Media: Live action at RadioLive meeting

Andrew Fagan. Photo / Supplied

Tensions were high at RadioLive on Wednesday night after announcer Andrew Fagan dressed in motorcycle leathers, jumped on to a boardroom table with a plastic knife and took Willie Jackson to task.

Fagan faced up to Jackson, four-letter words ran thick and fast and other RadioLive hosts at the do had to keep them apart, a source said.

RadioLive hosts had a special work get-together in Ponsonby offices that traversed legal issues such as defamation.

RadioLive programmer Mitch Harris yesterday sought to play down the Wednesday incident, saying Fagan assured him yesterday it was a joke.

"We are a pretty robust bunch but I think it definitely went on for too long," Harris said.

Fagan - who presents a night-time show with his partner Karyn Hay - is renowned for his offbeat humour.

But a RadioLive insider said nobody was laughing.

Michael Laws and John Tamihere had intervened, and Fagan and Hay did not join the rest of the RadioLive crew as they went to a social get-together after the meeting.

The source said Fagan had taken issue with Jackson's recent on-air comments suggesting Fagan's broadcasting skills were not as good as Hay's.

Fagan said that he had played a similar act with a plastic knife on other people he had been offside with in the past but Jackson had not been such a willing victim. He said that in the aftermath there were no ill feelings between him and Jackson.

PATTERSON SAFE

RadioLive says the co-presenter of its scrapped Sunday Live programme, Andrew Paterson, will be on leave for a month and that he remains a key part of the RadioLive team with other roles.

Business editor and presenter Patterson - a former sharebroker who has a reputation as a smart broadcaster - presented the show with Finlay Macdonald. But Sunday Live was scrapped to make way for a new Martin Devlin weekend sports show.

RED TOP

Former Sunday News editor Chris Baldock has been appointed to a part-time role as editor of New Zealand Truth. Baldock - who left Fairfax Media amid a cost-cutting exercise - replaces Wayne Butler at Truth.

BLOCKBUSTER WHOPPER

American-owned Reading Cinema has been in talks with Tasman Pacific Foods to buy the master franchise for Burger King in New Zealand.

Tasman Pacific confirmed negotiations were under way with one party and was hopeful they would lead to a sale. Tasman would not say whom it was dealing with.

It is understood that Reading might take over Burger King from the end of June.

Reading - which is the second-biggest cinema operation in New Zealand behind SkyCity Cinemas - has been in talks for some time.

The company also has property interests and owns 27ha of land near Auckland International Airport.

The move into fast food is a first for Reading which has cinema and property interests in the United States, where it is the 13th-biggest exhibitor, and Australia, where it is fourth.

Its main Auckland interest is a half share of the arthouse Rialto Cinema but it also owns 48 screens in nine centres such as Wellington, Christchurch, Rotorua and Queenstown.

A US entertainment industry investor, who would not be named, said that the Burger King deal would make sense for Reading.

"With the economy changed it would be a great move for Reading to move more of its assets into things that generate cash flow and grow with more units," said a Reading investor.

THIS TIME?

There may be an element of "believe it when we see it" in Reading's talks to take over the Burger King master franchise.

During its negotiations to buy SkyCity Cinemas, Reading lingered for months offering a low price even after a huge writedown, driving SkyCity to distraction before it finally took the chain off the market.

TVNZ AND VEITCH

This media column asked TVNZ shareholding minister Jonathan Coleman about discussions with TVNZ chief executive Rick Ellis regarding the broadcaster's handling of former sports presenter Tony Veitch.

He said: "The essence of that discussion is as follows: According to TVNZ's file note on the December 2007 meeting between Veitch and senior TVNZ executives, TVNZ didn't have sufficient information from that meeting to consider this an employment issue. TVNZ has a legal opinion backing up this view and their subsequent action. It was only after the July 2008 media revelations that it became apparent this was indeed an employment issue," the minister said.

ONLINE ADVANTAGE

How secret were the details of the Budget? Not so secret at all if you were working for state broadcasting.

Private sector media companies were unhappy this week after it was revealed that Government and Treasury policy allowed details of the Budget to be released to production units at Radio New Zealand for live broadcasts to be released to TVNZ and RNZ one hour before the end of the lock-up at 2pm.

Fairfax and nzherald.co.nz both raised concerns that the early release gave an advantage to RNZ and TVNZ online operations - and a commercial advantage to tvnz.co.nz.

Treasury PR man Mike Munro said the advance access was subject to a promise the information could be used only for live shows, not for an online advantage.

As for the possibility that individual broadcasters could use their hour advantage to ring their sharebrokers to buy or sell affected stocks - Munro said there was an agreement not to do so.

THE NEW FAIRFAX

More changes are planned for the Fairfax business weekly the Independent. Editor Fiona Rotherham this week rebutted speculation on the "Journz" website that this week's edition might be the last for the paper. But it is understood that after hiring a top staffer, more cuts are planned and that Fairfax has stepped back from Rotherham's plan to reorganise the title.

The Indie brand - which Fairfax bought from Warren Berryman and Jenni McManus in February 2006 - is expected to survive intact in this tough market.

One of the Indie's biggest supporters has been Joan Withers, the Fairfax New Zealand chief executive who steps down at the end of June.

Withers will be replaced by Australian Allen Williams, one of several former Rural Press executives in key roles at the new Fairfax. The head of publishing, Rodger Shepherd, has recently resigned from the company.

Shepherd had been handpicked by Kirk to replace Withers, He told Stuff in March he was disappointed not to get the job.

STRIDE TO PR

Nick Stride has resigned from the Independent for a senior role with public relations company Baldwin Boyle.

Stride - who was a reluctant editor for the Independent from October 2006 to 2008 - has been a business writer since 1990, including several years at the National Business Review.

He is seen as a loss for the Indie. Stride's defection to PR is part of a run of losses of senior business journalists in recent weeks.

Fairfax Sunday Star-Times' Garry Sheeran is leaving as part of cost-cutting at Fairfax Sundays, while at TVNZ senior business journalist Owen Poland also saw his position scrapped in redundancies.

PHONEY WAR

The mobile marketing battlefield is now mapped out with 2degrees selecting TBWAWhybin as its advertising agency, against Saatchi & Saatchi for Telecom and Colenso BBDO for Vodafone.

2degrees will be launching New Zealand's third nationwide mobile phone network in August.

TBWAWhybin is already hard at work collaborating with 2degrees and preparing them for a full-service brand launch.

The new business was secured after a competitive pitch.