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Appendix A:

Transcriptions with Niu FM/531 PI Radio Network staff

Interview 1: Ruci Jeff-Bower, journalist for NIU FM

Interview 2: Chris Vitera, journalist for NIU FM

Interview 3: Pere Charles Maitai, director for news for 531 PI and NIU FM

Interview 4: Etuata, Network Programme Director, Pacific Media Network

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Appendix A:

Transcriptions with Niu FM/ 531 PI Radio Network Station Staff

Bachelor of International Communication Research Project: Pacific Diaspora Media in Pacific Diaspora Communities, i.e.‘Whether the operational goals of Niu FM/ 531 PI Radio Network Station reflects these on the station’ day to day programming and how successful is it received amongst its audience, the pacific island communities of New Zealand’

Interview 1:

Interview session with Ruci Jeff-Bower, journalist for NIU FM

Naomi Strickland (bold, italics) Thank you, Ruci and Bula. Thank you for having me interview you today. Just to start of with, please are you able to give me your full name, your age bracket, where were you born, you know all that sort of background information, your island of origin.

Ruci: My name is Ruci Jeff-Bower. I come from Fiji, I was born in Fiji. I came to New Zealand in 1987, just after Rabuka’s coup and I’ve always worked in journalism, but started as a cub reporter at Fiji Times in 1980, and slowly worked my way through sports and all the other elements of newspaper reporting. I came in ’87 and I’ve worked in newspapers here in New Zealand for twenty years and I’ve only joined the radio station a couple of months now and I am enjoying it. I think in all fairness I’ve been working as a journalist as my career, all my working life.

NS: That’s right.

Just some general media questions. I know that you have only been here for the last couple of months..ah..what are some of the things that you like about the station? Having been a journalist for twenty years, working in radio ah its instant, like perhaps if there’s a road crash or if there’s a war, this morning it goes on the air almost immediately. So the immediacy is really what grabs me and the fact that I can pick up the phone and ring and I get the voice straight away and that just adds more, where as in print its words, it has a longer shelf life but suffice to say it can sit on the shelf for a long time but radio its instant, its immediate and you know the news is there, it can go out straight away. I quite enjoy the immediacy and the availability to the person that is listening; accessibility, you can just switch on the radio and you’ve got the news ... in a few minutes, you’ve managed to capture what happened and believe it the best way you can

I know that NIU FM and 531 PI have merged into one organisation as such, but on the same token they, obviously, although they have one management team, they still operate as two separate entities really. So, given all this factor, how do you as a journalist operate within these realms?

The mergers have only come about this year; I think it’s early days yet. The news that we put together in the newsroom goes to both radio stations, and I think the plan is, eventually, NIU

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FM will have its own news team, and 531 will have its own news team; we also have mid-morning hosts breakfast shows on both radio stations, that do interviews all throughout the day, keeping in mind that all the audience on 531 and the younger audience on NIU FM, so they’re talking to rap artists and dancers and filmmakers on NIU FM, whereas they’re talking to budget advisors and health inspectors on 531, so think a lot of thought has gone into the production for tomorrow, they’re all starting to plan now for tomorrow, we’ve got very capable people who are piecing it together, organising all the interviews to go in on such-and-such a time so, by the end of the day, everyone is sort of working together. So what we do in the newsroom is sometimes like, this morning, we talked to Darryl Evans, who is a budget advisor in Mangere, and he said that the foodbanks are stretched, there’s not enough food there. He said that low-income earners are traditional people, they come in to see them often, but now it’s the middle-income earners that are coming in, and their needs are different. They’re wanting help with their mortgage payments and their bills, so that’s something because we know that governments are listening in as well, so hopefully what we deliver here helps shape policy back in the Beehive, so that’s how we see our role. We’re talking to people on the street down in Mangere and we’re talking to people in the Beehive at the same time, so our audience specifically is Pacific but, at the same time, our contact of our news we are careful of the mainstream so that we don’t isolate the Pacific community from what else is happening outside NZ. Elections is a big thing; Obama and McCain is another big thing... the economy is another big thing, so we’re very careful to include those in areas of our news bulletins and, at the same time, we throw in two or three Pacifica stories.

So, in other words, you’re really addressing not only the social helping be the wheel of social policies to government at a government level in helping our people, but actually you’re also educating our people in not what’s not only happening within nationally, but also internationally, covering news from overseas, as well. It’s really fantastic.

A big portion of the news content is also what happens in the region itself. So we have a quorum, what they decide about fisheries, about foreign aid. How NZ aid is spent in Fiji, Niue and Tonga, so we try and bring this picture and pass it on them because a lot of our people still have a big interest in what happens back home. We try and feed them that as well as we can. But we’ve got to be careful how we word the information so that we’re not offending people too much. I think, in the case of Tonga Te Laki, he came and, in his budget address in Niue, he said that NZ should butt out. “Leave us alone,” to spend the money. You give us money, we want to spend it the way we see fit, where it should go. So he had a meeting with Helen Clark here, so we were careful to word it so that NZ doesn’t give it _____________ (NS: After all, they’re the ones with the purse strings). So that’s another thing, we need to be tactful, we need to be very careful so that it doesn’t mean that Tonga Te Laki said this. That we have to say exactly what he said. You don’t want to give NZ a bad impression about Niue, you don’t want the funding to stop altogether. So we have got to be quite diplomatic, at the same time.

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Being Pacific Islanders, there is a uniqueness with you being journalists, there is a uniqueness where you can work out what to say and how to say it in such a way that you don’t actually offend which, given that most mainstream journalists would just straight up, whereas we have a way of sort of going around , but still achieving the same results.

I think there’s a time and place for that kind of rebuttal and, quite often, we get that in big press conferences, where we have only two seconds of opportunity and you’ve got to ask that question then and there, but diplomacy is the best way to do that. It’s a young station at this point and time, so we don’t want to jeopardise its future too much.

Do you feel that your work schedule, as a journalist, is divided or to cater to both stations, or are you more swayed towards the other station, NIU FM? How do you work that out?

We try and keep a balance, like I’m listening to programmes for NIU FM in the morning, and then spoke to Mareko and Seceptokons (?spelling), we pull out a story from there and put it with our bulletin. Sponsors are always a big part of our stations, so we know that sports are a big one for our kids, but other than that, we try to keep a balance, because it’s on every hour and all throughout the day. The kids are talking to each other.

So how do you find news-worthy material that you would actually cover in both stations? Do you go into the community and look for it, or does it present itself through referrals. But, of course, as a journalist, you have always got to have your ears out, to sort of tap into whatever’s happening.

Because it’s just Chris and I here, and we’ve got those interns so a lot of our jobs, we pick up from press releases and emails, that are sent to us. Quite often, we have a conference and we outline as to who’s doing what. We do follow-ups , so yesterday we wrote about NZ banning the Fijian team, today we wrote about the Fijian community here ________ support that they were. So, you do one side and you do the other side. So it’s really quite a balanced viewpoint? Yes.

