Gordon Dryden on air five days next week

Auckland author Gordon Dryden has chosen an unusual way to promote his new book over the holiday break.

He’s signed up a deal to host a national debate on the future, on the RadioLive network from next Monday through Friday from 2 p.m.And non-fiction books on aspects of the future will get some strong publicity—along with UNLIMITED: The new learning revolution and the seven keys to unlock it, his newly-published book co-authored with Jeannette Vos.

RadioLive is promoting the programs as “Gordon Dryden’s future”. But Dryden paraphrases Barack Obama when he says: “They’re not about me, but about unleashing everyone’s talents”—the theme of his new book.

Dryden was one of the main pioneers of talk radio in the 1970s and 80s: first for three and a half years on Radio I’s nine to noon show where (in a much less congested radio market) he quickly grabbed a 35 percent share of Auckland’s daytime radio audience.

For half that time he broadcast each weekday from his own bookstore, on the mezzanine floor of what is today’s main Whitcoulls store in Auckland. During that time dozens of books soared to popularity through talkshow interviews.

Lyall Watson’s Supernature sold a record 40,000 copies in New Zealand in the month after appearing on Dryden’s talkshow in Auckland and Brian Edwards’ similar show on Radio Windy in Wellington.

In 1979 Dryden founded Radio Pacific as New Zealand’s first 24-hours-a-day all-talk station, when he led and continued his morning talkshow there for three years. Pacific has since morphed into RadioLive, with Pacific now concentrating on horse-racing.RadioLive broadcasts on a variety of frequencies around New Zealand—all listed on its website: http://www.radiolive.co.nz/

Next week’s show runs from 2 to 6 p.m. Monday to Wednesday and 2 to 5 p.m. on Thursday and Friday. It will be mixture of interviews and phone-ins to 0800 RADIOLIVE.