Posts by George Darroch
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The market doesn't serve true ice cream, but actually serves up an adulterated version that is close, but no cigar if you know your ice cream. And let's face it, the Concert FM listeners know their ice cream.
To carry the analogy further, it would be like if the government sold at no cost one particular flavour of icecream. I like hazelnut ice-cream as much as the next person...
Although, now that I think about it, there is a pretty compelling case for the Government distributing Kaffee Eis nationally for free.
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George, orchestral and concert music is not one genre. You are talking of centuries of music production and of music which still is being written today.
I mean genre in the widest sense, in the same way that I could call pop music, or rock music a 'genre', despite each harbouring an incredible diversity of music from different times and places. I don't think that's innapproriate.
you think that there are other underappreciated genres that are equally as relevant, aks for Concert to play them too, don't just axe Concert
I really think that there is a place for a second fully-Government-funded national music station. I'm just not comfortable with the fact that one set of interests are priveleged over that of others. Concert is a very popular station, and there are a great number of people who enjoy its music - getting rid of it isn't an answer that I consider worth contemplating (and I suspect that National would consider too politically risky). I think that it's possible to expand Concert's remit to further include other music and services without losing its core focus.
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Dear Lord. Yes, people with money and access to posh CD stores probably don't have much of a need for Radio New Zealand Concert. And they should be our sole constituency.
Giovanni, if the New Zealand Government is to fund a station devoted almost entirely to one genre of music, then why should it not fund all genres equally?
I'm quite comfortable with people who say that there's a gap in the market which commercial stations cannot fill, but I'm not hearing that, at least not yet.
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Concert has a weekly jazz show. It also has a weekly world music show. It has a country/blues/Americana show. It has shows that play experiemental music and new genres.
But this is a few hours a week - the rest of the 168 hours is exclusively dedicated to orchestral and concert music.
The argument that Concert is diverse is a very weak one. If anything, bFM, which has all of those shows (and a much better country/Americana show), and goes out of its way to promote new music genres and New Zealand artists is more deserving of subsidy.
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Jan, I just had a look at "Today on Concert", and saw nothing that I would label diverse.
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Does it really? You keep dismissing it as "a classical music station" but it isn't. It is a station that plays classical music. It also plays jazz. It plays contemporary world music. It plays documentaries, debates and discussions.
I enjoy Concert, but I don't think it's as diverse as you make out.
Perhaps we should be looking at a RNZ Two, with a focus on music but a slightly wider remit than the current one?
Of course, such a suggestion to my mind implies an expansion of RNZ's work and resources, rather than a contraction. In Australia they've funded both the ABC and SBS to create further channels - because they realise that quality broadcasting and local content is important.
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Stephen, you just reached the 2000 post mark, and I broke 1000. High five!
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On mature reflection, I am all for making a nicer cruise ship terminal. But: I also think about New York. JFK is a shithole. La Guardia is a pain in the butt. The ferry terminals are shitholes. Every transport option into Manhattan is scary for the uninitiated. But who cares? New York! You don't go there for the disembarkation experience.
Or for that matter Charles de Gaulle and Heathrow with their respective cities.
Anyway, if there are lots of people waiting in long lines isn't the cheaper solution is to hire more people to process them, so that they can wander up Queen St past tacky tourist shops, beggars and buskers, reach Aotea Square and then turn round again?
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That said, if it was a knowing joke pulled on them by their designer I can say their money was well spent.
At least their logo wasn't goatsed.
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Can we get some design attention to those awful flag suggestions the Sunday Star Times insists on foisting as its contribution to the debate?