Nexus magazine this week revealed that the Waikato Students’ Union (WSU) plans to start broadcastingstudent radio again, in conjunction with the Independent Broadcasting Community (IBC).

An initiative of Click Sound’s Dan Howard (amongst others), the IBC has been an organisation working behind the scenes towards this announcement all 2003. Contracts signed between the WSU and 89FM Ltd (the company broadcasting The Generator) in 1998 have prevented the WSU from aggrssively pursuing the possibility of returning control of 89FM to the student body, due to the one-sided nature of the deal, and ‘good faith’ clauses present in the contracts. With the assistance of the IBC however, the WSU has been investigating different possibilities all year, and it seems this is the path they have chosen; bypass the Generator altogether, and broadcast on 106FM, a pretty much unused & available frequency out of the way of the glut of stations between 89 and 100fm.
Other options were considered, however. While I was Campaigns Officer at the WSU (January-early August) at one point we were planning to begin broadcasting, on 89FM, as early as July. This, as you could understand, freaked out a few of the WSU Exec, and gave our lawyers the heebee-jeebies... Some of us thought it would be the best way to fast track the inevitable return of student radio in Htown and be a hell of a lot of fun. 89FM were in breach of several contractual obligations, most obviously the amount of/content of on air advertising, and their continual failure to pay monies owed to the WSU on time. We even went as far as giving 89FM thirty days notice of termination of the agreement... then decided not to go through with broadcasting on the 31st day due to cold feet, largely on behalf of the WSU President, Daniel Philpott. Common sense, I spose :p
Recent events have suggested that maybe our enthusiasm and aggressive posturing worked to a certain degree; the Generator certainly began to sound a lot stranger around about July. I myself was even choosing to tune in to the radio for the first time since early 2002 (when I realised the Generator wasn’t quite going to be what we’d set it up to be (yes, I admit; I was working at 89FM right through the metamorphosis of UFM into the Generator, and have often wondered what it was station director Joe Dennehy put in our weekly Friday pizza to make us believe what we were doing was a good thing)). Others commented that the announcers were just sounding more amateurish, and throwing in an hourly mention of the university without knowing really what they were talking about. Either way, IMHO, the music got marginally better... Particularly at night, which was a bitch cause there was never anyone there to tell you who the bands were!
Even recenter (is that a word?) reports seem to point towards the Generator falling over on its own, without any pushing from the WSU, the IBC or anyone else. Staff numbers have dropped, morale is low, they’ve stopped broadcasting on their second frequency, and if there is any truth to the stories being bandied about claiming the station is only being kept afloat through external cash injections, then it is only a matter of time before the frequency is back under control of the WSU.
In the meantime, remember that the Generator is still the only Htown based station playing Htown music, even if it does limit itself to ‘hard rock’ 99% of the time. Listen in on Sunday nights at 7pm, and check out Kerry’s Noizyland show - it’s all kiwi, and at a guess, at least half of it’s from places you can drive to from their studio in less than an hour. Ring them up and harass them for more Htown stuff, because until the IBC and WSU’s student radio is up and running, it’s all we’ve got.
There have been varying opinions on the best way to return student radio
to the airwaves in Htown. Some of the WSU Exec and the WSU 89FM
sub-committee, like myself and Scott Barnett, preferred a hardline
approach to the matter - taking the view that the Generator was in
no way satisfactory, and no amount of arm-bending would result in
getting them to be anything like student radio stations elsewhere in
the country, or even like what it used to be, good ol’ Contact 89.
The downsides of this plan were obvious - the risk, mostly. We stood
by the arguments that (a) only students had the right to decide what to do with their station, and (b) Hamilton, a major NZ population centre, was being let down by not having an FM station that reflected its unique views, interests, and music effectively.
Others took the view that slow but steady pressure on the Generator to change would eventually result in an outcome that would please both sides, and leave the WSU in a partnership of sorts with 89FM Ltd that would work.
The obvious benefits to this plan were that people wouldn’t get stroppy and fight so much, and the WSU would not be taking such a huge risk as starting a radio station from scratch.
Criticisms were that operating as a seperate company, 89FM Ltd would be continuially forced to relent to commercial pressures, and this would work against the inherent non-commercial nature of a true, progressive student radio station. Also, the students would not have control of something which was rightfully theirs to decide what to do with. This was a major bone of contention in the several debates we had up at the WSU all year...
It seems from the news item in Nexus, that the current WSU have taken something of a middle road option - starting a new station, but keeping it small & low key, and not in direct competition with the Generator. In hindsight of the year’s events, it seems like a sensible idea. The Generator now have a chance to get on with doing whatever it is they are trying to achieve, without having to worry so much about the student radio threat derailing their radio station in its entirety. The students at Waikato Uni will have an outlet for their opinions and views, and Hamilton music will also hopefully get it’s fair share of airtime in the city it comes from. If the Generator winds up anytime soon, then it will be a simple matter of transferring the guardband broadcast from 106FM to 89FM, and lo & behold, everything will be as close as it ever was to our original aims at the start of the year. If the Gen keeps on keeping on, then they’re doing something right, and as soon as they drop the pretense of serving the interests of anyone but themselves (just as every other commercial radio station has), I personally don’t see a problem with the two co-existing. Note to Generator staff: don’t take this as a knock against you guys. It never has been; yous do a great job for little or no pay. I’ve been there, I know what it’s like. Just keep in mind that 89FM since 1998 has never been the most stable of workplaces!
So! This is a prime chance for all you students out there that have been bemoaning the lack of student radio in Htown to get in there and make it happen. Don’t let apathy do to student radio (again) what it’s currently doing to your magazine. If you can’t make it along to the advertised meeting, just fill in the form in the latest issue of Nexus, and take it up to the WSU offices. Just don’t forget to tick, at least ‘Mainly Kiwi Content’ and ‘Mainly local content’, else what is the point really?

Pick up the latest issue of Nexus to read more about it all.