You never know when you're going to inadvertently offend someone, and after last week's column, I find myself apologising again.

You would have thought a review (and a very positive one at that) of a new New Zealand blues album would be pretty safe territory, even for someone prone to wandering off on strange tangents, as I've been known to.
I was reviewing Saint Hilda's Faithless Boy, the new and very impressive blues offering from Wellington's Darren Watson. Sure there were a few cracks at the uselessness of the New Zealand Music Awards as far as acknowledging the blues as a musical genre, but that wasn't the cause of the problem.
It came about half way through, when I wrote the unthinking sentence 'Outside National Radio and university stations - sadly unavailable in Tauranga - the blues get very little airtime.”
I was – of course – incorrect. And, indeed, an email duly arrived which said:
'NO!! Wrong!! The Blues Groove has been on air every Sunday (1-3pm) for two hours of dedicated blues music at Kiss-FM almost all year!”
The email in question was from Max Christoffersen, boss, CEO, creator, and general driving force behind Mount Maunganui's 88.1 Kiss-FM who was, after all his work and effort to set up an interesting local music station that plays not only local local music (i.e. stuff that comes from the Bay of Plenty) but also specific musical genres such as the blues…understandably upset at being dissed.
And, in all fairness to Max, let me share a little more of his email with you:
'We recently changed our day time rotate to guarantee at least one killer guitar-based blues track from The Buddaheads, Joe Bonomassa, Govt' Mule, Rory Gallagher, Jeff Healey, Lonnie Mack, Lloyd Spiegal, The Gales Brothers, Matt Corcoran and Darren Watson and other great guitar bluesmen throughout the day.
'It's the cornerstone of rock and it sounds fantastic to have radio actually play the blues during breakfast and drive!
'And yes we have been the only station to play Watson's award winning track ‘All Going Wrong Right Now', as well as all the rest of his music from that album (South Pacific Soul) for over a year!
'Get out more and you may find that student radio culture and ethos is alive and well in Tauranga and has been right under your musical nose all along! As the founder of Waikato University's Contact-FM I can assure you I know the student music culture well and that is what is driving Kiss-FM in 2010.”
Well, fair enough. My apologies to Max and to Kiss-FM.
I can only offer a couple of points in my defence.
First of all, as I've mentioned before, here at the Watusi Country Club, what with being 12 minutes from the centre of Tauranga and – naturally - classified ‘extreme rural' by those wonderful folk at Telecom's broadband division, we are unable to actually tune our high-powered receivers into Kiss-FM. The signal from Mount Maunganui doesn't reach to the foot of the Kaimais, so I do tend to forget about it.
Secondly, I must confess, I never get around to listening to radio stations on-line.
I know that's a pretty naff admission. There is (literally) a world of internet radio out there waiting to be sampled and enjoyed. I have a friend who listens to nothing but reggae from a Jamaican site. There is an entire channel that plays only Bob Dylan music (including some very interesting bootleg material). There is an internet station out there playing whatever type of music you fancy, at any time.
And it's all too much…
Even Googling Kiss-Fm will give you R&B from a Los Angeles station, dance and hip-hop from the UK, 'Australia's DJ elite playing records and CDs, the music that is at the cutting edge of contemporary music culture,” and many more.
I simply give up and listen to National Radio.
But maybe that's just me. Mount Maunganui's Kiss-FM can be found at www.kissfm.co.nz (though the site is inexplicably down as I'm writing this). Check it out, tell your friends, and help Max build this thing for the betterment of musicians like Darren Watson and for music fans who are so badly served by radio in the Bay.