So, in terms of the actual network station, what are some of the issues (I know that you’ve only been here for two weeks) that you think the Radio Network are experiencing, in terms of staffing?

I’ve been here since June. There’s been lots of restructuring in this company, and a lot of stream-lining so, for cost-cutting measures, they’ve had to take away a lot of the staff so, for instance, I happen to write the news and read it the same time. So I guess what used to be three peoples’ job is now actually one person so, whether that’s a good thing or not, I don’t know. But it puts us in a position where you really need to knuckle down and do the job, and try and do the best job you can.

So the people that work here, how important do you think that their (ie. Journalists, announcers and everyone who actually contributes in making NIU FM a success in our community) language, that they need to be fluent in their language, is it an important factor to you?

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The way both radio stations go is that English is the dominant language up until 6 am. And then afterwards from 6 am to mid-morning, it’s in the ethnic languages, and they have separate community programmers looking after their own programmes (ie. Cook Islanders, Tongans, Fijians, Vanuatuans and Papua New Guineans have their own people to look after their own respective programmes late at night). It would be nice if they could speak their own languages but, for the English segments of the stations’ programmes, it’s not essential.

With 531 PI, one of the things that I admire about their programming, and the way that it’s run, is the announcers coming up with new vocabulary, who’ll use it in such a way that it’s easy enough for our people and anyone to be introduced to the Maori language. With younger teenagers who are 15 years of age to 17, especially with Pacific Islanders, they seem to know more Maori vocabulary than they do of their own home origin language. One example is my daughter, who knows a few Maori vocabs, as opposed to her own Samoan and Cook Island heritage. Do you think it’s a good thing to incorporate into our radio station here?

Yes, I do. If there’s been talk of the preservation of language, that are losing ground, among our people, I see an important role of the radio station’s in keeping the language intact. I know that the programmers here leave it to the community programmers at the end of the night, but we recognise that we could play a part, much like MAI FM does.

Like each day, MAI FM have a new word or phrase, that people can use, which is quite encouraging to listen to, as a PI, and to think that it would be good if our own station used that same format. Who do you see as the station’s key target audiences? Pacific Islanders!

Pacific Islanders. There are two streams, which are NIU FM and 531 PI. 531 PI would cater to the Island-born older generation, working class and the NIU FM is really for the younger generations, they speak their language through and through, their jokes are funny to themselves and not funny to others. But that’s the way radio goes. What’s the point of running a radio station, if we all don’t speak the same language?

The main area of research that covers my assignment is the operational goals of the station and finding out whether that reflects the day-to-day programming of the station/s. One of the things that I’ve had to follow, in order to address some of these things is a topology, that Brown who has used this, where he has gone to many different ethnic groups through radio, media and others, and he’s fine-tuned a few areas. I would like to highlight some areas to you, and if you can give me some of your thoughts on how the station is addressing it and, as you see it as a Fijian, or as a journalist, or as a Pacific Islander here, do you think that the station does maintain links with the ancestral island of origin. Do you see that happening here at the radio stations?

Yes, they do. I know Radio 531 PI does the rounds, like they would talk to Tonga today, they’ll talk to the Cooks tomorrow, they have their correspondents waiting and standing by, in all the different islands. So they talk to them directly, and they give them a snapshot of what’s happening in the week. So that information is relayed back to our listeners, and it’s done live, so that’s about as close as you can get.

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That’s great. I mean, other than the events that, when they come here, like visiting groups or members of Parliament, you’re there as well. So, it’s constant. What about preserving and restoring and advancing the use of our Island languages (covered earlier on)? Would you say that the station is doing that?

As best it can. Because it’s a radio station, the best we can do is highlight, like we won’t be like Tagata Pasifika, when they sit for hours and take footage of the coronation of King Siaosi. The best we can do is get a newsclip from there, and say this is what happened. A snapshot? When the king was crowned, we did relay it live by satellite here, for two hours we had a commentator on the radio station, where you could hear the drumming and the band playing, and the soldiers marching through, we had a commentator here giving his views, so we relayed that live. So we do it as best we can. That Radio Network allows you to. Hm, hm. So when the bells of healing, we have that. And then when _____________ is actually placed in all that, we had it alright from the radio stationsWhat about some of the things that have come out, such as these negative stereotypes of Pacific Islanders, especially those provided by mainstream media, where there was a report written by Professor Clydesdale, saying that we “are a drain on NZ economy.” How does that mainstream stereotype come across to you? Do you think this is true, or viable?

I think you’ve got to take it in the context it was written in. Some people were very offended by what Professor Clydesdale wrote. In fact, it’s been disowned by the Pacific Liaison officer at Massey University, and even Massey University as well; they’ve kind of written it off. But, in reality, there are some aspects of that report that rings true, and it would be silly of us to be offended by things like that, because it’s somebody’s perspective on us, and they have a place as well. They have a right also to air their opinions, but the way we handled it here was we spoke to people like Dr Colin Tukuitonga, the Chief Executive of the Ministry of Pacific Island Affairs. So he gave a very negative response to that, and we try and draw from different people within the community, to give balance to that perspective.

What about indicating how minorities and mainstream can actually work together, that’s doable and has been done in the past? Or mainstream can work hand-in-hand with minority groups, such as Pacific Islanders?

I think a lot of radio stations out there are listening into us as well. So I’ve come across one or two news bulletins that sounds ___________ . And you’ll be surprised when you talk to politicians along the way, you suddenly realise that, goodness, he was listening in! We have watchdogs out there all the time. And in the media service, we go down the wire. So we draw from Reuters, NZPA and the Herald – just to get their perspective. And then we turn it into our own perspective. So we take a Pacific angle, on that particular story.

What about the station soothing as a source of information for our people? In terms of employment, education, financial help to our people. Has the station been doing that?

Yes. It’s got a very robust marketing promotions team, so they’re out there getting business done, because it is a commercial station, that needs to run on its own merits as well. If you’re not bringing in people like Instant Finance _____________.

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What about illustrating that ethnic minorities are capable of operating media services? You’re a classic example of that, aren’t you?

Since the merger, they’ve had a few hiccups along the way, with operations management just catering to – you’re right, in that we are one radio station, but we’re actually got two different streams. And the news straddles that, so we sit in the middle providing the news for both stations, but we do the best we can to cater to minorities.

With the station’s mission statement, does that reflect your own expectations of how well it’s been received? Has it been received successfully, not only by the workers here, but also by the audience? Does it work ____________, from your own perspective?

I think it is. People out there are telling us that the message is coming across well. But with the election on, there’s still a lot of people out there that still need to be informed a little bit better. But with the elections, you don’t really have enough time to break it down for them, our job is to deliver the information, the way we see fit. And then it’s up to them how they injest that information, and process it and then act on it. The choice is really up to them, what they do with that information.

Did you know that AUT was running a scholarships programme? I actually found that out this year; they’re really doing some good work, especially with David Robie. I actually missed .....

