Two massive transmission masts - features of the west Auckland skyline - are now at the centre of a brewing battle that may determine the future of several radio stations.
The AM services of up to seven Auckland radio stations, including two catering to sports fans and several serving ethnic communities, are under threat, with RNZ proposing to replace two large transmission masts with just one.
The radio industry is gearing up for a potential legal battle with RNZ, partly based on the belief it may be breaching its charter and public broadcasting responsibilities. Commercial operators say RNZ has been earning profits from them for many years to sustain the masts and account for future plans.
However, RNZ says it is “not established as an infrastructure provider to other broadcasters” and that it has to recover its costs.
At the heart of the looming showdown are two prominent AM transmission masts on either side of Auckland’s Northwestern Motorway, at the Lincoln Rd interchange in Henderson.
The red and white masts are well-known landmarks; 15 radio stations rely on them for their AM services.
There are eight on the “northern” mast (Radio Waatea, Humm, BBC World Service, Chinese Voices, Newstalk ZB, Rhema, Radio Tarana and Radio Samoa) and seven on the “southern” mast (531PI, RNZ National, Parliament, APNA, Ake 1179, Gold Sport AM and Sport Nation).
According to RNZ, both masts need replacing. The southern mast on Lincoln Rd is 153m high and 70 years old. The northern Selwood Rd mast is 122m high and 91 years old.
“The masts have a design life of 50 years, which RNZ has managed to extend until now,” says RNZ chief technology officer Mark Bullen.
RNZ says it needs to remove both masts and – while it insists no final decision has been made – it has proposed replacing just the northern mast.
Sources say RNZ has been prepared to build a new southern mast but only if every existing tenant agrees to pay increased fees. The radio industry is baulking at the proposed fees and wants to see RNZ’s costings.
Under the one-mast scenario, RNZ would move RNZ National and Parliament from the southern mast to a new northern mast at the expense of at least one and possibly two of the existing northern mast stations.
Up to five other stations on the southern mast would also lose their AM transmissions, including Sport Nation – the Entain channel that has live cricket rights – and NZME’s Gold Sport AM, which has live rugby rights.
Other AM stations on the southern mast include those that cater to specific communities in Auckland, including 531PI for the Pasifika community, APNA for the Indian, Fijian, Bangladeshi, Pakistani and Punjabi communities, and Ake 1179, the official station of Ngāti Whātua.
Many of the 15 stations have a digital presence, but for some of them, AM is the main or only means of transmission.
The radio industry says New Zealand still has strong AM audiences because of the country’s geography, topography and high percentage of second-hand imported cars from Japan with radios that usually go up to only 90FM.
Media Insider understands some in the commercial radio industry are infuriated by RNZ’s position, believing its proposed costs are inflated.
They are also angry about what they label sky-high, ongoing fees RNZ is proposing for those who are lucky enough to have a spot on the new northern mast.
The Radio Broadcasters Association has engaged a lawyer and fired a shot across RNZ’s bow, threatening legal action.
It is understood that the lawyer has told RNZ that withdrawing transmission services would come at a high cost for the public and broadcasters. And that from a charter, public law and a plurality perspective, this included broadcasting to the Pacific Island, Samoan, Chinese, Indian, Māori, and Christian communities.
RNZ would not agree to chief executive Paul Thompson being interviewed for this story, instead providing a statement because it said it was in the middle of consultation with the industry.
RNZ’s Mark Bullen said in the statement that “no legal proceedings have commenced”.
“While RNZ cannot speak to the specific intentions of the co-siters, we are in ongoing conversation with them,” he said.
Bullen said RNZ had engaged with the industry about AM transmission at its Henderson sites “for many years”.
“Based on structural engineers’ reports, we have decided to decommission both towers by June 2026 to ensure the health and safety of both sites,” Bullen said.
“The building of a new mast on the northern site would be sufficient to meet RNZ’s transmission needs.
“RNZ is now talking to broadcasters ... about the financial viability of building a new mast on the southern site. Whether there are sufficient clients and ongoing revenue to make it financially prudent for RNZ to invest in the southern site [is] part of RNZ’s consideration.”
He said if RNZ decided “not to fund the mast, RNZ is open to ideas from co-siters that would provide other viable, funded plans”.
“RNZ has also had discussions with Government officials on technical options around additional FM services, but were advised this is not viable.”
Bullen said replacing both masts would cost in the range of $7 million, with the southern mast estimated to be close to $3m.
“In summary, no final decision has been taken on the southern site and we are awaiting further feedback from co-siters who we have been engaging with regularly.”
Radio Broadcasters Association chair Jana Rangooni said the association had known for some time that the towers might need to be replaced or relocated.
“Until December last year, we had understood RNZ was looking at a range of options to do this,” Rangooni said.
“Our members and other broadcasters became concerned when a consultation process started in December. It appeared RNZ only intended to rebuild the northern tower. This means all southern tower AM radio stations could be taken off air, along with a number of the northern tower stations RNZ wants to move off that tower to accommodate themselves.
“We believe this raises numerous commercial and public law issues that we have flagged to RNZ on behalf of our members.”
Rangooni said she understood all broadcasters wanted to continue to broadcast on both towers at reasonable fees, similar to current pricing.
“We are aware RNZ is requiring increased fees of 200% to 400% uplift on these.
