At least Helen opposed the proposed Concert FM makeover.
Extracted from a little rave I'd drafted for a comment on kiwiblog.co.nz in General Debate some days earlier:
(in the context of whether RNZ was politically biased toward the 'Left', and the allowing or not of comments:)
But my main points here would be about the low bit-rate feeds and downloads, and that National is still in mono on FM.
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RNZ (the rediculous forced change to an acronym), like changing a flag, a (CEO?* perhaps vanity project IMO) turned off comments in July 2016, well before the ChCh XXX.
www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/308405/why-we're-turning-off-comments
Perhaps one could do a search on when other outlets turned off or severely restricted comments.
NZME (NZ Herald &etc.) has this, but allows few:
www.nzme.co.nz/about-nzme/terms-conditions/nz-herald-s-house-rules/(* the same CEO who proposed automating Concert FM because yoof & streaming - rejected!)
I wonder if he himself has ever listened to through, or even has, a quality FM tuner and a good hifi system, or whether he dips in to low bit-rate streaming himself, like the yoof he imagines do.
Perhaps he has no idea how good and captivating his own Concert can sound, through such?
Tuners for instance, ranked and appraised at
www.fmtunerinfo.com/And say what you like about Govt owned RNZ - Concert, National, Shortwave (to the PI & etc.) - and I do think it important that a Govt should have a national broadcast medium,
ideally neutral politically, - just the facts, ma'am - I do think that in case of bare news reporting that they mostly get it so, as (even if selected) 'facts'.
Of course, content is provided NGO & Govt media releases, as to the online providers.
Sort the wheat from the chaff.
I still think a Govt - and doesn't each worldwide? - should have a nation, national broadcast channel.
Cleaning it up and making sure it is as neutral as can be is a different thing from just having it.
I would hate to see a nations outlets owned by commercial interests, themselves owned by ... ?
But yes, in the magazine (9-to-noon, Afternoons, The Panel) programs the <i>hosts</i> often seem to have a lefty bias, have drunk the kool-aid on 'climate change' and the covid, and give not only those interviews but also any anti alcohol sugar or tobacco reformist cranks uncritical platforms...
Kim Hill too despite her intellect and listenable interviews seems to have bought into 'climate change'. As Bryan Crump on Nights. Jim Mora?
You can however listen through that to content.
But all of the music on Concert FM, from classical through jazz, world music, ambient, contemporary, live concerts, is entirely apolitical, as are the announcers, hosts, curators.
So, as National increasingly involves itself with music interludes and programmes - despite it being broadcast on FM in mono - none of that being objectionably political - the music is what it is - I intend to write to the CEO and technicians there, proposing that National should be in stereo, if they are going to broadcast shows and live songs - they don't seem to realise that technically, only a few stereo microphone set-ups mix down well to mono - and that also, they should spend next money on upping the <b>bitrate</b> that they actually stream on.
National is at spoken word level, but now doing music. Concert has all these downloads, but at well below the 320kbs max for mp3, almost CD-like.
(I think they have them at 196kbs, must check.)
World class classical internet radio streams do stream at 320kbs.
That's what the CEO should aspire to, IMO.
Put National out on stereo, now that they're doing so much music, and upgrade its bit-rate, and for Concert, raise the broadcast streaming bitrate, and - but this would no doubt cost - although maybe in future - make all those live recordings and program downloads available at 320kbs quality.
This would be a far better legacy for a CEO ...
In the old days, bandwidth was expensive, as was local storage. These days it isn't.
So how about becoming world class, RNZ?
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What do you think?
(About upping the Concert live stream and previously (or from now on) recorded concerts download bit-rates, and also taking National to stereo.)
Some expense, but a better product, more 'world class' ?
It's been a while since I looked at online radio, but some did have 320kbs streams even back then.
