Salient. Newspaper of the Victoria University Students' Association. Vol 42 No. 2. March 5 1979
Active: the "Alternative Commercial"
Active: the "Alternative Commercial"
Radio Active is student radio. It goes with FM stereo, it is currently on air for the fifth time since it began in 1976 and if you tune into 1467 kilohertz, it plays the music in the background of your life. But what is student radio? Salient reporter Simon Wilson interviewed Active station manager David Campbell in an attempt to find out. His report:
Campbell has two chief worries. One is the license under which Active operates. The terms are so restrictive it hardly lets the station do anything at all. Just play music; but even then, it can't be the music other stations play. The other is technical. Active's equipment is limited and old. The quality of transmission, Campbell says, is worse this year than it has ever been. There are many reasons, none of them the fault of the people running the show.
The License
Every time Active wants to go on air, they have to apply at least two months in advance to the Broadcasting Tribunal for a license. There has to be a good reason for the application: "we haven't been on air for a while" is not enough. Traditionally, Radio New Zealand and Radio Windy complain. "This is the one time they haven't opposed us too much. They just draw the Tribunal's attention to the fact that we're not really supplying an alternative service." Campbell estimates that Active takes 5% of the listenership in the Wellington region, something not to be ignored by the major stations in the current battle between Windy and 2ZM.
This year Active has been prohibited from broadcasting any news apart from that directly related to students on campus. Previously, Active has had the use of NZPA news facilities, including information from the teleprinter. NZPA is still offering the service, but the Tribunal has expressly forbidden it. Back in 1977 Active scooped the news of Elvis Presley's death, much to the chagrin of the other stations who were holding it for their regular news broadcasts when the student radio broke into its programme. That, claims Campbell, is perhaps the best example of the potential threat the heavies feel could come from Radio Active.
Even when they were allowed to run news items, there was a ban on being political. That is still in force. "We are not allowed to comment on anything more than bursaries as far as the political nature is concerned". Campbell thinks this is because there is no telling what a student radio might do when there is no means of stopping it. He compares it to Salient, which can be censured by the printer, and held up by the President. Once something is out over the air there is no means of taking it back. "Of course, he adds, "this may be contentious, but the people in Radio Active have been non-political to date anyway." Although he bemoans the prohibitiveness of the license, he does accept the view that a danger of bias exists and should be repressed.
Technical Problems
Since the big shakeup infrequencies of November last year. Active has been transmitting on a frequency too high for its equipment to handle properly. Many people can pick it up on more than one place on the dial white the really lucky ones even have it interfering with their toasters. You may be able to pick up Radio Active wherever you turn, but the signal is blurred. Without new equipment, which at this stage is prohibitively costly, Campbell says there is nothing that can be done.
The Active people think they broadcast with 100 watts, "although no-one knows for sure". An application has been made to have this increased to 300 watts (compare that to 2ZM's 2,000, or Windy's 5,000 watts). Campbell's answer to nearly every question drifts back to the technical side. He mentions the problems of keeping staff aligned and above all, of "getting the sound of the station right."
The Aims of Active
Active was started up largely because of techincal interest. There was no real desire to do something with the medium or any clear concept of what student radio should be. That situation prevails today. Everyone in Active," comments Campbell, "is there because they like radio, or they 'like the sound of their own voice, or something." He does go on to say that there needs to be another sort of medium (to the written), but not, it would seem, for the dissemination of information. "People don't have to be attracted to it. They don't have to read a newspaper which takes time. They just have to listen to it in the background and forget about it two minutes after it's been on".
Is this the rationale for the station, being part of the background? "I just mean that people at home can have it on without having to think too much about it. Certainly we don't consider it a background thing but it can be that for people if they want. If they want it to be important it can be that too. Just like normal radio". Except that normal [ unclear: raiedio] has news and a range of other things that reflect the existence of a world outside the studio.
Campbell stresses that as a student club without the kind of finacial ties to the Association that Salient has, Active could by rights do just what it likes. But he views that as a very narrow minded approach. 1979 is the first year they have programmed their music. (Before then they were "free-form"). Now we can hear the same music, coming round every day. "That's because," explains Campbell, "contrary to popular opinion, students like commercial music too. They don't want to hear Hawkwind at breakfast and Led Zeppelin all day." Campbell has a name for the approach they they have adopted: "alternative commercial". It's "to make sure we have the type of music that appeals to students."
What do students think about Active? Campbell claims the response is great. Not during the day, but at night when they run a competition a dozen calls come in immediately. And that's just with one line. He admits that it is very hard to say what sort of audience they have. Probably there are a lot of people who have it on just because it's novel. While "a lot become accustomed to it". Again, "you don't have to think". With admirable astuteness he observes that because they're only on air a couple of times a year, right now they're getting a good response from students.
Student Radio and FM Stereo (please)
Radio Active has a jingle that claims: "Student radio and FM stereo go together". Every radio group in the country wants FM. The private stations are dead against student radio being favoured before them. It is thought that, when FM is finally introduced on New Zealand radio, the YA's and the YC's will be the only stations to benefit immediately. Why does Active keep saying that FM goes with student radio?