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Interview 2:

Interview session with Chris Vitera, journalist for NIU FM

“This work is to find out about the role of the Pacific diaspora media on Pacific diaspora communities and, specifically, just finding out from a journalist’s perspective how all this works out. To start off...

Are you able to give us a demographic background information on yourself?

My name is Chris Vitera. I’ve spent fifteen years in the media, started off in Samoa, working for the private sector papers there. I was an editor for the government paper, The Savali. I also worked freelance, from Radio New Zealand to Reuters. I did Pacific magazine, freelance work for Tagata Pasifika and so on. I then worked for a regional environmental organisation called The Secret Chariot of the Pacific regional programme, where I was the media liaison -cum- editorial officer , and that allowed me to travel extensively all around the Pacific. Their mandate was to provide sustainable development for the environment, for future generations, in which their main donor was Australia where they dictated a lot of the policy. But they’re still an effective group, and I enjoyed my time with them.

Last year in 2007, I was a communications co-ordinator for the XIII South Pacific Games, where we were responsible for all the multi-media, including the strategic development and implementation. This included the designing of two multi-media centres, ___________ . The two multi-media centres from scratch, and the biggest kudos there was that we were able to supply through collaboration through another group called Octagon. Octagon Media are an international group, based in Australia, and we were able for the first time in the Game’s history to provide live to air real time six hours a day of sports. We had 22 countries, 33 sports with 4,000 athletes, 100 journalists and 200 volunteers. It was a bit of an effort, but we got it done and we did a fantastic job.

Then I started here recently, having been here at NIU FM as a journalist in a three-man team and first entered radio in Auckland, after fifteen years away. That’s quite a list of achievements here.

The next list of questions to be explored are your general media questions so, what made you want to work here at NIU FM? One of the hardest things I’ve found hard to understand is that I know that 531 PI and NIU FM have merged, and have been doing so for quite some time. How does that work out with covering material? Who do you cover material for? For both, or just purely for NIU FM? How does that work?

We have one newsroom, and we just put out our bulletins each day, in which they fire off at different times because, on the hour, we do national and then, on the half, we do local. So we just do some variations with our obvious intentions is local and national. The weigh-in to the news is that we try and look for the top news, sports and political stories each day from either/or inside/outside the region. I think they wanted a 30 30 30% rating, but that doesn’t work. You know, your best political, your best business. Thirty percent, you know sometimes that just doesn’t work. We’re leaning more towards sports, at the moment,

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because we know there’s a lot of interest. It’s good for ratings, and it drags people into every other story that we’re presenting, as well.

The brief that I’ve been given since I’ve been with Pere is that we want to inform and educate our audience too and, basically, that’s our game. That’s all we do.

How many of you? There’s yourself, Ruci...

There’s myself, Rudy Farrell, Bob Winestrap and Pere, so we’ve got a small team.

What makes you proud to work for NIU FM and 531 PI? How do you feel about it?

I really enjoy working for a community station, which is all about serving the community, and just an opportunity to raise awareness levels about the issues that are important to us, and those issues are more intrinsic to, perhaps, what happens to our communities both locally and abroad: back home, the Islands, Samoa, Tonga or Fiji. And that’s the go-ahead to provide them with an objective and information, so they can make more informed decisions; to educate their children, to provide more hope for themselves, and just to lead lives of hope, prosperity and dignity.

How successful do you think this is occurring as a national Pacific radio station?

It’s hard to quantify. It’s common knowledge that we’ve had a bit of a falling-out with the station so this is, perhaps, the second wave, especially, in the newsroom. There’s been a lot of flak, this is just something that happens with radio stations. We’re just a tiny station, we’ve only been going now for three years. Some kind of fallout or mistakes will occur; it’s not new, but we can go from here now. So we’re lucky with our team now at the moment. We’ve got at least 300 years experience, between the three of us. That’s a good grounding in itself; what you need is experience. What you need is news that makes people think, because the station is a good station. Whenever you work with a bunch of Pacific Islanders, it’s always going to be a lot of fun. But sometimes, you’ve got to put away the fun bag, and think serious about what’s going to make people think. How are we going to identify issues? How are we going to approach those issues? And just provide some substance for it. Otherwise, we’re just going to go around and tell jokes all day. And that’s not the way to be.

One of the things when I was looking into trying to figure out some questions to ask you, part of the research was to actually have a look what’s out there for the network. And a lot of what I was getting was the huge information on NIU FM, but very little on 531 PI. Really? Yeah! Online, there’s a lot of information on the objectives and aims of NIU FM, of what they are planning to do or has done, but very little on 531 PI. As a journalist, does one station take priority over the other?

No it doesn’t. Are you saying, like news-wise...? Basically, just going online and having a look at the website. Looking at the Government, the Ministry of Culture and Heritage, what they’ve actually got in their information, for the network. Just accessing information, in general!

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I’ll tell you what! On 531 PI, because they are language-based, they have a huge input and they have a lot of really good community programmes, which are informative and interesting in their own language, for people to take a part to the dissipated and to draw their opinions about different issues, and these are quite well-done.

Yes, it is. I think, with these stations, there is a distinct difference between it, whereas with 531 PI has a _________, which are its basis. But you saw the flipside, as well. You saw that our website is about ten years behind. But still, there is information there for your Average Public to access, and that’s good. As a professional newsroom, providing what’s meant to be up-to-date, this has been one of the downfalls here ... our website, because that’s basically the door of the window to out there, so things like that have to be fit and, maybe it’s just a bit of an experience or we’re missing the boat, but it will be better than what we fix up now, than later on.

Well, you’ve got a lot of up-and-coming young PI kids, who are just so computer-savvy and IT-savvy, they would be the ones that you really need to get in here and just do their magic. Maybe it’s just a budgetary thing. I hope not.

So, in terms of your news, where do you get your news? Do you get out there, in the midst of the community and look for news, or are there referrals that come to you?

There’s a lot of ways you can get news. Usually, I would use the wires _________, we can use the word of mouth. Because we’re all working different segments, like Ruci’s Fijian and I’m Samoan, most guys have a lot of Pacific experience and __________, sometimes we have our dry days, but most of the time, it’s our usual sources, we might pick up something out of the newspaper, like do a follow-up from a previous bulletin, from another station, so on and so forth.

I know what I should have done is actually explain right from the beginning, in saying that any of this information (of course) is accessible for us. It will all be transcribed, but if there is any part in here that you want to remain anonymous, by all means let me know. Tell me that. __________, No problem because I’m still on probation.

What do you think about some of the issues that the Radio Network station has been going through, in terms of staffing (I think Pere earlier on mentioned that there was a staffing issue)

We had a lot of thought over that. That newsroom there, before I arrived, it had four people on in the morning, and now we have only one, and they’ve done a lot of downsizing too. And the expectation is that you can only keep drawing so much from the people who are there. But I mean it’s not happening the way it should be, in terms of a good division of labour and the proper logistics, in order for us to punch a proper professionally-run series of news bulletins every morning for each day of the week. We still have got a long way to go. But it’s doable. You guys have managed to keep it going, which is great!

