Brent Impey dives back into the airwaves

Brent Impey has stayed off the airwaves for more than a year but is now plotting his comeback. Since 2000 Mr Impey, a lawyer, ran MediaWorks, New Zealand’s largest private broadcasting conglomerate, and his departure in late 2009 led to a period of enforced – and unfamiliar – inactivity.

The terms of his exit included a restraint-of-trade clause prohibiting him from talking about his former employers or working for the competition. This clause expires on April 1 but did the now-relaxed – and sans tie – former chief executive get any gardening done during his leave?

“No. Because I live in an apartment,” he said. He describes the 196sq m apartment on Tamaki Drive as his “man cave,” the title achieved by it housing “just a man at this stage, a really good sound system and a wide screen television.”

His bolt-hole also helped christen his trading company, Man Cave Consulting, that variously takes care of the finances for his consulting work (Goldman Sachs) directorships in listed companies (Pumpkin Patch) and investment managers (Devon Funds Management) and also the helming of a charity (the Fred Hollows Foundation).

But next week Man Cave Consulting will return to broadcasting when Mr Impey returns to Radio Live – the station he launched in 2005 – as a temporary replacement for drive host Maggie Barry (who is attempting to gain the National Party candidacy for the upcoming Botany by election).

Moving from wrestling with private equity and multinational media conglomerate owners to taking calls from Joe Bloggs listeners live on the air? Mr Impey said it’s not so much as a reinvention as a recycling.

When returning from his OE in 1980 he moonlighted as a talkback host: “In those days I was part of the early days of Radio Pacific and I did pretty well every shift on that station from time to time. I remember hosting Saturday afternoons during the Springbok tour with continuous coverage of riots and protests.”

For the record, Mr Impey was firmly anti-tour: “I would refuse to go to a game, and was part of a group of many, many lawyers who represented protesters who were arrested on a pro bono basis and we frustrated the court system.”

In talkbackland, strong opinions are vital. Mr Impey seems well-suited to the role. “Part of it is the challenge. Part of it is the fun. Part of it is the gig. But it’s also to test myself to see whether I can still do it.”

While Mr Impey refuses to discuss the performance of Jason Paris, his replacement at MediaWorks, (“That’d almost be white-anting,” he said) the savage cuts at the broadcaster – including the canning of breakfast show Sunrise– since his departure must smart because he is clearly proud of having built up the company during his tenure.

This growth is one of the reasons he is talking the microphone at Radio Live. “One of the primary reasons I’m going is that I founded Radio Live. I did the deals buying and swapping the frequencies to get it launched six years ago – and it was launched against all advice.”

And while the former boss refuses to cast judgment on Ironbridge’s high purchase price for MediaWorks – funded by near-crippling debt – the situation bears parallels with Mr Impey’s work with Goldman Sachs and KordaMentha advising on the troubled Yellow Pages group.

Many deals cut during 2006-8 now don’t appear prudent in hindsight? “Exactly,” Mr Impey agreed.

“The issue there was – and it’s now a matter of historical fact – is that they paid far too much for Yellow Pages, and it’s now being restructured.”

But Mr Impey sees the light at the end of the tunnel for the directory group.

“If the business is restructured, it has a bright future.”

His return to talkback broadcasting, at this stage, is only short-term – tellingly until the end of his restraint-of-trade clause expires at the end of March – and Mr Impey is coy about where he will end up. At only 59, he’s still got six years before he gets issued a Super Gold Card.

“I don’t need to be the chief executive of a media company again – I’ve been there and done that – and I quite enjoyed the on-air thing. At this stage it’s a short-term contract. We’ll see if they like it and I like it and we’ll go from there,” Mr Impey said.

Given his payout from Ironbridge’s purchase (a reported $3 million), as well as his apartments (he has another one in Queenstown), a beach house (in Matarangi), and part-share of a former matrimonial home in Glendowie, Mr Impey won’t need to work for a living.

His future, unsaddled with the responsibility of being chief executive, will leave more time for his masculine wanders through New Zealand’s national parks. Wellington lawyer telecommunications Michael Wigley, part of Mr Impey’s quartet of travellers, said the holidays are almost like the setup to a bad joke: “So three lawyers and a shrink go tramping …”

Last year it was the Queen Charlotte Sound and, earlier, the Milford Track. “Not that I’d describe them as tramping as such,” Mr Wigley said. “It involved high quality, five-star accommodation, and drinking fantastic amounts of fine wines.”

