Radio Radio 2

Rip It Up, Issue 29, 1 December 1979, Page 3

Radio Radio 2

It's not what you play that matters; it's the prizes that you offer that win the game.

Or so goes the logic behind a fight to the death currently raging between Auckland's two "youth" radio stations. Unfortunately, the only one's dying so far are the bored listeners. Rip It Up’s October issue reported on the goings-on around Auckland radio stations during September: Barry Jenkin sacked by Hauraki cause: ‘‘falling ratings”; Barry Jenkin taken on by rival IZM; Hauraki’s Fred Botica joins ZM too; ZM launch a campaign master-minded by some swank American “specialist” to shake Hauraki by the roots; principally due to BJ’s popularity, things looked good for ZM. An update on the situation is souring. Both stations are mercilessly and unashamedly buying their audiences. IZM is paying SSO to passers-by who cite 1251 ZM as their radio station. They’ve also been asking people to identify album tracks, make “the switch” and join in ‘‘the great snatch”. Not for nothing either. Radio Hauraki’s promotion has included

double page advertisements in the dailies for its $25,000 car competition as well as the tried and true “Radio H is my favourite radio station” telephone answer. Worse still is the meat in the sandwich, which not to stretch the metaphor too far is positively fly-blown. Radio Hauraki has stayed true to form, that is cruising along with middle stream music in most time slots. Barry Jenkin has been replaced by John Hood from Radio Windy and, although he couldn’t hold a candle to the BJ shows of old, Hood is at least putting his toe in the water. Which is more than can be said for ZM. Record companies whinge that for three weeks in November, not a single new track was added to the ZM playlist. A listeners' survey purported to have been undertaken by ZM, augured no better. Included for rating were such pterodactyls as Matt Munro's “Born Free” and Pink Floyd’s “Money”; the average age of the tracks listed looked to be around two months. As one record company man was heard to say, “If every radio station was like ZM, there wouldn’t be any new releases.” The latest McNair survey covers the month following Barry Jenkin’s departure from Radio Hauraki. ZM's jump to 29.7 per cent of the total audience between 7 and 12pm gives the lie to Radio Hauraki’s claims concerning the audience for Barry Jenkin’s slot. Anyway, in a game like this one, figures are arbitary. What they play is what really matters. Not the number of commercials on the air, the t-shirts, albums or Dino Ferraris, or the catchy slogans either. Anyway, the only switch that means anything now is the one that turns the damned thing off. Louise Chunn