Radio star Steve Broad ‘MUM IS MY INSPIRATION'

The More FM presenter reveals the tragedy that motivates him and opens up about his reality TV days

- ANNEMARIE QUILL

Each morning on his way to work, More FM Southland breakfast host Steve Broad takes a moment to talk to his mum. Often on his way home, he stops to tell her about his day.

“She’s always been my greatest supporter – always there on the sidelines cheering me on,” he shares. “That’s what breaks my heart. I’m gutted she can’t listen in each day.”

These chats are held at his mother’s graveside. The cemetery is on the road to the radio studio. Steve’s mother was his biggest fan when he chased fame as a performer on New Zealand Idol and The X Factor NZ, but she never got to celebrate with him when he scored his latest gig, co-hosting the morning show in Southland, where he grew up on his parents’ sheep farm.

Weeping openly as he talks to Woman’s Day about the tragedy of losing “my person, my biggest cheerleader and my hero”, Steve reveals his beloved mum Anne died last August of motor neurone disease (MND), just a few months after being diagnosed.

“From when I was young, she always used to say to me, ‘Steve, use your voice.’ It’s a privilege to do that now on the show in our own community. I know she’d be proud,” he says.

Steve recalls the “shock that hit me like a ton of bricks” when his father told him the bad news over the phone last March. Steve was then in Canterbury as MediaWorks radio’s operations manager.