Who Gut-Shot Radio New Zealand? ?They don?t have to sign the contracts if they don?t want to.?
Marion Nancarrow, Executive Producer, RNZ Drama, 2005.

Thirteen years ago Radio New Zealand had its annual funding from NZ On Air reduced by almost six million dollars. Between 1992 and 1994, funding dropped from $27.5 million to $21.9 million. Many long-term career employees were kicked out the door like stray dogs and programmes were slashed: children?s, music production, radio drama, continuing education and many more.

What was going on? To understand the disaster that hit Radio New Zealand it is necessary to see the larger context of political attacks on the NZ Public Service in the 1980s and 1990s.

These attacks began with the Incredible Sinking Lid Policy. The bizarre logic of this idea was that employees who left the service were not replaced. Unfortunately, this did not produce results fast enough so the Stupendous State Servant Turkey Hunt followed: large areas of public service employment were eradicated (eg in NZ Rail, Post Office, Public Works, etc).

This produced a stunning result: the NZ Public Service lost some fifty thousand employees in a few short years and almost twenty billion dollars worth of state assets were sold.

Radio New Zealand joined the rush. It was made into a State Owned Enterprise, or SOE. The commercial arm went to Australian buyers and it seemed as if the rest of RNZ would follow.

Then Maori raised their voice: the sale of broadcasting assets would interfere with the government?s obligation to protect the Maori language. Thus was born the network of Maori radio stations, funded in part through Te Mangai Paho.

The full sale of RNZ was, of course, not completed. But the cuts remain and restrictions on public radio?s activities have been severe.

The current funding for Radio New Zealand from NZOA is $25 million, well down on 1990 levels, especially when allowance is made for inflation.

The consequences for writers are also severe. The drama dept was reduced from more than fifteen editors and producers to just three full-time employees and one part time. Moreover, this total includes producers of stories, book adaptations and children?s programmes.

The production budget for radio drama now provides for a mere twelve hours of airtime per year.

Can?t sell your script to Radio Drama? Guess why.

In former times, there were three drama production houses: Auckland, Wellington, and, in earlier days, Christchurch. Now there is one: Wellington.

Faced with a shortage of programme material, the consequence of budget cuts, RNZ came up with a cunning plan: they replaced the old contract system. The original contract provided for one play plus one repeat. After that, a new fee was payable if RNZ wanted further use of the scripts.
RNZ introduced perpetual rights for themselves. They decided to pay a single fee, which would allow unlimited playing rights. This is the system we have now. Pay now, play later ? and later ? and later ? and later.

Radio scripting is, of course, a difficult skill and those who learn it might hope they are adequately paid for their efforts. They might also expect there will be a reasonably strong market for their product. But on twelve hours per year? No way!

Radio New Zealand has been gut-shot by politicians who couldn?t care less about its many talented employees or the important contribution they have always made to NZ?s cultural life. They have taken radio drama, children?s programmes, music production and continuing education, along with other important areas of radio broadcasting, and squeezed them until the pips scream; until they are little more than token replicas of what they once were, if indeed they still exist at all.

There is one unpleasant lesson to be learned from all this: when something in the public arena is destroyed, it can be very difficult to put the pieces back together.

Remember the old Broadcasting House in Bowen Street, Wellington? It was a purpose-built facility, worth at least $30 million, a centre for cultural activities for more than thirty years and reduced to a smoking pile of rubble by the Bolger Government... for no reason at all! It was done to provide access to a new government building behind the Beehive that was never built.

Writers have a responsibility to grapple with the problem of bad contracts, inadequate funding and destruction of their livelihood by tackling the politicians any way they can. I have tried asking questions at public meetings, but never get sensible answers. (Winston Peters responded by asking his own question and answering that!)

Politicians are always prepared to foghorn on about Peter Jackson and his achievements when it suits them. They have no understanding that Radio New Zealand has, in former times, provided regular work for many actors, writers, producers and script editors. So when King Kong or some other extravaganza hits town the talent has been available.

Your handy action checklist:

1. Radio New Zealand funding should be restored to 1990 levels and adjusted for inflation.
2. Drama, children?s, continuing education and music production units should be restored to former levels.
3. All current unlimited rights contracts should be cancelled and replaced by the one plus one system.
4. All new contracts should incorporate the one plus one system.
5. Concert FM should once again broadcast spoken word programmes.
6. Production studios in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch should be fully reinstated and properly staffed.

Tricky half-truths that will be told to you by RNZ management:

1. ?Writers get valuable publicity by having their work broadcast.? (Perhaps, but RNZ is still getting a service that deserves to be adequately paid.
2. ?Everyone watches television these days.? (Really?)
3. ?Writers make sales of their publications through exposure on radio.? (Not proven. And this could only apply for the short time the publication remains in print.)
4. ?It?s a competitive world out there. If you don?t like it, go someplace else.? (Where to? Radio New Zealand is a public corporation. It should be looking after the interests of its writers as well as those of the public. In fact, some thirty years ago, it loaded NZ writing with a premium fee to encourage new writing.)
5. ?Radio production is too expensive.? (Radio is a relatively cheap medium.)
6. ?The old system was too costly to administer and we don?t have the staff.? (It wasn?t and you do.)
7. ?It?s not radio?s business to sponsor the arts.? (Yes, they really did say this.)

All this talk from broadcasters is very hard to deal with. But the alternative is much worse. If we allow organisations such as Radio New Zealand to treat writers with contempt, this attitude will flow on to others. In its early days The Dictionary Of New Zealand Biography did not pay writers for scripts. I caught one pompous Pecksniff at a public meeting saying that he, personally, would be highly insulted at any suggestion that he be paid for his contribution.

The DNZB was later more or less shamed into changing its position. So what are the chances of doing that with Radio New Zealand? You?ve got virtually no show, for broadcasters don?t hold the purse strings.

Moreover, broadcasting can be a cruel world to work in as I found to my cost in the course of some fifteen years in radio. Salaries are mediocre and there are few opportunities for promotion. If you tackle a senior broadcaster he may well be thinking, ?I can?t take any notice of these important and urgent concerns, for I could easily stuff up my future prospects.? You will certainly get the slippery, silver-tongue treatment, for most of those gentry have spent years gabbing into microphones.

Broadcasters have got the talk. Nevertheless, to give them due credit, they will usually be on your side, though they may never admit it.

During the last election campaign I attended some twenty-five political meetings, as a candidate for the Progressive Party. I never heard public broadcasting mentioned, except when one Nat. politician hinted that his party would look at selling the remaining broadcasting assets. If that happens, opportunities for selling drama or story scripts to radio will probably be gone for all time.

We have to grapple with those responsible for the mess that public radio broadcasting has become. We must seek them out in their nests, anthills and warrens, their lairs and snake pits. Nothing else will do.