Hooked on classics
Radio New Zealand is determined to pursue a younger, less Pākehā-centric audience and was willing to have its Concert station pay the price.
Radio New Zealand is determined to pursue a younger, less Pākehācentric audience and was willing to have its Concert audience pay the price.
Radio New Zealand insists that pursuing a youth audience is essential for its future, despite the onslaught of criticism since news first broke that its classical music champion, RNZ Concert, could be downgraded to pay for a youth-focused brand. The proposal to disestablish 18.8 fulltime-equivalent roles and significantly reduce the way its music is presented took staff by surprise when it was put to them earlier this month. The station, with a strong emphasis on classical music and with its own presenters and prized FM frequency, would remain a 24-hour, sevendays-a-week programme, RNZ’s proposal said. However, Concert would become “an automated music service available for listeners on AM … with no regular fulltime hosting”, confidential consultation documents obtained by the Listener show. The new iteration of RNZ Concert would be accessed on the parliamentary network when Parliament was not sitting, on RNZ’s app, a Freeview channel and on iHeartRadio and Spotify, among other digital platforms.
Acclaimed young composer Claire Cowan, speaking on RNZ National, likened the proposal to “a sort of jukebox-type system where they have a playlist and it’s streaming all the time with no presenters”.
The consultation documents show that RNZ may have been intending to phase out some of Concert’s presenters and introduce more automation by stealth, without announcing the changes to listeners. The “proposed transition timeline” shows that RNZ planned to continue with “reduced news bulletins and less talk” beyond the usual summer season and, from February 26, Concert would “drop many talk components”. A promotional campaign about the changes would have begun on March 30.
Instead, the proposal became public almost as soon as staff were told. Condemnation was swift and harsh as Concert’s listeners rallied and the arts community organised. An online petition gathered thousands of signatures in a few days.
As the Listener went to press, RNZ chief executive Paul Thompson called a meeting with RNZ Music and RNZ Concert staff and announced he was withdrawing the restructure and redundancy proposal that he had delivered to them a week earlier. “Things have changed since we announced the proposal, with the Government now indicating it will support the new music service for young New Zealanders,” he said in an email to staff afterwards. “That is good news and provides an opportunity to reset our thinking.”
Staff at the meeting say it was another tense affair. “No one was celebrating. A savage process that didn’t need to happen,” one told the Listener afterwards.
Refusing to apologise for the stresses of the past week, Thompson asked staff for suggestions for clear growth targets for Concert to be submitted by March 9.
“He now wants the staff to come up with exciting ideas to revitalise what we do,” said one in attendance. Another Concert staffer said he felt worried that this is just a postponement of a restructure and now felt they were being left in limbo.
THE AGE OF MIRACLES
“If the proposals went ahead, it’s likely that listenership of RNZ Concert would fall,” interim