Campaigner gets on the wrong side of TV3 news chief by broadcasting clips of reporters' clangers on RadioLive
TV3 News and current affairs chief Mark Jennings has acknowledged that TV journos could do with a little extra training to improve diction.
But after an incident on Monday, he will not be taking up an offer of help from former TV star and clear-speech campaigner Lindsay Perigo.
A former TVNZ interviewer who famously dismissed state TV as "braindead", Perigo used a stint on RadioLive to broadcast examples of what he said was English language mangling from TV journos.
Jennings had been considering talking to Perigo but reacted badly to the RadioLive broadcast.
A falling-out between Jennings and Perigo, who was filling in at RadioLive, may be simply a clash of personalities.
Ironically, both are advocates of free speech - in their own terms.
But nine months after the fallout over RadioLive host Michael Laws criticising the TV3 Telethon, relations are still tetchy between the MediaWorks radio and TV arms.
On Tuesday, Perigo cut short his week-long stint filling in on Willie Jackson and John Tamihere's afternoon show on RadioLive.
According to Perigo, Jennings had "ranted" to RadioLive talk boss Mitch Harris after Perigo broadcast poor diction from TV3 journos.
Perigo had been on a campaign against "quacking" TV journalists, saying they undermined their credibility. He had approached TV3 offering training.
Segments drew strong listener feedback and Harris was very happy with the reaction.
But the reaction turned dark after Jennings sent in an email complaining about Perigo's show. Harris told him to "cut the old-fart stuff".
Perigo said that Jennings' complaint amounted to an "out-of-control rant from a guilty barbarian".
Perigo decided to leave after two days, telling RadioLive, "I have to be myself."
Jennings stressed he had not asked for Perigo to be removed, but felt he should have spoken to him rather than run audio of TV3 journos on air, especially if he was looking for work.
Perigo said he had not identified the journalists or TV3 and stressed that many TVNZ journalists had the same problem.
"I have 26 other clips of other reporters from both major networks I could have played, all of them indistinguishable in their hideous, ignorant Nasality and language-mangling," he said.
LAP DANCE
Also on Monday, Perigo hit a snag with an errant talk-back call.
Nobody expected one of his first calls, from a chap who offered graphic commentary on activity unfolding in his lap - culminating in a climactic act.
RadioLive boss Mitch Harris confirmed the episode, which he said slipped through when the producer became distracted, saying it was one of the hazards for talk-back radio.
HOTCH & HOSK
Newstalk ZB has tried to ease any discontent among mum-and-dad investors after Mike Hosking's ringing support for Mark Hotchin.
On Tuesday, Hosking took issue with a Sunday newspaper report that followed the Hotchin family to a luxury resort in Hawaii. Hotchin was a victim of "tall poppy syndrome", Hosking said.
There was an undercurrrent in New Zealand media - particularly in print - that wanted to persecute people.
"Their sickle can't cut enough tall poppies down," he said. "What's his crime? There isn't one."
On Wednesday, Newstalk drive time host Larry Williams - who's pitched as the friend to the battling working class and small businessman - begged to differ.
In an apparent reference to his Newstalk colleague, later used in promos, Williams said there had been "a lot of uninformed comment" about Hanover and Hotchin.
He detailed problems with Hanover.
"I can understand the outrage of Hanover investors seeing Hotchin living the high life in Hawaii. They are livid and they have every right to be so."
Newstalk must be concerned about how Hosking's views play out with its core demographic. That includes older people with a small amount of money to invest - the mum-and-dad investors hurt in the collapse of Hanover.
Hosking did not return calls or emails. Dallas Gurney, head of talk radio for The Radio Network, said only: "We hire announcers to have opinions."
HOORAY FOR MIKE
You may not agree with his view of the world, but Mike Hosking is never shy about being pleased with his opinions, even when they seem odd.
Not only does he like what he says, but he also says what he likes, even when that alienates the core demographic.
There will be some people who agree with Hosking's criticism of the media and coverage of high-profile people and celebrities.
Last week in this column, actors' agent Karen Kay complained about media coverage of her client, the down-at-heel celebrity saleswoman Suzanne Paul.
Hosking has had a personal stoush that led to a court case over photos of his children. Yet Hosking - who fronts TV One's Close Up on Friday and is viewed as an eventual replacement for Mark Sainsbury - seldom questions radio or television.
That night, TV3's Campbell Live had an astonishing door-stepping of Hotchin in Hawaii. In these situations you inevitably ask yourself what Paul Holmes would have said about the feeding frenzy.
Firstly, if there was controversy to be had, Holmes would often be outrageous because of the radio ratings survey, with the possibility that people would tune in just to be angry.
But there is no survey at the moment. A friend of both men said they share similar issues - both lived their lives with the rich and famous but spoke each day to the hoi polloi.
"Holmes is a master at this," said a chum. For want of a better word, it is the common touch. "He would have felt sorry for the Hanover investors who had lost out, then added at the end that he also felt sorry for the Hotchin family."
Hosking's approach was to identify with the celebrity and pay little concern for listeners.
SWEAT PANTS
New Zealand gyms and fitness centres are starting to sweat over the music industry review of charges for background music.
They are hoping the local music industry will be out of step with its counterpart across the Tasman and won't try for a heavyweight price rise like the one imposed over there.
Aussie fitness centres lost a claim against an increase by the copyright collections body Phonographic Performances Corporation of Australia (PPCA).
A decision by the Australian Copyright Tribunal has given a thumbs up to a 1500 per cent increase in the fee for using music in aerobics classes, adding tens of thousands of dollars to costs for some of the bigger gyms.
As a result fees for music at aerobics sessions increased from 97c per class to $15 - a dollar extra for each person.
In this country, the music collections agency Phonographic Performances New Zealand is reviewing its fees to musicians and performers for music - including gyms and fitness centres.
PPNZ proposals aren't expected to be released until next month but Fitness New Zealand chief executive Richard Beddie said that PPNZ had given him assurances the review was distinct from fee rises across the Tasman.
The PPCA and PPNZ are both dominated by the same multinational record companies - but PPNZ insists that it is independent.
That is business. Record companies are haemmorrhaging revenue from CD sales at the moment and have to make it up somehow.
The question as the music industry increases revenue from background music is whether it prices itself out of the market, as it did with CDs.
MUSIC MOVES
Gyms and fitness centres who say they cannot afford a fee rise will have to find a way to live with an increase.
Across the Tasman, some gyms are developing their own cover versions of hit songs that would not attract copyright fees for performers and record companies.
They would still be required to pay copyright fees to songwriters through the Australasian Performing Right Association.
Les Mills has been producing its own fitness music programme in Australia, free of PPCA fees.
Even PPCA chief executive Stephen Peach has been impressed. according to an ABC report.
It may be apparent soon whether punters will be happy forsaking their hit records for gym versions of their favourite songs.
