Phil Gifford

Philip Douglas Gifford ONZM (born 1947) is a New Zealand sportswriter and broadcaster.^[1] He had his own rugby radio show Front Row on Radio Sport from 8 to 10am on Saturdays. He writes a weekly column in the country's highest circulation weekend paper, The Sunday Star-Times, and is a contributing editor to North & South magazine. He created the satirical rugby character Loosehead Len in 1973, and has seven books under that name.^[2]

Phil Gifford ONZM
Gifford in 2024
Born	Philip Douglas Gifford 1947 (age 77–78) New Zealand
Career
Station	Newstalk ZB
Time slot	Weekday Afternoons
Country	New Zealand

Gifford has written rugby best-sellers including his book on Alex Wyllie, Grizz, The Legend (1991, ISBN 0908630360), which has sold 30,000 copies, making it the biggest-selling New Zealand sports book of the 1990s.^[3] He co-hosted a top rating breakfast show with Simon Barnett. Barnett and Gifford hosted the breakfast show on 91ZM Christchurch between 1992 and 1997 before being enticed to work on opposition station 92 More FM for a large sum of money. Gifford continued to co-host breakfast on More FM, Christchurch until 2003 when he moved to Radio Sport. 91ZM Christchurch was a top rating station in Christchurch when he and Barnett hosted breakfast and More FM Christchurch enjoyed the top rating spot in the years following this. In 2019, Gifford rejoined Simon Barnett on Newstalk ZB Weekday Afternoons until mid 2021.

In 2002, he won a celebrity special of The Weakest Link raising $9600 for a nominated charity.

Gifford writes a music column for Auckland magazine North & South.

In the 2024 New Year Honours, Gifford was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to broadcasting and sports journalism.^[4]