Brad Watson ended up in hospital due to a torn disc. Photo: Supplied
By Amberleigh Jack
Radio veteran Brad Watson laughs while retelling the "worst" moment of his recent hospital stay - an accidentally pulled-out catheter and plenty of spillage.
We're on the couch at the 41-year-old's Auckland home, less than two weeks after he woke up in "the worst pain I've ever felt". Unable to walk or stand up properly, an emergency room visit became an almost week-long stay at Auckland Hospital.
Home now, he's in Dad mode. The talking stops a few times when his 4-year-old daughter arrives for a hug or to show off a headstand off the couch. As far as the two kids - Piper and Finn, 2 - know, Dad has been on a work trip, so as not to scare them.
The 41-year-old broadcaster is a father of two. Photo: Supplied
That "work trip" hospital stay, it turns out, was due to a torn disc. What kept him there for days, though, was a resulting groin numbness, and the fact he hadn't urinated in days. That also led to the "humbling" catheter insertions - which brings us to that "worst" moment.
"In front of the whole ward, the nurse was like, 'Hey, Steve, we're gonna have to get a smaller one'," he laughs, shaking his head.
And then, after the bigger catheter was (painfully) replaced with a smaller one, Watson stood up - yanking it out - and its contents.
"It was all over the floor," he laughs.
All up, he spent five days in hospital and will take about eight weeks to recover fully. For now, when the painkillers wear off, it's "excruciating".
He chats honestly, with a warm, welcoming smile. That willingness to share, he says, comes from a long history in radio. He started as a 16-year-old at the youth-oriented station, The Edge. He spent almost a decade behind the scenes before returning on air in 2022, where he co-hosted the drive show with Laura McGoldrick on NZME station, The Hits, until late last year.
Laura McGoldrick and Brad Watson from The Hits. Photo: Supplied
"Our thing is always anything and everything goes on air, no matter what it is," he says.
"I feel no shame in talking about that stuff because that can happen to anybody. And I found it funny - lying there while they put a tube inside my penis."
As open about his career as he is about tubes being inserted into his penis, Watson recalls having had great feedback and positive ratings on The Hits, and expecting a renewed contract before then being told otherwise in October last year.
"They said, 'It's never going to work and we're not putting it back on next year … you don't have a job'."
It was a call that made "no sense", given how well the show had been rating. Until, Watson says, he learned the show would be replaced by radio legend, PJ Harding.
"Straightaway I was like, fair enough, if I was The Hits and PJ wanted to get back on air, I would make that happen. She's great, and she has to be on the radio."
He pauses a moment, before admitting the shock of losing what felt like a dream role, "threw me, mentally".
McGoldrick left the show in October, but Watson remained as solo host for about seven weeks until the end of the year. Coming to the office was "awkward" and he barely left the house on the weekends, spending a lot of time in bed.
"I got really depressed," he says, looking up from his coffee. He got "gradually worse", before eventually calling a helpline after a panic attack one night.
"I didn't know what to do. I don't know where it all came from, but I just broke right down."
That call led to seeing a psychiatrist and getting medication to help, and by the time he finished his final show in December, Watson handed his work ID over, left the building and, "I didn't have a single feeling about it".
Sure, there'd been anger and frustration but, "I just walked out and felt this relief. I went out and had the best summer I've ever had".
And now he's back "home" with Mediaworks. Ultimately, he'd love to wind up back on air, but he smiles as he points to the nearby laptop set up, where he's working from home while he recovers.
He's busy - programming for More FM, pulling a few announcing shifts, and training announcers with a new system. He gets genuinely excited talking about being involved in his "favourite little radio station", Channel X.
"I never felt home at NZME," he says.
Given he's spent more than two decades both on air and behind the scenes in radio, it's little surprise that good sound and, "pure quality of audio" is important to Watson. He "hates" that it's an experience his son, Finn, won't get to fully have. He's been, "not completely deaf" but "hard enough of hearing to affect his learning" since birth.
Now an ambassador for Deaf Aotearoa, Watson and the whole family have been welcomed by the deaf community he previously, "didn't know existed".
"They've welcomed in our whole family, and they've given us our sign language names. They're the kindest people. They're funny … They're just great people."
And big sister, Piper is, "so in his corner".
"I think at school, she'll always be there for him," he says.
"If anyone hassles him, she's gonna be there."
