CULL SAD BUT NECESSARY

I’m really sad for the people losing their jobs in the Concert FM massacre. Without exception they are passionate and dedicated to their craft. But something had to change. Last time I checked, about 170,000 people listen to Concert on any given week. Only 69,000 of those are unique listeners, the rest flip between RNZ Concert and big sister, RNZ National.

For perspective, RNZ National generally pulls about 600,000 listeners a week. So does The Edge. While it’s not a public broadcaster’s responsibility to play to ratings, it is responsible to question the spending of millions of taxpayer dollars each year. Concert FM has been an expensive part of its operation.

Concert is a worthy fulfilment of RNZ’s charter. The work it does promoting the local arts is a vital part of our culture. Concert recordings made freely available mean people in Greymouth can hear the NZSO in Wellington without leaving the house. Invaluable.

That’s what a public broadcaster should be doing and those services and programmes don’t need to end. But that’s not all the state broadcaster needs to do. It also needs to reach young people and, dare I say it, people who aren’t white boomers. It is charter bound to do so.

There has been real hesitancy to mess with Concert FM from the RNZ board and management. They’ve been wrestling with the issue for years and trying desperately to achieve champagne broadcasting on a beer budget. RNZ Music, a standalone department, has been paralysed by what path to take. They’ve only had two platforms to work with and neither can reach young people.

Concert listeners are loyal and sadly many may find the shift from FM to listening online or on Freeview a difficult barrier. If you listen to Concert in the car, you’ll have to resort to a mono AM signal or stream it. This change should be handled with the same level of support and care as when New Zealand moved to digital broadcast for television.

But why now? The answer is RNZ wants a youth platform that includes FM frequencies.

Critics of the decision say young people don’t listen to the radio. Statistics don’t necessarily back that up, nor do they take into consideration that FM frequencies are gateways to the rest of a brand universe.

Everything is content and all platforms matter. What’s the difference now between a radio station and a TV channel and a newspaper and a blog? Less and less.

People also like to point out that the younger demographic are well served by radio stations like The Edge, Mai, ZM or George and they’re right. By that same argument you could get rid of RNZ National because we have Newstalk ZB, The Breeze, Magic and Coast.

Countries with publicly funded youth radio are richer in many ways. Live music scenes establish a gig economy. Young people get new role models and outlets for their creativity. A whole industry grows that feeds the rest of the media landscape. They create a more open minded, better informed, diverse and inclusive cultural landscape.

Countries with publicly funded youth radio still have successful commercial radio stations. They’re two different things. If an RNZ youth station plays Katy Perry, we should riot. It would exist to do things the commercial giants can’t. To create a place for local music and talent to thrive. To inform, entertain and enlighten a young audience. It would do what RNZ National does but for a younger audience. It’s not going to do pranks.

So I’m not against a youth-targeted product from RNZ – I embrace it. I’m not against changes at Concert FM – change is going to happen. But I do have concerns.

This is a sudden upheaval with a fast timeline. RNZ’s last youth-targeted product survived five years and constantly struggled for identity. The brutal announcement has upset RNZ staff and the public are hurting. I worry about the new brand. I hope they get it right.

I hope these changes strengthen both RNZ National and Concert and give birth to a new brand that in 20 years will be an indispensable part of the culture. I hope the Concert audience is listened to and carefully looked after and that the most essential services remain.

I hope that vital shows from Concert like Upbeat, Inside Out, New Horizons and Worlds of Music find an even bigger audience on RNZ National. They’re a better fit for the demographic than shows like Music 101.

I hope the great minds behind Music 101 are part of the blueprint for the new product. I hope it’s not too Aucklandcentric. I hope it’s culturally diverse.

I also ask, why not just carve out more space on the FM band? When the BBC or ABC find their audience shifts, they open new platforms without having to close old ones. Why is there not a more flexible, adaptive funding structure for RNZ? Why don’t they have three times the budget?

As this all unfolds, the Cabinet is discussing the future of public broadcasting. Private media is struggling to survive because the funding model has atrophied. It’s more than just Concert, the future of the whole industry is at stake, and it’s not going to come cheap.