MEDIAWATCH: Go woke, go broke – Today FM demise could be worst programming debacle in NZ Radio history?

MediaWorks’ Today FM radio boss Dallas Gurney quits

Days after giving a farewell speech for his own MediaWorks CEO, Today FM radio boss Dallas Gurney has quit the fledgling network.

Gurney, a former general manager of Newstalk ZB, was hired by MediaWorks to help launch Today FM, signing up a swag of broadcasting talent including Newshub’s Tova O’Brien, as well as Rachel Smalley, Duncan Garner, Pauline Gillespie and Leah Panapa.

But the station – which turns one tomorrow – has struggled to make any inroads into the powerhouse Newstalk ZB’s ratings, and there will be questions whether MediaWorks now directs its focus to its radio music brands.

MediaWorks CEO Cam Wallace was farewelled at an industry shindig at the Cavalier pub in Auckland’s Ponsonby on Thursday evening, with Gurney giving a farewell speech for his boss.

Once Today FM’s biggest champion Cam stood down, it was just matter of time before Dallas also finally read the room and left.

Today FM has turned out to be one of the worst programming debacles in NZ Radio history.

WHAT MAKES IT SO MUCH worse is that MagicTalk DID have to change audience demos from Boomers to Gen Xers, but for reasons known only to Mediaworks management, rather than  appoint Gen X hosts who could shake up controversy similar to the old angry white male MagicTalk hosts, the y appointed the dullest most pedestrian Gen X hosts known top humankind.

Tova, Duncan, Leah, Llyod – yawn, yawn, yawn.

How could wallpaper opinions and mediocre broadcasting do anything other than sink?

At 1.4%, Today FM – DESPITE 9million in promotion, bombed to the lowest talk radio audience ever recorded in NZ Radio Broadcasting history.

WHAT MAKES IT SO MUCH was that with the election, Today FM could have saved itself, but in a meeting where my criticisms of the content and programming were read to the staff, Mediaworks Management  counter argued my suggestion and said they would not focus on politics because it’s boring and that they wanted to shake off all the old angry white male listeners so that they could draw in women and young people alienated by angry white men, which is funny because ZB seems to make a living out of angry white men.

WHAT MAKES IT SO MUCH is that because they fucked up Today FM so badly, they started to cannibalise their own Edge and More brand stables for audience rather than compete for RNZ and ZB audience.

WHAT MAKES IT SO MUCH was that this whole cluster fuck was driven by the woke Lynch mob at Spinoff and David Farrier who character assassinated Sean Plunket and spooked the Mediaworks Management into attempting to sack Sean and close down MagicTalk.

WHAT MAKES IT SO MUCH is that Sean has gone on to create The Platform that has 3 times the audience of Today FM.

When you go woke, you go broke.

Today FM was a crucial media asset in an election year that should have taken audience share from ZB and RNZ, if it had been reset as a Gen X station with hosts who were not as fucking inane and boring as Tova, Duncan, Lloyd etc etc etc, it would have soared.

Instead, Mediaworks were spooked by the Woke, made a rushed programming decision and ended up with something so boring no one tuned in.

I know so many insanely talented people at MediaWorks who are appalled at how this has all played out. I was a talkback host on Channel Z, RadioLive and was a political panelist on MagicTalk – The Working Group was created there and went on to be the number 1 weekly political podcast, I know so many working inside MediaWorks who are angry at how Today FM has damaged so much rather than be an effective weapon against NZME.

It can be but a matter of weeks before Today FM is culled.

Today FM has collapsed exactly like I told MediaWorks Management it would, what an unbelievable self inflicted wound it all turned out to be.

Meanwhile, Mike Hosing and the ZB juggernaut rolls on. You think they care if the woke have a petition against them?

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