Radio NZ piano sale to make ends meet

Richard Griffin. Photo / Wairarapa Times-Age

Radio New Zealand Concert FM is selling off its musical heritage - two grand pianos - to help meet a government funding freeze.

The broadcaster has put a 1985 Steinway Concert Grand piano and 1974 Bosendorfer out to tender.

But they won't easily fit into the average suburban lounge as one is 2.7m long and the other 2m.

A Steinway D Series, which is used by Te Papa, is not being sold.

Concert FM manager Roger Smith said the pianos had "a huge" symbolic value, having been played by top concert pianists such as Michael Houstoun.

"On one hand they are a hangover from the days when Concert FM had a lot of studios and could do a lot of studio recording," he said. "But the symbolism remains with those instruments, and in losing them, I personally think it's a shame."

RNZ's new chairman Richard Griffin and CEO Peter Cavanagh faced Parliament's commerce select committee yesterday amid concerns about the Government's freeze.

In a desperate plea for more money, Mr Griffin conceded that the future hopes of the network lay in cake stalls and two grand pianos.

There were concerns that he was looking at commercial sponsorship to counter the funding freeze.

But although Mr Griffin said that idea had merit, the rest of the board had ruled it out.

However, if more funding was not found, "we will wither on a vine".

He said Radio NZ was considering a charitable trust to seek donations from people who believed in public broadcasting.

Green MP Sue Kedgley was aghast at the prospect of Radio NZ going cap in hand to the public and standing outside supermarkets shaking buckets.

Mr Griffin said an ongoing freeze would create "havoc" after two years. However, there was indeed a "plan emerging".

"At this stage it hasn't got much past selling two grand pianos."

Grand pianos sell for $250,000- $300,000 but a piano expert who knows the RNZ instruments says the models - which would have been bought from new - had had a tough life and together might raise $60,000 to $80,000.

He said there were fewer than 50 full-sized grand pianos in the country.