Tova O'Brien listens to revenue minister David Parker in an interview on Today FM. Photo: MediaWorks
MediaWorks talk network Today FM and its news service have been pulled off the air today. The proposal to close the station prompted an on-air staff revolt this morning. Today FM abruptly cut to pop music after breakfast host Tova O'Brien announced she and all her colleagues were losing their jobs - and morning host Duncan Garner said they had "been betrayed."
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This evening, Today FM's social media pages were locked or removed and an announcement was posted on their website calling it a "difficult decision" to take the station off the air.
Today FM posted this announcement this evening. Photo: Screenshot / TodayFMNZ
An announcement credited to their head of digital was briefly on the Facebook page this afternoon, blasting "cold corporate decisions" and saying that "we were robbed. You were robbed."
Photo: Screenshot / Facebook
Today FM went off-air in spectacular fashion this morning, with morning host Tova O'Brien leading a group of staff into the studio as her colleague Duncan Garner was broadcasting, before announcing that "they've f***** us".
O'Brien was referring the Mediaworks' upper management and board, which had just informed the staff they were proposing to shut the network, giving staff only a few hours to submit on the plan.
The presenters had good reason to feel like the company had gone back on its commitments.
MediaWorks' leadership had repeatedly said that it viewed Today FM as a long-term project, affirming that they wanted the brand to continue even as it struggled in the ratings.
Its spokesperson Anna Cross recently told Stuff the station "is performing in line with its commercial business plan”.
“It’s important for a network radio business to have an effective competitor in the talk segment and one that is an attractive proposition for advertisers and audiences,” she said.
In an interview with Mediawatch last year, its then-head of news and talk Dallas Gurney said he wanted to build a brand to take on talk radio market leader Newstalk ZB, even if the task took years.
"Today FM's success won't be measured by its first week. Or its first two weeks," he said.
"It's about doing the same thing every day. Radio is habitual and that has got to be our focus. We just keep going. We keep doing the same thing."
As it turned out, Today FM was judged not by its first few weeks, but by barely more than a year on air.
Its demise comes shortly after Gurney's departure from the station, which O'Brien attributed to "understandable personal reasons." The chief executive who approved its establishment in the first place, Cam Wallace, resigned last month.
Without those two supporters in the building, Today FM was on shaky ground.
MediaWorks recently announced a round of job cuts, primarily targeting some of its music brands, which have been more profitable than Today FM.
A recent story by Stuff's Tom Pullar-Strecker featured some strong comments from an anonymous MediaWorks source, who called Today a "vanity project" that wasn't paying its way, and questioned why it hadn't been affected by the drive for cost savings.
The source alluded to a ratings survey which put Today FM at a 1.4% market share, far below the 15% recorded by its rival Newstalk ZB.
“There's an abject refusal to acknowledge the truth about the short, medium and long term future of this brand and at the same time they are forcing the revenue-generating and most profitable part of the business to make wholesale significant changes that have no chance of succeeding,” the unnamed source told Stuff.
In a statement this morning, the company's interim chief executive Wendy Palmer said the MediaWorks board had ordered Today FM off the air.
"This morning at the MediaWorks Board’s request, we have taken Today FM off air while we consult with the team about the future of the station. This is a difficult time for the team and our priority is supporting them as we work through this process."
MediaWorks radio presenter Brin Rudkin said Palmer had told the staff inn a meeting she would not have taken on her role if she had known its true financial position.
Duncan Garner told listeners this morning the company was "leaking cash."
In their final minutes on-air, Garner and O'Brien both argued Today FM hadn't been given enough time to establish itself in the market.
O'Brien also argued that internal opposition was a factor in its shutdown.
"We haven't been given a chance.
"People in this building have been leaking against us from day one, and we have been scapegoated within MediaWorks. This whole company is doing badly. We were part of this company. We're supposed to be part of futureproofing this company," she told listeners.
Shortly afterward, O'Brien and Garner received a last command from management.
"Duncan we've been instructed to play music. This is it guys," O'Brien said, interrupting a caller.
"It looks like this is the end of us. We're being pulled off air right now," Garner said.
"Without even being given a chance," O'Brien added.
Seconds later, the station cut to playing Young Blood by The Naked And Famous. Shortly after that John Farnham's Pressure Down, featuring the refrain:
"Take the pressure down Cause I can feel it, it's rising like a storm Take hold of the wheels and turn them around Take the pressure down"
Other songs followed, including Hang On, Help Is On Its Way by the Little River Band, Send Me An Angel by Scorpion and Slip Sliding Away by Simon and Garfunkel.