Peter Meecham/Stuff RadioLIVE host Graeme Hill, with cat Lucy: his Weekend Variety Wireless has been a consistently intelligent and riveting show, writes Jane Bowron. Cuts to RadioLIVE talkback leaves the field free for the hard-right hosts on Newstalk ZB, such as Mike Hosking, and Heather du Plessis-Allan with her penchant for borderline hate speech calling Pacific Islanders "leeches" and Nauru a "hellhole". One wonders what sort of demographic Magic Talk will attract with its classic hits from decades gone by and a token gesture towards talkback. How ironic that spoof talkback host Ken Oath and his show Go Ahead Caller returns to RNZ to keep up the quota. All satire aside, RNZ would do well to sweep in now and pick up Graeme Hill's show from the scrapheap and inject some radio life into its programming.

Source: Stuff November 25, 2018 15:56 UTC