RDU celebrates 40th with five-month party
RDU 98.5FM, the longest running independent radio station in the South Island, is celebrating its 40th anniversary with an innovative exhibition at Canterbury Museum. Vicki Anderson reports.
RDU98.5FM, Christchurch’s true alternative radio station, started broadcasting at 8am on February 23, 1976. Forty years and more than 100,000 listeners later, everyone from the new head of the GCSB, Andrew ‘‘the Hammer’’ Hampton to punk rocking Anglican minister Spanky Moore have played a part in shaping the South Island’s longest running independent radio station.
It’s all part of a rich and innovative broadcasting history which informs a current exhibition at Canterbury Museum.
Museum director Anthony Wright says the Alternative Radio exhibition, a collaboration between the museum and RDU98.5FM, tells a great Canterbury story of survival and ingenuity.
It launched on Friday night and runs until August 18, and will create a number of firsts for the museum including live gigs, live music and live broadcasts in the museum’s Special Exhibitions Hall.
The station, part of the bNet group of independent radio stations, began broadcasting as a one-off event in 1976, held during student orientation and enrolment week at Canterbury University.
Its first broadcast was reportedly heard in Invercargill but, because of a transmission positioning quirk at the university site, Sumner residents have only been able to tune in since 2002.
The non-commercial station was licensed by the government of the time ‘‘to deal with matters related to students’’ only, and items of a political nature could not be broadcast.
Establishing an early precedent, however, RDU nearly lost its licence for airing a debate about the 1976 All Blacks tour of South Africa.
Fast forward four decades and RDU hit headlines last month when it refused to play Max Key’s single Forget You, claiming ‘‘this is an anti-TPPA zone, (Tune’s Piss Poor Aye)’’.
With a firm eye on quality control, the station has always had a reputation for showcasing New Zealand musicians and genres which flew under the mainstream radar. It supported the emerging Flying Nun record label bands, helped in part by one-time station manager and Flying Nun alumni, Hat, aka Andrew Meier of Squirm fame, and was the only radio station in Christchurch to reflect the swampy city’s fascination with early electronica. 1990s rave, trip hop, acid house, the funk house movement, roots music and all forms of bass music found a home on RDU.
In 1981 the station, led by manager Michael Higgins, alongside Mary Richardson and Maryrose Wilkinson (later of the Renderers) successfully petitioned for The Clash to play in Christchurch.
The gig at the Christchurch Town Hall became the stuff of Christchurch music legend thanks to a sifter who thought spitting on the band was a good idea. A Strummer tirade ensued and the plug was nearly pulled. To add further oddity to the evening, TVNZ was filming That’s Country in the James Hay Theatre, and Clash fans and the TV audience mingling in the foyer made for an incongruous sight.
RDU’s first commercial broadcast took place in May 1982. Seven years later, disco, and a new approach to sales and finances, saved the radio star in 1989 when it looked as if the station might fold.
In 1992 RDU was granted a licence for continuous broadcast. In 1996 the station became the first to have a live streaming broadcast via the internet.
James Meharry, RDU98.5FM’s director, with his wife, Karen, a crown prosecution lawyer, purchased the station from the University of Canterbury Students’ Association (UCSA) in 2007 for $2.
‘‘RDU was on the chopping block,’’ he says. ‘‘That was the 30th landmark. The 40th is about the earthquake. We’ve shifted premises four times in the last 10 years. Before that, the station had been in place for 26 years. The movement over the last 10 years has been quite dramatic, it’s certainly made life interesting. I think the exhibition has managed to convey that sense of adventure.’’
The station has been no stranger to controversy over the years.
‘‘The exhibition touches on those adventures,’’ Meharry says. ‘‘The culture of RDU is about challenging ideas. If we hark back to the 2005 some New Zealand
music is shit thing, that was controversial but I don’t think that it quite captured the bigger idea behind it. I think that was the same with the Max Key, ponygate thing.’’
He says that RDU has always been inclusive, supporting all forms of alternative music.
Meharry’s association goes back 20 years and includes his time as a broadcaster but his first paid employee role at the station was as sales manager.
‘‘As a broadcaster my first day was on a show which I got into through buying records at Echo Records. I remember my first day employed there as sales manager, I walked in and there was nothing, there was a bunch of files piled up. It was a rude awakening.’’
The station’s programme has specialist, genre-focused shows offered by 120 dedicated volunteer hosts.
‘‘We have had thousands of hosts and volunteers in the last 40 years and ultimately that’s what RDU is about, it’s about people. In the exhibition I’m excited about the vintage breakfast shows, particularly the John and John show from the 80s.’’
Rachel Morton, RDU98.5FM’s public performances manager, one-time breakfast co-host and possessor of a fine Scottish accent, explains that the extensive programme will boast live performances from Delaney Davidson, The Bats, Ladi6, Doprah and more, sessions for children, and live broadcasts from a purpose-built studio.
‘‘I think long time fans of the station will be interested in the Bits NPieces reunion,’’ she says.
In another first for the museum, visitors will be able to access additional digital content – audio, video, music and stories – through a free RDU App.
‘‘It’s a way of adding another element for visitors,’’ says Morton.
Wright also suggests that museum goers ‘‘remember to bring headphones to get the most out of the audio content’’.
