MEDIAWATCH: RNZ crocodile tears – time to replace Paul Thompson
RNZ’s radio ratings drop ‘a cause for soul-searching’ says CEO;
RNZ’s radio ratings have plummeted with several top shows, including Morning Report, losing thousands of listeners in a matter of months – part of a longer-term downward trend for the public broadcaster, according to new survey results.
While RNZ is highlighting its creditable performance across digital platforms and the likes of podcasts – saying its content reaches more New Zealanders than ever – chief executive Paul Thompson acknowledges that RNZ National’s radio ratings are “concerning” and “a cause for soul-searching”.
GfK ratings released this week show RNZ National now has a cumulative audience of 494,500 – falling below 500,000 for the first time in at least four years. It had a cumulative audience of more than 700,000 in mid-2020.
Any incoming Labour/Green/Maori Party Government needs to sack Paul Thompson once and for all.
His insipid leadership deserves ending, not celebrating.
RNZ have capitulated to ZB with a piss weak Auckland presence.
Morning Report has been dumbed down.
The fiasco over Mick Hall supposedly being a soviet spy when nothing like that was true.
The Panel with Wallace Chapman is now just an uber woke vegan dinner party in Ponsonby where you are caught between Toby Manhire and Alison Mau arguing over who hates heteronormative white cis males most.
The real point of difference is that Hosking has 2 Producers, and Morning Report has 14.
Some will say I don’t like Paul because he was instrumental in keeping me banned for life from the station. In 2011, I was banned for life from RNZ after I supposedly ‘defamed’ John Key, Paul took over in 2013 and I was never allowed back.
The elitism of RNZ has been led by Thompson and he is responsible for the alienation of listeners.
RNZ is just a woke circle jerk now and its complacency can’t be better summed up than a recent story, What it’s like to be an asexual sex worker in New Zealand.
The life and times of Asexual sex workers?
Wow.
There’s niche and then there’s ‘RNZ Niche’.
We have major inequality issues, we have major poverty issues, we have major environmental issues and RNZ is focusing on the emotional stresses of being an Asexual sex worker.
What else can one say?
RNZ needs fresh leadership, Paul Thompson has done his dash. Get Brent Impey in there.
Willie McWonker needs to move on too
Tell us about Brett Impey. Also, can’t believe you were banned…for dissing John Key. WTF.
Btw seeing him in a more lukewarm light in compare to the scumbags ruling now.
The rot started with Sharon Crosbie’s appointment to run National Radio when she returned from a funded scholarship from, I recall, Harvard in the USA, having been thoroughly indoctrinated in the very latest neoliberal free market bullshit. She set to wielding the axe and gutting the operation in the early/mid nineties with the precision knowledge only an ex-insider cum turncoat could enjoy.
It’s been consistent downhill slide toward a coffee table chat service ever since.
Sharon did not meet with much resistance did she?
I remember how the open letter by late Sir Edmund and other cultured few was ridiculed.
What was formerly known as “Concert FM” is a canary in the coal mine. It regressed from high quality to hardly listenable “fram cassecl ta alatrancz” (trying to quote one of the presenters)
of today.
There are still a few presenters there trying to sneak in the quality, hope they will survive.
On the bright side, it is still on FM. Attempt of dumping it into AM cesspit a few years ago was aborted because of public outcry.