RNZ Concert: an opinion piece

A version of this opinion piece was published by the NZ Listener as “Music for the ages” in the issue dated February 22, 2020.

Hundreds gather at Parliament to participate in the Save RNZ Concert protest in February 2020

Massed choir and orchestra conducted by Brent Stewart

Last week Radio New Zealand management stunned its music team with a plan to radically change RNZ Concert, the organisation’s fine music network. The proposal was brutal: Concert’s FM transmission network would be taken over for a new youth-oriented project; Concert would be accessible only through streaming or an AM network shared with Parliament; all members of Concert’s highly-skilled staff including on-air presenters and producers of recorded programmes redundant; the on-air offering a 24/7 computer-generated playlist with no human curation and no presenters to introduce or inform the audience about the music.

Within hours, consternation spread throughout the arts and music community and Concert’s devoted audience. Two petitions garnered tens of thousands of signatories and a Facebook group called Save RNZ Concert gained over ten thousand members. Prominent New Zealand musicians, composers, arts professionals and politicians at home and overseas weighed in on Twitter and in the media in protest. Within days, the Prime Minister and Arts Minister offered a solution to the FM network aspect of the proposal, and the RNZ Board announced the next day that Concert would keep the network already allocated to it in legislation.

Internal threats to the country’s sole classical music network are not new, although this version loomed as the most catastrophic. The international award-winning Concert network has faced numerous restructurings and down-sizings over several decades. RNZ management has made no genuine attempt to understand Concert and its offerings, or, shamefully, the interests and opinions of its substantial audience.  Recent audience survey findings that listeners prefer music to lengthy talk shows, for instance, have been misinterpreted disingenuously to imply no on-air presenters are needed.

The current proposal is in fact a blatant internal grab of resources to address the fact that RNZ’s audience for both National and Concert is “skewed older” and needs to diversify. The growth in New Zealand’s older demographic is dismissed as irrelevant. The plan is to set up a network to attract an audience in the age-range 18-35 and Concert’s starvation rations are to be stolen for this.

Perhaps the most damaging aspect of the proposed evisceration of this gem of the cultural infrastructure is the effect on the wider arts ecology. Radio NZ Concert is a multiplier of arts funding and a vital hub for music and arts organisations; its team of skilled staff records concerts, champions musicians through interviews and broadcasts, and has contributed to the international careers of many of our shining stars. Unsurprisingly Dame Kiri Te Kanawa has added her voice to the outraged clamour. The Mobil (now Lexus) Song Quest was originally a Concert project, managed by Concert staff and is still broadcast on the network.

And what of the NZSO, Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, regional orchestras, Chamber Music NZ, Adam Chamber Music Festival, major city choirs, arts festivals? – the list goes on. Concert has recorded and broadcast their work in high quality stereo, taking it to New Zealanders in all regions, providing access to those unable to attend concerts through geography, age or disability.  It has interviewed their conductors, performers and guest artists and reviewed their concerts, promoting their work and contributing to their viability.

 New Zealand composers are one group potentially hugely disadvantaged. Concert’s recordings of new works have demonstrably advanced careers. John Psathas tells the story of a recording of his fanfare for the opening of Te Papa leading to his commission to provide opening music for the Athens Olympics. This country took enormous pride in his international achievements. Rising composer stars like Claire Cowan and Salina Fisher talk about the exposure and validation Concert provided early in their careers.

SOUNZ, Centre for New Zealand Music, has partnered with Concert to produce a thousand films of new New Zealand music; high-quality Concert recorded sound is an essential feature of these, which are promotional tools for composers, audience multipliers and a major source of international interest. This video partnership and another with APO will end if the staffing reduction proposal goes ahead.  

Ironically in the UK the BBC proudly announced new audience figures the day after RNZ’s destructive proposal became public. Radio 3 [Concert’s equivalent], posted its highest audience ratings in years, in part because young people have migrated to classical music. The UK’s Classic FM also reports increased audiences for the same reason, supported by energetic social media campaigns. Radio 1, the BBC’s flagship youth station, slumped for the first time, demonstrating the challenges in reaching under-35’s. Is RNZ looking at international trends? 

How do Concert’s audience figures compare? The cumulative weekly audience for Concert is 173,300, about 4% of the NZ population over 10. This is an excellent figure for a specialized radio network. Radio 3 is celebrating having reached about 3.55%, comparing on a per capita basis.

And staff numbers? Radio 3 has over a hundred staff,  Concert fewer than twenty. In terms of government expenditure, Concert’s annual budget of approximately $3 million, about half of which is the cost of the FM transmission network, seems ridiculously small.

The architects of the proposal are Radio NZ Chief Executive Paul Thompson and Music Content Director Willy Macalister. The latter “hopes to appeal” to a new youth audience. Macalister came to RNZ a year ago from commercial radio and has not consulted the experienced Concert team nor arts organisations and others about his youth network plans. His risky proposal takes a punt on a potential new audience, one already well-served with radio and digital offerings, while sacrificing a loyal existing one. RNZ does not have a good history with the younger demographic – its on-line youth project The Wireless from 2013 folded after five years, having failed to meet objectives.

The Labour Party promised to protect Concert in its 2017 Manifesto and ministers need to move swiftly to do so.  At the time of writing the Prime Minister, also Minister for the Arts, has expressed a view that a youth network should not mean the loss of Concert. Additional FM frequency has been found. But the real issues are still the Concert personnel and operational budget – until these are protected, the protests will continue.