Sean Plunket responds to reports his future at Magic Talk is uncertain

Magic Talk radio host Sean Plunket. Photo / Dean Purcell

Controversial radio host Sean Plunket says he is still an employee of MediaWorks amid reports his future at the company's station Magic Talk is uncertain.

The talkback host may not be returning to his regular slot and management was in "crisis talks" after former host John Banks last month endorsed the views of a caller who described Māori as "stone-age people with a stone-age culture", Stuff reported.

Banks, a former Auckland mayor, was taken off the air and MediaWorks chief executive Cam Wallace said Banks would never get another job at the station while he was at the helm.

Plunket was not a broadcaster on that segment.

Stuff reported that Plunket had been asked not to return to the station, but that he might fight it.

Plunket told the Herald he was still employed by the company but declined to comment further.

A MediaWorks spokeswoman said she couldn't discuss individual employment matters.

Plunket hosts the show Magic Afternoons with Sean Plunket weekdays from noon-4pm.

In December, the Broadcasting Standards Authority rebuked MediaWorks after a May 6 Plunket interview with Te Whānau ā Apanui spokesman Louis Rapihana on Covid-19 checkpoints.

The BSA said the interview amplified negative stereotypes about Māori and had the potential to cause widespread harm.

At the time, MediaWorks said it accepted the BSA's decision.

"[We] understand the comments made during this live broadcast could have caused distress, and for that we apologise."