"What has been made clear to us," Campbell explains, "is that the national programme and the community stations will get it. 'Student stations are classed as community stations." But student radio and FM stereo don't go together, nor are they likely to in the near future ... "They certainly don't" admits Campbell," and I don't think FM will come at all before 1982. Perhaps it's time for student radio to do another illegal broadcast and push the case again. It's been done before, but not by us of course. Up in Auckland, by Radio B". The question of whether Active would be likely to take illegal action was to come up again in another context.
The Students' very Own
Campbell says it's unfortunate that the staff this year is almost unchanged, "at the moment it seems to be a very closed club. That may be of our own making, when you think about it. A lot of people may find it hard to get in." Campbell didn't exactly extend an invitation to new people to go along (although he may have meant to) but he did say they would like to see more comment coming "from outsiders", and more interest taken.
Active feels a close tie to Orientation. "I certainly feel our excuse to broadcast is Orientation", says Campbell. The station runs semi-regular summaries of what is coming up during the day, but it doesn't really monitor events. It doesn't say, for example, that such and such a band is playing in the quad in tenminutes time. Campbell tends to disagree. It's up to each announcer, he points out, but they do keep track on the pink programmes. "Perhaps that another criticism," he allows, but does not really think Orientation coverage is a problem. "The Orientation controllers have seen us." he says, "they've supplied us with information but they haven't said they aren't happy with what we are doing ... We have a definate responsibility to fit in with students. I think we are doing that".
The Orientation controllers say they are too busy to listen to Active and they don't have a radio anyway. They might be surprised to hear one of the jingles that station plays, which promotes the major Orientation bands. Instead of saying that this is the music we can hear during Orientation, they say this is the music we can hear on Active. Is this a sign of competition? Campbell says no. "In the jingles we do say 'Deadwood Revival'. We are pushing the bands. We give away tickets to every dance or hop... We are competing in the entertainment sense, but it isn't a question of pushing us rather than Orientation." In fact, Campbell thinks that without Active advertising it the Orientation programme would suffer considerably. There is another factor as well. "It gets to the point of deciding how far in each direction you want the station to go. Stations down town are all music. At what stage would we lose listeners by going too much into the talking area?"
A Service to Students
This desire for balance reveals itself more strongly in Campbell's ideas on news and commentary. "It could be very dangerous if the station starts to get used as a propaganda thing," he says. On the other hand there is a clear lack of comment on things happening in the country and the world that are of definited relevance to students. Would Active like to be getting into this field? "The thing is" answers Campbell, "everyone's views differ, so what we'd have to do is put an editorial comment over the whole station"
He asks what sort of things exactly are meant. The announcements over the last few days of the enormous rise in the cost of power and milk are cited. These things are important to students, yet if we want radio comment on them we have to listen to another station. How does he feel about this? 'I guess' says Campbell, "that it boils down to a question of responsibility to students..........At the moment the reason for our lack of this kind of thing is that most people involved are solely interested in radio. It's not that we don't think about these things, it's just not something we've thought of doing. At the moment we are more concerned with some of [ unclear: th] other (technical) problems than in getting [ unclear: it] to these areas that are legally closed off to us .... Getting into the student thing, the student comment, could cause problems. If we had open comment it could lead to a conflict of views in a station that really wants uniformity". But for those who despair of the day when Active will lift its eyes from the turntable, there is a note of encouragement: "Perhaps one time of the day might be an idea......."
The Pirate Possibility
One thing seems sure. No matter how reticent the Active crew might be about the appropriate form of branching out, they will not do so if it puts them in legal jeopardy. There's good reason for this. The individuals concerned could face a $2,000 fine each and / or six months imprisonment and / or confiscation of all their equipment. The insurance company, the only one dealing in this type of policy (State), might drop them and they legally need a license to broadcast. And the Association could be "in a power of strife".
Most people wouldn't realise, says Campbell, that they are insured for defamation to the tune of $50,000 with the Union Building assurety. What happened in Auckland when Radio B did an illegal broadcast? "The Students Association was taken to court". All this makes it look like Active has a very good case for staying safe. Yet the Auckland case was dropped. "We do have a lot of leniency," admits Campbell. "Even if we did an illegal broadcast we'd probably get away with it".
If this is the case, have they ever thought of creating a real student radio catering for a wide range of student interests by taking direct action with student support mobilised behind them? "Ideally," says Campbell, moving off the the question of content, "What we want is a full time license in the FM [ unclear: bana], for six hours a night". When the question is repeated, he says that already Radio U in Christchurch has been told to stop political broadcasting. "The Minister said stop or you'll be taken off the air. It's as simple as that.
Campbell agrees that "what you say about commenting on things is valid. But, "he winds up with a shrug, "the restrictions have been there for so long, it's sort of taken the wind out of our sails." And on a positive note "There may be changes coming up".