In New Zealand a Grounded Theory Analysis of Kiwi FM 2015
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Powerful Music: Media, Culture and the ‘Third-way’ in New Zealand A Grounded Theory Analysis of Kiwi FM Matt Mollgaard School of Communication Studies Faculty of Design and Creative Technologies Auckland University of Technology A dissertation submitted to Auckland University of Technology in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2015 2 Abstract The New Zealand radio market is one of the most deregulated in the world. There are no limits on ownership, very few constraints on content and no quotas for local content. New Zealand’s radio environment reflects the strong neo-liberal principles that underpin the open, market-driven New Zealand economy. Political promises and public discussions about the creation of a nationwide commercial-free public radio service for young people had faltered against these principles in the early to mid-2000s with strong opposition from incumbent commercial radio interests decrying government interference in their commercial rights. It was in to this environment in 2005 that one half of the foreign- owned radio broadcasting duopoly introduced a radio network into the three main cities that played only New Zealand music – Kiwi FM. Within a year the network had failed to attract sufficient listeners and advertisers to stay on-air and was nearing closure. At this point the Labour government of the day stepped in to save the struggling network by giving it access to temporary free frequencies and funding to make programmes featuring New Zealand music. This was an extraordinary situation in that commercial radio in New Zealand is notable for its focus on producing only programming that will create significant profits for shareholders, rather than public service-type programming benefiting national arts and culture. It was also extraordinary in that the government had intervened to support a commercial company to ensure a failed radio network would survive. This dissertation explores why and how this happened through a grounded theory analysis of the significant amount of official documentation this situation generated, through interviews with key players and other contemporaneous material such as media interviews, blogs and newspaper articles about Kiwi FM. What emerges from this data is evidence of a ‘third-way’ agenda operating in this situation – New Zealand’s version of the then Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Tony Blair’s ‘Cool Britannia’ appeal to voters in what amounted to public-private partnerships in the cultural sectors of the economy. This ‘third-way’ promise to revitalise a shared sense of nationhood while delivering economic growth through improving the creative industry’s capacity to output marketable culture was echoed in New Zealand. The story of how multinational media company CanWest (owners of Kiwi FM) came to be a partner with the Labour government in promoting New Zealand music demonstrates some of the key issues inherent in this approach. Importantly, these partnerships rely on personal connections and relationships as well as the growing interconnections and shifting power differentials created between governments and officials, businesses and the media. The Kiwi FM story shows that while partnering with businesses in order to achieve cultural-economic goals such as promoting and monetising a national music culture may seem logical 3 and low-risk, business necessarily has a longer view beyond the election cycle, and will join into and construct these partnerships in order to gain commercial advantages first and foremost. This dissertation offers critical new insights into the policy making processes, the commercial decisions and the cultural arguments that were behind the experiment that was Kiwi FM. Ultimately, I argue that substantial deregulation of the media should be carefully considered, as belated attempts to influence the market to achieve government policy goals are unlikely to succeed in a highly commercial media environment driven by competitive pressures and empowered by significant potential influence over the electorate. 4 Table of Contents Abstract 2 Table of Contents 4 Attestation of Authorship 7 Acknowledgements 8 Chapter One 10 Introduction New Zealand 10 New Zealand radio in context 13 Prime Minister Helen Clark and the Fifth Labour government: Embracing the ‘creative industries’ 15 An all-New Zealand music radio network 16 Structure of the thesis 19 Chapter Two 22 Literature Review Part one: The deregulation of New Zealand radio 22 Critical approaches to the media 23 The deregulation of the New Zealand economy 29 The deregulation of New Zealand radio 33 Part Two: Music radio in New Zealand 39 Contextualising music radio in New Zealand 46 Part Three: Popular music an national culture in New Zealand 53 New Zealand music ‘comes of age’ 60 Rethinking New Zealand music 66 Chapter Three 72 Methodology Grounded Theory 72 Towards Constructivist Grounded Theory 74 Grounded theory methods 76 Using Grounded Theory 77 Concurrent data generation or