What about in terms of your programming, is everything fitting quite well?

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Yes. The news, as opposed to programming, because they’re different entities. At the moment, we’re just concentrating on punching our bulletins out each day. And then the programme director, he just builds around there. So on the hour and half hours, it’s not too much of a problem now.

What about funding? From a journalistic perspective, how do you see funding? Is it done appropriately, because the government is helping out? Are there any other ways of finding funding, or giving privately... I’m not sure how the whole thing works.

Some newsrooms use advertorials, like with sports bulletin, someone would say “this sports bulletin was brought to you this morning by Sports A B C & D.” We haven’t got to that point yet but, in terms of (if we wanted to) provide a commercial element to that, perhaps we should do that sooner or later, given the overall picture of the economic position of the station, which is not really favourable, at the moment. And that probably comes back to just poor decision-making in front of us and before us, by our board, and whatever happened before. As well as that, I would like more wages please!

As a journalist, do you feel as though if you have something to say, in the improvement of the Network, do you feel that you’re being heard? That you are actually contributing to the Network station?

Yeah! I know that you’re already contributing in your job description but, in general, can you go to Pere or whoever and say “Whatever, blah blah blah.” Do you feel that?

Yeah! I like to think we have a pretty good team going at the moment. We’re all new. Pere just arrived in July, and I just arrived last month. And we knew Bob from back in the days. So we have that relationship. We just heard about Ruci, heard about her before. But between us, we’ve covered up just about every story and seen every... Ruci was doing coups, I’ve done so many corruption stories in the Pacific and Samoa, it’s not even funny. So between us, we have a high level of co-operation, and Pere’s a new guy as well, because he’s from a Maori background but he’s a good __________ go-between for all of us, so he brings another perspective, so we have a good team. And we have a pretty good communication so far.

Who do you see is the station’s key target audience?74% of the station is targeting Samoans because that’s the biggest market. That’s the quantifiable data, which is the base we work off ... I don’t know how accurate that figure is, but we work it that way. But, of course, there are the other Pacific Island communities and, really, I think it’s a matter of everyone going together and trying to produce some kind of semblance or relevance in the newsroom, so we’re all moving together as opposed to, let’s just roll Samoan stories per se! But that’s our target audience, generally 74%.

How do you know what type of news your audience want to listen to? I mean, you’re saying that the majority of your audience is Samoan. So, does that mean that the type of news you are reporting will be more _________?

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Well, obviously, the news reporters suss the ... it comes from experience. A lot of the experience, because we’re involved in a lot of our communities, you keep your ear to the ground and just your usual follow-ups, whether you’d be listening to other radio stations; whether it would be watching Triangle TV or whether you’d be involved in your church. The church is always a good source because you just talk casually. And, after all this time, it just comes back to experience. After all, this time in the game, you’ve got to be a bit daft if you can’t feel what people want to really listen to.

Say, for example someone who is a Cook Islander, who thinks that there is an event approaching and they think it’s a bit newsworthy, they can come to you, and go through you down that track.

Of course they can! Just call us up! I like to have a handle on every CE. You basically know the top three stories... for most of the areas. From the Cook Islands now, you are seeing the mini-games.

Okay, as you know, the main area of my research covers these operational goals. These structures of the operational goals have been used from a typology, which has come from a well-researched and published book. And one of the things that I have followed is through, with the station, what are some of the things that maintain that link with our home of origin? From a journalist’s perspective.

Okay. The key one for us is to just keeping in contact with people, with news issues back home, and contacting the sources of authority over there. Fortunately, we have been given a huge telephone tab and so away we go. And we get these stories are fresh, off the mark everyday. So we’re doing that all the time. That’s the main causal link. So accessibility is great. Accessibility is perfect.

What about preserving, restoring or advancing the use of an Island language? Do you see that, as a journalist, if it’s actually working here for the station?

With Island cultures, they like us to use our honorific, when I do my voices. There’s one connection there. Because the way we figure, we like to look for family connections and so on and so forth. So I do that on the news bulletins. I like us to go the way of the Maori station. I notice on MAI FM, they just do their te reo whenever they feel like it. They do it really well. As opposed to that, we sit here and have a MIND YOUR LANGUAGE or something, which is funny in one way, but it’s a bit kind of stale. It’s not really for the thinking community that we want in the future. So we have to develop that and, if that means that our pulse on particular on NIU FM has to have that capability to be able to speak in their own language onair, so be it. I think that’s the way it has to get, otherwise we’re losing our identity. Radio identity, ‘cause I mean a lot of the time, because we’re hip-hop-based on NIU, we sound just like any hip-hop-base, and I think we’re losing that battle too.

Yeah, I agree. One of the things that I admire about MAI FM is that, ad hoc, you’d hear the announcers Oh, you’d love it there! Bah dah dah dah bah! Snap snap! We have to – this is quite stink, no offence to you wonderful people. See you, you’re great, love you guys, but the truth you guys, without te reo man, we’re going backwards.

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I know that we’re talking about 13 14 15 year olds, who listen to MAI FM, and one of the things they come up is Maori vocabs; they know more Maori vocab ... my daughter, for example, knows a more Maori vocab, than she does of her Samoan origin and Cook Island origin. And I’m thinking why (?) ... because she listens to MAI FM all the time. What about combating some of the negative stereotypes provided by mainstream media. Do you see it as a bit of an issue?

Oh, well, we hear it now the stereotypes, they don’t hold up for much nowadays, in a certain way. I think we’re slowly overcoming, is it a lack of confidence (?) with ourselves, in terms of being presenters and being able to compete, and that’s what we have to learn to do is compete, but just hold on to what’s important to us, and don’t apologise for it. That’s right!

With the station, do you see it as serving a source of information for our people, in relation to say, employment, health care, all these social issues? Does the station help our people with this? Education? Financially?

Yes, ideally. We do cover those bases! And ideally, that’s the heart of the station just, with social issues, from an employment/education/housing/youth crime/employment etc, and that’s our role, that should be behind what’s everything we say and do. And you can have a lot of fun with it, and that’s just a matter with keeping it positive ... staying on top and making sure that our people are in the position to receive good information, to make good decisions for themselves. For all the time that I’ve been here, we’re doing alright! But, like I’m saying, there’s plenty of room for improvement., with being a bit more dynamic and coming in our programming, perhaps, whether it be a current affairs programme or if we can do our news bulletins first, then current affairs programmes after, and making these eing uninterested in current affairs and so on. It’s a matter of informing them and telling them how relevant it is to their lives and, from there, it can be a very successful worth communicating the best interests of what you want to be. That’s right! Absolutely! Some of the things that have come through in your programmes, and this has come through from a listener, when it comes to cervical cancer, none of that (through the government’s promotion of advertising, etc.) has come across through her. And so it does, it serves a very good ...

