New Hours For Radio 1ZA Taupo

Taupo Times, Volume XIV, Issue 66, 24 August 1965, Page 1

New Hours For Radio 1ZA

Taupo

Radio 1ZA Taupo will will extend its broadcasting hours from October 1 this year and will rebroadcast the national programme between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. daily. Announcing the extended hours, the director of sound, NZBC, Mr L. R. Sceats, said in Taupo last week that this move was simply ' keeping the promise the corporation made when a decision was first taken to establish the station. The reason for stopping transmission of the national programme after 4

o'clock was that the quality of the signal received on radio freqoency after that time deteriorated. However, Mr Sceats said, the possibility of extending transmission beyond that time in the forseeable future was not eliminated when land-line equipment was available. The present gaturday hours of 6 to 9 a.m. and 6 to 7.30 p.m. will be extended to include the 131 hours between 6 a.m. and 7.30 p.m. On Sundays, during which the station does not operate at all at present, the hours t

will be 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The weekend programme will be substantially national programme, although items of significant local importance will be broadcast as the occasion warrants at any time the station is on the air. The station would not require any extra staff at this stage, Mr Sceats said, since the transmitter can be used either as an automatic repeater triggered from a master control in Rotorua, or as originating equipment as at present. Constant experimentation

with a Beveridge aerial (an aerial of specific length tuned to and pointing at the station selected to take the signal from) had been carried out since the station began operating. The national programme will mostly be taken from 1ZA Rotorua and Mr Sceats said he felt that the "enriched and enhanced" programmes now being broadcast were of a high standard which would please the majority of listeners.