The New Zealand Herald has finally run a story on the Kiwi FM thing, rather than simply copying and pasting the press release. Their story? Famous person sends letter to Herald.
Neil Finn is, unsurprisingly, cross about CanWest being given free frequencies. And… er… that’s pretty much all they wrote.
Wouldn’t it have been interesting if the Herald had been able to contextualise the story, maybe give a bit of background and perhaps explain a few things? Or was the important bit actually that one of our greatest songwriters still cares enough about this stuff to put proverbial pen to proverbial paper?
Apart from anything else, here is a guy who has been agitating for a nationwide Youth Radio Network for the lion’s share of a decade. He’s debated it at a policy level and explored it from the broadcast, consumption, business and social angles.
In short, he’s been the frontman for potentially one of the most significant broadcasting initiatives in New Zealand radio history… but the quote we get is:
“We are all fans of some New Zealand music, but does anyone really want to listen to it all day long?”
Why can’t you just tell us what he said in a bit of detail, and why you think he said it? Wouldn’t that be better journalism?
Neil – if you’re reading The Wireless – any chance you’d do us the honour of sending that same letter to me for publication here on the blog – or something similar that clarifies your point? I’m more than happy to provide your viewpoint in full here, rather than just extract a soundbite. And while I can’t guarantee you quantity of readership, I can guarantee you quality.
Same invitation goes to Brendan Smyth, Steve Maharey, Helen Clark, David Innes, Paul Kennedy, Brent Impey, Karyn Hay, Mike Chunn, John McElhinney… and all the other main characters and key pundits in this fairly complex story.
Send me a note, let me know you’re happy for me to publish it here – bearing in mind that under the Creative Commons licence, it can then be republished elsewhere (credited) for non-commercial purposes.