We;;, you’re talking about cervical cancer. Before I joined the station, I turned up one day, and the DJ talked for an hour and fifteen (not solidly) about the benefits of white vinegar, which I thought (if she had given it just ten minutes) and I just thought pretty her name, and this (I think) are the changes we need to push through. It’s good stuff, is it? White vinegar! And a lot of people don’t know that! That’s basic stuff you have in your pantry cupboard ... that people don’t know! But, like I was saying, an hour and fifteen it’s a bit overboard yeah, I thought it should have been about ten minutes, and I thought, man, you could have been in _________________ here, if you had researched your pre-programming and looked and done some research, and had a much more informative, helpful, interesting programs that are an hour on white vinegar.

So, how does your mission statement (the station’s mission statement) reflect on your own expectations, as a journalist, of it being received successfully?

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We have a mission statement pinned up in our newsroom, we have about five copies against the wall. I’ve read it, but I don’t remember it. But with our own mission statement, we’d like to be the best newsroom in Auckland, for a start. And then, perhaps, a good reputation is a ________ so station in the region. And the reason being for what we have already spoken about, and that everybody lifts their game, their standards and awareness, and I’m so glad to be a part of here.

That concludes our interview!

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Interview 3:

Interview session with Pere Charles Maitai, director for news for 531 PI and NIU FMMy tribes are Rongomaiwahine, Ngati Porou and Ngati Kahungunu, with a touch of Tuhoe, and I’m in the 50’s bracket, recently. My background is, mainly, in journalism and broadcasting, but also around development of organisations. I’m presently the contractor, to be the director in news and current affairs at the Pacific Media Network, running Pacific radio news. We cross two networks, which are 531 PI and NIU FM. We run daily news shows from 6 am to 6 pm from Monday to Friday. We take in Radio Live on the weekends, at the moment, we have a small team, which comprises of five plus myself, and we also have two interns, who are here for three days. My background is, as follows: I first started off in journalism and broadcasting back in the 70s. And in general news and current affairs, but also the first Pacific Island and Maori programme with South Pacific Television (SPTV) on TV 2, and I was a researcher/reporter then. But I also worked in general news and general current affairs programme called EyeWitness. And towards the end of the 70s, it wasn’t called the Pacific Correspondent in those days, but I went around the Pacific Islands myself and Carol Archie, covering Pacific stories, particularly around constitution problems. Like in the Cook Islands where, with Sir Albert Henry, I was there on the court case. In fact, I think (in the space of two months) I went there five times. When Michael Sumari was having problems in Fiji, i got asked to leave. I was in Niue, when Mr Rex was premier. Then I went on to a TV show called Koha, which was the first real Maori show and then I went into private radio, helped starting up 2XS, now quickly going through and came back to TVNZ, and Te Karere (helped start that up). I went on to start up Marae, Waka Huia. I was director of a Maori journalism course at ATI (Auckland Technical Institute, presently the Auckland University of Technology), then I went on to do a couple of documentaries, was the producer/director of the 1990 Waitangi Day celebrations, which had about 25 cameras. Then i did a couple of documentaries. Then came back. I went on to be the producer of 60 Minutes and, from there, I went to Malaysia, to be executive producer of news and sport, which was over one hundred people and it had suddenly started off with being fully-digital (?). it ended up, having twenty-five programmes across twenty-two channels in four different languages. After being there for two years, i came home. I was asked to help out with iwi radio, setting it up. For awhile, I did a number of contract jobs, including being the start-up CEO of an iwi development trust. And working in public service, Communications Manager and Director, for both education and Te Puni Kokiri and Inside Ministers offices, as well. I decided to set up my own company again second time around, which made me _________ in communications and marketing. And, hence, my company _________. But I’ve done contracted work here (yeah) and I’ve done other contracts mainly in communication strategy and marketing. So, basically, what I do in here is run a small team. When I came in here, there was a lot of trouble, loss of settled (?) ... so I settled the team. I got them ticking over. Getting more stories that reflect more PI, that’s what’s mostly called for. And planning for election day. So that’s ________. That’s really a huge wealth of knowledge in the area, isn’t it?

In comparison to Malaysia and here, with a team that’s obviously smaller, how many people are involved in it? When you look at it, the station network itself from both 531 PI and NIU FM, in total, how many do you think it is?

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About 60. Closer to 100? Yeah! That’s a huge difference, isn’t it? So you’re really a high achiever, aren’t you? I would love to think I am. You are!

Initially, when you left school, was this the track you wanted to go down? No. One thing led to another... When I left school, and I was going to go to university, I told my father I was going to be ..., I always wanted to be a lawyer, right from when I was seven up to the last year of college. Then I had this big change of mind. And I think really I didn’t know what I wanted to do, but it wasn’t necessarily law. And I conned to my father, and told him that I wanted to do business studies. You know, ____________. Hahaha! I’m a lazy person, by my own virtue. And, what happened was I was bumming around and doing a few things, and my cousin asked me to ___________, and the next minute I knew we were talking to television people, about how much I wanted to be in television. I didn’t have a clue. And that started my journalism, and they gave me training and so on. I think the other thing that helped me was that my father was a minister, and gave me a lot of contacts of lots of different types of people. The other thing, again by my own virtue, I like meeting different types of people, and being in different types of situations. As the years have gone on, I suppose i like the challenge of turning things around (I think I’m good at doing that). And teaching skills or giving skills to other people. I’m not a prescriptive person, in that we all do this. The way I teach is more like I would master this, and _______________. It’s handing out over and seeing , so that people actually see how it’s being done, and developing their skills and encouraging ... in a human rights/relationships thing – they call it empowering. I was once called a change agent, because I help change, and turn around things. I’ve never heard the term, until about two months ago. I love being a journalist, and because I’m nosey and I like to know what’s happening before anybody else. So one of the things that make me competitive, even if you’re working with Pacific radio news, I still expect that everybody is professional, and they want to do their best. That’s the way I am, and I expect people to be like that, as well. If they don’t want to be there, they should really go and find something else, if that’s not their cup of tea. Radio is actually quite different, because the turnaround is so quick. The mornings here, it’s half an hour, and then it’s an hour to an hour. And you also have to think ahead of people who read your stories.

So, in terms of Pacific Island media, with radio (of course), my main topic for research is the operational goals, whether that’s actually been reflected in the day-to-day programming. How do people distinguish between, if you’ve got two network stations here (you’ve got 531 PI and NIU FM), of course you cater to both of them, but how do you do that? Do you have a certain amount of people doing 531 PI _____________?

No. Basically, we collect the stories as one. There’s a slight difference in the mornings, with the two shows because 531 PI has top-of-the-hour bulletins, and the bottom on the half-hour, so that’s 6 o’clock, 6.30, 7 o’clock, 7.30, 8 o’clock, 8.30, and then 9, whereas NIU FM just have it on the top-of-the-hour, up to 9. And then both hourly, until __________. Next year, around the 1st of February, things will change because the audiences are quite different and, with NIU FM, the audiences are more 18 – 25 ... 18 – 35, whereas the audience at 531 PI is older, so their news is going to be (in the morning) longer; it’s going to be about five minutes (five minutes on the top-of-the-hour, and five minutes at the half- hour)., whereas NIU FM will be three minutes, at the top of the hour, and two minutes sports at the bottom of the hour. With the quarter hour coming down, there’s a “This is

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what’s coming up in the half-hour” and in the quarter-hour going up “This is what’s coming up in the next hour”. And, also, we’ve been, probably, looking to make it three minutes in the afternoon slots, as well, from two o’clock.

