Today FM reminded me a lot of MTR and how tough it was going to be for it to become a viable player. Didn’t expect though that it would end just as abruptly as MTR did:
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Very sorry about the news today Rorie, really enjoyed the product that Today FM offered and the team who put it all together. Gutted you didn’t get the time many of you were probably promised by management.
The landscape is not well served by having only ZB as the talk option.
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What a day in NZ radio.
We lost a station that was the “alternative” Newstalk ZB. From RadioLive in 05’, Magic Talk in 19’ and Today FM in 22’. We signal that it might be the end of talkback radio across Mediaworks unless what will happen replacing with a new station in a few weeks time.
It must be really tough to hear the shocking announcement with Tova’s sombering voice and the sadden staff members in the studio with a little bit of time and playing music afterwards, then end the station abruptly.
I really feel for the entire whanau of Today FM presenters and including producers who bring the shows live across the nation.
@theGradyConnell and @Rorie (producers for the station), we really feel you after today and we wish the best for you in the future.
In the meantime, keep moving forward and we wish the entire Today FM crew the best of luck and thanks for your contribution and support across the year.
Arohanui. 
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For heaven’s sake, don’t go on the Reddit thread about Today FM, whatever you do. Full of really nasty comments about the station and Tova. Seemingly the commentators there still hold a grudge against her for the way she asked Jacinda some questions 3 years ago. 
That subreddit is a nightmare - if you dare question a decision of a left wing party you’re seemingly a right wing nutjob.
They - along with the fringe elements of both wings - don’t seem respect actual journalism.
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It is just a toxic circlejerk. Used to be all right but I think COVID did a number on it. Do you remember when ‘Shut up, Tova’ was a meme on there for months? One person even did a cross-stitch of it (to much praise, naturally). They were jerking themselves silly over The Opportunities Party for months, and Labour were the devils incarnate. Then all of a sudden Labour went back to being saints. But anyway, I’m going WAY off topic now.
Back to Today FM and MediaWorks, and Duncan Grieve wrote a really interesting piece suggesting that MW may not be too long for this world:
We don’t need another music station, that’s for sure.
Stuff’s obtained the document that led to the closure of the station. Looks like they’re cutting a lot of the personalities too.
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I don’t have a massive understanding of the NZ radio market, but would a rolling news station work?
There’s several dotted around the major U.S. cities. We have LBC News here in the UK too.
Today FM frequently advertised with “News every 20 minutes”, à la WINS in NYC. By that margin, you could consider it more of a rolling news station with elements of talkback rather than the straight talkback of something like ZB.
I mean, TVNZ tried a rolling news channel with 7 and look how far that got them. There’s a clear market for it, it just needs to be able to attract advertisers, which Today FM wasn’t doing.
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That leaked document would indicate frequencies whether it be all or just some will be handed over to existing music brands. What ones are left over could be used to launch a mostly announcer free music station somewhat along the lines of the old Mix 98.2 that NZME had.
Not sure that would work, if it was attempted it would need to be RNZ or NZME who could utilise existing news gathering and technical resources to make it cheaper to run.
I reckon that’s the format they should have gone with to begin with. It would have at least been different to other market offerings.
Alternatively, the third format of Radio City Talk might work? Extended news bulletins every 20 minutes with music in between, along with a small number of longer form talk programmes.
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I dunno whether it was everyone at Today seeing the writing on the wall but I thought it kinda came into its own the last week or so covering the Posie Parker visit. Smalley’s cracker editorials saying let her speak with Tova taking the direct opposite position and Garner seemed to have given up playing that weird everyman Danny Watson style of talkback… back to what you’d expect from him, calling Marama Davidson a disgrace for her “cis white men” comments etc . I thought a lot of the time it felt too restricted. Too afraid of upsetting a listener or an advertiser so they deliberately went middle of the road which was a bit bland at times.
Sad day though. Undeniably a lot of great talent there.
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Never forget when Winston Peters hung up on Tova in her radio show debut 
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The National government didn’t continue it’s funding even though it was a paltry 15 million dollars a year to run TVNZ 7, and TVNZ’s commercial side hated it, so you can’t say it wasn’t do able when it was, it just needed the govts commitment.
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I think tova summed it up when she said they f…kd them over if you going to go out then go out with a bang was not a listener but a shame this has happened i wonder what they will use to replace them
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According to nzh there may be a case for staff at today to take personal grievence case due to lack of consultation around sudden loss of employment
Wouldn’t surprise me - but may not be worth the effort and rigmarole to go through employment court etc . Hopefully they do get good payouts.
Another good piece here - some details repeated but some new. https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/inside-the-fall-of-today-fm-why-mediaworks-really-walked-away-from-tova-obrien-duncan-garner-and-their-radio-colleagues/JTSLKWBAAJF3FNESH6JTCZDZFQ/
Here is how the news is sounding this morning
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This is how REX Today sounded like on a Friday, day after Today FM’s closure but still has their usual VOs.
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