud.com/rongobackpackers/dj-echo-neil-youngs-birthday
https://soundcloud.com/rongobackpackers/dj-echo-labour-weekend
Most memorable on air event – Anything I can remember isn’t worth remembering!
Favourite tipple – Homemade boysenberry wine (for a cogent show) or single malt Scotch whiskey if you’re after something a bit more loose!
Best quote – “Is the microphone on?” or “oh crap, the microphone was on all the time.”
DJ Marcellus Nealy – Records his Nuphoria Radio Show in Japan exclusively for Karamea Radio 107.5 FM and sends it to us via the InterWeb
Biography – Born in Cleveland Ohio in the USA, Marcellus is a Poet, Singer, Photographer and Language professor while that may seem like a heap of things Marcellus tells they all point to the same thing which is self expression, a pursuit to which he has dedicated his life. His intense poetry style and spoken word performance has been called likened to possession by crafty sprits. He has also performed with many talented musicians around the world in front of tens of thousands of people as a singer and rapper. He currently works with various institutions around Tokyo as a communications and education consultant.
Favourite singer – There are too many to name. It depends on my mood.
Favourite band – Same with the singer it depends on my mood
Favourite song – Man these questions are hard
Best show – The one where I did all jazz funk tunes. That is the kind of groove that really revs my engine.
https://soundcloud.com/rongobackpackers/nuphoria33
Most memorable on air event – When I realised I had done several stories in a row about people’s “junk.” (Which was an expression for penis unknown to Karamea people and is now a staple word for the appendage among Karamea Radio listeners).
Favourite tipple -good quality dark Rum
Best quote – “And now here’s another good trick that I know” The Cat in The Hat
Bigga aka Dave Bateman – “The Bigga than Bateman Show!”
Biography – Karamea celebrity and known throughout the South Island as “incorrigible,” “recalcitrant” and “refractory” David John “Bigga” Bateman has endeared himself to the people of Karamea through his highly controversial and somewhat acerbic wireless theatre that is the “Bigga than Bateman” Show. His undiplomatic, straight-shooting tell-all on-air style has won many fans and has upset more people than any other Karamea Radio DJ…quite and achievement that!
Favourite singer – Yusuf Islam
Favourite band – David Bowie
Favourite song – “Young Americans” by David Bowie
Best show – Karamea Radio 107.5 FM: Rick Lucas Interviews Dave Bateman
https://soundcloud.com/rongobackpackers/karamea-radio-107-5-fm-rick-1
Most memorable on air event – Panda’s live performance on the Bigga Show
Mataolin “Panda” Coffey
Favourite tipple – Ranfurly Draught Giant 440 and plenty of it!
Best quote – “The only good American is a dead American.”
“Don’t piss in my pocket and tell me it’s raining!”
“It’s got that look about it”
“I’m starting to wonder…”
DJ Pukeko – Lewis Jackson aka Sheik El Shamshoun IV
Biography – Born and raised in suburban Dunedin, Louis J. wandered the planet aimlessly for many years until he discovered Rongo in Karamea! Unleashed as DJ Pukeko on Radio Karamea 107.5 FM on an unsuspecting West Coast radio audience, he did his best to rustle many feathers! Now in retirement, pathetically sitting in an old cane wheel chair in an old folks home in Waikikamaukau, talking to the garden gnomes, dreaming of yesterdays but quietly planning his escape to the corner dairy!
Favourite singer – Mungo Jerry (In the Summertime)
Favourite band – The Monkees (I’m a Believer)
Favourite song – Great Southern Land by Ice House
Best show – Sunday night – Radio Karamea 107.5 FM – Poetry Alive with Superwomen Kristin and Katie – 1st reading of the Massey Ferguson Tractor Manual crank case instructions on page 27!
Most memorable on air event – Sunday night -Radio Karamea 107.5 FM Poetry Alive – Live reading of “Macbeth” Act IV Scene I “Double, double, toil and trouble, fire burn and cauldron bubble…” with my amazing friend I met at Rongo, Kaylee Danger Surprise et al!
