Broadcaster flies a loyal standard

Brent Impey claims he'll always have TV3 in his blood. Photo / Janna Dixon

If Brent Impey wasn't so fiercely loyal to TV3, Tony Veitch might still be on television. On the other hand, he might have been out on his ear with a lot less publicity and grief.

Twice in the last decade when TVNZ was changing chief executives, Brent Impey, the man responsible for running the state broadcaster's biggest opposition, was approached to switch sides.

"The first time I was headhunted and dismissed it," Impey grudgingly confirms. He's never admitted this publicly, and swears to get even with my suspected sources.

"The second time, I was driving along the waterfront. I took the call on my mobile and was off the phone by the time I reached the ferry building. That's how long it took me to think about it.

"I'm tribal. That means I always have TV3 in my blood. I was there in the days when Tom Parkinson was applying for the licence against three others and I couldn't, with a clear conscience, go from here, over to there, and turn state-subsidised guns against TV3."

This is an example of Impey's commitment and emotionalism, his tendency to throw himself full tilt at things, which friends describe as a quality which, at times, can lead to disappointments.

One source, formerly high up the management ladder at TVNZ, says he has "more guts and vision than anyone running TVNZ in the last 10 years. He is a confident man who always believes his choice is correct so he'll argue when sometimes he's clearly wrong. But he's not too silly to laugh his way out of it."

Another senior TVNZ producer who also wished Impey had jumped ship and brought his "flat management style" across, believed it was his "love of, and enthusiasm for, radio" that kept him away from the multi-storeyed edifice on Hobson St.

So if Impey had been Veitch's chief executive, would he have allowed senior executives to withhold information that a star broadcaster, by his own admission, was being accused of assaulting his girlfriend? Is it wise - or fair on any staff member - to have such a time bomb ticking away?

For starters, Impey points out all networks have unfortunate incidents, citing TV3's own embarrassment with newsreader Darren McDonald who in 2003 pleaded guilty to supplying drugs.

"It would've been inconceivable that our equivalents - Mark Jennings (head of news and current affairs), Roger Beaumont (communications), Kelly Martin (director of programming), and Clare Bradley (in-house lawyer) - would have a meeting over one of our major talents without me knowing about it. It would never have got to the time-bomb stage. You deal with that stuff on the front foot."

In this small country Impey is acutely aware how rare talent like Veitch can be - those who are able to slip smoothly from television to radio. Just this week, Impey is basking in the success of Marcus Lush, Metro's "Best Radio Host" on "Best Radio Station, Radio Live".

You get the feeling he would have liked to stomp from his cramped little office in Mt Eden across to the opulence of state-owned television and bang heads together when the meteor Veitch crashed to earth.

But could his career have been saved?

"I don't really want to talk about Veitch too much, but in the end, I don't really think TVNZ really had much choice other than to let him go."

But no doubt the bosses at TVNZ had their turn to sneer at TV3 when John Campbell interviewed a man at the Duxton Hotel who claimed to have been involved in the theft of medals from the Waiouru Army Museum.

While the oral part of the interview was genuine, the filmed person was actually an actor. TV3 later apologised for what was hardly good television journalism, but Impey is adamantly standing by his man.

"That comes into my area of defending my journalists. I think the Herald on Sunday has been wrong on that and I support the legal action Campbell instigated against Holmes [it was settled amicably but confidentially].

"There were some errors made, not being clear it was a reconstruction, but was it right for Campbell to interview that guy at the Duxton? Absolutely."

Impey, whose phone's ring tone is The Gambler, is galloping away on his favourite hobby horse now, called Freedom of Speech. He calls it his "basic instinct", the challenge he has faced every day for the past 10 years.

This is the man who, as a 24-year-old law student, stood for the Values Party against Robert Muldoon in the Tamaki electorate because he believed in the principles of freedom of choice, the rights of women to choose an abortion, ending the Vietnam War, and opposing apartheid.

Now aged 58, he's still a bit of a crusader. "I'm also proud of the fact TV3 went to Suva and despite opposition from ECPAT filmed child prostitutes because we wanted to expose those New Zealand men going over there to have sex with those young boys and girls."

So if his management style is hands-on, how involved is he in the day-to-day decision making of news and current affairs? Did he make the decision to put an actor in the Duxton?

"No, I'm not in on those decisions, they're made by Mark. I get involved later as only a chief executive should with news - you appoint the people and let them get on with the job. I support them later."

And it's support on a grand scale. Though TV3 deliberately employs working journalists to read prime time news - Mike McRoberts and Hilary Barry - there are still the billboards to promote, the wardrobes and grooming to maintain, the celebrity status to nurture.

Not to mention the salaries, way and above those of mere print journalists. Which is maybe why some of us stoop to write bitter stories accusing them of being grossly overpaid.

Impey patiently points out the differences. Newsreaders, he says, are in everyone's living rooms every night. They must be mistake-free. There is a shelf life.

"Whereas," he says, looking meaningfully at grey-disguising streaks in my hair and deepening furrows on my 56-year-old face, "in print you don't have that restriction." Touche.

And he quickly, and humorously, pooh-poohs the notion we're paying these people big bucks only to have our news dumbed down.

"So much of that argument is driven by people I classify as traditional National Radio types who still have that arrogance about them. The same people who say they want more international news but never watch it.

"What's the big story today? Tiger Woods and his girlfriends. Research shows time and again people are interested in what they relate to."

Impey talks with obvious adoration about the firm which he joined 20 years ago as the company lawyer and which now owns TV3, C4, and half of New Zealand's commercial radio stations including Radio Live, More FM, The Breeze, The Edge, Solid Gold, Mai FM, and George FM. He's steered it through a public float, then a successful sale for $741 million to investment company Ironbridge Capital. So is he leaving because he doesn't want to see the baby he helped grow into adulthood, chopped up and disposed of?

Sunrise, TV3's breakfast programme, is rumoured to be first to go. Impey has made it clear it should stay. Why run a news channel, he argues, and only have evening news? If something breaks in the morning, do you make viewers wait all day? Sunrise hasn't rated well in the past, but it's now doing well in the 18 to 49-year-old urban Auckland demographic.

"Television always needs time to develop," Impey says. "I think Sunrise is critical to TV3's future prospects; to differentiate itself, TV3 has to make sure the local side is driven hard. I've made it quite clear I support it continuing but it won't be my decision."

It's no secret Ironbridge is heavily in debt, so there'll definitely be drastic changes at MediaWorks. A close friend of Impey reckons when Ironbridge took over Impey initially figured he could "beat them into shape", then his attitude changed to try and "out-manoeuvre them". "Then I think he just thought, 'Oh f*** it'."

Impey collected $3 million from the sale to Ironbridge and he's not going home to sulk in the apartment he calls his "man cave". He lives alone, says he's not having a mid-life crisis, and when asked what he will do next, says it's difficult to explain without telling the following story.

Last Easter he walked the Milford Track with two friends, one of whom, lawyer David Mayhew, was with him in the early days at Russell McVeagh. Mayhew moved overseas and became very successful but told Impey he wanted to come home with his wife and children. He wanted to give something back.

"A week later," says Impey, "I saw this link for a position of Commissioner of Financial Advisors at the Securities Commission. So I sent it to him and he starts on January 25.

"Now I have the same feeling. I want to give something back. I've reached the top of the ladder here and I don't want to continue. If I went back [into media] I'd go back behind the microphone in preference to senior management."

There are rumours Impey's working on something big, but what, exactly, he won't divulge. "I'm going to walk the Queen Charlotte in January, drink a few pinots, then I'll speak."

For a media man who gives few interviews, he's spoken quite well today.