Fiji-born Cameron Slater is the author of New Zealand’s best known and controversial blogsite, whaleoil.co.nz. The blog gets around 600,000 page views per month. He is also a commentator on The Nation, described as a high impact weekly TV 3 current affairs interview and magazine show about the major players and forces which shape New Zealand’s world. He was born in Fiji as his father was the then chief accountant for the Fiji Development Bank. He has regularly contributed articles to Fiji Sun.
As you all should know by now I have a special interest in matters arising from Fiji and all matters to do with media. The buzz in the local Auckland Fijian Indian community as of late is a right legal donnybrook brewing in the High Court between Robert Khan of NZ’s Number 1 Hindi station, Radio Tarana and Roshila and Satyandra Prasad, currently operating as Radio Humm. What makes it all the spicier is that in the middle of the fight is the Honorary Consul for Fiji influential Auckland businessman, Harish Lodhia and a curiously complex trail of ownership, cash and loans.
All happening under the watchful yet seemingly lazy eye of MBIE.
Mr Lodhia leases 1386AM to Radio Tarana under a Full Commercial Licence. He then has intertwined dealings with the registered owners of 5TUNZ, the company that operates Radio Humm on 106.2FM under a Local Commercial Licence.
At the heart of the matter is that local commercial licences are less expensive but more restrictive than full commercial licences and overseen by MBIE. Mr Khan’s cost base therefore is higher than the Prasad’s and he operates under different rules.
Publicly available documents outline the dispute surrounding Mr Khan’s allegations that Radio Humm is failing in its statutory obligations under its Local Commercial Licence not only a) in terms of the required local content but b) commonality of ownership and the sometimes invisible hand of Harish Lodhia.
The 5TUNZ local commercial licence does not permit cross-ownership in a full commercial licence such as Mr Lodhia’s 1386AM.
Radio Humm is directed more at the youth market and Mr Khan alleges that rather than have the required local content it is “predominantly international Bollywood and that does not fulfil the continuous broadcasting obligations”. It is also alleged that Humm doesn’t meet local programming obligations.
A quick look at Radio Humm’s website indicates that the main advertiser is indeed Mr Prasad’s employer Enterprise Motor Group where Mr Prasad holds a senior position since arriving in New Zealand in 1987. The second most ubiquitous advertiser is its financing arm, Community Financial Services Limited (CFS). This is where things get rather fishy.
All happening under the watchful yet seemingly lazy eye of MBIE.
Mr Lodhia leases 1386AM to Radio Tarana under a Full Commercial Licence. He then has intertwined dealings with the registered owners of 5TUNZ, the company that operates Radio Humm on 106.2FM under a Local Commercial Licence.
At the heart of the matter is that local commercial licences are less expensive but more restrictive than full commercial licences and overseen by MBIE. Mr Khan’s cost base therefore is higher than the Prasad’s and he operates under different rules.
Publicly available documents outline the dispute surrounding Mr Khan’s allegations that Radio Humm is failing in its statutory obligations under its Local Commercial Licence not only a) in terms of the required local content but b) commonality of ownership and the sometimes invisible hand of Harish Lodhia.
The 5TUNZ local commercial licence does not permit cross-ownership in a full commercial licence such as Mr Lodhia’s 1386AM.
Radio Humm is directed more at the youth market and Mr Khan alleges that rather than have the required local content it is “predominantly international Bollywood and that does not fulfil the continuous broadcasting obligations”. It is also alleged that Humm doesn’t meet local programming obligations.
A quick look at Radio Humm’s website indicates that the main advertiser is indeed Mr Prasad’s employer Enterprise Motor Group where Mr Prasad holds a senior position since arriving in New Zealand in 1987. The second most ubiquitous advertiser is its financing arm, Community Financial Services Limited (CFS). This is where things get rather fishy.
Mrs Prasad refused to answer my questions citing the ongoing case and legal advice and Mr Prasad never returned my call. Mr Khan also did not wish to comment at any length for the same reasons. I say fair enough so I called the man in the middle Harish Lodhia who was more than happy to talk and provide background.
I asked Mr Lodhia if he saw a conflict between leasing one frequency and financing with and assisting the ownership of another to Mr & Mrs Prasad with loans for whatever reasons. His response:
“My only obligation and financial interest is in Radio Tarana”.
Mr Lodhia asked me to look at the whole picture, so I did from correspondence to MBIE from Mr and Mrs Prasad’s lawyers on the 18th October 2013 as well as information publicly available from the Companies Office. The Prasads and Lodhias have previously set up a business together in 2007 called Eleganta Artifacts and Furniture (NZ) Limited. Here is what the current picture looks like though:
I asked Mr Lodhia if he saw a conflict between leasing one frequency and financing with and assisting the ownership of another to Mr & Mrs Prasad with loans for whatever reasons. His response:
“My only obligation and financial interest is in Radio Tarana”.
Mr Lodhia asked me to look at the whole picture, so I did from correspondence to MBIE from Mr and Mrs Prasad’s lawyers on the 18th October 2013 as well as information publicly available from the Companies Office. The Prasads and Lodhias have previously set up a business together in 2007 called Eleganta Artifacts and Furniture (NZ) Limited. Here is what the current picture looks like though:
More to come in part II…………..the nature of the payments: Mr Lodhia paid $70,000 in cash through to the Prasads and it is alleged none of this was declared when it should have been.
Source: http://www.whaleoil.co.nz/2014/04/cars-cash-conflict-commercial-radio-stations-part/
Source: http://www.whaleoil.co.nz/2014/04/cars-cash-conflict-commercial-radio-stations-part/
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