Favourite tipple –Johnathon Walker Black Label, on the rocks, stirred with a twist of licorice!!
Best quote – “Am I allowed to say that on air? Arf arf!”
DJ No Name: A recent arrival in Karamea after leaving Auckland with refugee status arrived in the new country with great hope for the future and enthusiastically embraced life in Rongolia by assisting DJ BiGMan with his show…yet to perform solo on 107.5 FM, but has quickly learnt the radio ropes and will likely soon have his own show and his own DJ name!
DJ No Name and Friend
Biography: l have arrived in Karamea as an old friend, an work mate of Big Man
during our time in stress city Auckland….for the purpose of assuming a joint alter ego, The Undynamic Duo……so as to bring laughter and zanyness to Rongo and Karamea.
Favourite Singer: Anyone who champions the individual,whoose lyrics weren,t written by a machine…..with real love in their heart..!
Favourite Band: Ditto above…..but doing it together….,
Favourite Song: Too many to list…but lets say lyrics written with passion
and love, saying it like it is, that don’t provoke an instant urge to throw up!
Best Show: Anything by freedom loving flower bedecked,transcendental
hippy permercultural radio show hosts…..on Karamea Radio 107.5 fm….er
sorry but does that count as a shameless promotion!
Most Memorable Event on Air: Well this would clearly be the first radio show when together with Bigman we assumed our joint alter ego..The Undynamic Duo!
Favourite Tipple: Ice cold Apple juice…..with a cold dark malt ale or beer coming a close second!
Best Quote: If you at first don’t succeed….try, try,try again!
Paraphrased perfectly by Albert Einstein,when he said….It must be a form of insanity to repeat the same thing and yet expect a different result! Lol
The world according to No Name (Garp)
Radio Karamea 107.5 FM radio shack has witnessed the evolution of posse DJ’s unparalleled on this planet!
Controversial? – Never!
Popular – Bloody Oath!
The 2014 Wolf Man Jack Award is awarded collectively to DJ Crap and DJ Echo for the “Songs About Jesus Show 2014”!
https://soundcloud.com/rongobackpackers/djs-echocrap-jesus-show-october-18-2014
The 2014 Monty Python Award is awarded to The Big Man for “The Comedy Show!”
The Big Man…a VERY funny fella!
The 2014 Roger Redneck Award is awarded to Dave “ Bigga” Bateman for the “Bigga than Bateman Show!”
The 2014 Most Outrageous Song Dedicated to a Mother Award goes to DJ Pukeko for Joan Jett’s “I Love Rock’n’Roll” for his dear old Mum in Auckland on his “A Cultured Evening with DJ Pukeko” Show.
https://soundcloud.com/rongobackpackers/karamea-radio-107-5-fm-bigga-1
Dave “Bigga” Bateman
“Who’s this on the Wolfman telephone?”
Wolfman Jack
The Rongolian Star 
Israeli Traveller Conquers Heaphy Track in Wheelchair
Left to Right Nadav Amit, Arnon Amit, Gul Janovsky and Maayan Kalo at Rongo Backpackers & Gallery in Karamea, New Zealand on January 3, 2015. (Photo by Paul Murray)
Off the Top of My Head
By Paul Murray
Arnon Amit from Israel arrived in Karamea at the top of the West Coast of the South Island of New Zealand on January 2, 2015, after successfully negotiating the Heaphy Track in a wheelchair.
The Heaphy Track is one of New Zealand’s nine “Great Walks” and the only one on which mountain biking is permitted (from May 1 to September 30). The track is approximately 80 kilometers long and traverses the Kahurangi National Park at the top of the South Island. Most people walk, ride or now roll, the Heaphy Track from Collingwood in Golden Bay through to Karamea on the West Coast.
