From builder to broadcaster
Peter Wolfkamp is excited to broadcast the true message of Easter on Newstalk ZB this Good Friday. •
Peter Wolfkamp’s happy place is the workshop, but these days he spends much more time talking about building than he does with toolbelt on and hammer in hand.
And it was CBA who had an important hand in Peter’s early broadcasting career in the late 1980s, when looking to develop some talented young Christians and Newstalk ZB was looking for overnight announcers.
“I knew [broadcaster and CBA alumnus] Michael Hooper through church. He came to me when I first started building and said, ‘We’re doing this radio stuff, would you like to have a go?’
“In your early 20s you have no fear and no sense of boundaries, so I just went, ‘Yeah I’ll have a crack, sounds like great fun!’ So I did that while I did building. When you’re that age, you can work all the hours that God sends!” he laughs.
“For all these years, I’ve maintained that relationship with CBA and with Newstalk ZB.”
As well as his recurring stint as the site foreman on home renovation show The Block NZ, Peter is an accomplished public speaker and hosts his own show on Newstalk ZB, The Resident Builder, every Sunday morning.
His 35 years in radio has given Peter an enormous sense of satisfaction.
“It’s not necessarily where I thought I might have ended up when I started building,” he reflects.
“But radio is a fascinating medium. It’s unfiltered and incredibly direct, and has that ability to connect with people in all sorts of different ways and places.”
We’re excited to have Peter in our line-up for this year’s 14 hours of Easter programming on Newstalk ZB. He’s one of nine announcers who will be on New Zealand’s most-listened-to commercial radio station across Good Friday and Easter Sunday, sharing the heart of the Christian faith with hundreds of thousands of listeners.
Peter says he’s blown away by how the Easter show communicates key Gospel messages in a way that connects with an audience that isn’t familiar with the story of Jesus’ death and resurrection.
“Easter is at the centre of our faith, so it’s a privilege that Newstalk ZB is trusting us to make these programmes. I really respect the team for the quality and effort put into the production – that really helps the message to come across well.”
One of Peter’s favourite things about CBA’s Easter programme is that it celebrates the Christians who are serving their own communities in “phenomenal and unheralded” ways, because it “encourages others to join and partake as well”.
He credits the generosity of CBA’s backers with enabling these enriching conversations about the true meaning of Easter to take place on such a massive secular platform.
“You can do good things when you’re supported by good people, and that’s exactly the situation for CBA. Any of us involved in donating, we often wonder, does it make a difference?
“To those of you who support CBA, know that it does – you’re supporting really great work.” •