CAMA Newsletter: March 2022

Covid-19 statement 

It’s vital at times such as these that information reaches diverse communities. Each of the 12 community radio stations have been respectively working through how best to deal with Omicron as per Governmental guidelines.

As a sector we’re wanting to balance the need to provide a safe environment to staff, programmers, and the general public with the right to personal autonomy and best practice when it comes to equity.

Broadcasting Standards Authority resources in your language

Chief Executive Glen Scanlon says it’s important for the BSA to engage widely with the public so that its services are readily accessible to people from a wide range of communities and backgrounds.

It’s produced a number of key resources in multiple languages. The below are available in English, Te Reo, Mandarin, Hindi, Punjabi, Korean, and Samoan:

• BSA complaints guide – a step-by-step guide to the process of making a formal complaint about TV or radio content.
• Complaints unlikely to succeed – guidance on the types of complaints which, based on past BSA decisions, are least likely to be upheld.
• Guide to classifications and timebands for free-to-air TV – a guide to the tools available to help make informed choices about what you and your family watch on free-to-air TV.
• Guide to classifications and timebands for pay TV – a guide to the above tools, as they apply to pay TV.

“We hope these resources will make it easier for people to understand and participate in the complaints process, and to benefit from the full range of tools to support informed viewing choices.”

Strong Public Media Programme announcement 

This month Broadcasting Minister Kris Faafoi announced that cabinet has decided to proceed with the creation of a new public media organisation.

The new organisation will build on the best of what RNZ and TVNZ currently provide, and will be digitally enabled, multi-platform, and focussed on meeting the needs of the full range of New Zealand audiences. Specifically it will:

• Provide quality public media content to all New Zealanders, including groups who are currently under-served or under-represented;
• Use a range of platforms, including current radio and linear TV and those of third parties, to reach audiences when, where, and how audiences choose;
• Among other things.

Seeing as the sector’s kaupapa aligns with this – we’re particularly excited to see how this unfolds and how the access media sector may be included.

Haere mai Kelly Reid

Radio Kidnappers welcomed a new manager in February. After 23 years in retail management she hopes to bring a fresh new vibe to the station.

Outside of work Kelly is an amateur actor, she sings in a local band and is also the venue hire manager at her “local” in the Hawke’s Bay. She’s also a board member on a theatre board that is where she met programme director Ken Morrison. It’s thanks to him that led her to take up the position as a manager.

During Kelly’s tenure she hopes to lead the team into the future, with more diversity, youth, and LGBTQI+ programming in the region.

“Alongside our new community liaison, we [will] endeavour to take our mobile studio (two ladies, two mics, and a dream) out into the Bay and capture the spirit of what is [access media].”

Source: Kelly Reid

Location, location, location for Planet FM

Relocation is a big undertaking, and relocation during a global pandemic is uniquely punishing. With timelines trashed and supply disruptions par for the course, the long-awaited build of the new Planet FM studios has not been without its challenges. But work is now well and truly underway and by mid-2022 staff and members expect to be settling into a custom-built space with other not-for-profits. The station will form part of a community hub with a core focus on providing services to resettled communities.

New programmes, roll up, roll up! 

Dunedin Public Libraries‘ new programme on OAR FM brings you interesting stories, interviews and music from times past. And you’re invited to share your own memories, too.

Recollections Radio Show is presented by Kay Mercer (left) and Jill Bowie, the team behind Dunedin Public Libraries’ Scattered Seeds Archive, thanks to generous funding by the New Zealand Libraries Partnership Project.

This is just a taste of what the 12 community radio stations have to offer! For more, check out our livestream and podcasts, mobile app, and website.

Media of interest

Check out this incredible episode on Attitude TV, which features Julia Young, host of OAR’s ‘The Positivity Show’. The artist and disability activist lives with Autistic Spectrum Disorder and has learned to use toy lemurs to aid her communication. Thought her radio show and podcast Julia and her lemurs have become famous in Dunedin!