Source: Auckland University of Technology (AUT)
31 Mar, 2023
The on-air shut down of Today FM came as a shock to many, despite signs things were not going well at the station.
AUT’s head of radio, Dr Matt Mollgaard, joined Breakfast to discuss the shut down and its wider implications.
“Talk radio is an expensive thing to do, and if the company is not going to back it for five to 10 years, it’s going to fall over,” says Mollgaard.
“I’ve never seen anything like this in my more than 30 years of broadcasting. The timeline for consultation was very compressed, and the company is probably going to face some legal issues.
“Talk radio is the hardest format. It’s expensive, it requires well known people, working day in and day out, and in New Zealand is hugely competitive. You’ve got Newstalk ZB, you’ve got RNZ, you’ve got all the internet-based offering. It has to be approached as a long-term offering.
“I would have thought with the election coming up, presenters like Tova O’Brien and Duncan Garner would have been brilliant. If Mediaworks couldn’t even get through to the election and start building its audience through that, it really wasn’t in it for the long term.
The media environment Today FM was competing in required a multi-platform approach, says Mollgaard.
“Today FM was doing lots of interesting things. It was just about to launch visual documentary on its website, it was creating lots of interesting web content like podcasts.
“There is pressure to try and do everything for everybody on every platform. That’s the future, we have to face that. For radio it’s a key challenge, but also a strength. Radio – especially talk and current affairs – can move quickly, we can move things from on-air to online and vice versa very quickly.
“Unless you’re willing to do that, and commit to the internet as the future, you’re not going to survive, and I think Today FM has been a victim of short-term corporate strategy.
Asked what the collapse of Today FM means for the wider market, Mollgaard says radio is a bellwether media in many ways, as advertisers tend to pull away from broadcast when money is tight.
“Radio has been challenged by digital advertising spend for a long time. I think we’re seeing a consolidation of media money. Music is much easier to do and it doesn’t take as much effort.
“We might see a contraction in broadcast media if we head into a Q2 recession.
“However, radio and TV have weathered these challenges before, and I wouldn’t make any predictions about the death of radio in New Zealand – it’s still a very popular medium.”
