Ocean Island
Back in the year 1908, just eight years after Marconi inaugurated his first permanent wireless station in England, the Pacific Phosphate Company announced that they hoped a wireless station could be installed on Ocean Island. During the following year (1909), another announcement indicated that the wireless station would be capable of long distant transmission. In addition, the specific location on Ocean Island for the projected station would need to be approved by a Wireless Engineer, they said.
Whale Stranding at King Island and the Local Radio Scene
Adrian Peterson takes a look at the history and local radio scene on King Island, off the northern coast of Tasmania, Australia.
Today FM Closes
MediaWorks, parent company of Today FM, has pulled the plug on its New Zealand-wide talk-back radio network.
Tasmanian Whales Stranded Again, and Four Mediumwave Stations
We present another story of two more mediumwave stations on the island of Tasmania; two double commercial stations (7UV & 7AD and 7DY & 7SD) in country areas to the north of the island.
Radio Revolution
In 2006 Citylife paid a visit to the contrasting faces of radio, the hugely popular Morning Crew at ZM and the niche carved out by World FM in Tawa and Massey University’s Munt FM.
The Radio Scene at the End of the Highway: Cooktown Part 2
This is our second topic on the radio scene at Cooktown at the end of the highway in Cape York Peninsula, at the far north of coastal Queensland in Australia. Unexpectedly, Cooktown was the second largest town in Queensland at the height of the nearby gold rush in the 1880s. Back then, the state capital Brisbane had a population of 50,000 and Cooktown had a population of 30,000.
Chopper FM 87.6 FM Invercargill
We have recently added Chopper FM 87.6 FM to our New Zealand Radio Guide. They are an LPFM station broadcasting on 87,6 MHz from Invercargill, in Southland, located at the southern end of New Zealand’s South Island.
3XY and the Falling Door
Back on April 19, 1944, there was a military parade through the downtown streets of Melbourne city with soldiers marching, a musical band from the Royal Air Force playing, and aircraft flying in formation overhead. A prominent announcer from radio station 3XY, Alwyn Kurts, was in one of the accompanying aircraft and he was describing for listeners what he was observing in the parade on the city streets below.
Radio Dunedin at 100
In 2022 New Zealand radio station “Radio Dunedin” celebrates 100 years of broadcasting. The station was launched in late 1922, becoming the first radio station in New Zealand.
Auckland radio station sold to prominent Destiny Church members
Auckland radio station Base FM has been sold to prominent Destiny Church members George Ngatai and Raewyn Bhana. The move was a surprise to many of the DJs working at the station, and some resigned in protest of the move.
The Radio Scene at the End of the Highway
The July (2022) issue of the Australian DX News presents an interesting story about plans for an amateur DXpediton to the Grassy Hill Lighthouse overlooking the small northern town of Cooktown, at the end of the highway in far northern Queensland. This readable feature article reminds us that there have been three different eras associated with the radio scene in Cooktown.
Radio Tirana’s Kiwi Connection
During 2022 several articles appeared in New Zealand media looking at a New Zealand woman who worked as an announcer for Albania’s Radio Tirana English service during the Communist era. We take a look at some of them here in this feature.
American Radio Stations in New Zealand
Additional interesting information about American radio stations in New Zealand, back during the World War 2 era, and also subsequently.
American Radio Stations in New Zealand: The 1ZM Story
During the Pacific War in the middle of last century, American forces poured into the South Pacific by the million, with multitudes coming into Auckland also, for Rest & Refreshment and also as a staging area before transferring into the islands to the north. In prewar days, the American army officer Major Purnell H. Gould had been employed at radio station WFBR in Baltimore MD, and he was subsequently appointed as the regional commander for American forces entertainment radio stations in the Pacific.
Radio Station 2CM: The Very First Radio Broadcasting Station in Australia
According to radio historians, the very first radio broadcasting license in Australia was awarded to Charles Maclurcan due to his regular Sunday evening broadcasts over experimental amateur station 2CM. The program content for each weekly broadcast was published in a radio magazine in advance, and each program was avidly followed by anywhere up to 5,000 listeners each week.
Lighthouse Radio in Australia
The second lighthouse in the waters of South Australia was constructed on Althorpe Island in 1879, and in 1925, the appointed lighthouse manger took his own informal amateur radio equipment ashore with him. He communicated with mediumwave broadcasting station 5CL in Adelaide, and conveyed his appreciation for the broadcast of their radio programming…
Radio Woodville Nearly 25 Years Old
Radio Woodville in Woodville near Palmerston North will be 25 years old on the 1st June 2023. As their 25th anniversary approaches we take a look back at their first 20 years on-air.
The Radio Scene on the World’s Largest Private Property
The world’s largest property in private ownership was Victoria River Downs with its almost 16,000 square miles of cattle country, some 500 miles south of Darwin in the Northern Territory of Australia. In the year 1879, the South Australian government awarded the concession to two men, Englishman Charles Fisher and Australian born Maurice Lyons, who developed the land together as a cattle ranch…
Mount Bellenden Ker tower and cable car mark 50 years of broadcasting from the clouds
It is considered one of the most stomach-dropping cable car rides in the country, but this ride is not for tourists. High above the rainforest in far north Queensland, the bright red cable car carries workers to one of the most hostile environments of any broadcasting sites in the world.
New Zealand Broadcasting Press Clippings Scrapbook 1992-1993
The late Mark Nicholls kept a series of scrapbooks containing newspaper and magazine clippings relating to the broadcasting scene in New Zealand. These books provide an interesting look back at NZ broadcasting at the time.