Murray Deaker

[2] Deaker has acted as a mentor for sports personalities such as Jesse Ryder, a New Zealand cricketer.

He worked with producers such as Greg Billings[4] and his show helped raise the profile of new and rising sports presenters such as Melodie Robinson and the return to the television screen of Tony Veitch.

[6] Deaker fell into his own bunker of controversy in 2011,[7] with a racially sensitive slur in reference to a colleague.

Despite the NZ Race Relations Commissioner describing the turn of phrase as "Not appropriate" and a weight of public outrage reminiscent of fellow broadcaster Paul Holmes' "Cheeky Darkie" saga and Paul Henry's derogatory comment about an Indian Diplomat with the surname "Dikshit", Deaker's network described the phrase as "widely used".

In the 2009 Queen's Birthday Honours, Deaker was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to broadcasting.