Te Whakaruruhau o Ngā Reo Irirangi Māori (National Māori Radio Network) is a New Zealand radio network consisting of radio stations that serve the country's indigenous Māori population. Most stations receive contestable government funding from Te Māngai Pāho, the Māori Broadcast Funding Agency, to operate on behalf of affiliated iwi (tribes) or hapū (sub-tribes). Under their funding agreement, the stations must produce programmes in the Māori language, and must actively promote Māori culture.
Most stations combine an English-language urban contemporary playlist during "breakfast" and drive-time shows with full-service broadcasting and Māori-language programmes at other times of the day. They have their own local shows, personalities and breakfast programmes, and broadcast through both terrestrial frequencies and online streams. There are regular segments updating people about local events, and teaching people the Māori language and tikanga (customs). The stations also produce local news shows, Māori music, educational programmes, comedies and dramas.
The network oversees the sharing of news bulletins, the pooling of resources and the production of network programmes. Radio Waatea in Manukau operates the network news service and produces network programmes. Its chief executive, Willie Jackson, who is the former chairperson of Te Whakaruruhau o ngā Reo Irirangi Māori - the National Māori Radio Network. The current chair of Te Whakaruruhau o ngā Reo Irirangi Māori is Peter Lucas-Jones, who is also the chief executive of Te Hiku Media based in Kaitaia. Programmes are shared and simulcast on a high-speed wide area network. Almost every Māori person in New Zealand lives within the range of an iwi radio frequency, but transmission issues have been reported in remote areas.
History
Early Māori broadcasting (1928–1978)
The first Māori language to be broadcast on the radio were songs. A programme of Māori history, stories and songs were broadcast around the country on Waitangi Day 1928, and a regular programme featuring correct pronunciation of Māori began the same year. Māori broadcasters were appointed: Lou Paul of Ngāti Whātua in Auckland, Kīngi Tāhiwi of Ngāti Raukawa in Wellington, Te Ari Pītama of Ngāi Tahu in Christchurch, and broadcasting pioneer Airini Grenell of Ngāi Tahu in Dunedin. The first programme entirely in the Māori language was a news bulletin about World War II and local Māori issues, presented by Wiremu Bill Parker in 1940. Other shows followed, including Nga pao me nga pakiwaitara a te Maori: song and story of the Maori, based in Wellington, and Te reo o te Māori, broadcast from Napier.
Leo Fowler set up a Māori Programmes Section of the New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation (NZBC) in 1964, and, alongside Bill Kerekere took a mobile broadcasting studio to important Māori events. The department produced the English language Māori affairs programme Te puna wai kōrero and helped increase airtime for Māori music and show bands, including the Patea Māori Club hit Poi E. Te Reo o Aotearoa, a Māori and Pacific unit of the NZBC's successor Radio New Zealand, was set up in 1978 to produce Māori and Pacific programmes.
Campaign for iwi stations (1978–1990)
By the 1970s state broadcasters broadcast less than 90 minutes of Māori language and Māori interest programming a week, and there were growing concerns about the decline in fluent Māori speakers. Victoria University of Wellington's Te Reo Māori Society campaigned for Māori radio, helping to set up Te Reo o Poneke, the first Māori-owned radio operation, using airtime on Wellington student radio station Radio Active in 1983. Other part-time Māori radio stations were also set up by young volunteers: Ōtaki's Te Reo o Raukawa in 1985, and Mangamuka's Tautoko Radio and Ruatōria's Radio Ngāti Porou in 1987. The establishment of a Māori Radio Network was also discussed at a hui or gathering at Takapuwahia Marae in Porirua. Te Reo o Poneke gained a full-time license in 1987, becoming the pan-tribal Wellington radio station Te Upoko O Te Ika. The first bilingual school opened at Ruatoki in Urewera in 1978, and the Māori Language Commission was formed when Māori language became an official language in 1987. However, Māori culture continued to be underrepresented on New Zealand radio.
Hawke's Bay Polytechnic head of Māori studies Joe Te Rito operated a part-time station, Te Toa Takitini, on the polytechnic's Napier campus in 1988 and 1989, in an effort to broadcast Rongomaiwahine-Ngāti Kahungunu's local elders and native speakers. A year later he relaunched it as full-time station Radio Kahungunu in Napier, to increase grammatical and spoken Māori language fluency, and expose the language to homes where no one spoke it. Te Rito archived more than 2000 programme recordings, which he used to study and translate the tribe's distinctive dialect, teach courses on the local spoken and written language, and provide an international model for preserving dialects in other communities in Asia and the Pacific.Te Rito, J. S. (2012). Māori invocation for the 3S Community and for the world [Chapter section in]: Epilogue: A Spiritual Circle. In G. Pungetti, G. Oviedo & D. Hooke (Eds.), Sacred species and sites: Advances in biocultural conservation (pp. 457–458). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Te Rito, J. S. (2012). Struggles to protect Puketapu, a sacred hill in Aotearoa. In G. Pungetti, G. Oviedo & D. Hooke (Eds.), Sacred species and sites: Advances in biocultural conservation (pp. 165–177). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Waitangi Tribunal challenges (1990–1994)
The Fourth Labour Government deregulated the radio industry during the 1980s, selling the rights to use radio frequencies to private companies. The Wellington Māori Language Board, Nga Kaiwhakapumau i te Reo, was supporting the self-funded Te Upoko O Te Ika, and claimed the Government's sell off of broadcasting spectrum amounted to theft. Alongside the New Zealand Māori Council jointly, it challenged the spectrum sell off and the lack of support for Māori broadcasting. In one case brought through the Waitangi Tribunal, a permanent commission set up to investigate breaches of the Treaty of Waitangi, they argued the treaty gave them sovereignty over the airwaves and broadcast spectrum. They sought a share of the proceeds from the sale of rights to spectrum frequencies, and frequencies for their own use. Other cases followed through the High Court and Court of Appeal, with one case reaching the Privy Council in London.
