Today FM hosts Duncan Garner and Tova O'Brien react live on-air to the shuttering of the radio station. Video / NZ Herald
Former Today FM host and top broadcaster Duncan Garner has been thrown a lifeline by MediaWorks.
Garner, whose role as 9am-12pm host on Today FM abruptly ended when the station was shut down in late March, will launch a new daily podcast, Duncan Garner, Editor in Chief.
“I’ll keep thisbrief but I’m the new editor-in-chief as in the boss,” says Garner in a promotional piece that has been published before an official announcement.
“Three decades on TV and radio and newspapers, I made all the bosses look good. I’ve been hired and fired and hired and let go and come back, but not now, I’m in charge.
“My way, my words, my show and thanks for this, you’ve already invited me to a swingers’ party. Now, the editor-in-chief says I must go. So, yeah, I’ll do that. It’s in the name of research, this podcast.
“There’s no rules, there’s no boundaries. I want to talk to you, your stories, your battles, your victories, make me laugh. Nothing’s off the table. Nothing’s taboo.”
The Herald’s Media Insider column revealed last week that Garner, Polly Gillespie, and Lloyd Burr were all in MediaWorks’ sights as podcast hosts - but that there was also scepticism in some quarters about MediaWorks’ long-term commitment to the format.
By signing a podcast deal, Garner has likely also settled any legal grievance he might have had with the company following the closure of Today FM.
It is understood an announcement about Garner was scheduled for as early as Friday, but details emerged on Thursday night on social media.
One month after the axe fell on Today FM, Duncan Garner is back at Mediaworks with a new daily podcast to be launched called 'Duncan Garner: Editor in Chief' pic.twitter.com/oBu3KTFgO4
Garner famously described - live and on-air - his pending redundancy as a “betrayal” and in a video interview with the National Business Review last month he indicated legal action against MediaWorks was possible.
He described the two hours he was given to provide feedback over the proposed Today FM closure as a “fraud”, and he put MediaWorks’ private equity owners on notice.
“You can’t send your Aussie bankers over here and run roughshod over New Zealand workers. If you are going to do that, then you’ll run into the New Zealand law ... and they might well do.”
In an accompanying column for the NBR, Garner wrote: “We rely on advertising and the market went soft late last year, so these faceless Aussies show up, pay lip service to New Zealand employment law, pay lip service to proper consultation in good faith, and then walk away thinking that’s a done deal, station is dead, staff will go quietly.
“How you treat people matters. Clearly not in the world of the MediaWorks board, but in life it actually does.”
The Herald further understands that a number of Today FM staff have now filed legal documents, outlining their grievances with the company.
MediaWorks and Garner have been contacted for comment.
In a statement a few days after Today closed, MediaWorks’ board said it was unfortunate the closure and process had played out in the media before staff had been told. Tova O’Brien and Garner were live on air, outlining how they’d been called to a meeting. They were ordered off air within the hour.
“Clearly emotions were running high on Thursday and some of the Today FM team broke the news on air ahead of the planned announcement and meetings with the team,” said MediaWorks at the time. “This was disappointing and certainly not what was planned.”
Garner said earlier that workers might well have had ideas that could have saved the brand. “Could Today FM have been saved if we went on a four-day week or a nine-day fortnight or a 10 per cent salary cut? I don’t know, we weren’t given a chance.”
Garner said he had filmed a trade marketing video for advertisers just days before the station closure, and he and breakfast host Tova O’Brien had been involved in a recent photo shoot for a new PR campaign.
“It’s appalling. We lost our jobs in front of the country, live. How that’s fair, reasonable, dignified and done in good faith is beyond me.”
In further news broken on social media, it appears MediaWorks also has a new music station in the pipeline - Channel X - possibly to take over many of the frequencies left available as a result of the demise of Today FM.
A Channel X logo was found by a technical expert working on an audio archive. Furthermore, the website URL channelx.co.nz is reportedly owned by a senior MediaWorks manager.
And a trademark application for Channel X - described as “radio entertainment; radio entertainment services” - was filed with the Intellectual Property Office last month.
Is this the name and logo for a new MediaWorks radio station? Image / @theradiovault