So, with the programmes, do you feel (I know) coming here, as a Maori, there’s still room for improvement with a lot of things. So, do you think the management team of both stations (actually the management team) is actually addressing all this? Are they slowly coming to ...?

Yes, I think, once the elections are over, and things have settled down a little bit, and the results of the survey (we’ve just gone through a radio survey, particularly around NIU FM), there will be a lot of discussion about where to go to next. The executive management team, that has been set up of late, they are only recent really, in their positions, including me ... I’ve only been here for nine weeks. Okay. What about the others, within the last few months? The director of planning, of radio planning, his position has been going for four months. And the financial controller has only been here three months. So a lot of ________, apart from the CEO, has been the Director of Marketing. It’s a new start for everything, I suppose! Yes, for the executive team, and we’re doing it to get that along.

In terms of your news etc, is it pre-dominantly here in NZ or do you still draw news from back home, like the island of origin?

The aim of the game is to have PI stories here, locally and within NZ. PI stories within the region, and the region being within the Pacific. And then, general news and sport, and a lot of the sport is around PIs anyway. Okay, so that’s quite a wide range, and...

What about the language, cultural language from each island? Is that specifically done, on your language shows, in the evening? Or is there a mix ____________?

No, that’s done by the language team on, predominantly, 531 PI, and they interview people from each island, during the week. And we’re still trying to do the liaison with both language teams and the 531 Programming teams. So we can get things done better.

We all see it and hear it, with the different ethnic groups, that each one has their own stereotypes but, as far as mainstream media is concerned, what are some of the things that you’ve seen in the past, in relation to Pacific Island stereotyping ...?

Basically, they don’t say Samoan, they say Pacific Islander. So, it gets all we’re all going _______. Yes. And that’s the same as Maori, you know. All Maori, it doesn’t matter that the tribal group, it happens to be down there, not up here. And, as I was saying with Pacific Islanders, in a ___________, you take Chinese alright. There are NZ Chinese, Hong Kong Chinese, mainland Chinese, Taiwan Chinese, and, then, Malaysian Chinese, who are quite different again.

It’s been said before that, often, well I have heard it, what are your views on people saying that, because Samoa is the pre-dominantly larger group among Pacific Islanders here in NZ? Yeah. So a lot of the times we see in the media or the decision-making, when

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it comes to things like radio and television, that Samoan influences always outnumbered 10 yw_________. Is that your view too?

No, not necessarily, because they’re not necessarily the biggest ___________ of all this. It’s actually been said to me that the Tongans have got the biggest mouths. But you said, as a group, the Samoans certainly, probably have more power but, at the same time, a number of other racial groups, they still make a huge (yeah) and they still have a voice, and they do make a commitment. Consider it, when you have 22,000 Niueans, rather than the 2,000 that live back home the same thing can be said about the Cook Islanders.

So do you see the station as helping Pacific Islanders on a social level, like education, policies from the government? Because I know, with some of our Pacific Island people, they have know idea what some of these policies are, let alone heard of them. So do you see the station as being ... ?

Yes. It’s a conduit. There’s no doubt about it! The two networks are ... you have to be _______, the problem that we have is that we’re government-funded, and that we’re required to do a number of things. That’s good! But, at the same time, we’ve got to be entertaining, as well, so that we keep people listening to us. So that you don’t lose people, that audience! So I think, as a new boy on the block here, it does quite well but I think there has to be a lot of the terms and strategies about what’s exactly wanted. Yes, that’s right! And I think there are other platforms to be investigated.

Why I ask is because I’m comparing it, to say, Flava, and here, your advertisements, I don’t hear a lot of Kentucky Fried Chicken, or the advertising of _________

Yes. I have to say that, and that’s not necessarily a commitment by us not to. The first thing is to get your house looked at and checked. Yes! If government policies are filtering through and you, as a radio station, are actually advertising or getting guest speakers and government workers on to actually explain this to our people and then, on the other hand, you’re also advertising KFC and things like that (you’re not! I know you’re not!). But the two just don’t gel! I’m merely comparing it to _________. Yes. I think that one of the things that we still need to do a bit about our product. What exactly is our product? Do we really understand our niche? Do we really understand how we can get better money from it (and I’m not talking about necessarily from the government); I’m talking about advertising and the lot. At the end of the day, we have to be a sustainable organisation. So we have to look beyond just the government funding. Don’t forget the endeavours that we’re trying to reflect. That’s right! Like entertainment! Social Welfare. The dilemmas that I have to consider is, what is news? And what is heping out there? And do Pacific Island people know about things, things that are going to help them, in the long-run such as health etc.

One of the things that I admire, that I’ve mentioned earlier, is MAI FM, actually, from time-to-time, they regularly will slip in Maori words and Maori vocabulary “Ko te kupu mo tenei ra ...”, I don’t hear that on (sic) your radio stations.

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Oh, yes, we do. We have this _____________ on NIU FM, particularly trying to teach them the language. There’s a bit on 531 PI but, because the language programmes are all on 531, it’s pre-dominantly for 531 and it’s for language-speaking people.

Is it important for a radio announcer to be fluent in any of the Pacific Island languages, or is it not necessary?

Not necessarily. 531 PI is a bit different than the majority of the people who front, they are language speakers. So, even from our point of view, from the news point of view, we shouldn’t be ashamed of people who have a hint of accent; I have one newsreader/ journalist, who he actually sounds like he should be on Radio NZ. But he’s Samoan through-and-through; he’s got a great voice. We’ve got a Fijian reader, who does her bit. She may have a slight accent, but she’s clear and nice to listen to, in the afternoons.

In general, does the station does promote language? Like __________

Yes. The two networks do promote the language the culture, culture’s a bit hard on radio, but our language programmes you get that right; it’s not necessarily my cup of tea, but some people like plain hymns. I come from a relatively-religious background, but I’m not into listening to hymns everyday. That black gospel music sounds alright to me!

Have you got anything else to add?________________ And it’s a good place to be.

Thank you very much.

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Interview 4:

Interview session with Etuata... Etuata. I’m Niuean, and I’m currently the Network Programme Director for Pacific Media Network, for both 531 PI and NIU FM, and I’ve done this role since July of this year. Prior to that, I was the Programme Director for 531 PI, when both 531 and NIU FM merged last year. So, before coming together, I was the station manager for 531 PI in Otahuhu, and I started here in 2003, as the Sales and Marketing Manager for (back then) both 531 PI and Bfm and, of course, in-between, there was a parting of ways and I was there in February of last year ________so, with a gap in-between, and that’s a bit of history, but that’s all behind us now Prior to that, I was in Samoa and I worked in radio FM for about six or seven years, with Radio Polynesia. I’m Niuean, but I’m married to a Samoan ... and that’s the connection with Samoa!And my background has been in radio __________ since I’ve been in Samoa in 1996. Before that, I worked in the government, in education, and in early childhood, especially in Pacific early childhood. _________ for Pacific early childhood. So that’s given you a good basic foundation to ...

