That's strange, because out of all the Channel Z djs, I'd always thought that Coleman would be the one least commited to the actual station and most commited to his own career.

James Coleman not going to be on KiwiFM? oh man. I would've thought he would be all for it. I think Bomber possibly is still going to be on it, Amz keeps saying he's back in February. Phoebe might still be on I think, shes a huge NZ music fan. That only leaves Angelina, Karyn, Nathan and Curly. Who's staying and going? It's gonna be a shock. However I think they have hinted with having new presenters (ben and asher) debut after new years maybe it could be them.

james is on the NZ on air board

mel & ange......WTF

everytime i have heard them they remind me of txt speak;
LOMFG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

stupid girly tarts

well, as someone one said earlier, whenever a company changes it's format/name/etc. it's customary to fire all it's employees then re-hire them, just to make the any changes run smoothly.

i don't know if that's the case here, but if someone's in the know it'd be interesting to hear what's really going down

not really,

it';s what happen when real groovy took over echo records in the south island

and besides which, under the new company structure they will probably give them new contracts, ones that'd probably pay less then the Channel Z contracts.

...which wouldn't make for happy djs...

idle speculation - but it's something that i can see them doing, seeing this is a very risky venture, that i can imagine would struggle to find decent funding

what?

Furboy, just to be clear, I'm not saying that it will be huge, but that being a novel idea, and something that is rather untested, it has a chance of being huge. Not necessarily a huge chance, but being a bit more innovative, a better chance than most other ideas they are likely to dream up anytime soon.

You're not much of a radio listener, but I am, so let me go through my current choices. I listen to a mix of The Rock, Radio 1 (dunedin bnet), and National Radio. My ideal station would a combination of rock, indie, nz, and interviews (ie mash those three together). Each of those stations frequently play things which make me surf -- tool, creed, classical & random other stuff. To me, all in all, even a relatively bad mix of nz music is likely to be more to my taste than those other 3 radio stations, not that they are going to be broadcasting into dunedin (as yet).

ah ok, i understand where you're coming from now, but do you think it's representitive of the general listening public out there? i can say that most of the people i know that listen to radio, can't actually be bothered changing stations, unless they aren't enjoying what they're listening to (what was i saying about a conscientious public? ok, conscientious only to a certain extent then...)

while i respect your position as someone who actually knows what to get out of your radio stations (i enjoy nat radio actually, more for the talk-back etc) but as someone who doesn't really listen to radio, wouldn't that make me a somewhat objective observer?

Grant Hislop is a canny lad, I think he knows what he is doing.

// unless they aren't enjoying what they're listening to

heheh. Hence my point about creed. And you're right, I surf far more when I have access to a digital tuner!! And yes, national radio's interviews/stuff are good, but I can also recommend saturday afternoon's music shows. Whether they'll be to your taste I'm not sure, but they review a lot of new stuff, and have some interesting interview plus an nz music show.

I don't know whether they have to go quite as far as event management, but just getting the association and promotion of stuff. the rock send scantily clad women to car shows etc., that kind of thing, to identify an audience and to work it.

And re your comments on Britpop. If Channel Z was not rating quite the way the owner wanted, maybe the change to Britpop was to try and shift the format to win better, and that didn't work, hence we're now at Kiwi FM. And thinking of canniness, one thing I note Kiwi are doing is a countdown to start themselves off. And of course, a very convenient way of finding out what people like and what they don't.

well i never doubted that canwest, the huge multi-nat that it is, would ever truly lose out in the grand scheme of things. but if the existence of a radio station depends on it's listenership i hardly see this radio station surviving. might only be a bump to canwest, but still a risk so far as the chance of this station being a SUCCESS is highly implausible

Canwest International aren't doing that great actually, the NZ part (which is a standalone company with a majority holding from international) supplies them with the readies that they're burning through around the rest of the world.

Potential reward is somewhat related to risk, and so while I wouldn't guarantee it will be a success, I suspect if it does work, it'll work very well. Bill Gates is attributed as having said that one day they'd be a computer on every desk, and the cynics were out in force. However, crazy as the idea seemed, he seems to have made a little bit of bling.

actually yesi do have a point. and that is, this WON'T work.

yes i'm sure they've put thought into it, but since when have all initiatives into radio succeded? you remember the Dot?

they have their own batch of information and assumptions on how this will work, and i will bow my head if it works.

but everything i've surmised and taken into consideration, from my own limited field of knowledge, as well as what you've said, points to this station not being successful AT ALL

your comparison with bill gates and microsoft, though i understand the intention, is very different to this however-

the technology and it's applications was what allowed computers to become a successful industry. it's use as a versatile tool and integration into the family unit, means that bill gates obviously knew what he was doing.

but what we're talking about here is the media- a very fickle industry, that both has to satisfy and predict what the recipients want, ultimately to make as large a profit margin as possible.

so already you have two very tricky factors that you have to take into consideration a) trying to attract and please a conscientious public, b) increase ratings by achieveing a loyal listenership.

our population is just to small and well informed, for me to see that this radio station will actually accomplish this

You're suggesting that media is more fickle than computers??

I believe one of the naysayers to Gates was the head of IBM, who at the time couldn't see past mainframes?? Netscape used to be the 90% used browser. Remember Gateway? The PC Company? How many times have apple had to reinvent themselves to cater to the changing times? So to argue that Gates knew what he was doing when he said that is something you can only say with the joy of hindsight.

//conscientious public

I would have thought that if the public were 'conscientious' then they'd probably feel obliged to listen to either Kiwi or NatRad, and all the rest of the commercial stations would be screwed....

And yes, the do have to "predict". They've probably done some market research (vomits), and think that this might be a winning idea.

//to make as large a profit margin as possible.

exactly. this is why they have to take risks and innovate. this is like a little R&D on the side. do a little google, and find some of the cynics prior to the C4 launch. Or those who thought that TV3 was not going to survive (it did go bust at least once prior to current management).

And as you've just admitted, there is an off-chance that it could work. And if it does, they stand to make a mint. If it doesn't work, they lose a bit, and move on.

The problem with the dot is that it never got off the ground. In '99 when they adopted a live DJ format I thought that they would get on to something, but they spent the entire year being nothing more than a Channel Z clone (with the odd "indie favourite" thrown in among the Limp Bizkit and Kid Rock).

I remember reading an interview with the ex-programme director of the dot, and he said that he strove to fill the gap between the bNET and commercial stations, but the station simply did not take the necessary leaps. To my mind, the original Channel Z (John Diver's Wellington baby 1996-1998) was far more successful in offering listeners a true alternative to the blandness of ZM/Classic Hits and the wankery of student radio. It was too good to last.

I simply don't think it can without destroying quite a few of my favourite songs through constant replaying.

how would MAi not fit into this?

//bomber is channelz

given that this is kiwi FM not channelz that would seem like a good reason to get rid of him, given that channelz was rating so badly.