Tensions are at an all-time high at Farming Show HQ - sorry, The Country HQ. Yes, the gold 'ol Farming Show is now The Country. It's all about integrating the rural brands under one platform... um... or is it aligning print, digital and?... oh God, I can't actually remember what the reason is - it's wrapped up in the kind of corporate jargon that doesn't make any sense to me, but the upshot for all you wonderful listeners out there is it's pretty much business as usual. It's the radio name-change equivalent of 3News changing to NewsHub.
I hope it's not as tumultuous as that though with news emerging last week Hilary Barry's hung up the mic. She'll be greatly missed, a brilliant broadcaster with broad appeal. Surely it's not a precursor for what's to come down south, although if the stress levels of host Jamie Mackay are anything to go by he may be joining Hilary in the broadcaster's retirement village. Let's hope not as The Country is now being broadcast on the juggernaut that is Newstalk ZB, alongside its traditional home of Radio Sport and associated affiliate stations.
But Monday's near seamless on-air launch was preceded by some less than amicable off-air autocracy. As the team made its way to Kim Jong Jamie's office for the scheduled 9am daily meeting we discovered it was vacant; he'd relocated to the studio to record an interview, breaking his own steadfast edict that under no circumstances will the 9am meeting be missed by anyone! A classic case of "do as I say, not as I do". Our inquisitive gaze was met with an angry flip of the bird and a tersely delivered vignette of abuse, informing his workers that they wouldn't be standing there with puzzled looks slapped all over their faces if they'd simply read their f@^#n emails! (An email that was delivered at 8.57am!)
It was the culmination of months of stress but there have been plenty of helpful examples of stress relief to take heed of in the last week. The Warriors certainly know how to unwind after a big loss - mix a load of prescription drugs with energy drinks! Winner! Alternatively, Jamie could have come along to Forsyth Barr Stadium on Saturday night to see Black Sabbath - plenty of 'stress relief' there! Or he could have taken a leaf out of the Louis van Key, ah, I mean, Louis van Gaal playbook. The Man U manager astutely pointed out this week it's unacceptable to grab a human being by the hair, except when engaging in "sex masochism, then it is allowed". I think one or two other New Zealanders could learn a lesson from Loius here.
However, there may be some genetic pre-disposition to explain this unreasonable level of grumpiness. Unlike McKay, or Mckay, our glorious leader derives his surname from the 'Mackay' clan, a small yet important distinction. Tuesday marked the death of a chap with the same surname, Charles Mackay, a former Mayor of Wanganui. He was shot dead by a German policeman during communist riots in Berlin on May 3rd 1929. He had left New Zealand a few years earlier after serving six years in jail for the attempted murder of a poet. The poet had accused him of making 'advances' towards him and demanded an apology, hence the shooting.