Yes. I have a network with government, within our communities. I’m from Wellington, originally. Niuean, so connections are with the Niuean and, more recently, the Samoan community, in terms of the work I’ve done in Samoa. And I’m still involved with a few Samoan groups, here and in Samoa, through sport and I’m also on the Pacific Awards Trust; and _______. There’s part of my part-time stuff, as well. I’m a personal trainer; I teach aerobics at Les Mills for the last ten or so years ___________. So it is a bit of a varied background. It’s very rich. It’s actually rich in all of the areas, not only culturally, but also within the culture of NZ.

I’m 42. And I suppose, coming back to NZ after six years in the Islands working in radio in Samoa, I wanted to work for radio and I wanted to work, specifically, for our Pacific people. So, initially, when I came back, I worked for Access Radio writing, because I’m a writer. And I was there for two months, before I got a job up here. Having said that, that’s all my experience. I’ve been involved in Access Radio since Samoa’s ... my father, Reverend Etuata in Wellington, he’s been looking after the Access Radio programme for the Niuean community, since the ‘70s. And my involvement back then was recording and doing all the things that you do when you help put together Niuean community programmes, running around with the recorder and taping church services, etc. So I didn’t draw my radio experience back then, but ____________ and my family __________ Access radio programmes. So that’s my background.

How does one have a management team, running both stations? Do you have a whole lot of people doing, specifically, 531 PI things, and NIU FM has a different team? Or have you merged as a company, with all people merging and working together? How do you do it?

I think that’s one of the benefits of the merger, was the pooling of talent and, with 531 PI being about twenty years old in Auckland, and NIU FM out of the work of 531 PI and, people behind that, government and key people at the time ________. And I think back in 2002, when it started in September, prior to that, one station in Auckland, dealing with the

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audience that we have, the programme was trying to cater for everyone. And Auckland, especially, being the number of stations in Auckland, you’re either going to hit the market a certain time, or you’re just providing a service for an extended access service. But how do you manage to get a team together, to work ________, there’s common areas in sales, marketing, promotions, creative, production. And, when I say common, they’re common in that they’re working with both products. The majority of our staff are Pacific, in fact 90%. I suppose it’s a Pacific audience that we’re working with. It’s when you define the demographic of NIU FM, as the network’s young station, as 531 PI has an older target audience. It’s great to have both because our audience now is a lot more sophisticated! Gone are the days where you cherish the time you had on air because the Niueans had half an hour here, or an hour there. ______________. Language programmes are now on 531 PI and NIU FM network. So, in the evening, NIU FM, we grab the network, as 531 PI, and our language programmes run in Auckland 531 PI ______________. In Auckland, NIU FM ______ continues with that same format in Auckland. So, during the day, the network product is young up and down the country. But when we switch to the language programmes, then outside of Auckland, they get the language programmes. So, in Auckland, you have a choice! In the evening, you can listen to languages. Or you can listen to a younger _________. So, for the whole audience, that’s a great achievement. I suppose, if you’re young and in Wellington, you’ve got a language programme to listen in to. It’s a good way, because the coverage is a lot better, it’s a lot wider, isn’t it? Yes. I suppose that is the benefits of having two stations. In terms of actual programme content, that’s where the difference is. And so I am the assistant Programme Director for NIU FM, and assistant Programme Director for language programmes. And I and Nadine (?) _______________, assistant Programme Director for 531. So that’s how the make-up is at the station.

Since the merging, it is government-funded so, obviously, there are certain goals and objectives that are ...

We have a Statement of Intent, and I think that’s something that I probably need to pull it off, so you can see it, because it was written up about two months ago. And we have had a couple of restructuring changes since then, so that would be useful because it’s got everything that you need, like our mission statement, and some of the key objectives that we have. And a lot of them are to do with looking at the growth of our Pacific audience. There’s a social obligation to us, to provide a community service to our Pacific audience here, but the commercial reality is that the funding you get to operate two stations, is not enough to keep us going, and so there’s a commercial arm to us, that we need to generate revenue, so we have a larger programme content in Samoan, Tonga and the Cook Islands. They have more hours on air in the evening and, in terms of our obligations for that community, they generate revenue, as well. So, during the day, we sell airtime in the evening we do but, for us, we have smaller communities, which we have airtime, but they may not generate revenue, such as Tuvalu and Kiribati. And so for us, as a member, the juggle for us is making sure that we provide a service for all ... to our wider Pan-Pacific audience. But also juggle the fact that we have to play the game, we have to! I suppose it’s an issue, in a way, that there’s a Public Broadcast Model, it is a commercial model. So, the juggle of both at TVNZ is a good example. Sub-titles is a difficult one.

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What I’m working is Brown, who’s working on a typology, and his specialty is on ethnic media, and he’s worked all over the world and written books, so the typology I’m basing my work on is his work, and the chief priorities of the station. But, as you said, you’ll send my through some of those subjectives etc.

What are some of things that you specifically programmes that link the Islands/home of origin to NZ? Do you have, in a week or month, guest speakers specifically from the Islands?

There’s a whole range of things. As soon as you use language, there’s a link immediately to where they’re from. We have news, in our language programmes, from the Islands. So, they will hear from their community, whether it’s in Samoa, or the Samoa community in Australia, the Samoan community in Sydney or Melbourne, up and down the country. So, as news, it’s very important. At 531 PI, we’re a news-and-information station ... and our language programmes reflect that too, in terms of news and information. So, all of them will have news. We also share news with stations in the islands. A couple of our programmes are run at time-talkback (?). that’s a simulcast with another station there. The length (?) of the Islands is very strong. And, with our Pacific Radio News team, there’s a lot of regional news, that comes through ... some of it here in our bulletins, during the day.

With your radio announcers, how important is it that they be fluent in at least one Pacific Island? Is that very important?

