Why NZ radio is past sell by date to its listeners

Winston Peters is correct to suggest that the recent broadcasting deal raises plenty of questions (Bay of Plenty Times Weekend, March 19) for taxpayers to ask about the ethics of Kiwis funding offshore broadcasting interests.
But Peters doesn't go far enough. As commercial radio stations renew their right to broadcast for another 20 years through the Government's deferred payment scheme, there are other questions Kiwi radio listeners should be asking;
Has the sell-off of FM licence rights to foreign interests met the diverse needs of NZ communities?
Does NZ radio sound like NZ on our own airwaves in our own country?
Is NZ radio local, community-owned, intelligent, engaging and capable of reflecting who we are in 2011?
Is independent NZ radio world class, demonstrating genuine innovation in programme content and technical delivery?
The $96 million bail out for foreign-owned private enterprise has cost New Zealanders dearly, and not just in the pocket.
Here's why: the Government's deferred payment scheme confirms we are now stuck for another 20 years with existing commercial radio formats and juvenile jock conduct. We're stuck with "Hug a Ginga" and "Marry a European Wife". We're stuck with "local" radio coming from Auckland . We're stuck with stations that hoard frequencies to stop other broadcasters entering the market. We're stuck with radio that is increasingly irrelevant to New Zealanders.
Where is the diversity that reflects Kiwi culture in all its many shapes and sizes and styles in the Bay? Where is intelligent, informed, insightful daily rock radio (http://www.soundopinions.org) in New Zealand?
Where are the LPFM (Low Power FM) broadcasters successfully graduating from low power broadcasting to medium power stations? Where is the technical spectrum platform that will provide locally-based broadcasting over the next 20 years, instead of increased station networking and automation from Auckland ?
Where are the broadcasters meeting specific ethnic needs and local education interests through non-commercial broadcasting on mainstream frequencies?
Ageing radio listeners are increasingly tired and jaundiced by the juvenile jockdom that typifies independent NZ commercial radio. Meanwhile, younger listeners are voting with their ears, preferring private listening on i-Pods and MP3 players to radio.
Advertisers too have smelt the scam that is overly cluttered commercial radio, and have worked out that passive radio listening doesn't translate to active buying, and are cutting their advertising spend accordingly.
Nationally and globally, radio is dying. Radio once was what the internet is today. It no longer holds the place it once did and the over supply of sound-alike radio in NZ means we're stuck with "Radio Ga-Ga" and new station start-ups going broke.
The NZ radio landscape is littered with recent radio failures from LPFM hobbyists to major six-figure players, including Big FM, Ian Staples' Wellington-based X105 and BOP-FM. These failures confirm one thing; we are oversaturated with radio.
The end of the 20-year licence period introduced the opportunity to cull and then recreate the broadcasting framework in NZ. Here's what could have happened.
Those companies who don't pay their radio licence renewal fees on time close. Their frequencies are returned to government which reallocates them to Kiwi-owned broadcasters who can meet the needs of their local communities. After all, we own the airwaves. We simply pay the various ministries to administrate them.
Dedicated frequencies could have been allocated for localised medium power non-commercial community-centred radio (Bay of Plenty has none); dedicated frequencies for Access Radio broadcasters (Bay of Plenty has none); dedicated student frequencies for student radio/tertiary education providers (Bay of Plenty has none) and medium power frequencies (MPFM) facilitating the move for successful ethnic broadcasters to the next broadcasting level (Bay of Plenty has none).
The Government should be interested in encouraging genuine diversity and facilitating the environment in which broadcasters can fill gaps and occupy mainstream frequencies that the existing climate has made impossible. What this recent licence-funding decision means is that genuinely local stations will not be able to mature and graduate to the major frequencies.
This opportunity has been lost and Kiwis will not only pay for these stations to continue, they will pay for stations that are increasingly irrelevant in their own communities and daily lives.
To this taxpayer and broadcaster, that sounds like the ultimate in dead-air.
Max Christoffersen is the owner of Mount Maunganui's Kiss-FM (www.kissfm.co.nz). He launched Waikato University's Contact 89FM in the mid-1980s and Waikato Institute of Technology's radio school Max-FM in 2007.