Nine To Noon for Friday 24 April 2020

 

 

09:05 Media lifeline? Government promises more help

The government is promising more help for media organisations struggling with massive revenue losses due to Covid 19. Yesterday Broadcasting and Communications Minister Kris Faafoi announced a $50 million support package including scrapping transmission fees for broadcasters for six months, and cutting New Zealand On Air levies. There is also an $11 million fund set aside for targeted assistance to media companies. Since the Covid crisis began, there have been hundreds of job losses across multiple media organisations, with others asking staff to take pay cuts, and asking for reader donations. Kathryn talks with the the Broadcasting and Communications Minister, Kris Faafoi and the Chief Executive of Stuff, Sinead Boucher.

09:25 Business advice for firms struggling with Covid-19 crisis

Deloitte partner David Webb heads the firm's national restructuring practice. He talks to Kathryn Ryan about practical ways to survive the downturn caused by Covid-19, including communication, strategic thinking and pulling together a business plan.

09:45 Is the Covid curve flattening in the Pacific?

Pacific correspondent Koro Vaka'uta talks with Kathryn about Covid 19 across the Pacific. Plus Vanuatu gets a new government, and Fiji loses the chance to sit on a powerful rugby committee after investigations into homophobia.

10:05 A portrait of 1960's provincial New Zealand

Mark Sweet grew up in Hawkes Bay and has drawn on his childhood and upbringing to shape his writing. After a career in property and hospitality, Mark Sweet is now writing full-time : his titles include Portrait and Opinion, and Wine:Stories from Hawke's Bay. His new novel, The History of Speech is set in 1960's provincial New Zealand. In it he examines some of the era's repression, negative undercurrents as well as some of the behaviour broke conventions, such as wife-swapping in Hastings!

10:35 Book review - The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel

Elisabeth Easther reviews The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel, published by Pan Macmillan.

10:45 The Reading

The Bright Side of My Condition, episode 4. Written by Charlotte Randall, read by Brian Sergent.

11:05 Music reviewer Grant Smithies​

New Brighton's Blair Parkes has made another extraordinary album in his garden shed. Grant plays two tracks from that , alongside an early UK hip hop classic from Massive Attack, and some glorious day-glo synth-pop from Antibalas guitarist, Chico Mann.

11:30 Sports commentator Sam Ackerman - Rugby's Raelene resigns

Embattled Rugby Australia's Chief Executive Raelene Castle stepped down last night after nearly three years at the helm, saying she believed the board no longer wanted her in the role amid a financial crisis compounded by the coronavirus shutdown. Eleven former Wallabies players, including Nick Farr-Jones, George Gregan and Michael Lynagh, had also signed a letter earlier this week demanding a leadership change.

And, the NRL is to restart next month, but where does this leave the Warriors? A new documentary on Michael Jordan, and should golf and tennis pros play without spectators?

11:45 The week that was with te Radar & Irene Pink

Te Radar & Irene Pink discuss the lighter side of the Covid-19 shutdown like the Formula E teams turning to marble racing!