“We believe the option to provide both towers at current prices is a viable one for RNZ, taking into account that the northern tower needs to be built for them to remain broadcasting. The transmission profits they have made from the commercial broadcasters in the past decade would fund most of the southern tower.
“We would not expect commercial operators to be subsidising RNZ operations. We have expected that profits would be recognised towards tower replacement, given their age and well-known need for replacement.”
She said the association was also concerned RNZ would not meet with association members as an industry group “to discuss all possible options”.
This included “any joint approaches that might need to be made to the minister or relevant ministry”.
“We believe the option to build both towers based on current fees is a viable and indeed sensible one for a public broadcaster. Should they decide not to, we, along with the impacted broadcasters, will look at all avenues open to us to ensure the respective Pacific, Asian, religious, sporting and other audiences do not lose the services they rely on.
“Recognising these audiences fits well with the role of RNZ in the public interest at a time all New Zealand radio organisations are focused on maintaining and growing our local audiences.”
NZME chief audio officer Jason Winstanley said the company - which also owns the NZ Herald and Newstalk ZB - was disappointed with RNZ’s position. NZME believed it was financially viable for the southern tower to be rebuilt.
“We don’t believe the proposed cost increase to accommodate the rebuild of both towers is required, based on the financial modelling we’ve done,” said Winstanley.
“We have requested Radio NZ’s modelling several times, but they have declined to provide it. We believe the millions of dollars all broadcasters have paid to date should be used to maintain and rebuild the towers.
“If the southern tower isn’t rebuilt, 1332AM would cease broadcasting in Auckland. At that point, for Gold Sport to continue in Auckland, we’d need to find another frequency for it. We’re urging Radio NZ to fully explore all options before a final decision is made by their board.”
MediaWorks director of content Leon Wratt told Media Insider: “MediaWorks is continuing to work through the RBA with RNZ towards both AM towers at Henderson being replaced so all stations, including Humm on 702AM, remain on-air. With Henderson being Auckland’s sole AM transmission site, the future of these stations now sits with RNZ.”
Entain Australia and New Zealand chief media officer Christopher Haigh said the company was “actively working through potential distribution challenges with RNZ and are committed to bringing Sport Nation to audiences around the country”.
“We’ll keep working on our AM/FM coverage plans, alongside bolstering our digital content offering, that already includes livestreaming of sport like cricket, netball and rugby league amongst others.”
While Sport Nation has an AM frequency in Auckland, it does not have an FM frequency.
Another impacted station is 531PI, operated by the Pacific Media Network, on the southern mast. It broadcasts 10 specific languages across specialist shows each week.
“If that southern tower goes, there won’t be any AM transmission of pan-Pacific languages in Auckland,” said PMN chief executive Don Mann.
“It’ll be the end of terrestrial AM transmission of publicly-funded Pacific languages.”
531PI is not part of the GFK radio ratings survey, but Mann said Pacific Media Network, through its various platforms, targeted the 440,000 Pacific Islanders living in New Zealand, about 275,000 of whom were in Auckland.
“Our roots are in linear terrestrial transmission, but we do use third-party platforms, we do use multimedia. We do use visual content, and we stream.
“But the issue is that target audience. The target audience for 531AM, given that it’s a language channel, is the Pacific people [for whom] English is not their first language.
“Their first language is Pacific. It’s generally an older audience that’s been trained over 35 years to listen by appointment on linear radio.”
For example, the Tongan community knew their show was broadcast at 3pm every Wednesday; the Samoan community knew their show was on 3pm every Thursday.
While PMN had made strong gains and growth in multimedia, Mann said there were still issues for some in the Pasifika community not having easy access to online connectivity or devices.
Mann said the industry accepted there was probably a limited timespan for AM transmission, whether that was “five years or 10 years, or whatever, I don’t know”.
It was an issue being grappled with across the world.
AM still played a critical role in emergency situations, and for ethnic communities, that timespan tail was likely a bit longer when they relied on specialist languages.
“It will be a critical situation if we just turn off terrestrial broadcasting to an older Pacific audience.”
Radio Tarana chief executive Robert Khan said Tarana was offered a position on the new northern tower, but the fees had doubled. “If we don’t accept it, we’re out of business, quite frankly. The choice was yay or nay - yay if you want your lifeline, nay if you don’t want your lifeline.”
Media Insider went back to RNZ with further questions on Friday.
“RNZ has not made a final decision on the southern mast. If we decide not to fund the replacement mast, then RNZ is open to ideas from co-siters that would provide viable plans consistent with our charter,” said a spokesman.
“RNZ has a primary responsibility to prudently use its funding to create public media content for audiences. That means we need to ensure all infrastructure investment is affordable while also providing the best value to New Zealanders. RNZ is not established as an infrastructure provider to other broadcasters who have independently secured AM licences from the Crown.
“To fund a southern mast, RNZ must be able to recover its costs and take into account the risks and uncertainties involved. This means we have proposed an increase in fees.
“The majority of RNZ’s infrastructure investment has been in maintaining its AM network, which has never been profit-driven. The goal has been to maintain a resilient national network for our services, given our statutory emergency lifeline role.”
RNZ did not directly respond to a question about why it had not met the industry as a group but said it had embarked on a “fair and robust process” with each broadcaster.
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.
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