They say bad news comes in threes and this week the Bay had its third piece of bad news.

There's still a large hunk of metal hanging onto one of our most important marine habitats, and oil is now heading to the Coromandel. Everyone I know is hoping against hope that the rest of the oil can safely be removed before the ship falls apart.

I note that a similarly grounded container carrier in the UK a few years back – sparking a bit of a frenzy, since there seems no law there against claiming spilt cargo that washes up on the beach – took 18 months to dislodge.

At least with half a ship stuck on the reef no-one else is likely to run into it.

And, with plants beginning to bud in the warm spring sunshine, it looks like the full extent to the Psa outbreak is likely to be revealed, and it is unlikely to be pretty.

The Bay of Plenty produces the vast majority of the country's kiwifruit; this is going to – at least in the immediate future – get ugly.

As a lover of the Gold variety, which appears to be the main casualty, I'm gutted, but I feel more for the orchardists who see their businesses under increasing threat.

And now the third bit of bad news.

Kiss-FM, the boldly independent Mount Maunganui radio station that has been doing so much to promote and support local music – both from the Bay and the country – is closing its doors.

'Yeah,” says station founder and owner Max Christoffersen, 'Kiss-FM hit our own Astrolabe Reef called The Ministry for Culture and Heritage!”

As regular readers will know, there was a brand new FM licence on offer here and Max had made an application for it, in an attempt to take Kiss-FM to full broadcast power.

At the time Max said: 'It's the Last Waltz as it were, and the final shot for the local music community to have a station that gives a damn.”

That sounds melodramatic, but I agree with him.

The Tauranga music scene is – in my opinion – in about the worst state I've ever seen it. And one of the main reasons we are lagging so heavily behind every other major centre is the lack of radio support in the Bay: we have no outlet to hear local music.

Max could, and was, changing that, but you can't do much unless you have the broadcast range.

This licence would have done it but – for reasons unknown – no new licenses have been granted for the Bay, a slap in the face that will leave music here floundering for the indefinite future.

Bugger, I'm even depressing myself now…

On the good news front – about time! – singer/songwriter John Michaelz unveils his new band next weekend (Friday 4) at Brewer's Bar.

The outfit is called The Usual, but is far from it, featuring two musicians new to the Tauranga scene.

On drums is recently-arrived-from-Wellington Paul Hoskin, who will be familiar to jazz festival punters as the man behind the kit with retro-seventies organ trio Twinset. Paul is a fantastic player who can do most things and will be a real asset to the local scene.

The other unknown in the band is bass player Dave Porter, who has relocated to the Bay after living in Hong Kong.

This is his first live outing since returning to New Zealand though he was press-ganged into providing bass for Dave Roy's latest new album (to be – no doubt – reviewed here shortly; Dave has, meantime, started on the next one). Guitar duties are handled by the venerable Mike Kirk (Kokomo, Rockhouse).

This is John's first venture since being a finalist in last year's New Zealand Music Awards and he has assembled songs from throughout his career, and a bunch of new tunes – if you want to have a look there's a video on YouTube for the first single ‘God Is Not American' (which sounds sensational!) – and, to add spice to the evening, guitarists Anton Tipi Elkington and Trevor Braunias will kick things off with their own band and will probably jam it out with John and the boys later.

Things start at 8pm, tickets are a reasonable $12 on the door.