Lindsay Yeo
{{Short description|New Zealand broadcaster (1946–2024)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2024}}
{{Use New Zealand English|date=November 2024}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Lindsay Yeo
| image =
| alt =
| caption =
| birth_name = Lindsay Gilbert Yeo
| birth_date = {{Birth year|1946}}
| birth_place = Southland, New Zealand
| death_date = {{Death date and given age|2024|11|12|78|df=y}}
| death_place = Richmond, Tasman, New Zealand
| education =
| occupation = Radio personality
| years_active = 1964–1998
| era =
| employer =
| known_for = {{Hlist|Host of 2ZB breakfast show (1972–1995)|creation of "Buzz O'Bumble"}}
| notable_works =
| style =
| height =
| spouse = {{Marriage|Janice Marian Franklin|1969}}
| children = 4
| relatives =
| awards = Local air personality of the year (metropolitan) (1982)
}}
Lindsay Gilbert Yeo (1946 – 12 November 2024) was a New Zealand radio broadcaster. He was best known for hosting the 2ZB breakfast show in Wellington between 1972 and 1995, and for his creation of the children's character "Buzz O'Bumble".
Biography
The second son of Arthur Leonard Yeo and Mary Yeo (née Coveney),{{Cite news |date=26 October 1968 |title=Engagements announced |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19681026.2.26 |access-date=7 November 2024 |work=Press |page=3 |via=Papers Past}}{{cite web |url=https://yeoonline.net/john-yeo-and-alice-jane-bull/ |title=John Yeo and Alice Jane Bull |access-date=7 November 2024}} Yeo was born in 1946{{Cite web |title=Yeo, Lindsay, 1946– |url=https://tiaki.natlib.govt.nz/ |access-date=2024-11-04 |website=tiaki.natlib.govt.nz}} in Southland where he grew up.{{Cite journal |last=Bourke |first=Chris |date=3 March 1984 |title=Spirit generated by flood |journal=NZ Listener |volume=106 |issue=2299 |page=18}} As a teenager he played in a band called the Teen Beat Five. His career in radio began in 1964 when he was a copywriter with the 4ZA radio station in Invercargill.{{Cite news |last=Hawkins |first=Barry |date=2 April 1997 |title=Gentle yeo faces bully of hard-nosed news |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/314456735 |work=Evening Post |page=7 |id={{ProQuest|314456735}} }} He was trained by broadcaster and educator Haydn Sherley.{{Cite news |last=Blundell |first=Kay |date=21 June 2007 |title=Mellow tones jazzed up our airwaves |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/338284468 |work=Dominion Post |page=B7 |id={{ProQuest|338284468}} }} Yeo went on to host the breakfast show on 2ZN, the New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation's (NZBC) commercial radio station in Nelson, until moving to NZBC head office in Wellington in 1971.{{cite news |url=https://photonews.org.nz/nelson/issue/NPN127_19710529/t1-body-d16.html |title=Popular pair push on |date=29 May 1971 |work=Nelson Photo News |issue=127 |page=19 |access-date=6 November 2024}}
Yeo presented the breakfast show on 2ZB in Wellington for 23 years from 1972 to 1995. It was consistently the number one rated Wellington breakfast radio programme until the late 1980s.{{Citation needed|date=November 2024}} In 1973, Yeo created the children's character "Buzz O'Bumble".{{Cite news |last=Dekker |first=Diana |date=23 May 1998 |title=Out, but not down |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/314582737 |work=Evening Post |page=9 |id={{ProQuest|314582737}} }}Kerryn Pollock. '[http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/childhood/2/3 Childhood - Buzz O'Bumble]', Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand. Updated 22 March 2011. Retrieved 9 April 2011. "Buzz" appeared every day on the radio show, with his other friends "Belinda" the bee and "Wally Weta".{{Citation needed|date=November 2024}} In the summer of 1974 "Buzz" married "Belinda" on the steps of Broadcasting House with programme producer Gerard Duignan dressed as Buzz and Jan McGregor, receptionist, as Belinda Bee.{{Cite book |title=Broadcasting House, 1963–1997: if these walls could talk |date=1997 |publisher=Radio NZ & Whitireia Pub. |isbn=1877192023 |location=Wellington, N.Z. |pages=19, 29–30}} Little has been heard of these characters since the format of 2ZB changed to news/talk in the late 1990s, and his community-oriented breakfast show was replaced with news and interviews.