KEY POINTS:
Broadcasting Minister Steve Maharey has said he may complain to the Radio New Zealand board of directors over an item about the NCEA on National Radio's Morning Report, according to an insider.
State radio is abuzz with a story of its journalists standing up to the minister and advising him to go through the normal complaints procedures.
Insiders say the minister was unhappy about comments by Morning Report presenter Sean Plunket on March 23 about Maharey in his role as Education Minister.
Maharey was defending the controversial NCEA exam system against the Cambridge International Examinations.
The minister had said on air that Botswana used the Cambridge International qualification and questioned whether New Zealand wanted to have a system like Botswana.
Talking later to RNZ education reporter Gail Woods, Plunket apparently suggested maybe there was some implicit racism against Botswana.
That is when Maharey saw red, our source says.
The source says the minister called Morning Report and told a producer he had fought against racism all his life and demanded a withdrawal of Plunket's comment.
He said that if that didn't happen he would take his concerns to the board of directors, the source said.
You can see that a lifelong campaigner against racism might take offence against Plunket's comment which, let's face it, was a little extravagant.
But the minister who holds the purse strings for RNZ appears to have quickly turned to the board of directors - all of whom he appointed.
Were he to approach the board it would surely be a breach of the Broadcasting Act, which prohibits ministers from getting involved in operational matters.
Asked for a response, Maharey's press secretary Helen Vaughan - herself a former RNZ journalist - said no comment would be made.
Radio New Zealand confirmed there had been a communication with the minister about the March 23 incident but said nothing followed.
Management appears to have kept to procedures. Board chairman Brian Corban could not be reached for comment; nor could Plunket.
Plunket v Ralston for Radiolive?
More on the Plunket front. We also wanted to ask him about speculation that he is a possible front-runner to replace Martin Devlin as RadioLive breakfast host.
The other name being mentioned is Bill Ralston, the former head of news and current affairs at TVNZ, who is famously "between jobs".
The double act of Willie Jackson and John Tamihere could also have some impact.
After months of to-ing and fro-ing, Devlin officially announced he was going last week and acknowledged he did not suit the role of a serious news host.
A radio industry source said that when Plunket's Radio New Zealand Morning Report contract came up for renewal he had suggested to RadioLive a double act with Devlin.
But it said no.
In the end Plunket signed up on staff at RNZ for what is understood to be about $150,000 a year - which is as good as it gets there.
Ralston would also make some sense for RadioLive. He is a good performer and his following includes Prime Minister Helen Clark, who gave him a thumbs-up when he left TVNZ.
He would be a high-profile alternative to Mike Hosking when Hosking takes over from Paul Holmes next year at NewstalkZB.
Ralston is famous for lunching and the morning show would not cramp his style.
However, one CanWest insider noted that Ralston was "not a morning person".
Intrepid Ralston
Ralston would also be the ideal person to take over from Lisa Owen as host of Agenda.
Current affairs presenters Owen and Sunday reporter Cameron Bennett are moving over to boost One News as part of what is being termed "Operation Turnaround" at TVNZ.
But there are no signs yet that Ralston will pick up any of the spare roles at TVNZ.
We hear that producers for the Intrepid Journeys series had suggested a programme featuring Bill Ralston in some godforsaken place - which you might have thought would appeal to his detractors at TVNZ - but apparently management said no.
Which is a pity.
He would be good.
Free-to-air flushes away the future
The last year has seen a significant fall in the viewing audience for free-to-air television, and on Saturday night it was easy to see why.
TV3 viewers sitting down to watch the movie The Core were barraged through the night with a handful of ads played over and over again. That is par for the course.
But one of them - an Australian commercial for a cleaning product called "Bam" - featured a prolonged and repulsive shot of a heavily "stained" toilet bowl. A great way to treat your viewers.
Over on TV One, TVNZ has cleared away some of its hardest commercial TV techniques on Saturday nights, but it is still prepared to damage its best commercial asset, Coronation Street, during the week.
One of the TVNZ tricks is to finish Coro at 8.35pm instead of 8.30pm, a move that means viewers miss the 8.30pm junction and are less inclined to switch channels. It has the incidental effect of boosting the audience for the next half hour - though advertising buyers are not going to fall for that.
The other annoying approach for Coro is for TVNZ to finish the show abruptly - and move directly into a TVNZ promotion for another show.
The Coro credits roll alongside the promotion - TVNZ is legally obliged to show them - but without the closing theme tune, which to many viewers is a signal to flick channels.
It's all great short-term thinking - but it is also an invitation for people to tun off TV, subscribe to Sky or see what they can find on broadband internet.
Perfect storm hits Lowe
Lowe Advertising's losses last month of the Lotteries Commission and Vodafone contracts may have been inevitable after the departure of former managing director Chris Knox.
Three years ago Knox was the key to Lowe's surprising win of the Lotteries account. He had a good rapport with former CEO Trevor Hall. He was also intimately involved with the Vodafone account and helped Lowe to hold on to it for nine years. Knox was the glue that held the agency together.
Lowe was built on the award-winning direct marketing agency Pearson Davis and its founder Stephen Pearson.
But Knox was the backroom genius - more so than Cameron Harland, the former Saatchi & Saatchi London executive who Pearson appointed to the No 2 role.
Harland resigned last week between the losses of Lotteries and Vodafone. He is admired by some in the industry, who say the account losses are not his doing.
Rather, it appears the agency was caught in a perfect storm: a combination of upheavals in its creative department (incumbent creative director Josh Moore leaves soon) and upheavals at owners Interpublic Group that forced Pearson to restructure.
There were also the usual upheavals that come when new management of clients seek reviews of advertising accounts, as occurred at Lotteries and Vodafone.
The question now is whether Lowe - now controlled by Pearson out of Sydney - tries to rebuild the agency in the New Zealand advertising market, which some people say is already too crowded.
Or the US-based Interpublic Group might do what it did with its other damaged brand in New Zealand - McCann Erickson - and fold it into its most successful operation, FCB.