Mr Impey is somewhat defensive of his friend’s description – and the tongue-in-cheek allegation that he snores “like a steam train.”

“I wouldn’t call it five-star accommodation …” Mr Impey said.

Despite the possible debauchery, these “tramps” don’t entirely lack business talk. It was on one of these tramps, on the Milford Track, that expat lawyer David Mayhew was told about the job being advertised to head the new Financial Advisers Authority.

Mr Mayhew said he and Mr Impey met in 1980 when they had adjoining offices at Russell McVeigh.

Even then, it was clear this lawyer wasn’t satisfied with the law alone. “When I first met him he was moonlighting on Radio Pacific – and he’s back again.”

BRENT GRAHAM IMPEY
BA/LLB University of Auckland, 1975
Admitted as barrister and solicitor, 1976

PAST
Executive director, Radio Broadcasters Association 1983-1998
Chief executive, MORE FM radio network 1998-2000n
Chief executive, CanWest New Zealand, 2000-2006
Chief executive, MediaWorks 2006-2009

PRESENT
Director, Pumpkin Patch 2010-
Director, Devon Funds Management 2010-
Executive director, Fred Hollows Foundation 2009-2010

FUTURE
Drive Host, RadioLive 2011-

Eyes on the prize
The combative Brent Impey wasn’t known for charitable acts in his corporate life running MediaWorks. Just ask TVNZ. So it’s somewhat surprising to find Mr Impey today occupying the executive director chair at the blindness prevention non-profit the Fred Hollows Foundation.

This role isn’t a flash-in-the-pan involvement of a senior executive looking for good works to fill out gardening leave. Mr Impey has been chairman of the charity for 12 years before taking the helm when he departed MediaWorks.

He does wear glasses and said this was part of the reason for joining the board. “Yes, I do have a vision impairment, which is part of the reason for originally getting involved.”

But, as a man who often scoured metrics and justified economic investments in business, he reckons the foundation gets sound returns from donations.

“The World Health Organisation has published material to show that the economic benefit from people getting their eyesight back is one of the greatest. It’s not only the people, but also their family who have to give up work to look after the blind. So if they can go back into the workforce there’s an immediate economic impact.”

During his year-long tenure Mr Impey has helped open a eye hospital in Suva and overhauled management structures.

And while launching a profitable third television channel in the 1980s may have seemed a pie-in-the-sky aspiration to some, Mr Impey takes the equally ambitious goals of the foundation as achievable.

“Our whole goal is to participate in solving preventable blindness by the year 2020. In the Pacific I think we’ll do that – with the exception of Papua New Guinea.”

IMPEY: PRIVATISE TELEVISION NZ
In an election year is likely to see the future of public broadcasting and the possibility of State Owned Enterprises being floated become hotly-debated topics on the campaign trail, veteran broadcast executive Brent Impey sees a way forward: Privatise the commercial TVNZ and merge Radio New Zealand National with freeview channel TVNZ7.

Mr Impey, known for railing against what he saw as state-subsidised competition when he helmed MediaWorks, is now a touch more conciliatory toward public broadcasting – but only to a point.

“I can see the justification for it, but how much public broadcasting can the New Zealand taxpayer – that’s what it comes down to – afford for four million people?”

With budgets tight, and funding for state-supported broadcasting scattered between National, Concert, Maori Television and TVNZ’s freeview channels, Mr Impey sees scope for consolidation.

“I struggle to see how we can afford any more than the sort of TV channel like TVNZ7 plus National and Concert.”

And where would the funding come to restructure the state-owned broadcasting entities? Mr Impey’s got an answer for that, too: “My personal view is I can’t see any reason why TVNZ couldn’t be partly privatised.”

The only argument he poses against such a float is economic – and merely a matter of timing. “It still a tough advertising environment out there – is it the right time to offer private investments in media businesses when things are very, very tight?”

Mr Impey notes he’s not in government, and is unlikely to try and follow his Radio Live predecessor Maggie Barry into politics.
“I’m not in government, and I’m unlikely to be. The government’s a shareholder in TVNZ and I’m not – so it behoves the government to come up with a strategy.”