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'Safe haven' provides cultural connection
Plains FM is a unique radio station in Christchurch - it broadcasts programmes made by local communities in their own languages - 17 of them as of August 2007.
There’s both a growing and a constant demand for the service, station manager Nicki Reece says. “We’ll probably see more language groups on air - we’ve got a Filipino group on the boil; they’re training up, getting ready to go.”
Plains FM station manager Nicki Reece, left, and operations and training manager Caroline Birnie.
“There are 17 languages - Nepalese would be the newest - but there’s Mandarin and Cantonese, Hindi, Tongan, Korean…”
Broadcaster Theo Boekel has been with the station since it started - nearly twenty years. His programme for the Dutch community, Echo Radio, is syndicated throughout the country, and available on the internet. Communities hang on to their programmes and treasure them, Nicki says.
“It’s a cultural connection. If you’ve come from another country, even if it’s a few generations back, you still have the tie with that country. People are understanding how important it is to maintain that tie - however tenuous it can be. Particularly if you have left a country under difficult circumstances, it’s even more important to maintain your ties - you haven’t chosen to leave necessarily, you’ve been forced to. That’s really heart-wrenching.”
Everyday information for living in Christchurch is just as important as information about what’s happening back home. “It’s also settling in. You come to a new place and think: ‘When do I put the rubbish out’, ‘what’s the story with getting my child a decent education’, or it’s a flu vaccination, immunisation information - or there’s an election coming up and I have no idea who to vote for … it’s keeping current with what’s happening around you.”
New settlers can also feel pressure to do things the New Zealand way - and the chance to hear familiar music and language can be an anchor at a time of great change in people’s lives, she says.
“It’s a safe haven. It’s really tiring thinking in English all the time if English is your second language - and to have somewhere where you can just relax is quite magical.”
Broadcasters come from all walks of life, and work in varied careers, but their programmes often focus on staying connected to their culture - language, music and material they won’t find in mainstream media.
“The programme makers and the content that they tend to broadcast is predominantly celebrating there communities. There is news - and sometimes bad news - but they talk about positive things that are happening.”
Broadcasters get a tremendous buzz from their programmes, Nicki says, using the Nepalese programme as an example. “Dili had had a little bit of experience in Nepal on radio, but he’d predominantly done DJing. There hadn’t been a lot of news gathering or continuity announcing. He certainly hadn’t touched anything technical (in terms of editing audio). So for him, to develop skills in something he was interested in, away from his home country, is fantastic”
“He’s now completely independent as a broadcaster. We see him once a week - but he doesn’t have any problems, he’s doing his own thing - and he’s enjoying it. He’s gone from an average skill base to an advanced set of technical skills in a very short time.”
One broadcaster who studied English in Christchurch and made a programme while she was here, still supplies a programme to the station, more than two years after she left. “Naoko is still going - every fortnight, Japs Down Under from Japan. It’s so cool.”
Comprehensive training
Caroline Birnie is operations and training manager, who prepares the broadcasters for their first steps on air.
“I run all the training and the operations covers technical production, getting programmes on air, that kind of thing.”
One of her current projects is a Filipino programme - training three people to use the station’s specialised radio software and broadcast studio. The training process takes about a month to six weeks, she says. “They’re really enjoying it, but they were a little bit nervous. The nerves come from the expectations on the programme - so (they are) a bit apprehensive about impressing the community and making sure that they generate a good listenership.”
She enjoys the process and the outcome of the training.
“I love radio to death, I’ve been doing it since I was 15, so it’s pretty much plumbed into me, but the training thing is what I get the biggest kick out of - getting people to learn new skills and the enjoyment they get from that. (Watching) how they develop and go from people that are scared of radio, but want to do it, to people that are competent, professional broadcasters - I think that’s fantastic.
“And they’re able to make a connection with their community - I love community radio for that because it let’s people do that - in commercial radio you don’t get that opportunity.”