[http://www.archivesearch.co.nz/?webid=ADM&articleid=2901 Bang – Ron Sneddon on media] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110723102727/http://www.archivesearch.co.nz/?webid=ADM&articleid=2901 |date=23 July 2011 }}, AdMedia magazine, November 2000. Wellington Museum has Buzz O'Bumble's mask and jacket on display.{{Cite web |date=16 June 2023 |title=Beloved bee on show at Wellington Museum |url=https://www.thepost.co.nz/culture/350020881/culture-bites-friday-june-16 |access-date=2024-11-04 |website=www.thepost.co.nz}}
In April 1997, Yeo moved from Newstalk ZB to Classic Hits 90FM where he hosted a new show.{{Cite news |date=29 April 1997 |title=Diary |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/314965036 |work=Dominion |id={{ProQuest|314965036}}}} There was considerable local support for Yeo and opposition to his removal from Newstalk ZB to be replaced by Paul Holmes whose breakfast show was networked from Auckland.{{Cite news |last=Hawkins |first=Barry |date=29 April 1997 |title=Return of a talk supremo |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/314450652 |work=Evening Post |page=5 |id={{ProQuest|314450652}} |via=Proquest}}{{Cite news |last=Cessford |first=Christine |date=27 March 1997 |title=Now is not the hour for Yeo show |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/314500387 |work=Evening Post |page=1 |id={{ProQuest|314500387}} }}{{Cite news |last=Espiner |first=Guyon |date=4 November 1997 |title=Capital may lose more air time to Auckland |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/314543829 |work=Evening Post |page=3 |id={{ProQuest|314543829}} }} Later that year, the rating for Holmes's show had dropped while Yeo's ratings for his morning show on Classic Hits had risen. Support for Yeo and local radio shows rather than content produced in Auckland continued with Wellington mayors meeting Newstalk ZB managers.{{Cite news |last=Espiner |first=Guyon |date=29 January 1998 |title=Mayors tackle ZB over local cuts |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/314544760 |work=Evening Post |page=3 |id={{ProQuest|314544760}} }} In May 1998, Yeo lost his job as breakfast show host on Classic Hits. The reason given was that Classic Hits was looking to appeal to a younger audience while Yeo was popular with an older demographic.{{Cite news |date=18 May 1998 |title=Yeo leaves classic hits |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/314089675 |work=The Press |page=38 |id={{ProQuest|314089675}} }}
In 1992, radio reviewer Jane Hurley acknowledged the appeal of Yeo's 2ZB breakfast show as follows:
"The show really rides on Yeo's personality and he's certainly got plenty of that. He's not so much cheerful as permanently stuck in life-and-soul-of-the-party mode. Yeo hardly ever just speaks; he cajoles, he burbles, he sings out, he hams up nearly every word. The whole show's like one long version of the old panto routine, the one that goes "Oh no I didn't/Oh yes you did!"...... it was kinda fun – a loud but genuinely Kiwi version of breakfast bounce, right down to the overgrown buzzy bee mascot. Yeo, bro, I reckon you might just deserve your swarms of fans."{{Cite journal |last=Hurley |first=Jane |date=17 October 1992 |title=Listening to the radiyeo |journal=NZ Listener |volume=136 |issue=2742 |page=63}}Yeo won the metropolitan station section of Local Air Personality of the Year in the Mobil Radio Awards in 1982.{{Cite news |date=30 March 1982 |title=Top radio people |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19820330.2.57 |access-date=5 November 2024 |work=The Press |page=6 |via=PapersPast}} Later in 1982 he was the first host of Television New Zealand's dance show Top Dance '82.{{Cite news |date=7 September 1982 |title=New dance series |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19820907.2.103.1 |access-date=5 November 2024 |work=The Press |page=17 |via=PapersPast}} In early 1984, he returned to Invercargill to do a special broadcast on 4ZA after the city and Southland towns were affected by flooding.
