KEY POINTS:
Auckland breakfast radio ratings results should be the make or break for the likeably alternative MediaWorks RadioLive breakfast host Marcus Lush.
But they probably won't. The radio station seems to be happy to sit back in a role as an also-ran offbeat alternative information station.
When it started three years ago it was meant to take on Newstalk ZB and Radio New Zealand National - but the expectations appear to have become increasingly vague.
In a survey released in April, RadioLive was 13th placed of 22 Auckland radio station with a 2.3 per cent share of breakfast listeners aged over 10.
National Radio or Concert FM are not included in the survey.
That compares with first-placed Newstalk's 21.7 per cent.
National Radio's Morning Report is not surveyed but believed to be way ahead of RadioLive.
If MediaWorks is really thinking about having a go at Newstalk ZB, now is surely the time. Mike Hosking is taking over from Paul Holmes after his 20-year reign.
But failing a surprise, in the new set of ratings released today, RadioLive Breakfast is unlikely to move up the radio rung.
RadioLive has off-peak successes like the Willie and JT show,
But at breakfast it has been missing in action for a long time, going back to the days of Martin Devlin.
RadioLive station manager Mitch Harris says he has no problems with the channel's performance and it is still "early days" with Lush only in the breakfast role for a year.
"We're happy with it," said Harris, before the release of the latest survey results.
Lord knows it is not Lush's fault. He is a great broadcaster - intelligent , unique, entertaining. But on breakfast talk radio he is a fish out of water.
You can argue that Lush is too good to waste on night-time radio when he can let fly with his brilliance but to a tiny audience.
But you can also argue about whether RadioLive, with its current approach, is ever going to challenge either Newstalk or NatRad.
* Newstalk ZB operator The Radio Network is half-owned by APN News & Media, owner of the New Zealand Herald.
LIVE OPTIONS
Who could give Hosking and Morning Report a run for their money?
One obvious choice would be Sean Plunket who has told Radio New Zealand National that he will be leaving at the end of the year, and whose sharp interviewing style suits the cut and thrust of morning news radio.
But apparently not - there are no plans for him to join. Former RadioLive jock Paul Henry is also sharp as a tack and is used to early starts on TVNZ's Breakfast programme.
Unhappy with his lot, he went on an extended holiday earlier this year. But Henry told me he was entrenched at TVNZ on Breakfast filling in for Mark Sainsbury on Close Up.
SWANSONG SURVEY
Today's Research International results will be the last Auckland radio survey for Holmes and it would be surprising if he does not go out on a high.
The run-up to the election is like an extended promotional opportunity for the broadcaster who has fronted Newstalk ZB breakfast for 20 years.
There is no shortage of hagiography for Holmes. But the fact is, he has survived for years through having a fire in his belly - and a willingness to adapt or die.
HANNAH & HER SISTER
TVNZ says its Australia correspondent Hannah Hodson is still awaiting the outcome of an employment process over the ill-fated interview with the rock singer Pink.
Hodson's "status has not not been affected" during the process but TVNZ refused to say whether she had been removed from the air.
Spokeswoman Megan Richards said that if a news event took place in Hodson's "patch" and she was unavailable, TVNZ would find somebody else to do the story.
But it is about more than Hodson popping an awkward question about her sister being dropped from Pink's staff with the interview speeding out of control after that.
Hodson has had a roller-coaster career. In 2004 she was asked to leave TV3 for passing on a fax that identified to authorities a whistleblower on the police botch up of the Iraena Asher murder.
TV3 news boss Mark Jennings said at the time that Hodson's behaviour was "against every journalistic principle known".
But she has a strong confident style, and has also won a 2004 Qantas Media Award for a story on Coral Burrows and the SARS outbreak.
After being asked to leave TV3, TVNZ news boss Bill Ralston offered her a job to keep her away from Prime where she had also been offered a position.
This was during the poaching war. Hodson's fax - which led to the whistleblower losing her job - was just a youthful indiscretion, Ralston said. Hodson was transferred to the TVNZ parliamentary press gallery but a press gallery insider said that she and TVNZ political editor Guyon Espiner had a difficult rapport.
Again to the surprise of some staff, Hodson was rewarded with the plum role as Australia correspondent replacing all-rounder Garth Bray.
SHOOTING FOR STARS
Fallout between Pink and Hodson appears to go way beyond an indiscretion, but these celebrity rock star interviews are an odd business.
The record company - in this case it was Sony BMG - offers media access to quick interviews with stars as part of the marketing push for records or tours and in return - implicitly or explicitly - they avoid negative questions and promote celebrities.
The TV companies end up with a short, snappy face-to-face interview interspersed with music video clips - good fodder to attract young audiences and easy promotion for the news shows.
A lot of celebrities pass through Australia. TVNZ would be wary of offending the likes of Sony BMG and limiting its access to The Stars.
BLOCK SALE ACP
Magazines New Zealand chief executive Paul Dykzeul says that the sale of New Zealand Lifestyle Block magazine to Fairfax Media was a small matter, and it simply did not fit with ACP's Trader Group.
Fairfax Magazines chief executive Linley Belton said that Lifestyle Block would be merged with its title Growing Today which would incorporate the Lifestyle Block name.
One magazine industry insider said the sale looked odd at first glance as the Lifestyle Block market appeared strong. But it was a niche market.
BEATSON BACK
Elder statesman broadcaster David Beatson and satellite television channel Stratos are developing a programme to debate public and political issues, aiming to start in the middle of next year.
Beatson returned to screens this week presenting a pre-election programme on Stratos which provides a link for regional channels but will be unknown to anyone under 30 years old.
He will be remembered by older readers for presenting Compass, Gallery, Eyewitness News and Foreign Correspondent from a smarter era in current affairs. Beatson, who is now based in Matamata, says the new programme on Stratos - which screens on Sky and Freeview satellite platforms - would be an hour-long discussion. It was nerve-racking to be back on screen after such a long absence. "But if you are not a little nervous there is something wrong."
PHOTO SUCCESS
Whatever happened to Geoff Steven, the one-time feature film director turned TVNZ commissioning boss who decided what got made through much of the mid and late 1990s.
Steven - who is the father of Supergroove musician Karl Steven - now heads a team of photographers creating a data base of photographs of UNESCO's world heritage sites.
The plum contract is held by Our Place Publishing in which he is partner with publisher David Bateman.
The company will initially create a series of 10 books to be co-produced with other publishers around the world.
Steven remembered the genesis for his approaching UNESCO noting that in his role at TVNZ he had been "the king of the transient medium and I was looking for a project with more permanence, one that had a global perspective".
