How's it going? -"Oh, alright for a Friday"...
It wasn't any Friday. And he wasn't alright. The mood in the radio this morning was down, very down. Someone didn't turn up for work, there were few jokes, coffee wasn't being brewed. Coffee in Radio 1 is like a pair of scissors that quickly snip the wick just before it defuses the bomb. Today there was no bomb, nor scissors or wick. It was an odd day. Conversations were muffled, in low voices or seemingly unspecific. When I got added to a conversation I became aware why and I became aware that this wasn't Friday. No one was expecting the weekend, there was no excitement. A financial review of OUSA has ordered Radio 1 to be closed.
In Spain they beat pans and pots in protest. Shall we beat and pluck and dance instead? On the street?
It is not quite an order just yet, VSM may not go through and if it doesn't, OUSA will still have funding next year and thereafter. There doesn't seem to be a plan B though. Even though Radio 1 is the heart of the Dunedin music scene, even though it offers opportunities to anyone, is involved in the community and props up stations across New Zealand, it has no value- financially at least. It is up for sale and the buyer will do what? Cut the ties with the community? Are we hearing dead air?
Next week Radio 1 will run a full week of main steam shite, in protest. Without Radio 1, Dunedin has lost its soul, its rock is gone- swallowed by popular culture, mainstream capitalism.
Money is full of value... I do not value it.
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