collection and analysis 78 Writing memos 79 Theoretical sampling 80 Constant comparative analysis 80 Theoretical sensitivity 81 Intermediate coding 82 Identifying a core category 83 5 Advanced coding and theoretical integration 83 Generating theory 84 Kiwi FM as a case study to generate data for a grounded theory 84 Chapter Four 86 Kiwi FM: Beginnings and early debates New Zealand radio and New Zealand music: A ‘voluntary’ quota 86 A ‘Youth Radio Network’: Challenging the commercial consensus 87 All New Zealand music all the time: Kiwi FM 88 Kiwi FM vs. the Youth Radio Network 90 Kiwi FM as a unique case study 90 Chapter Five 95 Kiwi FM phase two: From commercial failure to government partner CanWest proposes a partnership with government 96 Selling the vision: Getting the bureaucrats onside 99 Engaging with the ‘third-way’ agenda 101 Engaging with the music industries: Big names for big gains 102 Agreeing to the plan: The government engages 104 Structure and governance of Kiwi FM: Agreeing on a new model 106 Chapter Six 109 Kiwi FM as a conundrum Gathering, sampling, abstracting and re-organizing data using grounded theory methods 109 A crack in support: Misrepresenting the New Zealand Music Industry Commission 112 Collaborating on Kiwi FM: The bureaucrats engage with the Kiwi FM construct 113 Criticism of the deal: Managing reactions and minimizing bad press 115 Defending the deal: The Opposition attack 119 Beyond the beltway: Information management under media pressure 121 Chapter Seven 125 Progress, agreements, deadlines and Kiwi FM as a ‘special case’ Complexity arises: A new spectrum allocation regime and the future of Kiwi FM 126 A ‘special case’? Kiwi FM as different, deserving and critical to government strategy 128 Bending the rules: Kiwi FM changing the game 130 Frustration boils over: Reacting to criticism 132 Kiwi FM starts over – and starts missing deadlines 133 Shifting the goalposts: Questioning Kiwi FM’s independence, structure and finances 136 Chapter Eight 141 Extending beyond the agreement: A conundrum for government A contestable environment threatens Kiwi FM 141 6 Gathering allies and applying pressure 150 A new government and stability achieved 153 Chapter Nine 156 Findings Summary 156 Intermediate coding of the Kiwi FM data 157 Revisiting Brent Impey: Towards a grounded theory of the impacts of media deregulation 157 A core category: Cultivating and using critical relationships 160 A grounded theory of what the Kiwi FM story means: Commercial media operating in deregulated markets are at an advantage when dealing with governments 161 The significance of this study 162 Directions for further research 164 Postscript 167 References 168 Appendix: What did Kiwi FM sound like? 190 7 Attestation of Authorship I hereby declare that this submission is my own work and that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, it contains no material previously published or written by another person (except where explicitly defined in the acknowledgements), nor material which to a substantial extent has been submitted for the award of any other degree or diploma of a university or other institution of higher learning. Signed: Date: 26 November 2015 8 Acknowledgements Writing a PhD dissertation is not about one person or process. I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to do this work and to have the insights and support of so many good people and the institution I am proud to work for. I would like to acknowledge and thank Auckland University of Technology for giving me the time, space and support to complete this research through the Vice- Chancellor’s Doctoral Scholarship programme. I would also like to thank the Faculty of Design and Creative Technologies and the School of Communication Studies for constant support and encouragement throughout my candidature. I would especially like to thank and acknowledge Dr. Rosser Johnson for being there from start to finish and in particular for stepping in when I needed it most. Dr. Johnson was instrumental in the completion of this work and his clear and considered comments and suggestions lifted everything I did. Cheers Rosser. Thank you also to Professor Barry King – for bringing me into AUT all those years ago – and for being another hand on the tiller at the end. Thank you also to Professor Tim Wall for initial supervision and guidance. Thank you Dr. Allison Oosterman for valiant proofreading. A special thank you to the Radio Team at AUT: Dr. Peter Hoar, Trevor Plant, Rufus McEwan, Thomas Watts and Stephanie Mearns. I really appreciate working with such talented and dedicated people who also have that ‘radio thing’ that we will probably never shake. Other academics and friends were incredibly important in this journey too; Professor Andrew Dubber, Associate Professor Wayne Hope, Dr Alan Cocker, Dr. Ian Goodwin, Dr. Bruce Berryman, Dr. J. Mark Percival and the many great thinkers and doers whose work I have had the privilege to use here. I was very lucky to be picked for the very first media studies course at a secondary school in New Zealand, at Marlborough Boys College in 1986.