With a lot of determination and effort and the help of his brother Nadav and friends Maayan Kalo and Gul Janvosky, Arnon bounced over some rough terrain, through a flood and tacked swarms of sandflies to complete the track in five days to become what is thought to be the first person to complete the track in a chair.
Near the end of the Heaphy Arnon looks back on the Kohaihai River bridge. (Photo by Nadav Amit)
Arnon was injured in a car accident while doing his national service in the Israeli Army in 2008 and lost the use of his legs. He was an enthusiastic outdoors person before the accident and has managed to overcome his physical challenges and maintain his love of tramping and nature with a little help from his friends.
The Three Musketeers: Maayan Kalo (Left) Arnon and Nadav Amit. (Photo by Gul Janovsky)
A special off-road wheelchair manufactured in the United States and made of strong, lightweight titanium metal was Arnon’s Heaphy vehicle. The chair handled the track well, but the rigorous terrain took its toll on the machine and minor repairs were required en route to keep the show rolling.
(Photo by Gul Janovsky)
Recent work by the Department of Conservation (DOC) to improve the track surface and the width and stability of the swing bridges and other river crossings has made the Heaphy Track more easily negotiated by wheeled vehicles like chairs and of course mountain bikes. This may open the possibility of experiencing the wilds of the Kahurangi National Park and the pleasures of traversing the Heaphy Track to a whole range of people, like Arnon, who had previously not been able to tackle the track.
Arnon was able to propel himself over the new wider swing bridges on the Heaphy. (Photo by Nadav Amit)
The most challenging section for the man in the chair was the first uphill section of from the Collingwood end of the Heaphy from Brown Hut to Perry Saddle Hut. The track winds steeply uphill through beech forest and tree roots growing through the track make it rough and uneven, not necessarily the best surface for wheelchairs. However, with brother Nadav and friends Maayan and Gul pushing, Arnon made it to the Perry Hut, which is around the highest point of the track at 1,000 metres, in good shape.
River crossings and sandy beaches also posed challenges that required assistance from the support crew. Nadav piggy-backed his brother across the narrow swing bridges and pulled him along the sand while Maayan pushed from behind.
Push-me-Pull-you: The team negotiate a sandy West Coast beach. (Photo by Gul Janovsky)
Arnon enjoys the view of the Tasman Sea while his buddies help him over a sandy stretch. (Photo by Gul Janovsky)
Nadav piggy-backed his brother Arnon over the older narrow swing bridges. (Photo by Gul Janovsky)
Photo by Gul Janovsky)
The weather turned somewhat inclement on the last day of 2014 and many sections of the track became flooded preventing the group from proceeding and creating a bottleneck at the MacKay Hut in the middle of the Heaphy. Fifty people, including Team Israel, were squeezed into a new hut built for 26. Fortunately, the old James MacKay Hut has yet to be demolished and, with DOCs permission, Nadav broke into the hut and everyone managed to get a bed.
The next day was much improved and Arnon was in his element on the downhill section from MacKay to Lewis Hut. The steep slope afforded him some gravity assisted speed and he apparently even got some air as he bounced the chair over some rocks on the way down.
Possibly the first person in a wheelchair ever to see the Heaphy River, Arnon enjoys the view at the end of a day on the track. (Photo by Nadav Amit)
Brothers Nadav (left) and Arnon Amit on Karamea Radio 107.5 FM (Photo by Paul Murray)
Hear the Interview Here: https://soundcloud.com/rongobackpackers/interview-with-arnon-amit-1st-wheel-chair-conqueror-of-heaphy-track-january-3-2015
The four travellers are now heading south down the wonderful West Coast and plan on exploring some of the many attractions and tracks along the way and then on to Queenstown and Fiordland, if you see them say hello, they’re a great bunch of fine young folk.
For more information on the Heaphy Track: www.HeaphyTrack.com
Rongo Backpackers & Gallery: www.RongoBackpackers.com
LivingInPeace Project: www.LivingInPeace.com
Karamea Radio 107.5 FM: www.facebook.com/KarameaRadio107.5FM
…Some more photos…
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