RadioQuake: Getting back ‘on air’ after the Christchurch earthquakes

Abstract

Local independent radio stations in Christchurch, New Zealand, had their operations severely disrupted by major earthquakes in September 2010 and February 2011. This article examines the experiences of three radio stations that were shut out of their central city premises by the cordon drawn around the city after the 22 February quake. One of the stations continued broadcasting automatically, while the others were unable to fully get back on air for several weeks afterwards. All of the stations had to manage access to workspaces, the emotional needs of staff and volunteers, the technical ability to broadcast, and the need to adapt content appropriately when back on air. For the locally based radio managers decisions had to be made about the future of the stations in a time of significant emotional, physical, and geological upheaval. The article explores how these radio stations were disrupted by the earthquake, and how they returned to air through new combinations and interconnections of people, workspace, technology, content and transmission. Keywords disaster independent radio New Zealand radio Christchurch earthquake Iwi (Maori) radio local radio

Alternative Radio: exhibiting radio and music heritage after the Christchurch earthquakes

“…This caused massive disruption to businesses across the city (Hall et.al. 2016), including small independent radio stations that lost studios, transmission capability, and advertising income from the local businesses and music venues that were also disrupted (Joyce, 2015). Christchurch has a strong history of local music production and performance (Mitchell 1997, Shepherd 2016, and the post-quake demolitions affected the 'emotional geography' of music in the city, disrupting links to the physical memory of venues and radio spaces, the details of which are 'salient features in the way in which audiences connect with their past and thus forge affective bonds in the present' (Bennett and Rogers 2016, 491).…”