In 1985, Yeo was one of eight celebrity guest conductors at a Wellington Regional Orchestra VIP concert. Yeo conducted Flight of the Bumblebee.{{Cite news |date=7 February 1985 |title=V.I.P.S to try music |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19850207.2.148 |work=The Press |page=29 |access-date=5 November 2024 |via=PapersPast}}
Yeo reminisced in the book Broadcasting House, 1963–1997: if these walls could talk how the broadcasting studio was close to parliament allowing easy access to politicians. He recalled a conversation with the Prime Minister Bill Rowling about going to the dentist. He also thought that the emergence of the private radio station Radio Hauraki prompted the NZBC to listen to its listeners.
Yeo retired to the Tasman District in 2001.{{cite news |last=Bloomberg |first=Simon |date=19 October 2016 |title=Radiyo Richmond an oldie but a goodie |url=https://issuu.com/waimea-weekly/docs/october_19_2016_-_waimea_weekly_32p |access-date=6 November 2024 |work=Waimea Weekly |pages=1–2}} In 2016, he launched a hobby radio station, Radiyo Richmond, broadcasting on a low power frequency to the local area from his home studio, and playing "non-stop pleasant music from all genres" aimed at listeners in his own age group.
= Personal life and death =
Yeo became engaged to Janice Marian Franklin in October 1968, and they married the following year. Jan and Lindsay Yeo ran various businesses, including a fancy dress costume shop in Karori and rest homes. The couple had three sons and one daughter. Yeo's nephew, also named Lindsay Yeo, is a psychologist and singer.{{Cite news |last=Lacy |first=Judith |date=4 October 2023 |title=Palmerston North singer Lindsay Yeo to star in comedic opera The Telephone |url=https://www.nzherald.co.nz/manawatu-guardian/news/palmerston-north-singer-lindsay-yeo-to-star-in-comedic-opera-the-telephone/GVX2DJXIL5ENLOQKH2Y2USI3NQ/ |access-date=5 Nov 2024 |work=The New Zealand Herald}}
Yeo died at his home in Richmond, Tasman on 12 November 2024, at the age of 78.{{cite news |date=14 November 2024 |title=Remembering Lindsay Yeo: Renowned radio host dies at age 78 |url=https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/wellington/wellington-mornings-with-nick-mills/audio/former-2zb-host-lindsay-yeo-dies-at-age-78/ |access-date=14 November 2024 |work=NewstalkZB}}{{Cite web |date=14 November 2024 |title=Broadcaster Lindsay Yeo dies aged 78 |url=https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/533743/broadcaster-lindsay-yeo-dies-aged-78 |access-date=14 November 2024 |website=Radio New Zealand}}{{Cite web |last= |date=14 November 2024 |title=Remembering Lindsay Yeo: Former colleagues Raylene Ramsay and John McBeth on their work with the radio star |url=https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/wellington/wellington-mornings-with-nick-mills/audio/remembering-lindsay-yeo-former-colleagues-raylene-ramsay-and-john-mcbeth-on-their-work-with-the-radio-star/ |access-date=14 November 2024 |website=NewstalkZB}}
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- [https://www.ngataonga.org.nz/search-use-collection/search/35824/ Lindsay Yeo montage] – a montage of Yeo's work on 2ZB produced for the 1981 Mobil Radio Awards – in Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision archive
- [https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19831005.2.86.1.1 Photo of Lindsay Yeo] – in The Press, 5 October 1983, p. 12
- [https://www.nzonscreen.com/title/top-dance-1982-final Video of Lindsay Yeo hosting the final of Top Dance for 1982]
- {{discogs artist|Lindsay Yeo}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Yeo, Lindsay}}
Category:New Zealand broadcasters