Intentional Outset
By Mike Chunn
Too many people think too much. And the words in their teeming brains flood out into their mouths. The ‘commentaries’ about politics is a perfect example. Much ado on talk-back radio, Facebook and so on. And yet so few people front up and run for government. Is it too simple to pigeonhole this as – it’s much easier to say a lot and do nothing than the other way round?
Who is and shouldn’t be in the All Blacks is another rolling torrent.
But then it is amazing how some things are just ‘let be’ where a few analytical moments might lead to action. Like learning the piano. There are still young people abandoning the piano because they don’t want to learn Chopin. They want to learn Jason Mraz. And yet parents seem to believe that when you learn the piano you learn Chopin because its – well – it’s what you do. Why?
In the world of sport, young NZers play the sport they like to watch. No-one plays lacrosse when they’d rather play tennis. They can make up their mind. And if the school they are at refuses to have tennis on the list only lacrosse, then chances are the parents will either front up and demand an explanation or take the child elsewhere.
In the end, it seems to come down to a generation of 40 to 60 yr olds who have never learned an instrument and they haven’t taken the time to observe what is going on when their children take lessons. They don’t seem to see musical performance in social settings for the life of a human being as something to aspire to.
This brings me to the point of this thing. The inverse. There is something that 40 to 60 yr olds know well and engage in. It’s called turning on the radio and listening to people talking. There are talk-back radio stations and there is public service radio in the form of Radio NZ National. Literally hundreds of thousands of NZers listen to that group of stations every week and they respond either in their heads, between each other or they phone the station. It’s an information playground form which there is much to learn even if at times we are learning how odd people are. Or how brilliant.
Last blog I raised the subject of youth broadcasting platform (I don’t see this as a radio discussion) where the government broadcasting arena (minister and ministry of broadcasting) and connectors and mavens (no more than six I suggest) all agree that a Radio NZ national broadcast environment for young NZers – let’s say 13 to 30 should exist and without thinking too much about it (after all no-one is launching campaigns to bring down National Radio) just make it happen.
And then, as we are very bad at predicting the future we can imagine and then presume that serendipity will enliven that broadcasting environment and form it will spring great things.
The intention at the outset will be simple:
- Young NZers facilitating current issue dissemination
- Debate on subjects as afar and wide as they can imagine
- Music, comedy and drama from all corners of our small country
- World issues that hang above like anvils and so on.
The technology today allows streaming of radio to be powerful and simply achieved. The government is talking about its hot new roll-out of super-fast bits, bytes, bauds and broadband. Let’s give young NZers some support to programme and engage all in a world where the intellect, the soul and the heart get a good look in.
It’s really quite simple.
