Hawke’s Bay Media: Must try Harder! Part 1:
Are my expectations too high, or is the quality of most Hawke’s Bay media just not up to the level our region deserves? We have a big, vibrant, smart region. But if its media industry is anything to go by, you would be forgiven for not noticing it.
Television:
Recently I’ve seen a number of signs promoting TV Hawke’s Bay as “Hawke’s Bay’s OWN TV Station” but is it?
If you look at their programming guide you are only likely to find around 4.5 hours of actual Hawke’s Bay input. Half an hour is “Chatroom”, a local talk show that runs three times a week and is then repeated the following day, and “Welcome to Hawke’s Bay” an infomercial-esque, up to four hour long, montage of local images and video set to music, with an occasional local guide segment featuring a local winery or tourist attraction.
For a time they did feature quite a good little series of adverts featuring local businesses, but I haven’t seen them for a long time. On the bright side, they did at least get rid of that horrid advertorial in which Willy de Witt overreacts terribly to how wonderful a vineyard’s wine is.
The greatest proportion of TVHB airtime is occupied by mainly German or European programming – not exactly what I’d call my region’s OWN station material. Some may argue that producing local television programmes can cost a lot of money, but TVHB can’t be importing all these shows for free. Surely more local content wouldn’t hurt too much financially.
I’ve always thought that local media outlets, be they print, radio, or television, have the perfect opportunity to get the public’s voice out to the masses. Who wants to see more of and about Hawke’s Bay, than the residents of the region? Where are all the programmes on TV Hawke’s Bay made for and by local schools, the region’s youth, how about airing local sports matches? I’d far sooner watch the Napier City Rovers play, than any Bundesliga match.
Television Hawke’s Bay current programming shows a lack of commitment to the region and a lack of creative thinking in getting local programming on the region’s screens.
Must Try Harder!
Grade: F