Yes. I think, if you look at both stations, definitely in our language programmes, fluency in the language is required. But during the day, because it’s a Pan-Pacific audience, it’s about broadcasting experience because we have a pool of talent that’s trained in broadcasting, when they come out, with the skills to go onair. Their background determines whether their show requires a bit more support, in this area. We’ve talked about cultural competencies, in terms of having our own team. We are looking at staff here, where the majority are NZ-born, in terms of NIU FM, having that younger demographic. On 531 PI, _____________, in terms of those who are NZ-born but if, during the day, you listen to our announcers, you could be listening for any radio station. Yes, that’s right! I have heard that! I did some announcing in Samoa, _____________ and you go to places, and people don’t realise that you are Pacific first, but you have a Kiwi accent. You listen to our shows, it can be many stations (?), but until they say “Talofa Lava” or break out in language, or ___________, so that’s something we try to incorporate in our programmes, to ensure that this message applies to us. But I think we have one announcer, who can speak four languages ... probably not fluent in all four, but has an understanding of the languages ... Michael Palu, _________, so he does a shift on Saturday. So he’ll break out in a language now and then. It’s actually good to hear. But the problem is, if you’re a Fijian, and you’re listening to him go off in Cook Island, five minutes ... it’s okay, you can bear it! Six or seven minutes _________, it’s how we manage it for our Pan Pacific audience, because there is a Cook Island __________ . So, it’s great to have, as a skill! But it’s not necessary ... it’s great to acknowledge it! In fact, there is a kiwi twang in an announcer’s voice, when they pronounce Samoan or Tongan words, but reality today with our generation, you don’t, now and the longer are our younger people (?). I’m Niuean, I’m not fluent Niuean, but I understand the language. And I understand the English – Samoan too. But English is my first language. So, to understand

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what goes on the language programmes, I was _________. It’s a network of teammates, that make the place ... which is unique to any other station, because other stations don’t have that jungle! Sometimes the jargon was great, and sometimes it comes with the usual headaches, that happen with working within our communities. And that what makes a community! But one of the pluses with being a Pacific Islander (or being half a Pacific Islander) is that you understand, when something goes down, everybody is (sort of) yeah, okay cool ... Yes, well there are people who come in and say they’ve never worked for an organisation like this because there’s not a Pacific-way, but there’s a shared understanding ________, you can deal with it! But there’s a process, that plays it! Having worked in the Islands, you know when to press the buttons, and you know when to leave it alone.

So combating negative stereotypes, especially those that are provided by mainstream, what are some of the things that you’ve seen in the past, as far as Pacific Island stereotyping is concerned?

Apart from the obvious ones there, we are operating in a mainstream environment and, if you look at it commercially, business comes to us secondhand ... big advertisers, corporations, even government departments look at this big picture first. And then they look at it ethnically. And the issue with me has always been about educating that group, to say “Hey! You can’t speak to us all at once!” We have a Samoan language! we have a Tongan language! There’s a certain way you put things over! We neutralise language programmes for that audience, if that’s your target! For our young, it’s a bit different! It needs to be treated differently. If we’re going to talk about subjects that are close to the heart (?) with our communities, whether it’s subjects like sexual health or teenage pregnancies, we have to be very mindful to use recent words yeah, culturally-sensitive all those things, which mainstream media _____________. And I always give this example, when you look at media and some of the things that happen in mainstream with that programme, Sports Cafe and World Youth Day. How many PIs do you see participating in that! Yet, for mainstream viewers, that’s just commonplace. I think that one TV2 ad, that promotes the channel, is one where two guys are running across the field with nothing on. _________. So, when you look at media like that, then you have to wonder! I remember an episode where Eric Rush, as a Maori, said “You notice, our people don’t participate in that! You know why? That’s because their mum’s watching!” That’s right! It’s the family! So, when you look at the stereotyped images of the Pacific, I think mainstream, at times, when it suits. And, as a network, advocacy for our communities is pretty important! Our languages do that a lot ... it’s about the language, it’s about culture.

As far as illustrating that ethnic minorities, with us as PIs, we’re quite capable of operating a media service.

We’re more than capable! I think it’s interesting, we’ve had some research done recently, and the topics of interest for our audience, especially for 531 PI’s much-older audience, where they looked at what items of news and stories of interest, that would _________ them. Politics was very high! Politics within the region, politics here, within their communities, so we have a melting pot of a network, that is catering for those communities. Comes with that ... it comes as part and parcel. And a lot of times, we do get caught up in that! And history speaks for itself, in terms of the history of both NIU FM and 531 PI. And

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that comes from where government sits. It’s something that you live with. But I think it does have our progress, in terms of moving forward, because what we could be doing now, has taken us twice as long, because we’ve had to be sure that we take our communities with us. Because, otherwise, you could take the approach that lets us do it. That is why buy-in is so important! Because you know that’s right! We don’t come from an individualistic society; we’re very much community-based, so I understand that!

So, in terms of the mission statement, how does that reflect your expectations of it being received successfully ... it’s good, it’s moving?

Yes. The mission statement, we currently have, is into words like inspires and importance (?). And one of the main responsibilities of the network is, if there are bad stories to be told about what’s happening to our communities, we’re never told! But then again, we always need to highlight the good stuff, because mainstream media don’t do that for us! And we need to remind ourselves that, of all the issues in South Auckland four our communities and all the issues in health, education and achievement, there are these success stories. So its the __________, to make sure that the news is not always! I can’t remember the last positive story in the Herald, that made the front page about our communities. But I can tell you the negative stories that made the front page. As a network, we need to be doing that, because no one’s doing it! That’s right! Because no one’s doing it! We have to do it! And I think, from what I can see, is that, turning government departments into agencies, PI culture is now big business! Culture! Ethnic! Most departments handle Pi team. I worked in government, where I was the only brown face, and that was in the department. Do we have policy to look at? No! The EEO was just kicking in... what does that mean? Other people didn’t know what that means! So, we have come a long way, through the fact that there are a lot more of us in positions of influence.

You’re located here in Brown Street in Ponsonby. Is it a good location? Or is there a demand for you to be relocated back in South Auckland?

Yes. I suppose! __________ didn’t like that, has made it known that, in Otahuhu? That’s where I was based. It’s that community-connectedness! For us to run a promotion outside right now, here ... we will get the George FM audience and MORE FM. If our listener wins a CD, we’re going to send it out to them. No one’s going to travel from Papakura, to come in for ___________. So, in terms of location, I was not happy in moving from Otahuhu here but, because NIU FM had established themselves here ... logistics, resources-wise, it’s all here! The reason for the merging together was also financial, too. You had two Pacific media, competing against each other. It was tough ... but it had to happen! But, ideally, we should be with our communities. To be accessible to our people, because the majority of our people do live in South Auckland! But, at the end of the day, it’s radio. If we were just purely a radio station, it doesn’t ___________. But because we‘re a front for our community, in terms of advocacy _________, our communities see us as a mouthpiece for them, so we need to be disciplined. That’s right! It’s a Pacific diaspora media, so we’ve come out of our comfort zone (?) really. So, I look at Access Radio (?), when I came back from Samoa, and worked in Wellington, I managed their programmes. They were such a diverse group of people. But it really didn’t matter, because we’re the same (?) The majority of our Pacific audience are _________. So we should be _________ category!

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So in five years times, where do you see the radio station?

Dead! Hahahaha...! Yes! And I think, in terms of revenue, a lot of the promotions are there. When I look at council support, and at some of our conditions ___________ . We were hoping that Auckland City will match that! Well, we’re hoping, but things have changed, since there’ve been a change! And, in Waitakere, there’s a Pacific community, out there! But it’s a bit more spread, in terms about that one.