The inimitable James Dann is now the station’s breakfast host and the Vintage Breakfast portion of the exhibition will see four decades of breakfast hosts return to create live broadcasts from inside the museum to mark the anniversary.
Former breakfast host and Anglican minister, Spanky Moore, was once in a band called Clown Dog. The band’s main claims to fame include beating Shapeshifter in a RounDUp band competition and their signature tune, The Sausage Song, during which the band hurled meat into the audience.
In his time as a breakfast host, Moore was responsible for Pie Day, a parody of Rebecca Black’s irritating song, Friday.
The chaplain at the University of Canterbury describes the station as being ‘‘like a church’’.
‘‘You’ve got this radio station held together by a skeleton staff but 100 plus volunteers,’’ Moore explains. ‘‘And what is it that holds these guys together? Honestly, you go to a volunteer meeting and it’s a room full of the oddest, most eccentric people. They like completely different kinds of music: a death metal lover next to an alt country fanatic, a psy-trance DJ drinking by a free jazz recluse . . . what the hell holds this communion together? And in many ways the common thread was that the RDU hosts were often the outcasts of society who had somehow found their identity by occupying some sliver of radio spectrum for a few hours a week.’’
Moore describes RDU as being powered by a ‘‘family of social and musical outcasts’’.
‘‘Mongrels. They scrap among themselves. Steal adapters every week. Complain about the turntables. Tell each other how they ‘never listen to the radio’. But somehow they come together and form this oddball family that’s kept RDU on the air for 40 years,’’ he says. ‘‘If that’s not a miracle, what is?’’
Tim Baird, of Pinacolada Records, has been involved with the station for more than 26 years, as host of the popular On the Decks show and as one-time musical director.
Nick Harte, aka Shocking Pinks, started out on Baird’s label. Harte’s triple album, Guilt Mirrors, was recorded inside the CBD red zone immediately after the 2011 earthquake.
He blacked out the windows and recorded until he was removed from his broken flat by police.
The album received numerous four star reviews in notable music publications in America and Britain but it could be argued that many Cantabrians remain unaware of Harte’s music. In New Zealand it would unlikely that his music would have been heard at all outside of bNet stations, of which RDU is a part.
Morton believes the same could be said of RDU.
‘‘Everyone who is involved with it is aware of how much of an impact it’s had and what it does but I’d argue that 80 per cent of people who would walk through the museum exhibition don’t know anything about the station,’’ she says.
‘‘It’s another reason why this exhibition and marking the 40th anniversary is important for us. It’s a way of introducing ourselves to a part of the city we wouldn’t normally meet.’’
Under the RounDUp banner, RDU and Dux de Lux partnered for many years to present a band competition which went a long way to helping develop the local music scene.
Although post-quake venue Dux Live has now closed, holding its final gig in December 2015, Meharry believes Cantabrians still believe in live music.
‘‘People want live music, it’s about the occasion. It’s about matching the performance choices to the occasion,’’ he says. ‘‘The difference between me DJing at a wedding to what I’d expect at Splore, in between acts, the programming and expectation of the audience . . . if you don’t meet their expectations that’s when you fail. It’s not about what’s playing, it’s about programming the music to meet the audience’s expectations.’’
RDU was just one of the many organisations displaced by the Canterbury earthquakes, losing its studio at the university.
In 2011, Meharry devised the RDUnit, an innovative radio broadcasting studio set up inside a horse truck. The station was based from it for more than three years before moving out in May 2015. The RDUnit, which captured the imagination of a city in transition, will be on display as part of the Alternative Radio exhibition.
Morton remembers the postquake years working in the horsetruck with equal parts horror and happiness.
‘‘While we were there I hated it, it was cold in winter and things often didn’t work the way they should have,’’ she says. ‘‘But when I saw the RDUnit again recently I felt quite maternal towards it. It’s amazing that that happened and that we all made it work.’’
In its 20s RDU was described by former station manager Hat as ‘‘searching for its identity’’, in its 30s it was confident and authoritative. Mature.
Now 40, RDU could be described as making its mark through innovation. Its free app, for example, released while the station was working out of a glorified horsetruck, allowed listeners around the world to stream our music.
For many listeners the appeal of RDU has always been the underground, middle finger to the world approach and the thrill of hearing new music trends and artists first. Moore agrees. ‘‘Every listener who isn’t a student thinks they’re the only non-student listening when in reality it’s 90 per cent non-students all reliving their radical socialist days of their youth.’’
As for the new GCSB director, Andrew ‘‘the Hammer’’ Hampton, a member of Christchurch band Wadd (named after porn film star Johnny Wadd) he once co-hosted a firecracker of a show on RDU.
Hopefully he’ll still be ‘‘listening in’’ to RDU.
Meharry says people should expect to see a bit of the ‘‘past, present and future’’ of the station at the exhibition.
‘‘It’s like eating an elephant when you’re talking about covering such a broad history, so far I think we’ve chewed off a leg.’’
Everyone grows up eventually. RDU may be 40, and the exhibition is powered by Meridian, but RDU is still able to bring the party.
We have had thousands of hosts and volunteers in the last 40 years and ultimately that’s what RDU is about, it’s about people.
James Meharry
- RDU98.5FM’s director