POWERFUL RADIO STATION

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21416, 7 March 1935, Page 12

POWERFUL RADIO STATION

NEW WELLINGTON TRANSMITTER SIX TIMES AS STRONG AS AUCKLAND The desire to provide one New Zealand radio station which in a national emergency could be certain of reception day and night over as much as possible of the Dominion has influenced the # New Zealand Broadcasting Board in deciding to use great power for the new Wellington station, according to Mr E. C. Hands, the general manager for the board. In an interview yesterday Mr Hands said that the new station, with its power of 60,000 watts, would be six times as strong as the new Auckland station. The exact situation of the new station has not yet been finally determined, but it is to be about 20 miles from Wellington, as stated in a brief Press Association message yesterday. Tenders will close in June and the station is expected to be operating about a year from that time.

Mr Hands explained that in its scheme for improving the New Zealand broadcasting service the board had included the erection of a new really national station at Wellington, planning to undertake this work after the completion of the new Dunedin station. While the stations in the various centres were part of the national broadcasting system there was need for one central station of very high power, for it was desirable to make sure of giving a strong signal over the whole Dominion area. Such a truly national station by its great power would overcome interference noises, and it should be received strongly day and night in all parts of New Zealand, though in certain difficult areas fading and local weakness of reception might prevent the signals from having a definite programme value. Unusual Strength The new station, with a power of 60 kilowatts aerial energy, will be the most powerful in Australia or New Zealand. It will be six times as strongas the new Auckland station, 12 times, as strong as the present 2YA, Wellington, and 24 times as strong as 3YA, Christchurch. It will also far surpass any Australian station, for the strongest in the Commonwealth have a power of only 7£ kilowatts, although others of 10 kilowatts are plannec!. When it is operating the new station will have its studios in Wellington city as at present, the programmes being conveyed to the transmitter in the country by land wire as with the 3YA station at Gebbie's Pass. Mr Hands did not think at the moment that the existence of a transmitter with a national coverage would cause any rearrangement of programmes. He did not think it would be possible to arrange a system like the English national and regional programmes.