12 staff to run Concert FM is ridiculous

The Spin Off reports:

No one seriously thought things could stay as they were. RNZ’s music outputs had been subject to reviews, personnel changes, and plenty of outside speculation. Concert FM was beloved by classic music fans but an audience of 170,000 wasn’t enough. And while its reputation as elitist wasn’t entirely fair, there was no doubt that its audience skewed to a certain seniority and privilege. Something had to give. And yet, according to RNZ staffers spoken to by The Spinoff, the scale of the overhaul announced on Wednesday left those affected stunned, baffled, “shellshocked”.

The top lines were these: a new music station for young New Zealanders would spring up. RNZ Concert wouldn’t be killed, not quite. But it would be gutted. An early headline on RNZ used that word – “gutted” – only to be changed within hours to “cut back”. But it’s a gutting, no doubt. Concert is to become an automated round-the-clock station online and on AM – unless parliament is in session. Its FM stereo frequency is to be taken over by a new music station targeting younger, more diverse audiences.

The thinking, as explained by RNZ CEO Paul Thompson, is to “allocate the FM where the bigger opportunity is”; to be “thinking five, 10, 15 years ahead [so] we can connect with younger New Zealanders”.

For the RNZ music team, this looked like a bloodbath: 20 jobs erased, including just about everyone at Concert, and a welter of redundancies, with impacts beyond Concert and into the numerous music curation and storytelling elements that are part of RNZ National.

The luvvies are up in arms on this, including Clark and Cullen who are demanding Jacinda intervene.

But frankly it sounds like Concert FM was bloated. 12 staff to run a frequency which 95% involves selecting a classical piece every 20 minutes or so.

And it is not as if they are dumping Concert FM. They are just automating it and putting it on AM. Those who like it can still listen in when they like. Or they could join the 20th century and create their own classical playlists.

On an average weekday morning less than 2% of NZers listen to Concert FM.