But at Dunedin’s Radius Fulton Home, an entertaining radio show produced by some of its residents still rules the airwaves and continues to make celebrities of the announcers within the facility.
The fortnightly Radius Fulton Residents’ Show provides an hour of ageless music and topical talk which aims to bring "a little sunshine" into the lives of the "elderly gang" at the home.
And today, the rest-home is celebrating the show’s 20th anniversary with cream cakes and drinks, while listening to the latest episode.
Resident announcers Jimmy Sprague, 92, and Kelvin Rooke, 80, said today’s show would contain segments of shows by previous announcers from the past 20 years.
One alumnus was the late Lloyd Martin, who in 2019 was recognised as being New Zealand’s oldest radio presenter at 99 years old.
Mr Sprague said Mr Martin’s broadcasting career started during World War 2 when he was a pilot radio operator, based in Pearl Harbour.
"He was a great contributor to the programme.
Mr Rooke said he had dreamt about being a radio announcer all his life — a wish that became more finely tuned when he went blind in the 1970s.
Now that he gets to produce and present the radio show every fortnight, he could not be happier.
He said the show was something all the residents looked forward to, and for those who got to be part of the programme, it had given them a new lease on life.
Mr Sprague said the great thing about being on radio was that he sounded like he was still a "spring chicken in his 60s".
"When you come to a home like this, you think you’ve seen and done everything, but it opens up a whole new world if you’ve got interests like this.
"And the great thing is, you get to share those interests with the rest of the residents."
The show will be broadcast on Otago Access Radio (105.4FM) this afternoon.
