Fringe station Reality Check Radio off air - Peter Williams PR video calls for donations

RCR host and former TVNZ host Peter Williams. Photo / NZ Herald

Fringe radio station Reality Check Radio (RCR) is off air, with pleas for donations to help it broadcast again.

A 14-minute professionally shot PR video, hosted by RCR host and former TVNZ star Peter Williams, outlines dire consequences to New Zealand society if the station can’t return to the airwaves.

Reality Check Radio launched a little over a year ago, born from the anti-vaccine movement and anger over the way New Zealanders were treated by the previous Labour Government during the Covid pandemic.

It has also built a support base on the back of criticism of mainstream media.

Over time, RCR has faced its own media critics, including from the likes of other new broadcasting entrants such as The Platform’s Sean Plunket.

But the station has also hosted interviews with mainstream politicians including senior coalition MPs such as NZ First leader Winston Peters.

RCR said today it was off air and in need of donations from supporters.

In the PR video, Williams says the station needs funding to continue.

“We’re not a big corporate media company. We don’t have access to government funding either. We’re listener-funded, which means we don’t have sponsors telling us what to do or what to say.

“Hopefully, it’s just a temporary closure.”

Peter Williams, Chantelle Baker, Paul Brennan and Rodney Hide featured large in Reality Check Radio's original marketing. Picture / Reality Check Radio

As well as Williams, the video features a range of other RCR hosts, including former Act leader Rodney Hide, as well as several well-known New Zealanders including former professional golfer Phil Tataurangi and opera singer Geoff Sewell.

Repeating earlier public comments, Williams says he was forced out of his previous mainstream media job - at Magic Talk radio - because “I didn’t comply”.

“I spent my life in the media so I know what’s at stake here.

“I saw it with my own eyes. I felt it.

“One day I was on air speaking freely at Magic Talk, interviewing people like [public health physician] Dr Simon Thornley, who I thought had something meaningful to add to the national conversation.

“The next day, I was given an ultimatum that either I talk about approved topics or I walk, and that was a real shock to me.

“I thought I worked in a media that protected freedom of speech, and suddenly I realised it really was about enforcing speech.”

Williams accused his former colleagues in the media of driving fear, especially during the Covid pandemic.

“You see, if Covid taught us anything, it’s that what we love can be taken away so quickly, like what happened that ended my career and the careers of so many people.

“And we need to act now before the fires of tyranny turn into a blaze.

“Can you trust our media and our Government to address the issues we all care about? And what kind of future is there for New Zealand, if no one else holds them to account.”

While RCR has a vocal support base, it seems the station needs more of them to stump up funding.

Hide reveals in the video that about 4500 people have donated to RCR. “But you might be surprised to learn that’s only about 1 per cent of RCR’s fan base who’ve financially supported the station they love. That’s 1 per cent carrying the load for everyone else.”

Earlier, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon indicated he was relaxed about his MPs speaking to a range of media outlets, including RCR.

He has said it’s over to individual MPs to decide who they speak to. “You do not want to see group-think emerge. It’s actually very important that [interviews] happen.”

• Editor-at-Large Shayne Currie is one of New Zealand’s most experienced senior journalists and media leaders. He has held executive and senior editorial roles at NZME including Managing Editor, NZ Herald Editor and Herald on Sunday Editor and has a small shareholding in NZME.