12/06/2026
The Maleman Has Died: CFM Farewells Coromandel’s Mr Radio, Warren Male
Warren Male, known to so many across the Peninsula as Coromandel’s Mr Radio, and to his mates simply as the Maleman, passed away this morning, just seven days short of his 76th birthday. For all of us at CFM, this one is deeply personal. Warren wasn’t just a colleague. He was family, a mentor, and the man whose voice and vision shaped local radio on this Peninsula across five decades.
Warren’s love affair with Peninsula radio reaches back almost fifty years. He was involved in the very earliest days of broadcasting on the Coromandel’s east coast, when Radio Sam crackled to life from the Pauanui shopping centre in the summer of 1977, beaming to holidaymakers from a transmitter on Slipper Island. It was the first radio station this coast had ever had, and Warren was there.
He went on to put the Coromandel on the radio map for good. On Boxing Day 1990 the original Coromandel FM, known even then as CFM, went to air from Pauanui, covering the east coast around the clock from three transmitter sites. Within a year, under Warren’s leadership, it became a permanent fixture, broadcasting full time from Thames with transmitters stretching from Paeroa to Coromandel town. It was a brave bet on truly local radio in a small market, and one he made work through sheer graft, charm and an unshakeable belief that the Peninsula deserved its own voice.
Warren eventually sold Coromandel FM to MediaWorks, who later rebranded the station as Coromandel’s More FM, and he stayed on with the company, remaining the face and voice of Peninsula radio through that era. When his MediaWorks chapter ended, Warren didn’t hang up the headphones. For the past three years he has been part of the CFM family, working alongside us on campaigns and promotions, still running his summer promotional business, and bringing with him his unique drive and humour, along with the contacts and war stories of a lifetime in radio. There is barely a business, an event or a broadcaster on this Peninsula that doesn’t carry Warren’s fingerprints somewhere. Everyone doing local radio here today is standing on foundations he laid.
Born on 19 June 1950, Warren leaves his partner Angie Tailby and their home in Pauanui, where the two of them were a much loved part of the community. Our hearts go out to Angie, and to Warren’s wider family and many friends.
Rest easy, Mr Radio. The Coromandel sounds the way it does because of you.
Funeral and service details will be shared once confirmed.
