Nights

8:15 Pacific Waves

A daily current affairs programme that delves deeper into the major stories of the week, through a Pacific lens, and shines a light on issues affecting Pacific people wherever they are in the world. Hosted by Susana Suisuiki.

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8:30 Tenuous Connections

It's Friday night, so Nights is putting on a playlist of music with a loose theme based off an even looser starting point.

Tonight, it's songs related to glass.

9:07 Nights Quiz

Do you know your stuff? Come on the air and be grilled by Emile Donovan as he dons his quizmaster hat.

If you get an answer right, you move on to the next question. If you get it wrong, your time in the chair is up, and the next caller will be put through. The person with the most correct answers at the end of the run goes in the draw for a weekly prize.

The quiz is themed - find out more about tonight's theme on Nights' Facebook page.

9:15 This Weekend: Degustation BBQ competition in Christchurch

Every Friday, we bring you some of the most interesting events and happenings coming up in Aotearoa this weekend.

We're touching down in Christchurch where this Sunday, Alan Wenmoth from BBQs Direct is cooking up a barbecue degustation competition, with 25 competitors firing up their grills.

He joins Emile.

Photo: Vincent Keiman / Unsplash

9:20 Focus on Politics

Lillian Hanly looks back at first oral submissions made on the Treaty Principles Bill to the Justice Select Committee.

9:35 Short-Cuts with Dan Slevin

Nights' resident screen critic is back for a bumper set of reviews, including films Maria (2024) and The Haka Party Incident (2025), as well as TV picks The Franchise, Shrinking, Silo season 2 and The Penguin.

Still from the documentary "The Haka Party Incident" Photo: supplied

10:17 New hospital build to go ahead with reduced beds

Health minister Simeon Brown announced today that the new Dunedin hospital build would go ahead on the previously-selected former-Cadbury site.

The new plan has fifty-nine fewer beds than originally planned, though the government ensured the finished space would have flexibility to add on facilities to match demand when the hospital opens, which is scheduled for 2031.

Pete Hodgson is the former MP for Dunedin, former minister of health, and was was Chairperson of the Southern Partnership Group providing governance for the New Dunedin Hospital from 2017 until May of 2024.

He joins Emile Donovan.

The project management office for the new Dunedin Hospital. Photo: RNZ / Delphine Herbert

10:30 Out Lately with Finn Johansson

He's back, and no doubt ready to inform, educate and entertain us with an array of eclectic music.

Tonight's songs:

• Parallels III - Minor Conflict
• So Glad - Ural Thomas
• Try as I May - Cameron Winter

11:07 Concert

The first of a two-part series by Elliot Childs looking at the music of Ry Cooder.