Quota call

Press, 24 April 1986, Page 10

Quota call

The response to the petition to force New Zealand radio stations to play a higher percentage of this country’s music on their programmes has been great, says Karyn Hay, the former frontwoman for “Radio With Pictures,” the petition’s co-ordinator. The petition has been only out for a week, so she was unable to give any figures on the number of signatures so far. However, she added that except for a couple of people, the enthusiasm for such a quota system is remarkable. The idea of a quota system is not new, and influencing the call has been the growth in Australia music since that country legally introduced a quota system. Hay says that the quota system is not only aimed at pop music, but also classical, jazz, country, and Polynesian music, to name a few styles. She also says that she would rather see a volun-

tary system introduced, but station programmers have largely resisted playing New Zealand music because of various reasons, including the old one about production standards not being good enough. However, production standards have altered markedly in recent years, as Dave Dobbyn (of DD Smash) had said on television recently, she said. The petition calls for radio stations to be required by law to broadcast a per hour, per day, minimum 20 per cent quota of music recorded by New Zealand artists. It can be signed at record shops, recording studios, and student radio stations, and is also being circulated at the country’s universities and schools. The aim is to get 250,000 signatures on the petition, which will be presented to the Minister of Broadcasting, Mr Hunt. The petition closes on May 12.