Something that starts as a gentle celebration of the survival of an eccentric local radio station turns into a meditation on why Dunedin refuses to give up on its local institutions.
This is a station that survived being a government monopoly and seemed to thrive in the deregulation era. For years spearheaded by Neil Collins, it was regularly rated the No.1 station in Dunedin.
The retirement of Collins was probably the impetus to make the documentary - to capture the wisdom of the old heads before it drifted too far away from its roots under the uneasy control of MediaWorks.
It makes perfect economic sense to record one programme in Auckland, then transmit it to the country, but here in Dunedin you can almost hear radios being turned off when that happens.
Midway through the documentary, it stumbles into unexpected controversy as Radio Dunedin is stripped of its FM frequency to give a new MediaWorks station a leg up. Does it work? Does it heck.
RADIO DUNEDIN
Director: Grant Findlay
Cast: Owen Rooney, Neil Collins, Jim Sullivan, Lyndsay Rackley, Trev Hill, Neil Macandrew, Trevor Lewis, Richard Stedman, Ewing Stevens, Brian Lemin, John Williamson, Elva Williamson, Josie Cooper, Val Paterson, Warwick Grimmer, John Key, Grant Millman, Donald Saville-Cook, Nigel Steele, Barbara Hamilton, Amanda Clow-Hewer, Ken Trevathan, Janine Tindall- Morice, Damian Newell, Dean Mooyman, Sonia Van de Klundert
Rating: (E) ★★★★
-By Christine Powley
