Nickson Clark on lawn-care and leaving radio ‘on my own terms’
The Edge star opens up to Amberleigh Jack about his double lives on the air and on the grass – and what it was like watching his best friend do time for money laundering.
Radio host Nickson Clark is passionate about learning the art of turf care. It is, he says with a laugh, his “porn”. We’re sitting in a central Auckland park – he’s rushed here straight after a groundskeeping shift at Auckland’s Remuera Golf Club. The long-time radio host – usually known for his quick jokes and lively on-air banter – is still dressed for his side hustle, in work boots and shorts. Ask him about grass maintenance, and he answers with an easy smile and a clear passion.
“Lawn [care] is the new lawn bowls,” he says with a grin, adding that when he’s approached by people these days, nobody wants to talk about radio. Instead, “everyone just wants to talk about their lawns”.
It’s a conversation Clark is always happy to partake in.
More than a side hustle outside of radio, groundskeeping, this “active relaxer” says, is also a “really good career option” for when the time comes to retire from behind the microphone.
“There are so many people who leave radio, and they’ve got nothing else ... I had so much time on my hands. I wanted to learn. I wanted to upskill.”
It keeps him fit, he’d never be suited to an “office job” and he gets a real sense of pride when looking back over his work.
And his dog, Billy, can tag along on turf days, too.
“She’s my girl. I love her to bits,” he says of his pug and king charles cavalier cross – named after his favourite league player, Billy Slater.
Having loved lawn work since childhood, it was in 2015 that Clark first began mowing for neighbours, a few radio bosses and whoever else came his way.
But it was shortly after the January 27 Auckland floods, that Clark offered a helping hand at Remuera Golf Club. It was an offer that led to an official gig which Clark is genuinely passionate about.
He speaks highly of the team that helped him with his studies, taught him plenty and even allows Billy to tag along (as long as she stays off the green).
And it fits in well outside his own lawncare routine at home (he currently mows three times a week to ensure it never gets too long or short), as well as his afternoon hours on The Edge, where he hosts the drive show with Sharyn Casey.
When it does eventually come time to retire from radio, though, he wants “to leave on my own terms”.
He wants people to remember him as a “good dude [who] was funny”. He doesn’t want people thinking, “Who is this old guy still on the radio?” “You never want to overstay your welcome.”
That’s not a problem for now, though. Clark, 38, with a grey-flecked beard and neatly-groomed hair, has the best of both worlds with his two gigs. He’s highly personable, talking openly and freely with a friendly smile. He’s a self-confessed “mumma’s boy” who refers to his wife, Sarah, and his dog, Billy, as his “queens”.
One thing he’ll never do in radio, he insists, is embarrass the women in his life for a “bit”. And nobody, he laughs, can ever say anything bad about Billy.
It was almost two decades ago, in 2004, that he “won” his first announcing gig while at broadcasting school. A new station, Flava, had entered the market; they
“I want people to remember I was a good dude that was funny, and I don’t want people going, ‘who is this old guy still on the radio?’”
NIckson Clark
ran a competition to find talent, and Clark – spurred on by his best friend Nate Nauer – entered and won.
He worked “behind the scenes” at MediaWorks for a bit, before landing an announcing gig at Mai FM. He was later joined by Nauer, and the two had a long-running stint as breakfast co-hosts.
He still rates that on-air partnership as his all-time favourite. It ended when Nauer left the station suddenly in 2020, three years before he was jailed for money laundering.
When asked how it felt seeing everything go down with his best friend and co-host, Clark pauses for a moment.
“It was hard ,” he says .“Na te and I are like brothers. My mum treats him like a son.”
And, because his name wasn’t public before sentencing, he couldn’t talk about it. “You can't lean on anyone. You can’t say your thoughts.”
The whole situation, he says, was “really sad” and a roller coaster of emotions. “Anger, upset, heartbroken,” he says. “It was a pretty rough couple of years,” he says, adding “it all started again” when Nauer’s name was made public in May.
“Because everyone published the story, and there were photos of him. But he’s doing well now. I’m really proud of him. He knows what he’s done. Very remorseful, but just wants to get on with life.”
Following Nauer’s departure from Mai, Clark admits that at work, “in my heart I was like, I think my time’s done”.
Still, his goal at Mai FM – he laughs was to outlast veteran broadcaster Robert Rakete, who spent a decade at Mai FM. Clark stayed for 12.
“Now I can, hand-on-heart, say I’m the longest-standing Mai FM announcer they ever had.”
He left the station in December 2021, tried his hand at talkback with the now defunct Today FM, and then took a role alongside Sharyn Casey, hosting afternoons on youth-oriented station The Edge.
He gets away with having a bit of fun on-air, he says, but – again – never at the expense of his “queens”.
“My wife and my mum are the centres of what I do,” he says, hat-tipping his Samoan culture as part of the reason behind his face lighting up when the conversation turns to Sarah, Billy or his mum.
And the holiday season, he says, is all about family.
Every year he stays at his mum and dad’s house on Christmas Eve. He attends church then does the shopping with mum, and sleeps in his old room.
On Christmas morning he’s back with his wife, and they spend time with families on the day. This year, he’s returning from a trip with Sarah to Australia on New Year’s Eve, so he won’t miss his annual tradition of watching midnight fireworks at the beach with mum and Billy.
“That’s our thing. The older I get the more I treasure it,” he says.
“They’re not going to be around forever and my mum’s always had my back. That’s the least I can do is have that moment.
“Family for me - especially at this time of the year - is the ultimate.”