The Government addressed the claim by instructing Radio New Zealand and Television New Zealand to broadcast more Māori programmes, and funding the establishment of Māori-owned and Māori-controlled radio stations. Twenty one iwi radio stations were started between 1989 and 1994. These were initially funded by NZ On Air from 1990, with six percent of broadcasting fees allocated to Māori broadcasting. A call for Māori to have greater control of funding led to the establishment of a separate Te Māngai Pāho funding agency in 1995, and this agency became funded through taxation. The establishment of these stations allowed the Government to justify the sale of Radio New Zealand's commercial Newstalk ZB and ZM stations to the privately owned Australian Radio Network partnership in 1996, after the sale was challenged in the High Court and Court of Appeal.
Aotearoa Radio era (1994–1997)
Several iwi applied for Government funding to establish radio stations in areas with significant Māori populations, developing an iwi-based radio network. However, the new stations struggled to survive as budgets did not cover the costs, volunteer staff lost enthusiasm, staff training was inadequate, and funding was insufficient to create professional career paths for Māori radio announcers and managers. Three stations broadcast on AM frequencies, costing an extra $100,000 a year than FM frequencies, but received the same flat rate of funding. Radio Ngāti Porou station manager Ngahiwi Apanui set up a joint venture between iwi stations, the national advertising agency Māori Media Network, in 1994 to increase each station's sources of revenue. The Māori Communication Network was set up in 1997.
Meanwhile, the first Māori language radio network, Aotearoa Radio or Irirrangi Radio, began in Auckland on 18 July 1988 on a short-term warrant, broadcasting on 1XO 603 AM. It gained a full-time warrant in 1989, extending to Tauranga on 1XV 603 AM, Wellington on 2XO 1323 AM and Christchurch on 3XQ 1323 AM. Radio and television producer Ray Waru was the chief executive. Teacher, lecturer and consultant Haare Williams served as the general manager. Aotearoa Radio operated alongside the iwi radio stations, and broadcast a range of programmes on Māori issues, and gave airtime to Māori women at a time when women and Māori were both underrepresented in radio. Tipene O'Regan, Beverly Adlam, Pauline Butt, Toby Curtis, Wiremu Ohia, Temuera Morrison, Dalvanius Prime, Moana Maniapoto-Jackson, Neil Gudsell, James Waerea, Libby Hakaraia, Trada Chadwick and Koro Wētere were involved in the Māori Radio Board during this period. The network closed in 1997.
Mai Media era (1997–2004)
In June 1998, the first Māori language radio serial began airing on iwi radio, and in July 1997 NZ On Air began distributing Māori music compilation CDs to English language radio stations to promote greater air time for Māori performers and Māori language music. Te Māngai Pāho also kept records of the percentage of Māori language in the programming of each iwi station, and talked with stations about increasing the use of Māori language.
Ngāti Whātua took a leading role in iwi radio during the 1990s and early 2000s through its subsidiary Mai Media. The iwi started urban contemporary station, Mai FM, in Auckland in July 1992, and New Zealand's first Māori language network, Ruia Mai Te Ratonga Irirangi o te Motu 1179AM, in April 1996. Through Ruia Mai it secured a contract with Te Māngai Pāho to provide Māori language news bulletins, which broadcast on 26 iwi radio stations. It also produced a range of current affairs, documentary and children's programmes. Some of these programmes were recognised in the New Zealand Radio Awards.
Mai FM was commercially successful and was expanded to other regions. It formed a broadcasting partnership with Ngāi Tahu's Tahu FM in Christchurch between 1996 and 2001, then tendered for a frequncey in Rotorua creating Mai FM 96.7 after losing that frequncey took over one of the frequencies of Te Arawa FM, 99.1FM in 1998, Also had a frequncey set up in Whangārei Mai FM 97.8 Ruia Mai, by contrast, reached a smaller audience of fluent Māori language speakers, and focused on programmes reflecting Ngāti Whatua and Māori culture. It was reliant on its news and current affairs contract with Te Māngai Pāho, and closed in 2004 when it lost the contract to bilingual radio station Radio Waatea. Ngāti Whatua retained the frequency, initially leasing it out to The Voice of Samoa before using it for AKE 1179AM.
Radio Waatea era (2004–present)
In 2006, Te Māngai Pāho spent $2 million upgrading studios, equipment and technical capacity for each Iwi Radio Network station. Emare Rose Nikora, a leader of the Māori language revival movement, received a Queen's Service Medal for services to Māori for her role in setting up Tokoroa's Te Reo Irirangi o Ngati Raukawa Trust and Ruakawa FM. She was the station's co-founder, first Māori language newsreader, manager and board member.
Whanganui's Awa FM relocated in 2012 and went through major restructuring in 2014, leaving it with just three staff members. Gisborne's Radio Ngāti Porou was investigated by Te Māngai Pāho in 2014, and in August its financial adviser resigned. In the Far North, the Tautoko FM building to the ground on 18 May 2015, cutting power to the small community of Mangamuka.