Ed Lines: Chinese play had me hopping

"YOU have a face for radio."

It's an oldie, along with "You should be on the radio ... then we could turn the volume down and shut you up".

I've been subjected to the former jibe by one or two cruel friends, but not the latter. Or not to my radio face, as far as I know.

I like being on the radio - it's challenging, it's completely outside my media comfort zone, and you have to think on your feet, particularly if you are "live".

I've occasionally had the opportunity to be interviewed and have always seized it.

I have been lucky in that the opportunities have arisen because something positive is happening, and I get to extol the virtues of our wonderful region.

Locally, The Northern Advocate is a media partner in the Whangarei Love It Here campaign, and I was lucky enough to be invited to be part of Radioworks radio campaign on the subject.

On a similar note, National Radio broadcast Summer Report during the holidays and recently asked if I would do a 10-minute segment.

I said yes, of course, and was given a briefing of what they wanted, supplied a counter-briefing of what I could talk about and away we went.

It didn't start well - the producer couldn't hear a word I was saying due to a dodgy headset.

But once we were up and running it was great - until I mentioned that the Far North District Council had worked with Chinese delegates interested in business opportunities in Northland.

I had offered it up as an example of how Northland was potentially an attractive market to foreign investment. An impromptu example - it was not something I had advised the producer I would be talking about.

The journalistic instinct of the host took over and, intrigued, she asked me one or two questions off the cuff about the Chinese interest. I will be honest, I am not over-endowed with information about the current state of affairs re the China-Far North District Council talks re business opportunities.

I tried (in vain) to steer the host away from China but she had a strong desire to go there. To anyone who was listening - and thank you to those listeners who did and emailed to say they enjoyed my promotion of Northland - I apologise if I sounded anything but authoritative on the subject of Chinese foreign investment interest. Luckily, out of the 10-plus minutes, I managed to stick largely to the loose script.

But next time, I will stick to what I know - blimmin journalists!