MEDIAWATCH: The real story media are ignoring in Today FM meltdown

21
2267

MediaWorks shock: Today FM locks and deletes social media profiles, broadcast signals end to station

The head of Today FM’s digital team has posted a now-deleted message to its social media accounts, saying “we were robbed”.

Shocked?

How?

The writing on the wall here was apparent shortly after they launched this disaster!

The 5 year plan that all the staff are pointing to as their supposed lifeline was utterly dependent on them actually growing the audience over that time.

In the year of operation after MagicTalk, Today FM went down every single poll!

They went from MagicTalks 2.6 to 1.4 which represents the lowest ratings for any talkback station in NZ broadcasting history!

TDB Recommends NewzEngine.com

If Today FM had rated, if the idea was sound, they would have rated, yet even with a $9million branding and advertising push, the thing collapsed.

Why?

I find it funny that The Spinoff, who were so instrumental in cancelling MagicTalk, dare to offer an opinion on TodayFM.

The real story media are ignoring in Today FM meltdown is how Mediaworks Management got spooked by the woke Lynch mob David Farrier and The Spinoff launched against MagicTalk and Sean Plunkett last year.

MediaWorks management were right to move from a Boomer audience to a Gen X audience, but they did it with the blandest and most mediocre Talkback Hosts in NZ.

They followed a former ZB manager without appreciating that Bill Francis built ZB and everyone who followed Bill simply did as he had taught them. It wasn’t their talent, but Bills.

This former ZB Manager had no real research to back up this gamble, just a ‘feeling’ plus the fear of running foul of the woke Lynch mob.

Whenever I wrote scathing reviews of the strategy of the station, they were read out in Staff meetings afterwards as Management tried to calm nerves caused by my criticism.

The madness was that this could have worked, but the arrogance of the Management refused to acknowledge they had fucked up from the beginning.

Now, I may seem gleeful watching this entire cluster fuck implode, and that’s 100% true.

I did Talkback on Radio Live before it became MagicTalk and I was a political commentator on MagicTalk as well as their host of the 2020 Election Night coverage (where we called the election first), until I was culled when it mutated into the deeply flawed Today FM.

The rest of the media are totally ignoring the reasons why they moved from MagicTalk to Today FM because no one is allowed to mention Sean Plunkett or The Platform.

What is so insane about all of this, is that it could have worked, but the Mediaworks Management refused to listen.

By the way, The Working Group, out rates Today FM every single week in the NZ Podcast ratings.

Go woke. Go broke.

 

 

Increasingly having independent opinion in a mainstream media environment which mostly echo one another has become more important than ever, so if you value having an independent voice – please donate here.

If you can’t contribute but want to help, please always feel free to share our blogs on social media

21 COMMENTS

  1. Media wise the 2023 election could turn out to be one hell of a stoush

    Private media – blogs, podcasts etc versus discredited mainstream shite NZ Herald, Dom Post, Stuff, PIJF

    BRING IT ON

  2. They did not go after Gen X they went after the millenials and they don’t do radio. Good riddance. Let them collect an unemployment check for a few month and see if they have learned something about life.

    • I doubt they will be receiving unemployment checks they will not qualify have too much coin in the bank for that especially the big names. I doubt Richardson would even need to work.

  3. When life imitates art by imitating life.
    ‘Idiocracy’ dumb asses. Seriously. If you’ve not watched this..? I Envy you. You have a treat in store for you.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idiocracy
    Idiocracy is a 2006 American sci-fi comedy film directed by Mike Judge and co-written by Judge and Etan Cohen. The plot follows U.S. Army librarian Joe Bauers, who wakes up five hundred years in the future after a botched government hibernation experiment to find himself in a dystopian society run by corporations, where evolution has made humanity stupid because people no longer had to be intelligent and physically fit to survive due to the benefits of technology.[3] The cast includes Luke Wilson, Maya Rudolph, Dax Shepard, Terry Crews, David Herman, Justin Long, Andrew Wilson, and Brad Jordan.
    “It’s got what plants crave! ”
    https://youtu.be/ZMHfBobgLSI
    This is also a great little film for all you Bud Buffs out there.
    Wall-E:
    “The future some of us are happily heading towards – comfort in obesity… in space!”
    https://youtu.be/s-kdRdzxdZQ
    And now one must ask… Are we here yet?
    The Matrix awakening scene.
    https://youtu.be/kR7Q-eVs5QY

    • Wall E Eva

      One of the best films ever made and I cant tell you how many times over the years, its circled back to me thinking, how prophetic!

      Love that animated film. That and totally different, Coraline.

  4. Big egos in middle MGMT echo chamber, think they know best. Presenters then disciplined for having an opinion,…. Only thing they did a good job on was the cricket commentary. Although I feel sorry for the talented presenters… They were all muzzled.

    • Personkind’s worst enema is his own ego. It kills humility. Unfortunately over the past 40 or o years it’s been the weapon used to destroy any concept of community, and even basic person to person human interaction.
      The animal kingdom now does it better than so-called intelligent human beings.
      And now that we’ve had 30-40 years of it all where I I I me me me generations have grown up knowing nothing else, it’s possible the only way for things to get better is for them to get far, far worse

      BY the way …… does anyone know where Grant Robertson is hiding? Not exactly an egotist or lacking in humility, but a bit of a slob, a tiny bit of a sleaze, and definitely a 3rd wayer if not a total neo-lib.

      Thanks Grant though – you made it easier for me to electorate vote Labour

  5. “until I was culled”

    Well that clears up a lot of things.
    You should think about spending an inordinate amount of time getting your own back.
    If only there were somewhere you could launch daily attacks on the woke who hurt you.

  6. I’ve never had any time for puffed up egos presenting “news” so was quietly pleased when Tova and crew left TV. My thought at the time was “let the market decide their worth”. The market just delivered a verdict on their real worth. Doodly squat.

  7. They should have just automated it all and used ChatGPT to set the days agenda and commentary.
    I guess if you want to indulge in commercial radio ventures where producing content merely for the purpose of selling an audience shit they don’t really need, and trying to bullshit that it’s in the name of diversity of voice, or an alternative view, you’d better get some pre-counselling in the event it all goes tits up.
    Hopefully it’s a lesson learned for the poor wee cadets that staked their future careers on it. If I wanted to expend any of my emotional capital sympathising (oops ’empathising’) with them I would. Personally, I’ve got better victims to spend it on – even in that space, going forward.
    I’m sure Tova and Dunks and all the other “stars” will survive.
    I hadn’t realised Pauline Gillespie got taken for the ride. Silly Gal. Might be a gig going in the BOP as Peter Williams, or out the hut as a Lion’s mane cha lady
    It could have been so good. Let it be a lesson in corporate behaviour and bullshit.
    By the way – what do you reckon Steven Joyce thinks about it all? He should have known how to fix it – surely

  8. last thing I want to listen too is random callers spouting nonsense. as if the hosts aren’t bad enough. not sure how people listen to it. for the ads?

  9. Sean Plunkett the Donald Trump of Twitter has been thrown off Twitter due to his hate speech. He’s crying foul now that his free speech has been suppressed. He’s voting ACT I guess.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.