Radio Week
by Fiona Rae
SATURDAY March 12
Goodbye Helen Young Studio, National Radio, 3.30pm. Over the past 14 years, the Helen Young Studio has been like another band member for the numerous outfits who have recorded there. Albums, film scores, drama, radio programmes and the wonderful Live at Helen’s series, which has seen the likes of Shihad, Bic Runga, Dave Dobbyn and Dimmer all enjoying the warm surrounds of the studio. Helen’s was housed within the Radio Network’s offices in Auckland, but, unfortunately, Radio New Zealand’s lease on the space has run out and the studio has been dismantled to make more room for the owners. RNZ has purchased a permanent home for its Auckland base, although all Peter Cavanagh, RNZ’s chief executive, will say is that the new building in Hobson St makes “the re-creation of the Helen Young Studio much more likely”. Here’s hoping. In today’s Musical Chairs, some of the people who worked in the studio reminisce. (Repeats Monday night, 9.30pm.)
SUNDAY March 13
Ray Charles – A Tribute, National Radio, 4.06pm. Jamie Foxx’s award-winning turn as Ray Charles has seen a huge upswing in interest in the legendary soulman’s work – heck, he even won big at the recent Grammy Awards, despite having died in June last year. This tribute includes comments from Rhino Records’ James Austin, who worked with Charles in his later years.
TUESDAY March 15
Sound Lounge, Radiant Dissonance, Concert FM, 7.00pm. As always, the Sound Lounge is here to challenge our ears, and tonight starts a new series of 10 programmes featuring Canadian audio artists. That there are even enough audio artists to fill a 10 episode series is amazing, but Canadian radio producer Joan Schuman talks to six of them and concludes that “all radio art is sound art, but not all sound art is radio art”. Confused? Well, “radio art is art which is uniquely suited to the medium of radio”, she says. Which doesn’t really explain what it’s going to sound like – for that, you’ll have to listen.
THURSDAY March 17
Appointment, Beware Jesuits Singing, Concert FM, 7.00pm. Part two of two programmes in which Elric Hooper and Des Wilson look at 17th-century Catholic propaganda operas. Now that really is appointment listening.
FRIDAY March 18
The Nambassa Festival 1979, National Radio, 1.06pm. Funny, I remember it as the year that punk landed in New Zealand, but the hippies were still having it large in Aotearoa in 1979, when the Nambassa Festival saw 65,000 freaks touch down briefly in Waihi and groove to the sounds of Reel to Real and Split Enz, who reportedly played a blinder despite having lost all their equipment in a fire a couple of days earlier. It wasn’t all hippies and grimy motorcycle gang members, though – wearing nothing but a lot of paint, art-punk outfit the Plague performed to a confused crowd.
SPORT HIGHLIGHTS
Rugby League, NRL Telstra Premiership, Sky 1, Sunday, 2.00pm (replays on Sky Sport 1 at 8.30pm). We shall not speak of the cricket, let us instead turn our attention to the new season of rugby league and an invigorated Auckland Warriors side that includes new captain Steve Price (right) and another experienced campaigner, Ruben Wiki. It appears also that gamebreaker Stacey Jones is back to form after his team’s gruelling pre-season fitness regime. And the fans have something else to celebrate – a revamped east stand at Ericsson Stadium.
